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[AC] - Intricacies of the Lore?
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Registered User regular
For reference, I am a multimedia film student / intern, with an unrelenting love for the incredibly expansive storyline of Asheron's Call's past. I haven't played for a good six years now, but as a tribute to the wondrous universe I explored for a good portion of my adolescence, as well as an incredibly intuitive and fantastical story, I've decided to create a non-profit, self-produced audio dramatization of one or several major events in the Asheron's Call timeline. However, getting all of the finer details required to be able to tell such a huge story within the confines of a media device that has no visual counterpart is incredibly difficult.
For likely close to six months now, I have been actively researching all of the old Asheron's Call lore surrounding the major plotline events that had set in motion the trail that would eventually lead to Portal Year 0, as well as beyond that.
Most of my time has been used researching names. Names of characters, names of locations, names of objects, names of orders; anything iconic, relevant, and vague that has rarely ever been touched upon.
A huge amount of time was spent particularly on the past of Dericost, Gelid, and the descent from the frozen kingdom plane to The Isle of Woe, particularly within Ifisveraqu, where Frore was built. As this pivotal moment is not only the initial point in which all of the game's events started, but also a great merger of almost all of the great plot devices (The Sundering, Frore, Crystal Array, Bael'Zharon, Asheron's lineage, Strathelar's rule, etc.), I've worked extensively on my drafts for it.
My original idea was to churn out a number of "chapters" or "episodes" to cover these different, pivotal moments, but decided it may simply be better to create smaller prologues, epilogues, and supporting shorts to help articulate the main featurette.
I've had some difficulty, however, in getting some of the information I'd like to have in order to really explore some of the original events. One of the most elusive pieces of information has been the names of the other people in Elysa's and Thorsten's fellowship during their assault on the "original" Olthoi Queen in the Black Death Catacombs that we see in the opening cinematic. I remember finding their names at one point in a forum discussion, but I seem to have lost the bookmark and have not found it again since.
Another would be a more in-depth look into the history of the Falatacot, if any, and their ancient and unruly magics. Nilrhem Facill and his delving into planar magic. Ilservian and his descent and ultimate transformation by The Kemeroi into Bael'Zharon.
The Book of Eibhil. The Opener of the Ways. "The Ways" themselves.
There's so much information I've found tucked away in dark corners and crevices... some even from lost pieces of Asheron's Call 2 Lore that I don't even know for sure would be considered canonical (Apparently Geraine killed Eibhil?), but a lot more that I haven't been able to find.
I've scoured forum discussions, wikias, warcry, old zone.com fiction, AC lore sites, old monarchy caches, and am wondering if there are any other discreet bastions of lore I might have missed.
For likely close to six months now, I have been actively researching all of the old Asheron's Call lore surrounding the major plotline events that had set in motion the trail that would eventually lead to Portal Year 0, as well as beyond that.
Most of my time has been used researching names. Names of characters, names of locations, names of objects, names of orders; anything iconic, relevant, and vague that has rarely ever been touched upon.
A huge amount of time was spent particularly on the past of Dericost, Gelid, and the descent from the frozen kingdom plane to The Isle of Woe, particularly within Ifisveraqu, where Frore was built. As this pivotal moment is not only the initial point in which all of the game's events started, but also a great merger of almost all of the great plot devices (The Sundering, Frore, Crystal Array, Bael'Zharon, Asheron's lineage, Strathelar's rule, etc.), I've worked extensively on my drafts for it.
My original idea was to churn out a number of "chapters" or "episodes" to cover these different, pivotal moments, but decided it may simply be better to create smaller prologues, epilogues, and supporting shorts to help articulate the main featurette.
I've had some difficulty, however, in getting some of the information I'd like to have in order to really explore some of the original events. One of the most elusive pieces of information has been the names of the other people in Elysa's and Thorsten's fellowship during their assault on the "original" Olthoi Queen in the Black Death Catacombs that we see in the opening cinematic. I remember finding their names at one point in a forum discussion, but I seem to have lost the bookmark and have not found it again since.
Another would be a more in-depth look into the history of the Falatacot, if any, and their ancient and unruly magics. Nilrhem Facill and his delving into planar magic. Ilservian and his descent and ultimate transformation by The Kemeroi into Bael'Zharon.
