Notice from the High Pagemaster:
Information on this page left intentionally unfinished. This is an archived story.
The below has been attached at the request of The Goddess of Fate and the Pagemaster of this Compendium.
The Compendium of Knowledge is an omnipresent force, an object that has always and will always exist. Lord knows who or what made it, or if it self-created itself, but what we do know is that it contains all knowledge on anything, ever.
The Compendium, through its very existence, proves the theory that fiction creates reality. To elaborate, all fictional worlds that have ever been created become recorded in the Compendium and are created elsewhere in Existence. This is proved through the fact that an avatar of The Compendium is always present in every reality, and if so desired, can be edited and change the very nature of the world it's within.
Each avatar of The Compendium contains but a fraction of the true Compendium's knowledge, the entire history of the universe in which this avatar resides. All knowledge written in the Compendium is completely and undeniably, the Truth.
The Compendium, though it records all of its known existence, is not the pinnacle of Everything. Beyond the existence the Compendium records are higher orders of infinity, extra layers of existence in which higher beings exist who are capable of creating lower orders of infinity such as the one the Compendium records. You are on a higher order of infinity than it. Its author is as well, and they seem to be responsible for writing the reality of the Compendium.
A copy of The Compendium of Knowledge is owned by the various overbeings of each Multiversal Cluster.
Universal Designation: Unknown; On a higher order of infinity.
Story Name: Unknown.
Name of Avatar: Imagination
Nature: Abstract Concept
Role in Story: To allow the people of this world to create fictional worlds on a lower order of infinity.
Universal Designation: B-Gamma-6
Story Name: Vigilant
Name of Avatar: The Compendium of Knowledge
Nature: Book (Bible of the Worldweaver's Church)
Role in Story: Gave the heroes the final clue to defeating Maldemos: the existence of Worldweavers. Spent most of the campaign locked with a key that could only be found in the Crystal of Knowledge — an ancient dwarven artifact in the possession of the great silver dragon Bryndhet.
Name: Theren Avani (known also as Yarve Rellua)
Home Universe: B-Gamma-6
Story Name(s): Vigilant
Summary: Theren Avani was the son of Queen Sage Avani and King Matro Avani of Aldermarc. Known as the Golden Prince for his kind heart and his blonde hair, he was exiled from his kingdom and his death was faked after he willingly released a number of slaves. An illusionist crafted him a disguise and he inserted himself into the life of a commoner. Later, when he was plunged into the middle of the Apocalypse, he would learn that he was a Worldweaver, and the only person capable of ending the story he was a part of.
Annotations on this page provided by Gan Faltimer, Multiversal Cluster E-37-Multiplex, Universe C-Phi-9.
The author of the Compendium needed to write this in so they wouldn't forget what they needed to finish this page.
- Remove all mention of "the Arcanivore." Replace with Praexite.
- Rewrite the section on Valgoch to reflect Funny Turtle's existence.
- Check to make sure that anything that mentions the Blackrobes and the Main 7 is accurate.
- Add information about "The Scribe" to Nuvis Tunnoth.
- Add information to reflect Yurusu's status as Nuvis's child.
- Add information to reflect the fact that Gagiel was one of Nuvis' biggest supporters and survived on the raid on the Capital due to being a family friend of Yurusu.
- Add information to reflect the fact that Yurusu rejected being Nuvis' acolyte heir and Nuvis found Sonja to take their place.
- Find some way to make clear that Arzinel was possessing the body of Bridan, possibly from the start.
- Update "Truth" to include the existence of Lux Faltimer
- Rewrite the section on Tacarra to mention panreligion, funding from the Capital, and the fact that Nuvis was the leader before the apocalypse, and that Venneth van Buren is now the leader.
- Add list of all notable parties involved with total count, at the start of each arc.
- Finish up the Arc Summaries
- Acquire summaries of player's backstories
- Write what Theren did to fix the story, once he does it
- Once the above is completed, be happy that this page is finished
Background: The world known as Toril, Faerun, and later designated B-Gamma-6, was peaceful for quite some time. Well, as peaceful as a world could be. Unbeknownst to all of the inhabitants of this world, they resided within a fictional story. The Compendium recorded all that happened to this world, but due to the fact its authors didn't add much before the point this story begins, there is not much here for you to learn.
Our focus is on a country known as Aldermarc, a small part of a much larger world. Lord knows what happened in the other parts of Faerun, for those stories remain to be written by more authors from a higher order of infinity.
Our story begins when two stories collide.
Once in a time long past, a terrible ball of steel crashed upon the world of B-Gamma-6, and flattened the country of Soralia. Several months later, the previous Gods of this world suddenly vanished, leaving behind all of their most devoted followers, powerless and alone. With nothing left to turn to, these stranded polytheists set their sights upon the metal ball which had brought ruin to their world and began to worship it, driven by fear and a mad lust to regain lost power. However, despite what they would have liked to believe, this sphere of destruction harbored no benevolent intent.
On this page is a list of documents recovered from various sources, which should provide further information about Maldemos and his followers. Read below and you may discover the reasons behind the betrayed's newfound faith in Maldemos, and you may understand further the mechanisms of Maldemos himself and what his purpose truly was meant to be. It is funny how a primitive civilization worships a piece of technology programmed with a singular purpose as though it were a God.1
The religion of Maldemism was perpetuated by the creation of various documents and sermons, such as the ones recorded in the previous tab. This religion grew vast, and its more prominent members and their goals are documented below. Note that this is not a complete record of all Maldemists, only those who were the most important.
A hitchhiker from a previously destroyed world, Venneth van Buren was a member of a race of amphibious lizard people who were biologically immortal. His entire planet was destroyed by Maldemos and most of its population was [DATA EXPUNGED]. Venneth was able to escape this fate through cunning alone, hiding in the abandoned security tunnels that crisscrossed Maldemos' interior, out of the sight of scout drones and security drones.
When Maldemos crashed upon Toril and became focused on destroying this world, Venneth was given a short reprieve. After gods knows how many years of stowing away inside the killer of his world, he left. He met Trinidad and Fain Synton, and found them in the process of jokingly worshipping Maldemos. From this, an idea brew in his mind, and he became the unofficial leader of Maldemism.
He was an accomplice in the raid on the Capital of Aldermarc.
It is said that Venneth knew a lot more than he should have, possibly as much as the 5 heroes (and their friend) of this story. He was a major antagonist, attempting to daunt the heroes efforts, as he believed it would thwart his efforts to spread "the message of Maldemos" and the way of the Blackrobes, ultimately culminating in his goal to destroy Maldemos and take over the world.
Once he learned of the Arcanivore he saw great power within its abilities that would be much more aptly suited to sentient beings. He believed that the new art he and the Maldemists created, known as Incantricism, would be able to destroy Maldemos and allow the Maldemists to take over the world.
Another of Venneth's efforts to further the power of the Maldemists was the van Buren spiders. Through experimentation with the inner workings of Maldemos and transmutation magic, Venneth created horrifying monstrosities with the intent of using them as super-soldiers. The first of these such spiders was incredibly imperfect and wished for nothing more than death. It did not even have any weapons. However, further attempts would result in much more successful and efficient killing machines.
