Asteffiel | Guild Wars 2 | History
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innercactusWorld breakdown:
Asteffiel is an original character whose story takes place within the world of the Guild Wars series, specifically the timeline taking place within Guild Wars 2. He hails from the continent of Central Tyria, which shares a name with the entire world and is one of three major contents of the world.
Tyria (the world) is a world that straddles a strange line between medieval, industrial, and advanced technology thanks to the varying degrees of advancements from the wide range of races that inhabit it. The five "main races" specifically, have played huge roles in the history of the world, both in the rises and falls of different civilizations. Magic and technology live side by side, though not always in harmony, but a greater threat looms over all of Tyria - that of the Elder Dragons. All must come together to defend the land of Tyria, though not all want peace, and it's up to those with the hero's spirit amongst the human, Norn, Charr, Sylvari, and Asura races to put an end to the dangers that threaten innocent lives.
For further information about the canonical facts of Tyria and the Guild Wars universe, please refer to the wiki.
Asteffiel's story is a variation of the linear Personal Story, Living Seasons, and Expansions that all Guild Wars created characters follow. Details will be different, as Asteffiel does not take the role of Pact Commander. His story also starts far later, in 1327 AE.
Asteffiel misses all events of Personal Story, the slaying of Zhaitan, and the events of Scarlet Briar in Living Story Season 1 and most of Season 2. As a Sylvari, he has vague knowledge of these events, particularly things another Sylvari was witness to.
>Living World Season 2: The Dragon's Reach: Part 2
Mordremoth has the Shadow of the Dragon assault the Pale Tree during the summit. Asteffiel and his twin, Viliandre, are two Sylvari who awaken the month after. Sylvari emerge fully grown from giant fruit pods from the Pale Tree, and while this was in the aftermath of her being assaulted by the Shadow of the Dragon, Sylvari continued to wake. Asteffiel felt an odd kinship with one of the other pods, and refused to be drawn away from the pods until night had fallen and Viliandre's pod opened. While to many other races they might not be truly twins, they Woke on the same day, it's good enough for them.
The fragments of the dream that clung to him after he woke from his pod were of a great deal of animals and plants. His talent for Necromancy was noticed as he began shadowing Menders and Gardeners, as the Menders tended to Sylvari and their sylvan hounds, and Gardeners their plant-structures, and what else would fulfill the plants from his dream?
Asteffiel spends the time between waking and Heart of Thorns either in the Grove or in the nearby Celadon Forest. He eventually meets a wandering Sylvari warrior named Saffron Larkspur and befriends him.
In the pair's explorations, they were approached by a Nightmare Courtier – a member of the faction of Sylvari who believe that holding to a Centaur Tablet's teachings was curbing the natural Sylvari nature, and that Sylvari should explore the world without any outsider morals tainting their unique Sylvari-ness. They saw nothing wrong with this and joined the Court.
Unfortunately, the Nightmare Court believes that the best way to do this, to counterbalance the "light" of the dream, is to be as terrible, violent, and cruel as they can to just about anything. Both balked a little when they realized this, but leaving the Court once inside is extremely difficult. And even more unfortunately, the Sylvari have minor empathy with each other – connected as they are through the Dream, or in this case, The Nightmare. Saffron grew more and more uncomfortable within the court, while Asteffiel started sliding closer to losing himself.
Fortunately, Saffron found another Sylvari who was trying to leave the court, and with the help of the three sisters, they escaped. The damage had been done to Asteffiel, however, and so he needed a new focus than Court activities, thus he took up further gardening and plant-growth interests.
Fortunately for almost everyone involved, by the time the Elder Dragon Mordremoth Called to the Sylvari – using the connection of the Dream to speak to all of them, as it turns out that the Pale Tree was supposed to have been part of his dragon minions - Asteffiel's singular focus and stubborn refusal were enough to keep him safe from Mordremoth's Call. Unfortunately, the same could not have been said of many of the Sylvari in the Pact Fleet on their way to fight the dragon.
The sisters and Saffron kept to themselves as many other Tyrians turned on Sylvari for being the minions of a dragon and falling to its will. More or less – one had become engaged to a human by the name of Rurik Ackermann, and the isolation and meditation to keep the dragon out wore on her. Eventually, she ran to find him, and fell to the Dragon's Call, attacking random innocent people. Asteffiel was late to catch up with her and missed her dying.
A much brighter note was that his twin was there. They managed to meet up after their first month of life together, and she went back to the Grove with him.
>Heart of Thorns
When Ana and Rurik gathered people to go into the jungle to try to help the Pact recover, Asteffiel and his twin answered. It was a little awkward and nerve wracking to go, as the Call of Mordremoth was louder the closer they were to him.
While Asteffiel recalls events and battles and deaths in the jungle, it's all under a haze of the pressure of Mordremoth trying to find his way in, whispering or shouting in his ear, appearing in the corners of his vision and blatantly in the air. Eir, one of Caithe's guild members, slain by a Mordrem Vinetooth. The egg the twins had been gifted by the Zephyrites. Faolain, one of the Firstborn, dying and her body repurposed into a Mordrem Vinetooth to hunt Caithe. A city of gold, filled with floating gold and energy people, who claimed they had been here for the Egg to arrive with the party. That city, Tarir, he remembers the most - a particularly bad Call had them deciding to split the party, and the sylvari twins stayed in Tarir to help fortify it, rest from the strain of the jungle and Mordremoth's constant attempts to turn them, and set up a base of sorts, while the Ackermanns and their other friends pressed on. During his time helping Tarir, Asteffiel figured out the specialization of Reaper, trading his twin daggers for a greatsword.
Eventually word got back to Asteffiel and Viliandre that Ana and Rurik had found other Pact survivors, and that Zojja, Logain, and Trahearne had last been seen alive, just carried off by Mordrem further into the jungle. The voice of Mordremoth got worse and worse, more and more Mordrem trying to stop them, and while they rescued Zojja and Logain, Trahearne remained outside their grasp. Or, well, halfway corrupted by Mordremoth and in terrible pain.
Defeating what Faolain had become came with another realization - Mordremoth was the jungle, not just an Elder Dragon of ridiculous size and power who could still be brought low by a few heroes and an airship with cannons.
The answer was "the dragon of plant and mind, so if we can't kill the plant part, let's kill the mind". While they eventually succeeded, the fight was hard – not just because Mordremoth could and did bring out corrupted visions of allies Rytlock, Eir, and Tybalt Leftpaw to fight them, but because for a moment, Asteffiel saw his allies as enemies. Perhaps bringing Sylvari into the Mind wasn't a great idea, but before harm could be done they broke free.
The win against Mordremoth came at a steep cost. Trahearne was infected, a seed of Mordremoth planted within him, and only by killing the Firstborn could they truly be sure that Mordremoth would not come back. Asteffiel couldn't bear to watch as his firstborn Hero go, and Rurik and Ana took that burden.
>Living Season 3
While Tyria was spared, Asteffiel spent the next month or so heart broken. He didn't leave his home in the Grove but to take care of his plants until Ana stopped by, asking if he would like to visit Taimi in Rata Novus. While there, Canach - a sylvari who went through the Jungle to Mordremoth with them - came to get help. He worked for Countess Anise, although worked for was a little more 'she had him doing work for her so he didn't just sit in jail.', and a prisoner had escaped - Minister Caudecus, who was most likely a White Mantle member. Canach was to find him.
Maybe doing things would make him feel less like crying all the time, and so Asteffiel went with them to hear the details in Divinity's Reach. Except while they were on the airship back, over Bloodstone Fen, there was a massive, terrifyingly bright explosion from below. Even weirder still, is that the explosion inverted, absorbing backwards rather than continue expanding.
The ship was damaged, so they were force to go to ground - which was in a truly unfortunate state from all the energy unleashed. The White Mantle - a faction of humans who believed that they were the rightful rulers of Kryta, having once ruled it years and years ago with the help of an ancient race of terrifying spellcasters - was active. And they were most likely the responsible for the whole mess, given the shards of Bloodstone here and there, and the fact many of them were bloodstone crazed. Exploring the partially destroyed area had them finding the source - and the shadows of instant evaporated from the blast White Mantle - and were able to recreate a miniature version of it with the aid of Caithe. Someone had absorbed the explosion, and shortly after, a Shining Blade announced that they had spotted Caudecus.
The minister was in a colosseum, which was floating due to the bloodstone explosion, and declaring himself the new leader of The White Mantle and that he intended to claim the throne of Kryta. What should have been capture or kill Caudecus turned into a mess, as a being named Lazarus appeared. Lazarus was the name of one of the original Mursaat who lead the White Mantle, and he claimed Caudecus as a heretic and lit many of the minister's zealots on fire. Caudecus fled before he could be captured, leaving behind the Mursaat.
And with all the magic released - from the Bloodstone exploding, from the death of Mordremoth - things just got worse. Two more Elder Dragons - Primordus and Jormag - also woke, and some asura researchers in the Ring of Fire islands found that Primordus's minions were being affected by Mordremoth's energy, becoming "Vine-touched" and stronger than before. Even worse, there was traces of Zhaitan's energy as well. Rytlock had to return to the black citadel, and taimi couldn't go far without her golem, and while Asteffiel really didn't like the idea of a place called Ember Bay, he followed the Ackermanns.