The Book of Eibhil. The Opener of the Ways. "The Ways" themselves.
There's so much information I've found tucked away in dark corners and crevices... some even from lost pieces of Asheron's Call 2 Lore that I don't even know for sure would be considered canonical (Apparently Geraine killed Eibhil?), but a lot more that I haven't been able to find.
I've scoured forum discussions, wikias, warcry, old zone.com fiction, AC lore sites, old monarchy caches, and am wondering if there are any other discreet bastions of lore I might have missed.
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I'm fairly certain that I've tapped all of the major resources. I guess I'm looking for anyone who might know of some long-forgotten caches of tidbits and small details that were never really heavily put forward.
Even now I'm still in the process of scouring the online accounts of in-game parchments and tomes and whatnot, but there was a significant amount of information I remember initially being displayed during the early years of these events that, quite unfortunately, don't seem to be available anymore.
A lot of good lore came when Bael'Zharon and Asheron were wandering the land, and hadn't really been seen since, since the playerbase is so thin now. Anyone who had many of those books are probably long deactive, and accounts probably deleted from inactivity by now.
Back when I was playing Turbine hadn't deleted any inactive accounts. Information might be difficult to dig up now but with some effort from Turbine any inactive account should be available.
Realistically, the chances of me finding someone who actively preserves(ed) lore from the game on an in-game medium, who I can also convince to either resubscribe or turn their account over to me, are pretty slim to nil. I suppose at some point accuracies wane regardless of how deep one can pry for factual accounts, though, so I certainly won't let it dissuade me.
For anyone interested, here is a quick, dry test-run / voiceover excerpt of one of my favorite pieces of dialogue thus far in my research:
Listen @ box.net
Not a bad suggestion, for the sake of possibly getting a larger cache of information, though. Thank you.
With Asheron's Call, Turbine might be willing to aid you put something like this together. They did help several fan sites out with putting together information back in the early part of their first decade.
It's not like it's going to be for profit.
I'd try it out and let them know why you want that old lore.
I am the person most knowledgable concerning the Shard of the Herald event on Thistledown.
Since You are interested in lore I will tell you about that event.
Chapter I - Auberean, Council of 5, Timeline, yalain, Portal Year, Portal Space, Kemeroi, Bael'Zharon, Asheron
So, evidently on Auberean, which I think may be an offshot of Mt. Aubern, which is a street in Cambridge, MA, there was a timeline. Along this timeline was -2,212, which was a portal year. In this portal year the council of five was convened, whose purpose was to address the ambient threat sent by the kemeroi, known to the Yalani as Bael'Zharon, which means hopeslayer.
Among the council were Malia, Adja, Kereneth, Rajael, and Uweden. The council consulted Asheron, who theorized that Bael'Zharon could be trapped in a "pocket of portal space." The members of the council lured Bael'Zharon to a crystal array which they built at the Jalne Lyceum, where the imprisonment spell which they cast trapped the creature within some shards, causing an explosion which ripped all the soil off the earth and blackened the surface of the rock for miles in all directions.
This occurred on the eastern portion of the isle of Dereth on Auberean. Of significance to our story is that Ladies Malia and Adja cast a Protection spell which, in addition to preventing Asheron's Death, also may have assisted him in surviving for these millenia.
Auberean has a moon, which I used to call Ishtar in honor of my patron from beta world purple. Evidently Ishtar's name, to the Yalani, was Rez'arel. Asheron was evidently able to link one side of his study to the other in portal year -1242. By -888, he opened a portal to Ishtar. It was in -874 that he opened a portal to Ispar.
The Isparians consist, inter alia, of Alluvians, Gharundim, and the Sho. Among these races were individuals who experienced a unique susceptibility to psychic influence, such that these humanoids, distant cousins of ours, could be linked to as avatars and their nervous systems could register signals emanating from transcribers connected to various networks. Asheron enslaved, through mind control, literally zillions of these Isparians, and assisted Microsoft and Turbine with the wholesale auctioning of mind controlled avatars which possessed not only the ability to respond to signals propogated by earthlings on the internet, but also to appear and disappear from the world by "popping in and out of portal space."