This individual went by a number of names, and it is unknown which, if any of them, was their real name. Yurusu was the name they most commonly used among the ranks of the Maldemists, but they sometimes gave the name Frangulaka Tunnoth.
One of the first Blackrobes, Yurusu's goal was essentially world domination and complete anonymity.
They stole a device from the interdimensional traveler Gan Faltimer that allowed them to steal the bodies of others, and eventually became the basis of the Incantrix's magical means of doing the same thing. Using this device, they also once attempted to steal the body of Queen Sage Avani so that when order was restored to the world they would rule over everything.
They were an accomplice in the raid on the Capital of Aldermarc.
Although they were more antagonistic than not, Yurusu actually was looking for a way to destroy Maldemos and kill Venneth van Buren, so that once those two major threats were taken care of they could rule over the world as Queen Sage Avani.
Unfortunately for them, their plans did not come to fruition. Venneth van Buren became privy to their plans at some point during an iteration of the story, and he came to dislike them greatly. The other Maldemists also did not like them and they were sent on increasingly dangerous missions, until they ended up self-assigning a mission to steal the body of the hostage Queen, where they were apprehended and presumably killed by the heroes.
Gagiel was previously a noble who converted to Maldemism during the Maldemist raid on the Capital. He was able to keep his considerable wealth and fancy things due to his argument that they made him more charismatic. He acted mostly as a proselytizer for the Maldemist cult, but ended up being more trouble than he was worth. He was also the friend of Yurusu.
It was in fact Cho Xuan and her lackeys who were responsible for the murder of Hautboaui's parents, among other nobles. Gagiel Ayame also participated in the killing of nobles in order to save his own skin and was an accomplice of Cho in the murder of Hautboaui's parents.
Not much is known about Sigmund except for the fact that he was a skilled brewer and acted as a bodyguard, mostly for Yurusu and Gagiel.
It is said that in some iterations of this story, Sigmund defected from the Maldemists and killed a large number of cultists with poisoned alcohol.
As one might expect from a religion that seemingly worships the eventual end of the world and promotes wreaking as much havoc as possible beforehand, followers of Maldemism had a lot of enemies and opposition.
The heroes of this story will be marked with an (H). Additionally, images have been provided for all characters who have them.
Three sisters who wanted more for themselves than an ordinary farm life. Ivanoska, the eldest, studied the art of necromancy and taught her sisters of liches. Levetra, Ingrid, and their fourth sister Ivetica were all in on the idea. But they decided to introduce a twist; rather than having an inanimate phylactery, something that could easily be found and destroyed, they would make Ivetica their living phylactery. Ivetica, never one to disagree, took on this task and became home to the souls of her three sisters. In exchange, they use necromancy to keep Ivetica alive far past her natural lifespan. Now with their setup established, the three sisters live peacefully in Brooding Caverns with their undead "family", occasionally leaving to look for opportunities for riches, while Ivetica goes out and collects emotional energy to sustain both them and herself. They are opposed to the idea of Maldemism and have been looking for a way to destroy Maldemos.
They participated in the raid on The Capital before Maldemism had been fully organized and they simply were in favor of the idea of dethroning the "corrupt" Queen and her corrupt nobles. Contrary to Hautboaui's belief, they were not in fact directly responsible for the murder of his parents. It was in fact Cho Xuan and her lackeys who were responsible for the murder of Hautboaui's parents, among other nobles. Gagiel Ayame also participated in the killing of nobles in order to save his own skin and was an accomplice of Cho in the murder of Hautboaui's parents.
The sister and living phylactery of three liches, Ivetica has been condemned to spending the rest of her existence striking up unsatisfactory deals with interested travelers, in order to collect emotional energy of disappointment that sustains both her and her sisters. In the event that she accidentally makes a good deal, she can also gather the energy of satisfaction, though it's not as strong.
She uses the immense power of her three sister's souls in order to perform tasks such as conjuring objects out of thin air and using Suggestion on people to alter their minds and the course of their lives. Despite what she may tell you, there are several deals she simply cannot make.
The Queen of the land of Aldermarc and the mother of Theren Avani, Sage Avani was subject to her controlling husband for most of her rule. King Matro used her as a shadow queen to rule over Aldermarc the way HE wanted: brutally, with an iron fist, and making as much money as they could. When Theren freed a number of slaves, Matro wanted to have him executed, but the Queen decided instead that her son, with his kind heart, deserved only to be exiled and live among the commoners. She was sure that he would do good things even when not in a position of power. Following the start of the Apocalypse, Queen Avani mysteriously disappeared in the Maldemist raid on the Capital.
An elven woman who once lived in the city of Alwyrd, Anamari became the leader of the faction of Prolyss during the Apocalypse. Prolyss was set up as both a refugee town and a center of vigilante justice, looking to maintain peace during the end of the world and restore things to normal.
Her hometown of Alwyrd believed in something known as "Worldweaving", a religion unique to that part of Aldermarc. At some point after her move from Alwyrd, the Crystal Grove appeared mysteriously, and covered the town in deadly living citrine. Anamari is strongly opposed to the idea of Maldemism and has made it Prolyss' main focus to investigate any events that may provide a clue as to how to destroy Maldemos.
Former members of the Maldemist cult themselves, Trinidad and Fain were the accidental progenitors of this religion. After they began to worship Maldemos as a joke, others caught on and began to worship the sphere in complete seriousness. Wary from the actions of their fellow members, Trinidad and Fain decided the best thing to do would be to try and tear the organization apart from the inside out. How successful they were in this quest is unknown.
Not much is known about Arzinel. They spent most of their time panicking over the vanishing of the Gods, but it is said that at some point they may have managed to re-establish contact with one of the Gods, becoming their missionary and guiding the 6 individuals who saved the world from the Maldemists and Maldemos. It is disputed when exactly this occurred, but legend has it that Arzinel gave the heroes the final push towards the end of their quest.
A silver dragon residing in a mountain cave, Bryndhet did not participate much in the chaos happening on the surface. However, it is said that Bryndhet held the last key the heroes needed to defeat Maldemos: the Crystal of Knowledge. An avid collector of Dwarven artifacts, Bryndhet stumbled across this Crystal some centuries before the heroes' arrival and had been unable to unlock the knowledge that was supposedly inside. Wiith Bryndhet's loaning the Crystal to the heroes, Gan Faltimer was able to unlock the secrets contained within, which led to the salvation of the world.
Grire opposed the idea of Maldemism simply because it impeded his own cult. After the Apocalypse occurred, he took over the quaint fishing town of Bakush and convinced its inhabitants to join a brutal cult, that worships him and practices things such as ritual sacrifice and cannibalism. A scumbag, a liar, and an all around messed up dude, Zircon's only goal was to quash Maldemism so that his Bakushian cult could flourish and spread to the whole country, making him de facto king of the now-savage land.
Cho ran the faction of Repose, which quietly helped every other faction in the land and tried to restore the original prosperity and peace of Aldermarc. Similar in function to Prolyss, but smaller and much more unknown. She kidnapped Queen Sage Avani after she made her escape from the Capital, hoping that holding the Queen as ransom would spur the nation along the path to restoring peace. Additionally, she believed Queen Avani to be corrupt and an evil ruler, due to the workings of King Avani in the background. Once peace had been restored to the land, Cho would have slaughtered the Queen and King and paved the way for a new line of rulers.