It was exactly as he hated, full of fire and lava and destroyers. There was another stone dwarf here - Rhoban Orestriker - who told them how to turn on the four dwarven devices to keep the island from exploding in a particularly violent volcanic eruption. Which would keep the small population alive, as well as their data on the dragon.
Once the devices were on, Ana and Rurik received a vision of the egg they had left in Tarir, and jumping at the chance to get off the volcano, Asteffiel followed them back to the Jungle. They were in time to witness the hatching of the crystal dragon from the egg, and to stand in the way of a swarm of vine touched destroyers out to kill the hatchling. Lazarus made a reappearance, offering his assistance, and as dubious as it was, they did kinda need the help at the moment.
Once the fight was over, Lazarus repeated his desire to protect the dragon hatchling, stating he had learned from when he was sealed and banished ages ago, and wanted to turn the tide against the Elder Dragons as Ana and her friends did. Skeptical, they vaguely accepted the wasn't an outright enemy, but they still set up other guards - Marjory to shadow him and see what he was really up to, and Caithe to guard Aurene - the instant name from Ana for the hatchling.
Rather than return to Ember Bay or follow Ana or her brother while they went on a Shadowstone fetch quest, Asteffiel took a break to do what he loved most - grow some plants. There was an odd seed he had picked up in Dry Top when the Pact was looking for ways into the Jungle after the Pact Fleet fell. This sent him all over Tyria as well, but for things like making a pot infused with leyline and bloodstone energy, sacred glacial water from Frostgorge for the plant food. It promptly produced a seed, and while Ana and Rurik returned to Tarir to help Aurene align herself with humans, he stayed and ran around Tyria again for the second generation of plant. Ana and Rurik went to go find Braham in the Shiverpeaks, and Asteffiel's weird vine produced yet another seed, so he stayed behind for this third generation of plant raising and item fetching.
Perhaps just as well. Braham sets off to kill Jormag, despite personal risks involved, and splits a little from Ana and Rurik's friends. Queen Jennah summons the Ackermanns back to Divinity's Reach, aiming to use them to help find traitors within the ministers and heads of state. Hearing the twins were back in the moderate temperatures of Tyria, Asteffiel went to show off his newest plant, Mawdrey, and winds up there in time for the White Mantle in Lake Doric's attack. Jennah successfully defended her city with an impressive mesmer shield over the city, only for some of the said traitorous ministers to attack. They were deflected, and Logan sent Ana and Rurik off to investigate Lake Doric. Naturally, Asteffiel followed.
Bloodstone crazed White Mantle Cultists, Bloodstone Crazed Centaurs, a drained river and bloodstone shards everywhere awaited them in Lake Doric. Simply taking out the cultists and centaurs wouldn't stop the nonsense for long, so Ana and Rurik directed their energies to taking out Caudecus.
Caudecus' daughter had turned from her father's goals to become a Whisper's Agent, and she returned to help them against her father. Countess Anise and Canach also joined the now quartet as they followed Caudecus back to his manor and in through side door Demmi knew.
Unfortunately the blood ties meant nothing to Caudecus - he shot his daughter, none of their healing abilities could help her, and fled to his basement. There they put an end to a bloodstone crazed, monster of a minister. Asteffiel stayed with a distraught Ana while Canach and Rurik explored the manor - discovering that Caudecus had sabotaged the ceremony, and that Lazarus couldn't be Lazarus.
Ana went off to recover from another death of a friend, and Viliandre went with her. Asteffiel went with Ruruk, back to Rata Novus and Taimi. There they worked on a solution to both Jormag and Primordius being awake, and gifted with the energies of other dragons. MArjory with "Lazarus" was still a concern, but one they and Kasmeer hoped to solve in the same lab as Taimi's research.
Kasmeer had noted a mirror on "Lazarus" and believed it a source of mesmer magic to keep the true form of their imposter hidden. Asteffiel helped them place other mirrors about the lab, which they could use ti dispel the magic. "Lazarus" arrived on time, trapping everyone within the lab not long after Marjory escaped and come through herself.
Kasmeer's trap worked - the other mirrors placed removed the illusion from "Lazarus", and revealed Balthazar, the human god of Fire and War. Baltazar dropped all his pretences then, badly injuring Marjory. Balthazar unleashed mercenaries and quite a lot of fire, and in the resulting chaos, stole Taimi's device. Thankfully, none other than the mercenaries died this time.
Taimi had a tracker on her device, and it lead the remainder of their group to Draconis Mons. An Active volcano, hot enough that none other than Balthazar could enter unprotected without incineration. They contacted the Druidic spirits still on the island, who offered assistance in going after the god for freeing the other spirits. During this, Taimi finished some research - while kiling the elder dragons was the best cause and necesarry at the time, it's also causing more problems than it was solving. Doing so was definitely giving power to the other Elder Dragons, but further elder dragon murder would result in destabilizing the balance of magic within Tyria. Despite this, she was reluctant to destroy her dragon device, believing she could still find other solutions with it.
Securing the Druid Spirit's Blessing, they came across the god deep. deep within the Volcano, already blasting Jormag energy at Primodus, as the two Elder Dragon's energies could cancel each other out according to Taimi's research. Rurik and Ana tried to bait Balthazar into fighting them, but they got his hellhounds instead. While Taimi was still reluctant to destroy her device, using it was going to be the only way they got out of this alive.
Balthazar attempted to turn the tides in the fight one final time, stealing energy from the device just as it exploded, but vanished again. The explosion also launched them out of the volcano, which made the question of how to get out a lot easier. Both Primordus and Jormag went dormant once more, and for a moment, at least, that was that.
While Asteffiel shook of the nerves of being inside a volcano and all the heat that involves, Rurik went off and joined the Shining Blade - those devoted to stopping the White Mantle. Rurik would tell them later that further exploration of Orr allowed him to properly raise and defeat Lazarus, and find the next clue. Balthazar had went to the Crystal Desert to face Kralkatorrik, the elder dragon of crystal and fury, and claim his power for his own.
>Path of Fire
Balthazar's flight to the Crystal Desert had two major effects on the world - first, refugees from those who fled him. Second, Elona began communications for the first time in hundreds of years. The nation had been cut off from most of central tyria thanks in part to Zhaitan's Risen forces, Kralkatorrik heading there and Branding some trade routes, and the decisions of Pawala Joko, the undead Lich King of Elona. Balthazar needed to be stopped quickly, so they could aid the nation better.
Asteffiel had no prior alliances, so he was able to be ready to go with Ellen Kiel's ship of Rurik and several of their other friends (Norns, Skadi Drottdottir, Lavina Pheonixwing, and Maeryn Drottson, as well as Asteffiel's twin, Viliandre), and was pleasantly surprised when Ana ditched the Pact and raced aboard at the last second. Their arrival was marked with smoke rising from pyramids, and so they disembarked and found Forged - Balthazar's version of minions - attacking the villagers inside. Taking out the troops had Balthazar's Herald reveal herself and she gave them an offer - Balthazar would forgive them for interfering with Jormag and Primordius if they joined him in destroying Kralkatorrik. The answer was an obvious no, and the herald attacked the surviving villagers in rage.
Asteffiel and Viliandre, as well as the Norn Trio, stayed behind to tend to the villagers while Rurik and Ana chased the Herald. Ana and Rurik lost the herald in saving the next village they came across, and the group rejoined in the Free City of Amnoon, guiding refugees there.
Kasmeer and Rytlock arrived shortly after they found the city, Kasmeer vouching for them as she was named a diplomat for Kryta. Kasmeer did, however, still have concerns and a deep fear of confronting a god she grew up worshipping as a distant but seemingly benevolent entity, but also knew that her failure to protect Marjory was only going to weigh on her heavily if she sat back and did nothing.
Inside the city, they spoke with Captain Rahim, and were given three locations and specific people to speak with. Asteffiel, Viliandre, and the Norns went to talk to a deputy at a refugee camp, while Rurik went to the City's Chief Councilor, and Ana the seedy but reliable casino owner. The information gathered taught them much about Balthazar's movements, his attacks on many camps and villagers and where he might head nexxt. On top of the fire god's movements, they learned of Vlast - Glint's first son and the scion before Aurene was born - and that he was still in the desert. While he had not taken up the responsibilities that Glint had intended for him, he was still a protector rather than a destroyer, and had recently seen swooping in to rescue people from the Forged.
This also meant that Balthazar had changed his target, hunting down Vlast rather than Kralkatorrik.
For more information, the group went to attack Forged camps, and while they did cripple the forces, they found very little in the way of plans. They moved on to the Temple of Kormir to meet up with Kasmeer. Ana was contacted by a man who said he was of the Order of Shadows, but they didn't have long to talk as the Herald arrived once more and attacked. They were successful in driving the herald off again, but the refugees who had sought shelter in the temple had been caught up in the attack, and they stayed to aid rather than chase her down.