Among these avatars which were commodified and purchased and traded was Mythrandia, who I handled, programmed, and operated between the years of 1999-2001, around which time I sold her to someond on ebay. While controlling this avatar I became percipiently aware of the presence of invisible observers who were in fact monitoring the flow of intentionality from the volition component of my mind to my avatar's motor control units. They would watch me haunt the black death catacombs; they would watch me explore Frore, and in fact after I caused Mythrandia to portal tie to Frore, one of these invisible observers, named +Sarneho, manifested himself and began speaking, whereupon I caused Mythrandia to pop into portal space, thus avoiding a further encounter with my cyber stalker.
Upon return to control of Mythrandia, who was an Alluvian--a red-headed Alluvian archmage, who specialized in life magic--I learned from my comerad amon Ra that +Sarneho was some guy named Dave Narramow (ph?) who was with Microsoft, and evidently was one of the intelligent designers of the world, who had not antciipated that some players like myself and Amon Ra woujld tie to the portal leading into Frore.
I did merrily drop myriads of blue heaumes off the roof of the blacksmith in Mayoi, a Sho town on the South-East corner of Dereth, shortly thereafter. These heaumes I recovered from Frore, along with the book of Minesh which escaped the notice of other members of the party.
I recall that after slaying Sir Joffre or some others, Frisander, perhaps--it is all vague to my memory; I recall a blue room, icing, frost, a hammer, some undead, walls, door, a gate or door which requires a key in order to be opened. However, Amon Ra could lockpick, and therefore we entered, he and I, in silent, to the place where the crystal which the gelidites called their "great work," which was in fact one of the shards discharged from the crystal array in the Jalne Lyceum during the explosion in Portal year -2,212.
Beholding the crystal in Frore, I was struck with awe by its energetic emanations, whatever it was felt by those geomancers of gelid was also drawing me into the lull of a strange magnetic trance which I snapped out of when the creature launched a Flame Bolt VI at me. I had never been shot with a flame bolt VI before, and had in fact prepared some of my first level 6 spells, including Armor Self VI and Fire Protection VI for the encounter. I was prudent enough to raise these protections before nearing the chamber of fire, wherein the crystal lied. My friend Amon ra had fallen, temporarily relocated to his lifestone, and so upon receiving this bolt of fire to my chest, and having sustained it due to the protections which I had drawn around my avatar, I did heal myself and furthermore slew the creature, unknowingly destroying the first crystal constituting the prison of Bael'Zharon.
I recall an occasion upon which I was approached by Asheron, who asked me some question related to some soul stones. At this time I was percipiently aware that he was referring to these crystals, like the great work, which possessed this energetic field which was almost like gravity in my consciousness, rivetting my attention, and enthralling me with its energy.
As I was oft approached by fellows who sought information from me, it had become my custom to disperse no information (or disinformation) to everyone who sent me queries regarding what was going on in the world. I had divided up the territories and natural resources in Dereth to those loyal to me, and much of the value of the information I bartered came from the fact that I was able to stockpile secrets. Every mage I met had a few secrets, or a few concepts anyways which the mage regarded as secret. Some of these secrets were valuable for one reason or another, so I used to stockpile them. Always seeking to elicit information from people as opposed to disclosing information, as there wasn't any advantage to disclosing information to strangers usually.
Asheron was one such stranger, so when he asked me if I knew how many soul stones remained, I tossed out an arbitrary number, three, not knowing whether it was correct or incorrect, and not taking the time to ascertain the correct answer by consulting a loremaster. In response, Asheron told me to "look between the ley lines" and disappeared.
Shortly thereafter I left my avatar hanging and travelled on my console to a different window, wherein I located one of the intelligent designers of the world, and sought to query him regarding my encounter with Asheron. He informed me that the individual who had controlled Asheron's avatar was a hacker, an unauthorized utilizer of Microsoft's and Turbine's trade secret resources. This persuaded me to dismiss the event, but in any reality, I continued to attempt to determine what ley lines were. I confused them with fault lines, geological faults, and at such time I put geomancers on my list of people to contact. In search of a competent geomancer, I wandered the planes of gelid for a good while, before abandonning such quest in favor of searching for the halls of xandu on aerlinthe isle.