It was in fact Cho Xuan and her lackeys who were responsible for the murder of Hautboaui's parents, among other nobles. Gagiel Ayame also participated in the killing of nobles in order to save his own skin and was an accomplice of Cho in the murder of Hautboaui's parents.
Gan Faltimer was an interdimensional traveler who inserted himself2into the story of the 5 heroes. Claiming to have forgotten the coordinates to his home universe, he told the heroes that he had come to save them and their world from the threat of Maldemos. He managed to befriend them3and convince them to allow him along on their quest. He was a nervous man and hid a whole lot more than he should have4 from the heroes, but eventually he fully disclosed their mission and they went on their way to save the world. Read more about him in tab "Truth."
During the time in which Vigilant took place, several previously existing cities and towns were destroyed and repurposed into factions, which battled idly for control of the land and the securing of their own goals. However, most were too busy with their own problems and trying to figure out how to destroy Maldemos to actively engage in this 'war.' Listed below are all of the known factions in Aldermarc, their goals, and their leader(s). There are also a couple of other places that are not factions.
Leader(s): Anamari Penford.
Goals: To maintain peace during the Apocalypse, help the suffering, destroy Maldemos, and restore order.
Summary: Anamari was a prominent figure in town, after she moved to Prolyss from Alwyrd and set about bettering the community. When the Apocalypse occurred and the previous Mayor of the town fled, no one objected when Anamari took position as the new leader of Prolyss. The people of this faction are not very committed to their cause though, so it is quite lucky that the heroes decided to set up here and motivate everyone.5
Leader(s): Harra Pao and Lattel Pao.6
Goals: To survive the Apocalypse, and to serve as a center for festivals.
Summary: Harra and Lattel rose to power in Yokotrov when no one else would. It was always a quiet town and most of its members were too timid to be leaders, but Harra, with her loud personality, managed to convince her more timid girlfriend that they could make good leaders. Yokotrov did not have any particular goals and was only interested in surviving the apocalypse and serving as a nice spot to rest and entertain oneself. The end of the year festival was set to be hosted in Yokotrov due to its hospitality and to raise the timid faction's popularity.
Leader(s): Seralgi Voscuncier.
Goals: To survive the Apocalypse, and allow Seralgi, who did not notice the Apocalypse occur7, to keep on knitting.
Summary: Seralgi Voscuncier had been knitting before the Apocalypse even began. Her works were kept to a minimum but when the original leader of Pauria left, Seralgi decided to take their place so that no one would stand against her8 and her growing hobby. In exchange, she learned the art of making golems and set her yarn golems about the task of governing the city, so that she could knit to her heart's content. Pauria became so adorned in cutesy yarn weaving and tapestries that nobody dared attack it or the old lady who ruled over it; they weren't causing anyone any harm and had nothing valuable to offer besides a ton of yarn and some simple farm crops and livestock. Sheep were the main source of food in Pauria, for an obvious reason.
Leader(s): Baldrin Nezroth.
Goals: To maintain power within Destria. Wanted to abolish children.9
Summary: Baldrin was already in power before the Apocalypse had begun and his power was kept in check by the Queen, who lived in close proximity to Destria. Once the Apocalyse occurred and she vanished, Baldrin saw fit to rule over Destria with an iron fist. He didn't really have any set goal in mind, he just wanted to feel powerful, make money, and never have to deal with children again. Bringing in criminals and turning Destria into a prison town10 was not Baldrin's doing; it was that of one of his later descendants. But it was certainly an idea in Baldrin's mind, and he was probably the one who gave his descendant the thought.
Leader(s): Cho Xuan.11
Goals: To maintain order during the Apocalypse, help the needy, and try to knock sense back into the country. Once it was over, Cho would kill the current line of royals and make way for new, better rulers.
Summary: Cho took control of Repose by force during the Apocalypse, driving the old leader out of town. As Repose was right in the center of everything, she saw it as an optimal spot to try and maintain peace throughout the land and dethrone the original line of royalty. She didn't want to be queen herself, but she certainly wanted to make room for someone else to take power when order had been restored. It also ended up becoming a very good spot to facilitate trade, and most of the trade that went to and from Dramfell passed through Repose.
Repose considered Prolyss a rivaling faction that got in the way of Cho's idea of justice.
Leader(s): Momierre. Last name unknown.
Goals: To survive the apocalypse, and entertain people.
Summary: Momierre was the son of the original ruler of Valgoch, who died during a raid some few months into the Apocalypse. Momierre naturally took his place as heir, and proved himself to be an all around pretty bad king. He was lazy, fat, and only found interest in anything that entertained him. Thus, one of his good friends, Armine Dandy, organized Toril's first gameshow in the faction of Valgoch in order to entertain Momierre and hopefully spur him along into doing something useful. Failing that, the gameshow was also a good source of profit.
Leader(s): Grire Zircon.
Goals: To quash Maldemism so that the new Bakushian Cult would take over the country and make Zircon king.
Summary: Bakush was but a quaint fishing town before the Apocalypse struck, but it was twisted and perverted beyond belief with the arrival of Grire Zircon. From the faction of Tacarra, he traveled to Bakush during the Apocalypse looking to find a large group of gullible people whom he could convert to his own cult. Eventually, through sheer numbers alone he hoped to take over the whole country with his perverse cult and rule over Aldermarc as de facto king of the Savages. This did not strike Zircon as any kind of problem, for he had an extreme superiority complex and wanted to make everyone in the country into savages so that he would be better and more powerful than everyone else.
Leader(s): The Scribe AKA Nuvis Tunnoth.
Goals: To survive the Apocalypse and restore magic to all those who lost their powers when the Gods left.
Summary: Nuvis was not a Maldemist themselves, though they believed in the cause and allowed the Maldemists to set up their home base at Tacarra, due to its proximity to Maldemos. Prior to the Apocalypse, Nuvis was a well known priest and they were responsible for the increasing blur of the line between separation of church and state in Tacarra. The original leader eventually left entirely, and Nuvis ruled over the town now through religion alone. Once their old god had "died" and the Maldemists arrived, Nuvis allowed them to take shelter in Tacarra and convert everyone to their ways, though they remained ever faithful in their old god.
Leader(s): Varci Odragur.
Goals: To set up her own capitalist state, separate of Aldermarc, and continue ruling even when the Queen returned.
Summary: Varci Odragur was the sister of the original leader of Dramfell, who mysteriously vanished when the Apocalypse occurred. It is unknown what exactly happened to her, but given the nature of both Varci and her daughter it is not unlikely that she was killed. Following her disappearance, Varci took power and began to rule over Dramfell, making it into a capitalist state and the most powerful trade faction in Aldermarc. Ally only to Repose, Varci wanted to make Dramfell into its own nation when the Apocalypse was over, and she supported Cho's plan to assassinate the royalty and nobility in order to make way for a new line of order, since she believed the new line would support Dramfell's separation from Aldermarc.