Kito reappeared, explaining that the order of shadows was an offshoot of the order of whispers centuries ago. He believed that they had the same goal, and told them if they wanted to begin tracking the Herald in earnest, they should go to Makali Outpost. Arriving found that, guess what, the forged were attacking here as well. However this time also had golden Brand-like markings, indicating that Vlast was also in the area and picking a fight with something powerful. They forced the Forged back, then followed Vlast's markings to the top of a plateau, where the Herald and Balthazar had the dragon cornered.
The Herald picked a fight with them once more, asking again if they would take Balthazar's offer. Once more they refused, and the Herald information about her unwilling transformation - that she had resisted but failed due to the pain inflicted on her. They managed to defeat her this time, rather than her escaping, and she came to her senses long enough to beg Ana to put an end to the rampaging god. Ana swore to, and they took off after Balthazar. They found him with Vlast, who was chained and wounded, and the god stated he would spare Rytlock, calling him "friend". While everyone was stunned by this, he attacked hard and fast, but Vlast ripped free of his chains in time to protect them from the final blow. Vlast exploded into crystal, the shards of which wounded Balthazar enough to make him flee once more.
Rurik confronted Rytlock angrily, demanding to know why Balthazar had called him friend. Rytlock explained that during his time in the Mists chasing Sohothin, he located the sword but the flames had gone out. An old man in chains offered to ignite the sword for him, and Rytlock agreed, didn't ask for a name, and left the Mists without realizing the flames were from the shunned human god Balthazar. He swore to them he would make right his mistake, and follow them for however long it took to take the god down.
Vlast's voice spoke from one of the remaining crystals, informing the group that a secret weapon held some of his power in Glint's Lair. Kasmeer recognized the crystals as being similar to Memory Crystals, and indicated they could get more information by collecting more shards. Ana and Rurik went to search for more crystals, while Asteffiel and the others went straight to Glint's lair.
When Ana and Rurik rejoined them, it came with the discovery the newest Crystals they came across were not of Vlast, but of Glint. Glint's crystals gave further insight into her - she was once Champion to Kralkatorrik, she hoped highly of peace, that the other races could band together to deal with the elder dragons and the damage they caused, how the Forgotten freed her of Kralkatorrik's influence, how she fretted over the burdens Vlast and her other children may eventually face. They found the actual entrance to the lair, and a Dragonsblood Spear - the very spear Rytlock had tried and failed to kill Kralkatorrik with during his time with Destiny's Edge. The Guild had been Rytlock, Logain, Caithe, Snaff, Eir, and Zojja, and the failure to kill Kralkatorrik then had taken Snaff's life..
A final crystal revealed that in Glit's last moments she had been unable to see beyond the battle to come, a sign she knew she was not going to survive. She also hinted that the Gods may know more about what is to come than she. the memories didn't make it clear whether she knew the consequences of killing an elder dragon, as the group had learned of via Taimi's research. It took some discussion, but the group decided that it was best to destroy the Dragonblood spear, rather than risk Balthazar getting his hands on it. The downside of this was that it was the only known weapon that could damage Kralkatorrik, they had no idea how to make more, but it still was better than risking the god getting his hands on it.
Following the spear's destruction, Rytlock told them a little more of his adventures in the Mists near the destroyed golem Snaff had once used. Glint had still been in the mists, and she had awoken his Revenant powers, and this whole thing with Balthazar left him feeling like he'd failed all of them - his old guild, his current one, Glint.
With some rest came new ideas on how to move forward. Glint had hinted the gods knew more, and so Kasmeer suggested that they go to the other gods for information, starting with Kormir. Kormir was the most recently ascended, having been mortal some two hundred years ago and gave her life to stop the rampaging Abaddon, and fully ascended to godhood off of that. Kasmeer herself was blessed by Kormir as Rurik had once been blessed by Balthazar, and she believed that Kormir's recent ascension might mean she was more willing to help or sympathize with humans.
They traveled to the Tomb of the Primeval Kings, where a direct portal to the Mists was said to be guarded by the spirits of the past dynasty. Naturally, guarded meant difficulty in getting to it, but after fighting said Kings, promising to respect the tomb and spirits within, they were granted passage.
Of course, not that easy. Once inside, they were separated by a sandstorm and absolutely desolate landscape. It didn't take too long to regroup, but the complex puzzle did take a bit. Puzzle solved, they were able to go through another portal, into a vast, near unending library. Where the five remaining gods should have been, there was only Kormir.
Kormir informed them that the other gods had already left Tyria, wanting to avoid an all out war with the elder dragons. Balthazar had been shunned for refusing to go along with this plan, resulting in the chained, near powerless old man Rytlock had met and unwittingly released in the Mists. The path of terror he was carving through Tyria was so that he could kill and take the power of Kralkatorrik, and use that power to take revenge on the other gods for their actions against him.
Kormir was the last god remaining, the others long gone, and she was about to join them. They could not and would not help the races of Tyria against Balthazar, not even their favored race of humans
Kasmeer was absolutely beside herself with this news, her very world view utterly shattered, but instead of breaking the young woman, it gave her resolve to take matters into her own hands. The time for prayer was done - the fate of the world was up to them and they had to face this head on.never mind that it was all caused by the gods, and the said gods were abandoning them to it, but that's fine, right?
Using what little advice Kormir had given them, the group split to search the remaining desert for clues. Asteffiel didn't really find any, but he found another charming plant race called Choya, and that those outside of this cliff-side village were aggressive because the choya kicked any aggressive ones out.
Ana gave them a short hand summary of what she learned in her urgent summons - Balthazar and Pawala Joko could corrupt Exalted, Glint knew the problems of simply destroying the Elder Dragons, she had intended to replace them with benevolent Dragons - say, Vlast and Aurene - and that would maintain balance. And the blood of Kralkatorrik was what was needed to hurt Kralkatorrik, and this blood flowed through both Vlast and Aurene. Which, by this point, was only Aurene, so they had to get to Maguuma fast.
Except the airship pick up point, the Pillars of Supremacy in the Elon Riverlands, only had Balthazar atop it when they regrouped and climbed. Even with numbers on their side, the god overpowered them.
Aurene, having sensed the danger they were in, had escaped from Tarir and flown to their rescue. Only to be captured and chained as her brother had been by Balthazar. This, and the god gloating that his plan was working perfectly, was the last thing Asteffiel or any of the others saw before Balthazar finally struck a killing blow.And then the world burned.
Ana woke in the Domain of the Lost, and Asteffiel got his necromancer's wish of being able to haunt his friend rather than abandon her after he died. Granted, they were all dead, Ana had forgotten her life, and he was an orb of white light rather than any spectre or recognizable ghostly shape. Ana was given a quest by the Judge, a servant of the departed god Grenth, and over the course of it recalled her life, her goals. Ana returned with her glowing entourage of fallen friends to the Judge, who did not have the power to return her to life. The Judge offered that defeating the Eater of Souls would most likely be enough to return them to life, as it had been eating souls after Balthazar betrayed Joko and locked the lich here. Of course, failure to defeat the Eater would mean all their souls lost - no returning home, no moving on, no passage to the Mists.
They took up the challenge and defeated the creature, opening a portal back to home - and life. Joko swore they would need his help to defeat Balthazar, but they all refused the lich, Ana going as far to say "We will need your army, but not you."
Dragon's Watch and Ellen's Airship crew had arrived sometime after Balthazar's attack, and were gathered to mourn their friends, except then they got up again. Although they all gained faint scars from their deaths, no other signs of Balthazar's success remained - they were otherwise healthy. Ana revealed her plan from the Domain of the Lost - Disguise themselves, gain access to Joko's army, and use their sheer numbers and power to go after Balthazar.
Kito assisted them in finding the best disguise to take control of the army - that of Archon Iberu, who could control the armies in Joko's obvious absence. They lured Iberu out of the Bone Palace, took him out, and used Kasmeer's illusions to enter the Palace, and command the Awakened army to prepare for war against Balthazar. From there they collected more information on the remaining Warmarshals needed for the attack, sending word out to gather at Kodash Bazaar in the Branded area of the Domain of Vabbi.
They took up their disguises once more, leading their borrowed Awakened army to Balthazar atop the bazaar. Rytlock gave the flaming sohothin to Rurik, stating they would be a distraction to the god, and that Balthazar wouldn't expect Rurik to have the weapon, and surprise was likely the best way to get the killing blow in. They fought against waves upon waves of Forged, until Balthazar's Warbeast arrived with Aurene. They had to fight and chase their way after it, eventually arriving to the roof of the Bazaar where the Warbeast was taking aim at Kralkatorrik - as the elder dragon had been circling the area as the fighting began.
They destroyed the warbeast and freed Aurene, turning their sights on Balthazar. With Sohothin, Aurene, and an not insignificant shock to the god upon realizing they were alive, they defeated him, Rurik ending the fight with the killing blow. The death of Balthazar resulted in an explosion of magic, but most of it was absorbed by Kralkatorrik, and a little by Aurene. The elder dragon flew off with Aurene hot on his tail. leaving the two groups to come together again, at least one of their troubles was dealt with.
They all regrouped in Amnoon, Taimi and Marjory coming to join them as a celebration was held. There was still the issue of Kralkatorrik being further empowered by the former god's energy, and they naturally had to discuss what was going to come next, but Ana also saw the need to make an announcement of her own.