Leader(s): Queen Sage Avani and King Matro Avani.
Goals: To rule over the country.
Summary: The Capital of Aldermarc, known only as The Capital as its original name was lost to the tides of time, served as the center of ruling and the economy of Aldermarc. Home only to royals and nobles, it was the first target when the Apocalypse occurred and was the center of the first Maldemist raid, led by Gagiel Ayame, Yurusu, and Venneth van Buren and supported by others such as Cho Xuan, Varci Odragur, The Lich Sisters, Grire Zircon, and Nuvis Tunnoth. The Lich Sisters later shunned the Maldemists and began to oppose them when they fully developed into what they became. They participated in the raid before Maldemism had been fully organized and they simply were in favor of the idea of dethroning the "corrupt" Queen and her corrupt nobles.
Leader(s): Unknown.
Goals: To believe in the myth of the Worldweaver in peace. Other than that, what their goals were is unknown.
Summary: Alwyrd was a town that kept itself isolated from most of Aldermarc. As it was on the northern border of Aldermarc and very far from the Capital, it considered itself barely a part of the country and more as its own thing. They believed in the myth of the Worldweaver; a great being who would rewrite the "story of the world" in a future event whereupon it became incredibly broken and inconsistent through unknown means. This belief later turned out to be true and predicted the coming of Theren Avani and what he did to save the world from Maldemos.
Leader(s): Ivanoska, Levetra, Ingrid. Last names unknown.
Goals: To live in peace with their undead "family" and keep themselves alive with the help of their sister Ivetica.
Summary: Brooding Caverns was originally the home of nomadic philosophers and oracles who wished to spend their time pondering the secrets of life. They received food and support from the nearby town of Prolyss in return for performing simple labors when they weren't spending their time thinking. During the Apocalypse, a large portion of the cave crumbled and killed several of the people living inside, and the others evacuated fearing a complete collapse. The Lich Sisters later found the cave and took up residency, dissuading any survivors from returning.
The art of Incantricism was created by Venneth van Buren after observing a creature known as the Arcanivore — a being who absorbed the magic of others to redirect back at its attackers.
When Venneth witnessed this ability, he determined that the large group of powerless casters among the ranks of the Maldemists would benefit greatly from the ability to harness this creature's power. Although he was the figurehead of the religion of Maldemism, he thought it would be more compelling to teach this art using Maldemos as a vessel, and took hold of the internal communications system to spread the "message of Maldemos" and the way of the Blackrobes.
The methodology of the way of the Blackrobes is shrouded in mystery, but it is known that female-aligned people found it much easier to learn. Because of this, over a long amount of time, far past the end of this story, the organization, which became known as the Incantrix, became an all-girls organization.
The Incantrix also learned the art of body-snatching by creating a magical mimicry of a device stolen from Gan Faltimer. Their magical means were less efficient, and probably for the better. Over the centuries the Incantrix experimented heavily with the concepts of magic and learned many new things, such as the ability to combine schools of magic, effortless teleportation, and the ability to retain and compound their magical energy throughout the bodies they take.
Not much is known about the Blackrobes during the timeline of Vigilant, as the organization and the art was only just starting. What is known is that the group did not begin through good intentions, and was later molded into what it is in the present of Fountains by The Scribe, Sonja Shuhei, and various others down the line of history.
Important Blackrobes:
Venneth van Buren
Nuvis Tunnoth
Frangulaka Tunnoth
Sonja Shuhei
Listed below are summaries of each arc of the campaign.
The heroes began in the quaint fishing town of Bakush, and had a rather relaxing day enjoying the food, staying at an inn, and speaking with Ivetica the Dealsmaster. When afternoon struck, the heroes were suddenly alerted to a crisis; someone had caused the fruit in the local market to become mutated monstrosities! The heroes all converged on the scene and took upon the task of destroying the mutant fruit. Afterwards, they were thanked by Trinidad & Fain Synton, the accidental perpetrators of the incident. However, before they had time to celebrate their victory, they suddenly spotted Maldemos crashing into the planet and the Gods doing their best to slow it down.
They were knocked out in the process, and woke up in a nearby infirmary, all too concussed to easily leave. They were told about what had happened by a nurse, who mentioned that an entire country had been flattened by the sphere. Then they were left to rest, and in the middle of the night they were awoken by the sound of a man screaming. When they ran out to check, they found a hideously burned corpse and a monstrous metallic spider, a construct the size of a house, which they would later learn was known as a scout drone. It paid them no mind and went on with its business, as the 5 of them were not ready to face it. They calmed the woman wailing over her lost husband, and then slowly went back inside to rest.
The next day, they decided to set out, and found that over the next few months the world would devolve into chaos. They met Gagiel Ayame, one of the progenitors of Maldemism, on the road to the Capital. When they arrived at the Capital they found the place burnt and wrecked and almost everyone either missing or dead. They took what riches they could and then set off again, stopping by at whatever factions they came across and looking for one to settle, encountering a few more scout drones along the way.
Finally, they settled in the faction of Prolyss, as it seemed to be the only faction they had yet visited that was not batshit crazy. They had planned to stay for only the one night, but circumstance would say otherwise.
The heroes were awoken to the sound of their door being slammed open, by none other than Anamari Penford, the leader of Prolyss. She explained to the startled awake heroes that Prolyss has dedicated itself to a mission: maintaining peace throughout the land by solving any big issues that come up. Furthermore, an issue has recently arisen in the faction itself: the number of undead sighted in the town has been increasing and there are possible reports of a lich. She asks the heroes whether they would like to help solve this problem.
The heroes reluctantly agree, and as no one else seems to have volunteered for the job, they head out into town to buy goods and prepare for the mission. They stop by the blacksmith and enchanting shop, run by a man named Bridan Gogama who Salem manages to seduce into giving them all discounts. Afterwards, they buy a couple of things from Bridan, including an enchantment that has given Salem's weapon Ghost Touch.
Content with their preparations, the gang sets out for the Brooding Caverns, the suspected hiding spot of the undead and the lich. Along the way however, they become witness to a strange occurrence. A pink portal wreathed in flame opens up in the middle of the road, to reveal a man in a lab coat running for his life from some kind of advanced soldiers. The portal closes as the man runs through, cutting off the arm of one of the soldiers chasing after him, and he looks around for where to run next when he notices the heroes.
Both parties stunned and confused, the strange man decides to introduce himself, using an alien form of greeting before realizing that the heroes are able to understand the same language as himself. He introduces himself as Gan Faltimer, a supposed inter dimensional traveler, and states that he was running from something called "the Aurastian Empire." The heroes are skeptical, but seeing as how they have just witnessed him running out of a portal from another world, they have no choice but to believe him.
He states that he came to this dimension both to run from the Empire and to deal with the threat of Maldemos, the great sphere looming on the horizon. The heroes try to pass him off, thinking he has it handled, before he confesses that he actually doesn't know what he's doing and he would like to tag along with them so that he can learn more about their world and with their help, figure out how to save them. The heroes agree, and Gan tags along with them on their quest to take care of the lich.
Then, they arrive at the Brooding Caverns, and meet a series of incredibly weak undead, before picking up on a conversation happening between two women. From this conversation, they are able to surmise three things:
- There is more than one lich in this cave.
- The liches know and are concerned about Maldemists, a religious follower the heroes had only encountered one of before.
- The liches were at least partially responsible for the raid on the Capital.
They decide to not make themselves known to the liches, as they surely could not handle a fight with them, and as they travel through the rooms they accidentally find themselves unlocking the bedroom door of a third lich that they did not know was living in this cave. She is confused by their presence, but hospitable, and decides to go and introduce them to the other liches, her sisters, after buying the heroes' false claim of being "cave inspectors."
They learn that the three lich sisters are known as Ivanoska, Levetra, and Ingrid, and may have been around for over 1000 years. They are very hospitable and tell the heroes that they don't mean to cause any problem to Prolyss, they just want to live peacefully with their undead "family" and they promise to reprimand their "children" for sneaking out without permission.
Afterwards, the heroes return to Prolyss and declare the issue solved. They also introduce Gan Faltimer and get him his own cabin.
The next morning, Gan decides to open up a shop consisting of inter dimensional goods, known as the IHOW, not far from the walls of Prolyss. The heroes check out what goods he has for sale and receive some rather powerful items, including a sentient spear, a lucky sword, and glasses that allow you to see souls and invisible entities.
As they leave the IHOW, the hero Bjord spots someone with the use of his Clarity Glasses. An invisible figure sneakily departing. He alerts his friends and everyone follows him in hot pursuit of the figure, who becomes incredibly confused and distressed how they can even see them.
During the chase, the heroes suddenly get cut off by a scout drone, and the invisible figure makes their escape. The heroes then manage to kill the scout drone and alert Gan, who recovers its hard drive from its body and plays its surveillance files on a projector, telling the heroes a lot more about what the "metal spiders" are and how they are connected to Maldemos.
The heroes then spent a majority of this arc shopping in town and talking with NPCs, learning more about them and receiving new items. A dragonborn by the name of Cifri Batts tried to scam Hautboaui, but was in turn scammed back and had his item stolen from him for use in future scams. An air genasi by the name of Cosmas Nemmesh ran a clothes shop, which all of the heroes eventually ended up purchasing some robes from. Yarve tried to flirt with the genasi, but he was incredibly socially awkward and Cosmas ended up mostly just confused and flustered. Salem returned to Bridan to thank him for his aid on preparing to take care of the liches and the two had a nice night together. The heroes also learned through small talk that despite the fact it was the end of the year, the month of December, the weather had been pretty temperate and the air was stagnant. There was no wind and no weather, which was rather odd for the time of year.
Near the end of the month, the heroes were alerted to a new issue by Gan Faltimer. Someone had broken into his shop and stolen an item that allowed them to swap bodies with people. It was not an item Gan had been planning to sell and had made an oversight in keeping it safe in the IHOW. The group spent a couple of moments freaking out, wondering where in the country this person could be wreaking havoc, before Anamari burst in and told them that there was a major issue in Yokotrov. People were acting funny and a mysterious mark was appearing on everyone in town's forehead.
Now certain that this was where the perpetrator was, Gan immediately opened a portal to Yokotrov, startling Anamari, through which he and the heroes walked. They entered the faction with little problem and immediately found themselves on a wild goose chase, being led on by different people who may or may not have been possessed at the time. Eventually, they caught the perpetrator dead in the act when Gan suddenly went quiet and later revealed himself as the bodysnatcher by trying and failing miserably to blend in.
The heroes then chased the bodysnatcher through the town and they kept managing to get away into someone else's body through sheer luck, but when the heroes had almost caught them they were interrupted by a far bigger issue.
A giant metallic tendril had slammed through the wall of Yokotrov, and as they looked around they noticed hundreds of more tendrils all along the land, with the source being Maldemos. The movement of the tentacles created such force that it knocked all of the heroes off balance, tore buildings apart, and they all passed out from debris hitting them in the head.
The heroes woke up in a strange garden and found themselves greeted by a man who called himself Mortemer. He told them that they were dead and now in limbo, which he ruled over in the absence of Kelemvor. Through some unknown means, their entire material plane had just been destroyed and every single person on Toril was now dead.
The heroes then met up with the soul of Gan Faltimer, whereupon they learned from Mortemer that he was 15 million years old. Afterwards, the heroes all met up with the souls of notable figures from their life to apologize and make amends for things they never got to do in life. Hautboaui learned that his parents were killed in the raid on the Capital, and despite the fact that he did not know how they were killed Hautboaui connected their death to the Lich Sisters and became very vindictive and revengeful.
After the heroes were done having their afterlife jam session, they suddenly passed out and woke up back in their bed in Prolyss. They then looked over and saw a note that said "Let's try that again, shall we?"
The heroes were awoken to the sound of Gan Faltimer knocking on their door. He was equally confused as to what happened to them. As the six of them tried to get their bearings, they were interrupted by Anamari Penford knocking on their door and informing of the situation with the liches, confirming the fact that something strange is going on with time. Gan argues that they don't need to go take care of the situation because they already know there's nothing wrong, and he and Anamari begin to argue.
However, the two of them are interrupted by the sudden growth of an orange spire in the distance. Yarve, Qwes, and Bjord, in their shock, begin to walk towards the spire. Gan tries to get them to come back so they can go through a portal, but they do not listen. Anamari says that spire is growing out of her hometown and runs off to find volunteers to help, saying that she wants to come along too. Then Salem, Hautboaui, and Gan leave to the spire for a scouting mission.
They discover that the spire is made out of citrine crystal that was growing out of a town, which was also completely covered in citrine. Hautboaui prods the ground with a stick and it immediately begins to grow up the stick and onto his hand, where it continues to grow. Gan and Salem freak out and amputate Hautboaui's hand, followed by Gan using his Omnibus solution to grow the hand back.
On their travels, Qwes, Yarve, and Bjord meet a man proclaiming to be Sir Rebulus Trenagon Strise, from the northern country of Riseous. He's a real douche, and Qwes decides that he's going to knock him down and tear out his tongue. Bjord however, feels bad for the man and uses the spell Mending to grow his tongue back, but he does a sloppy job of it and mends the tongue back upside down.
Gan experiments with the crystal while Salem comforts Hautboaui, and eventually comes to the conclusion that the crystal only spreads through organics. He then leaves to gather rubber gear for everyone, and he assembles Yarve, Qwes, Bjord, Anamari, and Prolyss' blacksmith Bridan at the front gate of the town.
They put on their gear and then walk into the town, at which point Qwes asks Anamari about her hometown. She says that it used to be called Alwyrd, and she moved away from it about a decade before. The town was fairly normal and she has little idea why it would be covered in citrine crystal. Hautboaui also casts a fire ball at the crystal, causing some of it to explode into shards which Anamari and Bridan shield themselves from and come out appearing to be fine.
As they walk, the ground starts to rumble and a tall wall of citrine grows in front of them. They also notice that the town is full of citrine plants and animals. Yarve and Salem investigate the citrine wall and are able to determine that there is a LOT of magic in it; every class of magic, but it is all very diffused and spread out.
They then decide to go around the wall.