The Ackermann twins were going to start their own guild called the Blade Coalition, after the Shining Blade and their parent's legacy. She reassured everyone that this didn't mean the end of their friendships or working together, and promised Rytlock that Blade and Dragon's Watch would be allies until the bitter end. There was still a lot of work to do, and the twins figured there was not only power in numbers but far more reach if they could create a guild with a wide range of specialties and skills. Asteffiel was quite happy to follow them in this.
As they were discussing these plans, however, the ground began to shake and tremble violently, disrupting the party and sending screams of terror through Amnoon. Kralkatorrik had returned and was blasting Brand across the whole area. Aurene had a growth spurt and protected them with her own Brand, but the now adolescent dragon flew off rather than stick around.
>Living World Season 4
Asteffiel, with his interest in joining Ana and Rurik's fledgling guild, and his previous association with their Awakened Army Stealing Antics, began touring small villages out of the way. They were in one such location, Asteffiel mostly inspecting the plants than the local problems, when a Brand storm erupted. Aurene landed shortly after they cleared it and gave them a vision of a faraway city and Awakened soldiers.
Kito recognized it as Fahranur, the First City located in Istan, and so they had their next destination.
Istan turned out to require an annoying amount of running around to gain access to Fahranur. The astralarium was only so much help, despite being one of the last bastions of non-Joko tainted literature and kept history. Corsairs were bargained with, and an entire plan hatched between them, the Corsairs and the Order of Shadows. Except it went belly up after the Corsairs started before the Order of Shadows arrived, resulting in Rurik, Ana, and Asteffiel being arrested and tossed into a cell.
During their imprisonment and separation from Dragon's watch and their communicator, Taimi had been taken by Joko, the lich king having returned sometime between their resurrection and their current imprisonment. Their arrest ended up being helpful, as it granted them access to what they needed to get into Fahranur. Once more they met up with Rytlock and Canach, went through to the trap-riddled First City, and were forced to watch in horror as a massive number of Asura Inquest corpses were reanimated before them. A tough fight followed, Canach nearly killing the lot of them when his explosives nearly caused an avalanche, but Braham and Rox appeared at the last moment and protected them with his shield.
They got further inside and reached the Inquest lab where Joko was holding Taimi, and were forced to fight her hijacked golem before it took all the air out of the cockpit and killed her. It was close, but Taimi was rescued from both Joko and her golem.
Joko's interest in Farhanur started to become even more clear as portals began ripping open in Central Tyria, Awakened attacks starting as Joko began to remind the world he was still alive, a present threat, and wreak havoc on as many human settlements as he could. Kito had leads for them, but given the scale of the issue, Blade split into two forces - Rurik with Viliandre, Maeryn and Lavi, and Ana with Asteffiel and Skadi. Rurik's team went to the Inquest base in the Desert Highlands, and Ana's went back to central Tyria.
They worked with an Asura Peacemaker to fashion a device that would detect and even predict when Joko's portals were being opened, giving them a leg up on Joko's attempted invasion. The lich king was fairly relentless, and it was a while before they were able to return to Elona and reunite once more with Dragon's watch, but due to their splitting up, it was slowed on both sides. Rurik's team had closed several of the portals from the other end.
However Joko didn't stop there - they had stopped one threat, and Joko presented them with another: A Scarab Plague. It was one that would primarily target humans, but also decimate crops and thus the livelihoods of Elona. While they started research on the potential damage it could deal, and how to combat it, Taimi suggested that they ask history - return to the Tomb of Primeval Kings and ask how they had lived through it. They didn't have much information, but upon learning that Joko had the plague back in his possession, they agreed to aid with a ghost army, adding to the already mounting forces that were getting ready to take Joko and his many dangers on.
Two asura who had once been friends of Taimi, and eventually rescued during Rurik's infiltration of the Inquest Base, Gorrik and Blish, set up a rift to get the forces into position. Following Canach's explosives blowing up the guard towers to the Moon Fortress where Joko was holing up, the forces charge in. Inside the Fortress, they stumbled across multiple corpses that looked exactly like Ana, Rurik, and several of their friends. Looking closer found them to be illusions, actual corpses disguised with mesmer powered signet rights, but still likely killed while they were illusioned.
A relief to find that Joko hadn't somehow figured out cloning, but still terrifying and nearly enough to set Ana over the edge. It took several minutes for her to calm down with her brother's help, and when they were finally able to move, they fell into a trap. The Ackermanns were forced to fight Joko while Braham was captured, and the rest outside the room. s cut off from Braham and the others and forced to face down Joko alone. Several traps, tricks and dirty tactics later they seemingly fell the lich only to have him rise once more, snagging them and Braham in a forcefield and holding them there was loudly and bombastically mocking the two young humans for all that they had been through to get to that point. He went on about how he had taken credit for so many of their victories in Elona, rewriting the history they were creating with no one to stop him due to the embargo and exclusion he had imposed over the country. He wondered aloud how he could be called a monster and they heroes when they were so stupid as to not only kill one dragon, but two and a god; that their actions were almost as if not more destructive than anything he had done and maybe the world would thank him for bringing their reckless behavior to an end.
And then he was eaten by Aurene.
Pawala Ignacious Joko, Lich, Undead Ruler, Unceremoniously and rather disgustingly rendered into dragon food.
Joko's words indirectly spurred Blade into full being - Ana was needled into feeling like she was doing too much and not enough at the same time, so rather than resting on the celebrations, she beseeched Karen, a friend who had taken up the help of her noble family, and her place in the Shining Blade, to help finance the start of the Coalition. Karen agreed, and so the Ackermanns went back to Elona to ask about the abandoned Guild Hall that someone in the Order of Shadows had mentioned. Gathering their friends up, they cleared the ruins and officially established The Blade Coalition, and its home base in the Domain of Vabbi.
Kralkatorrik was still causing problems in Elona, and they were quickly tapped to assist Dragon's Watch, and help with the movements of refugees to get away from the Brand safely. An Order of Shadows agent named Kossan was reunited with his ancestor turned lich, Koss, and through Koss given information on the former Sunspear sanctuary. With Braham they quickly cleared the area of massive spiders that had moved in, and gave the people in Jahai Bluffs a place to hide and recover from Kralkatorrik's attacks. They renamed the location Sun's Refuge, and made the place both livable and like a home for many people.
Kralkatorrik was still tearing across Tyria's skies, and with his newest trick, through the Mists as well, effectively able to vanish and reappear to wreck even more havoc. During their clearing of Sun's Refugee, a rift had opened and brought with it Eir and Snaff, who had a message for Aurene - Kralkatorrik had to be taken out. Now. And Aurene needed to take his place.
Aurene, however, had her own vision - or multiple visions - her facing kralkatorrik alone, with an army, in this location, in that location, but none of them ever ended differently. All ended with her dead, impaled by Brand and Kralkatorrik surviving to cause even more destruction and death. Fearful of her fate, Aurene fled, leaving the others to plan their next move without her.
Blish offered a solution of tracking Kralkatorrik, though it would take a journey to the Mists to do it. Ana and Rurik agreed to go with Blish together, using Balthazar's discarded sword and the fire from Sohothin as the bait the tracker was attached to. Despite the chaos of the Mists - Kralkatorrik's influence, ghosts and Glint's army combating waves and waves of Branded minions - they were able to lure Kralkatorrik.
However, when Ana and Rurik returned through a portal, it was without Blish. The golem-based asura had sacrificed his powersource to fuel the tracker, and had also told them to pass on a message to Taimi - stop keeping secrets from others. So one bad news followed another - Taimi's degenerative disease had relapsed. She didn't know how much time she had left, just that she wanted to do everything she could to make it count, including their current mission of dealing with the elder dragon.
Caithe arrived shortly after, and brought the collective group to Thunderhead Keep, to talk to Ogden about their future plans. Ana and Gorrik where still very much grieving, but they knew Blish would have wanted them to keep going forward. At the keep, they were instructed how to make more Dragonsblood Weapons, and Ana and Rurik went back to Glint's lair to complete further training with Aurene. Caithe waited two days, while the twins inside had no conscept of time during the training. They left with more knowledge as well - Ascension, how it involved Aurene, and that Glint once had a vision of a world without her master.
Once more, a mighty battle was raged, several armies against Kralkatorrik, but despite all that they couldn't change the vision Aurene had seen. They faced the dragon down, only for her to be impaled on the Brand as she had seen, and killed.
Wounded, shaken, absolutely beaten into the ground by Kralkatorrik's attack, they all limped back to the chamber where Aurene's corpse was frozen into place by the crystals. Asteffiel simply laid on the floor and wailed alongside Taimi, Ana unable to stop the tears rolling down her face, and even Logan there to mourn with them. Caithe decided that the final goodbye could be given by removing the crystals from Aurene, and as the first one left the dragon, she began glowing, and so the Zephyrites who had gathered joined in singing, weakening the brand further, and made breaking the crystals off easier.
Aurene returned, alive, breathing, speaking, as Dragons feed on magic, and Aurene had fed on a lich. All the magic that kept a lich going was now hers, and healing through a spear of crystal through her heart simply needed the crystal removed She spoke of Kralkatorrik's continued devouring of the Mists, and insisted on following, loading the twins up on her back and giving chase.