As they round the corner, they hear the sound of something sinking back into the ground behind them, and assume it to be the wall.
Down the road ahead, they see a large building, which they later identify upon approaching it as a church. On the front of this church is a plaque of a design depicting a person weaving a tapestry with a design of a planet on it.
Anamari recognizes this plaque and identifies the church as a Worldweaver church, and following the confusion, explains to the heroes the unique religion of Alwyrd.
The Worldweaver was an entity who was said to have the power to overwrite reality as if it were a story. They were not one singular being and in fact an ability which could be inherited and lay dormant for most if not all of its holders life. Anyone could be a Worldweaver and not even know it.
But, as she concedes, this is all just a myth. And there is no such thing as a fantastic power which can edit reality itself, much to the chagrin of the heroes. Or is there?
The heroes then enter the church to investigate further and find that it is completely infested with some scorpion-like creatures made entirely out of citrine crystal — Crysmals. Yarve approaches one offering a snack and attempts to tame it, but it does not want the fake gummy diamond that he offers. It summons a mage hand much to the surprise of the heroes and inspects the snacks Yarve offers to it, tossing each one aside until he gets the hint that it wants to eat Real rocks.
Yarve then feeds it an Omnibus crystal which he stole from Gan and a red rust crystal which he bought, causing it and the whole town to shimmer with energy.
Qwes investigates the altar at the end of the aisle and finds a box shaped object sitting atop it, covered in citrine. He blasts it open and is startled when pages of a book fly out at him, and he concludes it to be this church's bible. He reads the title of the book, "The Compendium of Knowledge," and immediately intrigued, grabs it.
During Yarve's crystal befriending extravaganza, Salem notices that their companion Bridan has been oddly silent this whole adventure and decides to talk to him, thinking he's just nervous.
His responses are very hard and he keeps covering his mouth, leading to Salem's rising suspicion. Finally, she tears his arm away from his mouth and as he protests she sees that the inside of his body is completely coated in citrine.
Panic ensues, and Gan rushes out to try and help but he has no idea what to do in a situation like this. Qwes casts Suggestion on Bridan, causing the entity inside of him to confess everything and all of its intentions.
It is known as the Crystal Grove, and it is an ambassador from another world — a small part of a much larger consciousness which was broken apart in a dreadful crash between realities. It landed on this world and was intending to use the people and town of Alwyrd, and eventually the whole world, as fuel to manually build itself past the boundaries of reality in a vain attempt to return home.
It grew curious in the adventurers who were investigating its sudden appearance, and took the opportunity when Hautboaui angrily blew up a section of citrine with a fireball to insert itself into Bridan's body whilst he was shielding himself from the blast. It was intending to masquerade as him for as long as possible and learn more about the adventurers.
At the request of the heroes, the Crystal Grove said that it would stop turning things into crystal.
It confessed that Bridan's body was already dead, and his body had already entered rigor algor mortis. It did not know how well he would fare if his mind was returned to his body, but it did so anyways at the request of the heroes.
Bridan was very confused and did not seem to know that he had died or become part of a hive mind, and everyone caught him up to speed on his situation. One of the heroes then asked if Gan could do anything about it, and he remembered that he had some leftover Omnibus solution from when he had to heal Hautboaui's hand earlier. He poured it into Bridan's mouth and the whole party was shocked when he started to scream and blood poured out of his mouth as citrine crystal pushed itself out of his body.
Gan then realized the profound error he had made — Omnibus simply grows back body parts and would not be able to remove the citrine from his body by itself. Hautboaui then cast sleep on Bridan and the party watched for a while as his body tried to rid itself of the citrine.
After a few minutes, the Crystal Grove told them that it had another problem on the other side of town to take care of. It disappeared, and shortly thereafter there was a huge explosion of fire and the sound of a woman yelling "FUCK!!!"
Bjord saw the figure of a woman in red robes through the buildings and decided to move towards her, and the rest of the party followed suit in curiosity, Salem carrying Bridan's body.
What they saw was the Lich Sister Ivanoska who asked them what the hell they were doing there. Bjord then asked her what the hell she was doing there and she told them that she had come because her staff had gone missing and then this large spire of citrine had suddenly grown in the distance, and she suspected that the two events may have been correlated.
As soon as she had entered the town however, her flesh body had been stabbed and turned into crystal and her lich form had been forced out of it.
In the midst of her monologue, Hautboaui told her that she had killed his parents. She tilted her head and said "I did?" before getting blasted with a volley of fire balls and other miscellaneous attacks from Hautboaui, Qwes, and Salem.
She survived the attack, but her form looked very badly off, shaking and shimmering violently. She told Hautboaui that she doesn't know why the hell he just attacked her, but complimented him on his competency as a spell caster.
She then cast a spell in return, disrupting the life force of the entire party and dealing 20 damage to everyone except for Hautboaui, Salem, and Qwes. Anamari passed out from the damage.
Once she saw that many people were still standing and some had not even been hurt, she decided to flee. Hautboaui however, was not finished with her, and continued trying to attack her. The rest of the party tackled him in an attempt to get him to calm down, as they did not want to mess with a lich or her two sisters which she had threatened to call.
Hautboaui put up a considerable struggle but ultimately was unable to do anything more to Ivanoska, and had to simply watch as she opened a Dimensional Door, turned around and waved, and left, right in front of his eyes.
Before they had any time to recover from that experience, they were interrupted by the sound of two women telling them to stop and drop all of their weapons. They explained that they were from a faction named Repose and that they were under orders to take in anyone they found around Alwyrd for questioning.
However, the party was not having any of it, and everyone either ran away or attacked the women.
Gan's portal gun was broken in the ruckus, leaving him very dejected. Yarve was kind enough to tell one of them that they had bigger problems to worry about at the moment and the two of them came to an agreement that she and her sister would come back for Yarve and the rest of the party the next day.
They then set off on foot in the direction of Prolyss and decided to stop at Yokotrov, where they checked into a hospital for rest and recovery. They also noted that Yokotrov seemed to be preparing for some kind of festivities. Unfortunately, they discovered that Anamari had died in the lich's spell, but Bridan and everyone else was able to be nursed back to health.
Gan and Bjord had a very heartfelt feelings jam while Salem comforted Hautboaui and Yarve and Qwes argued over what they would tell the old man who ran the hospital in regards to how Anamari had died.
Bjord also took the time to take note of everyone's soul colors with the use of his Clarity Glasses and found that everyone's souls were becoming much lighter in color and Yarve and Qwes' flashed brighter while they were arguing.
Qwes wanted to say that Anamari had told them to take her place because he wanted to secure a position of power amidst all this chaos, but Yarve was not hearing it, especially because Qwes wanted him to be the one to say it. In the emotional turmoil Yarve accidentally let slip that he "didn't want to be in that position again," leading to suspicion from Qwes and intrigue from Salem.
Yarve stormed out after everyone kept questioning him and he arrived back at the hospital at 3 AM that night, tripping over Qwes and being arranged on top of him by Salem who arrived later.