Blish's tracker still functioned, and so Asteffiel and the rest loaded up onto airships and tracked the potential exit point, approaching the area in time to see a rift open, and the dragon tumble through with fragments of the godrealm islands, crashing into the sea. The new island was dubbed Dragonfall, Kralkatorrik pinned under bits of land and an entire wing shorn off and forming another section of it.
Rurik, Ana, and Aurene landed as the ships found the safest places to disembark, and teams were dispatched through the island with Taimi and Gorrik at the helm of communications once more. Bases set up with various groups leading in various sections of God-Island, they did their best to quell the Brand that Kralkatorrik gave off himself. Kralkatorrik's wing gave them a ready supply of blood, and so they forged more Dragonsblood Spears for the Ackermanns, halting the dragon's healing from leyline energy, and taking the dead-body state as a way to enter the heart. Aurene still was only of a size to fit two, so the Ackermanns took the final fight to Kralkatorrik's heart.
Another Elder Dragon was killed, but this time another rose into it's place - Aurene Ascended, giving rise to the first of hopefully many benevolent Elder Dragons.
Ana and Rurik explained that Kralkatorrik was driven mad by all the magics he had absorbed, and other tidbits that had come from being in the dragon's heart before ending him, and they returned to the guildhall after to fully begin building the Blade Coalition. Asteffiel and Viliandre were among the first to move into the new hall, and immediately set up sprucing up the environment. Sure, the desert was not suited to being as green as The Grove they had grown up in, but there were still many plants that could grow there, and it was a little bit more of various homes they could bring in.
> Icebrood Saga Prologue: Chapter 1
Ana, Rurik, and several others of their guild were called to attend the celebration, a summit for the Charr legions and Metal Legion concert in Grothmar Valley following Kralkatorrik's defeat. Ana and Rurik left after the concert to return to the guildhall, leaving one of the norn guild members, Freja Rasmussen in charge of smoothing over ruffled fur that Aurene had caused with her sudden appearance.
Asteffiel stayed to keep Braham a little more company, to inspect the plants growing near the Aurene's version of a brand, but also left most of these charr relations things to Freya, returning to the guildhall with new little plants to see if he could add them to what was already growing.
Not long after, Dragon Bash started up again in Hoelbrak, and Asteffiel raced off to see how the festivities expanded with the newest dragon defeated, actually take part for once, and also to collect candy to snack on through the rest of the year.
Asteffiel is an original character whose story takes place within the world of the Guild Wars series, specifically the timeline taking place within Guild Wars 2. He hails from the continent of Central Tyria, which shares a name with the entire world and is one of three major contents of the world.
Tyria (the world) is a world that straddles a strange line between medieval, industrial, and advanced technology thanks to the varying degrees of advancements from the wide range of races that inhabit it. The five "main races" specifically, have played huge roles in the history of the world, both in the rises and falls of different civilizations. Magic and technology live side by side, though not always in harmony, but a greater threat looms over all of Tyria - that of the Elder Dragons. All must come together to defend the land of Tyria, though not all want peace, and it's up to those with the hero's spirit amongst the human, Norn, Charr, Sylvari, and Asura races to put an end to the dangers that threaten innocent lives.
For further information about the canonical facts of Tyria and the Guild Wars universe, please refer to the wiki.
Asteffiel's story is a variation of the linear Personal Story, Living Seasons, and Expansions that all Guild Wars created characters follow. Details will be different, as Asteffiel does not take the role of Pact Commander. His story also starts far later, in 1327 AE.
Asteffiel misses all events of Personal Story, the slaying of Zhaitan, and the events of Scarlet Briar in Living Story Season 1 and most of Season 2. As a Sylvari, he has vague knowledge of these events, particularly things another Sylvari was witness to.
>Living World Season 2: The Dragon's Reach: Part 2
Mordremoth has the Shadow of the Dragon assault the Pale Tree during the summit. Asteffiel and his twin, Viliandre, are two Sylvari who awaken the month after. Sylvari emerge fully grown from giant fruit pods from the Pale Tree, and while this was in the aftermath of her being assaulted by the Shadow of the Dragon, Sylvari continued to wake. Asteffiel felt an odd kinship with one of the other pods, and refused to be drawn away from the pods until night had fallen and Viliandre's pod opened. While to many other races they might not be truly twins, they Woke on the same day, it's good enough for them.
The fragments of the dream that clung to him after he woke from his pod were of a great deal of animals and plants. His talent for Necromancy was noticed as he began shadowing Menders and Gardeners, as the Menders tended to Sylvari and their sylvan hounds, and Gardeners their plant-structures, and what else would fulfill the plants from his dream?
Asteffiel spends the time between waking and Heart of Thorns either in the Grove or in the nearby Celadon Forest. He eventually meets a wandering Sylvari warrior named Saffron Larkspur and befriends him.
In the pair's explorations, they were approached by a Nightmare Courtier – a member of the faction of Sylvari who believe that holding to a Centaur Tablet's teachings was curbing the natural Sylvari nature, and that Sylvari should explore the world without any outsider morals tainting their unique Sylvari-ness. They saw nothing wrong with this and joined the Court.
Unfortunately, the Nightmare Court believes that the best way to do this, to counterbalance the "light" of the dream, is to be as terrible, violent, and cruel as they can to just about anything. Both balked a little when they realized this, but leaving the Court once inside is extremely difficult. And even more unfortunately, the Sylvari have minor empathy with each other – connected as they are through the Dream, or in this case, The Nightmare. Saffron grew more and more uncomfortable within the court, while Asteffiel started sliding closer to losing himself.
Fortunately, Saffron found another Sylvari who was trying to leave the court, and with the help of the three sisters, they escaped. The damage had been done to Asteffiel, however, and so he needed a new focus than Court activities, thus he took up further gardening and plant-growth interests.
Fortunately for almost everyone involved, by the time the Elder Dragon Mordremoth Called to the Sylvari – using the connection of the Dream to speak to all of them, as it turns out that the Pale Tree was supposed to have been part of his dragon minions - Asteffiel's singular focus and stubborn refusal were enough to keep him safe from Mordremoth's Call. Unfortunately, the same could not have been said of many of the Sylvari in the Pact Fleet on their way to fight the dragon.
The sisters and Saffron kept to themselves as many other Tyrians turned on Sylvari for being the minions of a dragon and falling to its will. More or less – one had become engaged to a human by the name of Rurik Ackermann, and the isolation and meditation to keep the dragon out wore on her. Eventually, she ran to find him, and fell to the Dragon's Call, attacking random innocent people. Asteffiel was late to catch up with her and missed her dying.
A much brighter note was that his twin was there. They managed to meet up after their first month of life together, and she went back to the Grove with him.
>Heart of Thorns
When Ana and Rurik gathered people to go into the jungle to try to help the Pact recover, Asteffiel and his twin answered. It was a little awkward and nerve wracking to go, as the Call of Mordremoth was louder the closer they were to him.
While Asteffiel recalls events and battles and deaths in the jungle, it's all under a haze of the pressure of Mordremoth trying to find his way in, whispering or shouting in his ear, appearing in the corners of his vision and blatantly in the air. Eir, one of Caithe's guild members, slain by a Mordrem Vinetooth. The egg the twins had been gifted by the Zephyrites. Faolain, one of the Firstborn, dying and her body repurposed into a Mordrem Vinetooth to hunt Caithe. A city of gold, filled with floating gold and energy people, who claimed they had been here for the Egg to arrive with the party. That city, Tarir, he remembers the most - a particularly bad Call had them deciding to split the party, and the sylvari twins stayed in Tarir to help fortify it, rest from the strain of the jungle and Mordremoth's constant attempts to turn them, and set up a base of sorts, while the Ackermanns and their other friends pressed on. During his time helping Tarir, Asteffiel figured out the specialization of Reaper, trading his twin daggers for a greatsword.
Eventually word got back to Asteffiel and Viliandre that Ana and Rurik had found other Pact survivors, and that Zojja, Logain, and Trahearne had last been seen alive, just carried off by Mordrem further into the jungle. The voice of Mordremoth got worse and worse, more and more Mordrem trying to stop them, and while they rescued Zojja and Logain, Trahearne remained outside their grasp. Or, well, halfway corrupted by Mordremoth and in terrible pain.
Defeating what Faolain had become came with another realization - Mordremoth was the jungle, not just an Elder Dragon of ridiculous size and power who could still be brought low by a few heroes and an airship with cannons.
The answer was "the dragon of plant and mind, so if we can't kill the plant part, let's kill the mind". While they eventually succeeded, the fight was hard – not just because Mordremoth could and did bring out corrupted visions of allies Rytlock, Eir, and Tybalt Leftpaw to fight them, but because for a moment, Asteffiel saw his allies as enemies. Perhaps bringing Sylvari into the Mind wasn't a great idea, but before harm could be done they broke free.
The win against Mordremoth came at a steep cost. Trahearne was infected, a seed of Mordremoth planted within him, and only by killing the Firstborn could they truly be sure that Mordremoth would not come back. Asteffiel couldn't bear to watch as his firstborn Hero go, and Rurik and Ana took that burden.
>Living Season 3
While Tyria was spared, Asteffiel spent the next month or so heart broken. He didn't leave his home in the Grove but to take care of his plants until Ana stopped by, asking if he would like to visit Taimi in Rata Novus. While there, Canach - a sylvari who went through the Jungle to Mordremoth with them - came to get help. He worked for Countess Anise, although worked for was a little more 'she had him doing work for her so he didn't just sit in jail.', and a prisoner had escaped - Minister Caudecus, who was most likely a White Mantle member. Canach was to find him.
Maybe doing things would make him feel less like crying all the time, and so Asteffiel went with them to hear the details in Divinity's Reach. Except while they were on the airship back, over Bloodstone Fen, there was a massive, terrifyingly bright explosion from below. Even weirder still, is that the explosion inverted, absorbing backwards rather than continue expanding.
The ship was damaged, so they were force to go to ground - which was in a truly unfortunate state from all the energy unleashed. The White Mantle - a faction of humans who believed that they were the rightful rulers of Kryta, having once ruled it years and years ago with the help of an ancient race of terrifying spellcasters - was active. And they were most likely the responsible for the whole mess, given the shards of Bloodstone here and there, and the fact many of them were bloodstone crazed. Exploring the partially destroyed area had them finding the source - and the shadows of instant evaporated from the blast White Mantle - and were able to recreate a miniature version of it with the aid of Caithe. Someone had absorbed the explosion, and shortly after, a Shining Blade announced that they had spotted Caudecus.
The minister was in a colosseum, which was floating due to the bloodstone explosion, and declaring himself the new leader of The White Mantle and that he intended to claim the throne of Kryta. What should have been capture or kill Caudecus turned into a mess, as a being named Lazarus appeared. Lazarus was the name of one of the original Mursaat who lead the White Mantle, and he claimed Caudecus as a heretic and lit many of the minister's zealots on fire. Caudecus fled before he could be captured, leaving behind the Mursaat.
And with all the magic released - from the Bloodstone exploding, from the death of Mordremoth - things just got worse. Two more Elder Dragons - Primordus and Jormag - also woke, and some asura researchers in the Ring of Fire islands found that Primordus's minions were being affected by Mordremoth's energy, becoming "Vine-touched" and stronger than before. Even worse, there was traces of Zhaitan's energy as well. Rytlock had to return to the black citadel, and taimi couldn't go far without her golem, and while Asteffiel really didn't like the idea of a place called Ember Bay, he followed the Ackermanns.
It was exactly as he hated, full of fire and lava and destroyers. There was another stone dwarf here - Rhoban Orestriker - who told them how to turn on the four dwarven devices to keep the island from exploding in a particularly violent volcanic eruption. Which would keep the small population alive, as well as their data on the dragon.
Once the devices were on, Ana and Rurik received a vision of the egg they had left in Tarir, and jumping at the chance to get off the volcano, Asteffiel followed them back to the Jungle. They were in time to witness the hatching of the crystal dragon from the egg, and to stand in the way of a swarm of vine touched destroyers out to kill the hatchling. Lazarus made a reappearance, offering his assistance, and as dubious as it was, they did kinda need the help at the moment.
Once the fight was over, Lazarus repeated his desire to protect the dragon hatchling, stating he had learned from when he was sealed and banished ages ago, and wanted to turn the tide against the Elder Dragons as Ana and her friends did. Skeptical, they vaguely accepted the wasn't an outright enemy, but they still set up other guards - Marjory to shadow him and see what he was really up to, and Caithe to guard Aurene - the instant name from Ana for the hatchling.
Rather than return to Ember Bay or follow Ana or her brother while they went on a Shadowstone fetch quest, Asteffiel took a break to do what he loved most - grow some plants. There was an odd seed he had picked up in Dry Top when the Pact was looking for ways into the Jungle after the Pact Fleet fell. This sent him all over Tyria as well, but for things like making a pot infused with leyline and bloodstone energy, sacred glacial water from Frostgorge for the plant food. It promptly produced a seed, and while Ana and Rurik returned to Tarir to help Aurene align herself with humans, he stayed and ran around Tyria again for the second generation of plant. Ana and Rurik went to go find Braham in the Shiverpeaks, and Asteffiel's weird vine produced yet another seed, so he stayed behind for this third generation of plant raising and item fetching.
Perhaps just as well. Braham sets off to kill Jormag, despite personal risks involved, and splits a little from Ana and Rurik's friends. Queen Jennah summons the Ackermanns back to Divinity's Reach, aiming to use them to help find traitors within the ministers and heads of state. Hearing the twins were back in the moderate temperatures of Tyria, Asteffiel went to show off his newest plant, Mawdrey, and winds up there in time for the White Mantle in Lake Doric's attack. Jennah successfully defended her city with an impressive mesmer shield over the city, only for some of the said traitorous ministers to attack. They were deflected, and Logan sent Ana and Rurik off to investigate Lake Doric. Naturally, Asteffiel followed.
Bloodstone crazed White Mantle Cultists, Bloodstone Crazed Centaurs, a drained river and bloodstone shards everywhere awaited them in Lake Doric. Simply taking out the cultists and centaurs wouldn't stop the nonsense for long, so Ana and Rurik directed their energies to taking out Caudecus.
Caudecus' daughter had turned from her father's goals to become a Whisper's Agent, and she returned to help them against her father. Countess Anise and Canach also joined the now quartet as they followed Caudecus back to his manor and in through side door Demmi knew.
Unfortunately the blood ties meant nothing to Caudecus - he shot his daughter, none of their healing abilities could help her, and fled to his basement. There they put an end to a bloodstone crazed, monster of a minister. Asteffiel stayed with a distraught Ana while Canach and Rurik explored the manor - discovering that Caudecus had sabotaged the ceremony, and that Lazarus couldn't be Lazarus.
Ana went off to recover from another death of a friend, and Viliandre went with her. Asteffiel went with Ruruk, back to Rata Novus and Taimi. There they worked on a solution to both Jormag and Primordius being awake, and gifted with the energies of other dragons. MArjory with "Lazarus" was still a concern, but one they and Kasmeer hoped to solve in the same lab as Taimi's research.
Kasmeer had noted a mirror on "Lazarus" and believed it a source of mesmer magic to keep the true form of their imposter hidden. Asteffiel helped them place other mirrors about the lab, which they could use ti dispel the magic. "Lazarus" arrived on time, trapping everyone within the lab not long after Marjory escaped and come through herself.
Kasmeer's trap worked - the other mirrors placed removed the illusion from "Lazarus", and revealed Balthazar, the human god of Fire and War. Baltazar dropped all his pretences then, badly injuring Marjory. Balthazar unleashed mercenaries and quite a lot of fire, and in the resulting chaos, stole Taimi's device. Thankfully, none other than the mercenaries died this time.
Taimi had a tracker on her device, and it lead the remainder of their group to Draconis Mons. An Active volcano, hot enough that none other than Balthazar could enter unprotected without incineration. They contacted the Druidic spirits still on the island, who offered assistance in going after the god for freeing the other spirits. During this, Taimi finished some research - while kiling the elder dragons was the best cause and necesarry at the time, it's also causing more problems than it was solving. Doing so was definitely giving power to the other Elder Dragons, but further elder dragon murder would result in destabilizing the balance of magic within Tyria. Despite this, she was reluctant to destroy her dragon device, believing she could still find other solutions with it.
Securing the Druid Spirit's Blessing, they came across the god deep. deep within the Volcano, already blasting Jormag energy at Primodus, as the two Elder Dragon's energies could cancel each other out according to Taimi's research. Rurik and Ana tried to bait Balthazar into fighting them, but they got his hellhounds instead. While Taimi was still reluctant to destroy her device, using it was going to be the only way they got out of this alive.
Balthazar attempted to turn the tides in the fight one final time, stealing energy from the device just as it exploded, but vanished again. The explosion also launched them out of the volcano, which made the question of how to get out a lot easier. Both Primordus and Jormag went dormant once more, and for a moment, at least, that was that.
While Asteffiel shook of the nerves of being inside a volcano and all the heat that involves, Rurik went off and joined the Shining Blade - those devoted to stopping the White Mantle. Rurik would tell them later that further exploration of Orr allowed him to properly raise and defeat Lazarus, and find the next clue. Balthazar had went to the Crystal Desert to face Kralkatorrik, the elder dragon of crystal and fury, and claim his power for his own.
>Path of Fire
Balthazar's flight to the Crystal Desert had two major effects on the world - first, refugees from those who fled him. Second, Elona began communications for the first time in hundreds of years. The nation had been cut off from most of central tyria thanks in part to Zhaitan's Risen forces, Kralkatorrik heading there and Branding some trade routes, and the decisions of Pawala Joko, the undead Lich King of Elona. Balthazar needed to be stopped quickly, so they could aid the nation better.