Salem scored some hot pwussy from Harra and Lattel thanks to a nat 20 seduction roll, Bjord found a coffee, Gan fell asleep against a wall. Qwes' pseudodragon licked Yarve's ear and then woke up the golem body, leading to hilarity for Qwes and confusion for Yarve. Hautboaui stared at his asymmetrical hands and Salem attempted to cheer him up by drawing designs to match the pattern on his other hand. And Bridan finally woke up, recovered at last.
The old man came in and told them that he had taken care of Anamari's body, and asked once again how she had died, at which point Yarve told the old man the whole truth of their adventure and refused to sugarcoat anything, much to Qwes' chagrin.
Afterwards, I did a timeskip of about a week and the heroes arrived back at Prolyss. There were no guards at the front gate, and they decided to check the leader's cabin first, expecting it to be empty.
In the leader's cabin, they found Valora and Dia, the fantasy police who had apprehended them earlier, and an unknown woman who would look Asian in modern terms, sitting at the desk with her feet propped up, who simply looked up and said "Ah, welcome. I have been expecting you all."
They had a heated debate with the woman in the leader's cabin, who they learned was the leader of Repose, Cho Xuan. She threatened to send the forces of four factions that were either under her control or she was closely allied to if they did not agree to allow her to take control of Prolyss and further Repose's agenda.
The heroes were very angry with Cho, for a variety of reasons, and attempted to kill her but became discouraged at the confidence of her words that she "had nothing to lose from dying, and they had everything to lose from killing her." They decided to do Insight checks and discovered she was 110% confident in her abilities to destroy them all.
Thus, they backed down and complied with her wishes, at which point they were offered a quest for the reward of 1000 gold each. They would go to the faction Dramfell, and incite a rebellion and blackmail the leader of the faction, Varci Odragur, into listening to the demands of her citizens. She is running a capitalist state and overworking and neglecting all of her citizens, but despite this she believes she has full control over them and wants to make Dramfell its own state separate from Aldermarc.
The heroes were skeptical, but agreed to do the quest with the promise of money and power.
Through a series of checks, Qwes Chon and Salem discovered that Cho was a monk who had a number of very powerful magic artifacts imbued with the Weave on her person. They concluded that they were right not to challenge her in the moment, and determined that if they took away those magical items and restrained her they would be able to kill her. However, she left the town of Prolyss in their hands, stating that she would be back in approximately a month to check on the status of their quest and their leadership skills.
After she left, the heroes went to bed. The hero Yarve Rellua had a strange dream that night, of a group of 5 individuals who must meet at a point long after his death, and learned that something in the present had the power to prevent them from ever meeting.
The heroes were awoken the next morning by the sound of Gan Faltimer knocking on their door.
It took a great deal of grumbling to get them out of bed, but after they had done so Gan offered them a trip to the Interdimensional House of Wonders before they went on their mission to Dramfell.
The heroes reluctantly obliged and followed Gan to the IHOW. During the trip, Yarve relayed his strange dream to the heroes and Gan. No one had any valuable input to give on the subject of the dream, as no one had any idea what its significance was.
When they arrived at the IHOW, Gan went into the back to grab a new selection of 5 items for the players to look at and buy. During this process, the hero Bjord decided to test out a new ability of his and attempted to charm all of the heroes and Gan with his harmonica playing.
Bjord succeeded in charming Gan, causing him to become transfixed and drop one of the items he was holding. It was a button that upon hitting the ground caused time to rewind by one minute, before Bjord had begun playing. Everyone remembered what had happened and was fairly confused, but Bjord simply began playing again, causing Gan to drop the button again. This process occurred twice before Qwes tackled Bjord and broke the heroes out of the time loop.
The heroes then perused Gan's selection of items, and ended up buying 4 out of the 5 items he had laid out, including the button that rewinds time by a minute.
As they were about to leave, they were interrupted by the appearance of a pink portal and an elderly woman, whom Gan recognized as someone important and was running over to greet before Bjord pressed the button again, so far having expended 4 out of its 5 uses for the day.
The woman appeared again a minute later and Gan was able to successfully reunite with her, revealing that it was his long lost wife Levine whom he had thought died millions of years ago. Time works differently across dimensions, however, and Levine was able to find a universe at a time where Gan was alive and present.
She started to cough violently and Gan ushered her into the back room, telling the heroes to go on their quest without him as he has important matters to tend to. The heroes were more than happy to oblige, and stepped outside to find that a cart had been left for them by Bridan the Blacksmith.
They took the cart and headed on their way to Dramfell, observing the faction Repose as they passed.
Halfway down the road between Repose and Dramfell, the heroes had an encounter with possibly the most traumatizing thing they'd seen yet.
They met an entity stumbling along the road, constructed out of a large white crystal on a metal body with 8 spider-like legs. Underneath its legs was a vast collection of veins, arteries, and organs. Four out of the five heroes could hear the sound of someone wailing and banging on the inside of the crystal, but the fifth hero, Bjord, could see the full horror.
Inside of the crystal was the completely blackened soul of an unknown individual. They noticed Bjord looking at them and called out for his help, later shifting their attention to Yarve when he appeared next to them due to the properties of his new Axe of Returning.
Bjord used the spell Detect Thoughts to gain insight on the soul inside of the crystal, and learned a good deal of traumatizing information.
Through Bjord, the heroes learned that the soul in the crystal was in excruciating pain, hated a name known as "van Buren," and wished nothing more than to be killed. The heroes were more than happy to oblige.
Qwes used the spell Shatter to destroy the main crystalline body of the entity, and afterwards a good deal of black goop spewed out of the shattered remains. No body could be found within the entity, and Bjord was able to see the black soul stop mid-scream to turn and say "Thank you." to all of the heroes before vanishing.
Through a series of Arcana and Investigation checks, Qwes and Yarve discovered more about the entity. It seemed to have been created through transmutation magic, and had no magical capability of its own. Additionally, on its base was a series of screens displaying numbers (which all read 0 or N/A at the time) and a symbol that looked like a blue T inside of a circle. Yarve made a mental note to remember that symbol and went on his way, rejoining the other heroes inside of the cart.
After that horrific incident, the heroes arrived at Dramfell, investigating into the state of affairs.
They learned quite quickly that things were as bad as Cho Xuan had said, and were able to bribe more information about the town from a random civilian for 10 gold.
The civilian told them that Dramfell had previously been a powerful center of trade, ruled by a kind and fair ruler known as Anrielle. Shortly after the Apocalypse had occurred, Anrielle had died through unknown means and her sister Varci had taken over the town, leading to its current state of affairs.
Though Salem was reluctant to agree, she eventually had to admit that something needed to be done about Varci.
Yarve and Hautboaui were sent on a reconnaissance mission into Varci's Mansion, whilst Qwes took up a mission of his own around the back of the mansion.
Yarve and Hautboaui were successful in infiltrating the mansion, and were led to Varci's room by a butler, who informed them that Varci was still busy talking to someone and asked them if they would be so kind as to wait.
They heard through the door a loud conversation between Varci and the apparent leader of a faction full of cannibalistic savages, whom was requesting a large sum of gold from Dramfell each day in return for their protection. He was denied immediately, and left the room quite shortly.
Upon this point, Hautboaui cast the spell Phantasmal Force on both the unknown guest and Varci, causing them to see a Beholder that told them to leave the Mansion and never return.