Asteffiel had no prior alliances, so he was able to be ready to go with Ellen Kiel's ship of Rurik and several of their other friends (Norns, Skadi Drottdottir, Lavina Pheonixwing, and Maeryn Drottson, as well as Asteffiel's twin, Viliandre), and was pleasantly surprised when Ana ditched the Pact and raced aboard at the last second. Their arrival was marked with smoke rising from pyramids, and so they disembarked and found Forged - Balthazar's version of minions - attacking the villagers inside. Taking out the troops had Balthazar's Herald reveal herself and she gave them an offer - Balthazar would forgive them for interfering with Jormag and Primordius if they joined him in destroying Kralkatorrik. The answer was an obvious no, and the herald attacked the surviving villagers in rage.
Asteffiel and Viliandre, as well as the Norn Trio, stayed behind to tend to the villagers while Rurik and Ana chased the Herald. Ana and Rurik lost the herald in saving the next village they came across, and the group rejoined in the Free City of Amnoon, guiding refugees there.
Kasmeer and Rytlock arrived shortly after they found the city, Kasmeer vouching for them as she was named a diplomat for Kryta. Kasmeer did, however, still have concerns and a deep fear of confronting a god she grew up worshipping as a distant but seemingly benevolent entity, but also knew that her failure to protect Marjory was only going to weigh on her heavily if she sat back and did nothing.
Inside the city, they spoke with Captain Rahim, and were given three locations and specific people to speak with. Asteffiel, Viliandre, and the Norns went to talk to a deputy at a refugee camp, while Rurik went to the City's Chief Councilor, and Ana the seedy but reliable casino owner. The information gathered taught them much about Balthazar's movements, his attacks on many camps and villagers and where he might head nexxt. On top of the fire god's movements, they learned of Vlast - Glint's first son and the scion before Aurene was born - and that he was still in the desert. While he had not taken up the responsibilities that Glint had intended for him, he was still a protector rather than a destroyer, and had recently seen swooping in to rescue people from the Forged.
This also meant that Balthazar had changed his target, hunting down Vlast rather than Kralkatorrik.
For more information, the group went to attack Forged camps, and while they did cripple the forces, they found very little in the way of plans. They moved on to the Temple of Kormir to meet up with Kasmeer. Ana was contacted by a man who said he was of the Order of Shadows, but they didn't have long to talk as the Herald arrived once more and attacked. They were successful in driving the herald off again, but the refugees who had sought shelter in the temple had been caught up in the attack, and they stayed to aid rather than chase her down.
Kito reappeared, explaining that the order of shadows was an offshoot of the order of whispers centuries ago. He believed that they had the same goal, and told them if they wanted to begin tracking the Herald in earnest, they should go to Makali Outpost. Arriving found that, guess what, the forged were attacking here as well. However this time also had golden Brand-like markings, indicating that Vlast was also in the area and picking a fight with something powerful. They forced the Forged back, then followed Vlast's markings to the top of a plateau, where the Herald and Balthazar had the dragon cornered.
The Herald picked a fight with them once more, asking again if they would take Balthazar's offer. Once more they refused, and the Herald information about her unwilling transformation - that she had resisted but failed due to the pain inflicted on her. They managed to defeat her this time, rather than her escaping, and she came to her senses long enough to beg Ana to put an end to the rampaging god. Ana swore to, and they took off after Balthazar. They found him with Vlast, who was chained and wounded, and the god stated he would spare Rytlock, calling him "friend". While everyone was stunned by this, he attacked hard and fast, but Vlast ripped free of his chains in time to protect them from the final blow. Vlast exploded into crystal, the shards of which wounded Balthazar enough to make him flee once more.
Rurik confronted Rytlock angrily, demanding to know why Balthazar had called him friend. Rytlock explained that during his time in the Mists chasing Sohothin, he located the sword but the flames had gone out. An old man in chains offered to ignite the sword for him, and Rytlock agreed, didn't ask for a name, and left the Mists without realizing the flames were from the shunned human god Balthazar. He swore to them he would make right his mistake, and follow them for however long it took to take the god down.
Vlast's voice spoke from one of the remaining crystals, informing the group that a secret weapon held some of his power in Glint's Lair. Kasmeer recognized the crystals as being similar to Memory Crystals, and indicated they could get more information by collecting more shards. Ana and Rurik went to search for more crystals, while Asteffiel and the others went straight to Glint's lair.
When Ana and Rurik rejoined them, it came with the discovery the newest Crystals they came across were not of Vlast, but of Glint. Glint's crystals gave further insight into her - she was once Champion to Kralkatorrik, she hoped highly of peace, that the other races could band together to deal with the elder dragons and the damage they caused, how the Forgotten freed her of Kralkatorrik's influence, how she fretted over the burdens Vlast and her other children may eventually face. They found the actual entrance to the lair, and a Dragonsblood Spear - the very spear Rytlock had tried and failed to kill Kralkatorrik with during his time with Destiny's Edge. The Guild had been Rytlock, Logain, Caithe, Snaff, Eir, and Zojja, and the failure to kill Kralkatorrik then had taken Snaff's life..
A final crystal revealed that in Glit's last moments she had been unable to see beyond the battle to come, a sign she knew she was not going to survive. She also hinted that the Gods may know more about what is to come than she. the memories didn't make it clear whether she knew the consequences of killing an elder dragon, as the group had learned of via Taimi's research. It took some discussion, but the group decided that it was best to destroy the Dragonblood spear, rather than risk Balthazar getting his hands on it. The downside of this was that it was the only known weapon that could damage Kralkatorrik, they had no idea how to make more, but it still was better than risking the god getting his hands on it.
Following the spear's destruction, Rytlock told them a little more of his adventures in the Mists near the destroyed golem Snaff had once used. Glint had still been in the mists, and she had awoken his Revenant powers, and this whole thing with Balthazar left him feeling like he'd failed all of them - his old guild, his current one, Glint.
With some rest came new ideas on how to move forward. Glint had hinted the gods knew more, and so Kasmeer suggested that they go to the other gods for information, starting with Kormir. Kormir was the most recently ascended, having been mortal some two hundred years ago and gave her life to stop the rampaging Abaddon, and fully ascended to godhood off of that. Kasmeer herself was blessed by Kormir as Rurik had once been blessed by Balthazar, and she believed that Kormir's recent ascension might mean she was more willing to help or sympathize with humans.
They traveled to the Tomb of the Primeval Kings, where a direct portal to the Mists was said to be guarded by the spirits of the past dynasty. Naturally, guarded meant difficulty in getting to it, but after fighting said Kings, promising to respect the tomb and spirits within, they were granted passage.
Of course, not that easy. Once inside, they were separated by a sandstorm and absolutely desolate landscape. It didn't take too long to regroup, but the complex puzzle did take a bit. Puzzle solved, they were able to go through another portal, into a vast, near unending library. Where the five remaining gods should have been, there was only Kormir.
Kormir informed them that the other gods had already left Tyria, wanting to avoid an all out war with the elder dragons. Balthazar had been shunned for refusing to go along with this plan, resulting in the chained, near powerless old man Rytlock had met and unwittingly released in the Mists. The path of terror he was carving through Tyria was so that he could kill and take the power of Kralkatorrik, and use that power to take revenge on the other gods for their actions against him.
Kormir was the last god remaining, the others long gone, and she was about to join them. They could not and would not help the races of Tyria against Balthazar, not even their favored race of humans
Kasmeer was absolutely beside herself with this news, her very world view utterly shattered, but instead of breaking the young woman, it gave her resolve to take matters into her own hands. The time for prayer was done - the fate of the world was up to them and they had to face this head on.
Using what little advice Kormir had given them, the group split to search the remaining desert for clues. Asteffiel didn't really find any, but he found another charming plant race called Choya, and that those outside of this cliff-side village were aggressive because the choya kicked any aggressive ones out.
Ana gave them a short hand summary of what she learned in her urgent summons - Balthazar and Pawala Joko could corrupt Exalted, Glint knew the problems of simply destroying the Elder Dragons, she had intended to replace them with benevolent Dragons - say, Vlast and Aurene - and that would maintain balance. And the blood of Kralkatorrik was what was needed to hurt Kralkatorrik, and this blood flowed through both Vlast and Aurene. Which, by this point, was only Aurene, so they had to get to Maguuma fast.
Except the airship pick up point, the Pillars of Supremacy in the Elon Riverlands, only had Balthazar atop it when they regrouped and climbed. Even with numbers on their side, the god overpowered them.
Aurene, having sensed the danger they were in, had escaped from Tarir and flown to their rescue. Only to be captured and chained as her brother had been by Balthazar. This, and the god gloating that his plan was working perfectly, was the last thing Asteffiel or any of the others saw before Balthazar finally struck a killing blow.
Ana woke in the Domain of the Lost, and Asteffiel got his necromancer's wish of being able to haunt his friend rather than abandon her after he died. Granted, they were all dead, Ana had forgotten her life, and he was an orb of white light rather than any spectre or recognizable ghostly shape. Ana was given a quest by the Judge, a servant of the departed god Grenth, and over the course of it recalled her life, her goals. Ana returned with her glowing entourage of fallen friends to the Judge, who did not have the power to return her to life. The Judge offered that defeating the Eater of Souls would most likely be enough to return them to life, as it had been eating souls after Balthazar betrayed Joko and locked the lich here. Of course, failure to defeat the Eater would mean all their souls lost - no returning home, no moving on, no passage to the Mists.