It took some doing to sway Varci, but eventually she was unable to conquer her fear and agreed to let the Beholder take control of Dramfell, and promptly ran for her life.
After this event, Qwes' pseudodragon could be seen through the window of Varci's room, using a spell to project subliminal messages into the minds of Yarve and Hautboaui which warned them about the fire that he had just lit. The two heroes swiftly escaped the mansion, Yarve stopping to save as many people living inside the mansion as he could, before throwing his Axe of Returning out a window, and catching the last woman he had saved.
Meanwhile, Salem and Bjord were on their way to visit a shop named "Patricia's Pastries." As Salem looked back at the mansion to see that the back of it was going up in flames, she vowed to kill Yarve Rellua for failing to stop Qwes from doing something stupid.
Remember at the beginning, when I mentioned that our story begins when two stories collide?
If it wasn't obvious enough already, the story of Vigilant has an odd mixture of high fantasy and science fiction. Here is the true origin of Maldemos, the story which he originally came from, the story that was not meant to crossover with the world of B-Gamma-6, but did, and due to its high stakes, overtook the original story.
The story of Vigilant is the story of two universes meeting: B-Gamma-6, the one it takes place in, and C-Phi-9, the cause of all its problems.
C-Phi-9 was home to Gan Faltimer, the interdimensional traveler, and his people. Known as the Taurionians, they were residents of one of the most highly advanced civilizations in that universe: Taurion. Locked in the throes of heavy industrialization and capitalism, Taurion was obsessed with one thing and one thing only: Growth. They had already used up all of their own materials on their planet and were desperate for a way to gather more.
The answer did not come to them in the form of another civilization to conquer, though one did show up. The Aurastian Empire; far larger and more powerful than Taurion but thankfully, peaceful. They made first contact with the Taurionians and the two advanced civilizations struck up an alliance.
The alliance between Taurion and Aurastos went well for a very long period of time, the two civilizations providing each other with their own advancements and building each other up. However, it all went to hell with the idea of the Planet Crushers.
Taurion was still struggling with a lack of resources and Aurastos was not willing to provide the tools necessary to easily gather more, and their trade prices were jacked up to the roof. So the heads of the empire of Taurion got a brilliant idea: Why don't we create automated constructs to go out there and crush Entire planets for raw resources?
This idea was met with extreme controversy from both the people of Taurion and the Aurastian Empire, but it was eventually refined into what became known as Project Enrichment.
Project Enrichment claimed that the constructs, tentatively nicknamed "Planet Crushers", would only go out and crush planets that were already dead or were just being born. No unintentional snubbing out of life would occur, and there would be no more moral controversy. Propaganda was spread like mad, advertising Project Enrichment as the solution to everyone's problems, and within a few years there were hundreds if not thousands of engineers at work on the project.
One of the most well accomplished engineers who worked on Project Enrichment was our dear friend who we know and love: Gan Faltimer. He thought Project Enrichment sounded like the best idea anyone had ever had, and wanted to make himself known for all the work he did in helping his civilization.
What everyone didn't know was how corrupt Project Enrichment truly was.
The higher ups did not care about morality, and they were determined to make the Planet Crushers the most impregnable and most efficient gatherers of resources possible. They wanted to make sure that even after Taurion died, the Planet Crushers would continue on dissembling the entire universe.
Project Enrichment was supposed to consist of a number of manned missions.
Project Enrichment was supposed to avoid planets with life on them.
Project Enrichment was supposed to be good. It was supposed to be a miracle. Instead, it became a nightmare.
After the Planet Crushers launched, machinery built into the Planet Crushers that even Gan was not aware of murdered the entire crew and dismembered their bodies, using them to build a giant artificial system of veins and arteries, all connecting to the quartz lights throughout the interior and the giant Heart and Brain of the Planet Crushers. The souls of the crew were trapped as well, stuffed inside of the crystal and used to generate endless power through their lamentations.
The Planet Crushers then continued with their task, indiscriminately landing on planets, sending out Scout Drones to determine whether there was life on the planet, ascertaining how high the risk of the Planet Crusher being destroyed was, and then destroying the entire planet, regardless of whether or not there were people on it.
And the people who were killed were added as well to the reservoir of souls and the conglomeration of organs that made up the Planet Crushers' artificial biological systems. Eventually they even became part of the security system; a kind of secondary security drone built out of corpses.
This horrible process repeated throughout the universe for a while, until a chance encounter.
A Planet Crusher by the designation M4-LDM5 wandered into Aurastian space and managed to crush two of the Empire's planets before it was brought to the attention of Aurastos' leader.
Immediately, a microverse was created in which M4-LDM5 was to be imprisoned, and the Empire sent out their Warships, outfitted with interdimensional portal generators, and exiled M4-LDM5 to the microverse that was intended to be void.
However, Aurastos was not careful enough and this microverse developed into a full fledged universe, unbeknownst to anyone.
After this incident, the Aurastian Empire immediately went and attacked Taurion, since they knew the Planet Crushers were their doing. In the midst of the attack, Gan Faltimer and his wife Levine escaped by hijacking an Aurastian dropship. Then, Gan reverse-engineered a portal generator and created a handheld device that allowed him and his wife to travel between universes, and the pair escaped.
Later, Gan would discover what Aurastos had done and the fact that they had exiled M4-LDM5 to a universe that was now complete with its own galaxies, worlds, and possibly even people. Levine had long since set off on her own adventures and was presumed dead, for Gan had already exceeded his own natural lifespan by a long shot through the power of his will alone.
Thus, Gan took it upon himself to save the people of the microverse, which he designated B-Gamma-6 now that it had integrated with the Multiverse. He stole B-Gamma-6 away from the Aurastian Empire and set off through the Multiverse, looking for a safe place to keep it so that he could go in and save everyone from the problem he felt he had caused.
Eventually, he found what he needed in the universe of L-Alpha-5, known also as [DATA EXPUNGED]. That universe had been [REDACTED] due to the efforts of its inhabitants, and its [DATA EXPUNGED] was sitting there [REDACTED] weeping over their failed [DATA LOST]. Gan [REDACTED] and told them that they would now have [DATA EXPUNGED] to watch over, and they didn't even have to [DATA EXPUNGED]. They just had to keep it safe. And so, [DATA CORRUPTED] agreed to [ERROR: DATA CORRUPTED.]
You know the story from there.
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With the help of the great silver dragon Bryndhet and his loaning of the Crystal of Knowledge, our heroes discovered that one of them was a Worldweaver; A member of one of the two omnipresent forces throughout all of Existence. The hero in question was named Yarve Rellua Theren Avani.
In contrast to any misconceptions you may have had, Theren was not made into a Worldweaver by Gan's intervention. What Gan did was simply loan some of his willpower to Theren and the other 4 heroes, which allowed Theren to unlock the ability he already had.
Worldweaving was a latent ability present in the Avani family which no member had ever discovered prior. Theren was lucky enough to partake in this colliding of stories which allowed his abilities to manifest and allowed him to give the story an ending.
The exact details of what Theren did to restore normalcy to the world of B-Gamma-6 remain to be decided.