They took up the challenge and defeated the creature, opening a portal back to home - and life. Joko swore they would need his help to defeat Balthazar, but they all refused the lich, Ana going as far to say "We will need your army, but not you."
Dragon's Watch and Ellen's Airship crew had arrived sometime after Balthazar's attack, and were gathered to mourn their friends, except then they got up again. Although they all gained faint scars from their deaths, no other signs of Balthazar's success remained - they were otherwise healthy. Ana revealed her plan from the Domain of the Lost - Disguise themselves, gain access to Joko's army, and use their sheer numbers and power to go after Balthazar.
Kito assisted them in finding the best disguise to take control of the army - that of Archon Iberu, who could control the armies in Joko's obvious absence. They lured Iberu out of the Bone Palace, took him out, and used Kasmeer's illusions to enter the Palace, and command the Awakened army to prepare for war against Balthazar. From there they collected more information on the remaining Warmarshals needed for the attack, sending word out to gather at Kodash Bazaar in the Branded area of the Domain of Vabbi.
They took up their disguises once more, leading their borrowed Awakened army to Balthazar atop the bazaar. Rytlock gave the flaming sohothin to Rurik, stating they would be a distraction to the god, and that Balthazar wouldn't expect Rurik to have the weapon, and surprise was likely the best way to get the killing blow in. They fought against waves upon waves of Forged, until Balthazar's Warbeast arrived with Aurene. They had to fight and chase their way after it, eventually arriving to the roof of the Bazaar where the Warbeast was taking aim at Kralkatorrik - as the elder dragon had been circling the area as the fighting began.
They destroyed the warbeast and freed Aurene, turning their sights on Balthazar. With Sohothin, Aurene, and an not insignificant shock to the god upon realizing they were alive, they defeated him, Rurik ending the fight with the killing blow. The death of Balthazar resulted in an explosion of magic, but most of it was absorbed by Kralkatorrik, and a little by Aurene. The elder dragon flew off with Aurene hot on his tail. leaving the two groups to come together again, at least one of their troubles was dealt with.
They all regrouped in Amnoon, Taimi and Marjory coming to join them as a celebration was held. There was still the issue of Kralkatorrik being further empowered by the former god's energy, and they naturally had to discuss what was going to come next, but Ana also saw the need to make an announcement of her own.
The Ackermann twins were going to start their own guild called the Blade Coalition, after the Shining Blade and their parent's legacy. She reassured everyone that this didn't mean the end of their friendships or working together, and promised Rytlock that Blade and Dragon's Watch would be allies until the bitter end. There was still a lot of work to do, and the twins figured there was not only power in numbers but far more reach if they could create a guild with a wide range of specialties and skills. Asteffiel was quite happy to follow them in this.
As they were discussing these plans, however, the ground began to shake and tremble violently, disrupting the party and sending screams of terror through Amnoon. Kralkatorrik had returned and was blasting Brand across the whole area. Aurene had a growth spurt and protected them with her own Brand, but the now adolescent dragon flew off rather than stick around.
>Living World Season 4
Asteffiel, with his interest in joining Ana and Rurik's fledgling guild, and his previous association with their Awakened Army Stealing Antics, began touring small villages out of the way. They were in one such location, Asteffiel mostly inspecting the plants than the local problems, when a Brand storm erupted. Aurene landed shortly after they cleared it and gave them a vision of a faraway city and Awakened soldiers.
Kito recognized it as Fahranur, the First City located in Istan, and so they had their next destination.
Istan turned out to require an annoying amount of running around to gain access to Fahranur. The astralarium was only so much help, despite being one of the last bastions of non-Joko tainted literature and kept history. Corsairs were bargained with, and an entire plan hatched between them, the Corsairs and the Order of Shadows. Except it went belly up after the Corsairs started before the Order of Shadows arrived, resulting in Rurik, Ana, and Asteffiel being arrested and tossed into a cell.
During their imprisonment and separation from Dragon's watch and their communicator, Taimi had been taken by Joko, the lich king having returned sometime between their resurrection and their current imprisonment. Their arrest ended up being helpful, as it granted them access to what they needed to get into Fahranur. Once more they met up with Rytlock and Canach, went through to the trap-riddled First City, and were forced to watch in horror as a massive number of Asura Inquest corpses were reanimated before them. A tough fight followed, Canach nearly killing the lot of them when his explosives nearly caused an avalanche, but Braham and Rox appeared at the last moment and protected them with his shield.
They got further inside and reached the Inquest lab where Joko was holding Taimi, and were forced to fight her hijacked golem before it took all the air out of the cockpit and killed her. It was close, but Taimi was rescued from both Joko and her golem.
Joko's interest in Farhanur started to become even more clear as portals began ripping open in Central Tyria, Awakened attacks starting as Joko began to remind the world he was still alive, a present threat, and wreak havoc on as many human settlements as he could. Kito had leads for them, but given the scale of the issue, Blade split into two forces - Rurik with Viliandre, Maeryn and Lavi, and Ana with Asteffiel and Skadi. Rurik's team went to the Inquest base in the Desert Highlands, and Ana's went back to central Tyria.
They worked with an Asura Peacemaker to fashion a device that would detect and even predict when Joko's portals were being opened, giving them a leg up on Joko's attempted invasion. The lich king was fairly relentless, and it was a while before they were able to return to Elona and reunite once more with Dragon's watch, but due to their splitting up, it was slowed on both sides. Rurik's team had closed several of the portals from the other end.
However Joko didn't stop there - they had stopped one threat, and Joko presented them with another: A Scarab Plague. It was one that would primarily target humans, but also decimate crops and thus the livelihoods of Elona. While they started research on the potential damage it could deal, and how to combat it, Taimi suggested that they ask history - return to the Tomb of Primeval Kings and ask how they had lived through it. They didn't have much information, but upon learning that Joko had the plague back in his possession, they agreed to aid with a ghost army, adding to the already mounting forces that were getting ready to take Joko and his many dangers on.
Two asura who had once been friends of Taimi, and eventually rescued during Rurik's infiltration of the Inquest Base, Gorrik and Blish, set up a rift to get the forces into position. Following Canach's explosives blowing up the guard towers to the Moon Fortress where Joko was holing up, the forces charge in. Inside the Fortress, they stumbled across multiple corpses that looked exactly like Ana, Rurik, and several of their friends. Looking closer found them to be illusions, actual corpses disguised with mesmer powered signet rights, but still likely killed while they were illusioned.
A relief to find that Joko hadn't somehow figured out cloning, but still terrifying and nearly enough to set Ana over the edge. It took several minutes for her to calm down with her brother's help, and when they were finally able to move, they fell into a trap. The Ackermanns were forced to fight Joko while Braham was captured, and the rest outside the room. s cut off from Braham and the others and forced to face down Joko alone. Several traps, tricks and dirty tactics later they seemingly fell the lich only to have him rise once more, snagging them and Braham in a forcefield and holding them there was loudly and bombastically mocking the two young humans for all that they had been through to get to that point. He went on about how he had taken credit for so many of their victories in Elona, rewriting the history they were creating with no one to stop him due to the embargo and exclusion he had imposed over the country. He wondered aloud how he could be called a monster and they heroes when they were so stupid as to not only kill one dragon, but two and a god; that their actions were almost as if not more destructive than anything he had done and maybe the world would thank him for bringing their reckless behavior to an end.
And then he was eaten by Aurene.
Pawala Ignacious Joko, Lich, Undead Ruler, Unceremoniously and rather disgustingly rendered into dragon food.
Joko's words indirectly spurred Blade into full being - Ana was needled into feeling like she was doing too much and not enough at the same time, so rather than resting on the celebrations, she beseeched Karen, a friend who had taken up the help of her noble family, and her place in the Shining Blade, to help finance the start of the Coalition. Karen agreed, and so the Ackermanns went back to Elona to ask about the abandoned Guild Hall that someone in the Order of Shadows had mentioned. Gathering their friends up, they cleared the ruins and officially established The Blade Coalition, and its home base in the Domain of Vabbi.
Kralkatorrik was still causing problems in Elona, and they were quickly tapped to assist Dragon's Watch, and help with the movements of refugees to get away from the Brand safely. An Order of Shadows agent named Kossan was reunited with his ancestor turned lich, Koss, and through Koss given information on the former Sunspear sanctuary. With Braham they quickly cleared the area of massive spiders that had moved in, and gave the people in Jahai Bluffs a place to hide and recover from Kralkatorrik's attacks. They renamed the location Sun's Refuge, and made the place both livable and like a home for many people.
Kralkatorrik was still tearing across Tyria's skies, and with his newest trick, through the Mists as well, effectively able to vanish and reappear to wreck even more havoc. During their clearing of Sun's Refugee, a rift had opened and brought with it Eir and Snaff, who had a message for Aurene - Kralkatorrik had to be taken out. Now. And Aurene needed to take his place.
Aurene, however, had her own vision - or multiple visions - her facing kralkatorrik alone, with an army, in this location, in that location, but none of them ever ended differently. All ended with her dead, impaled by Brand and Kralkatorrik surviving to cause even more destruction and death. Fearful of her fate, Aurene fled, leaving the others to plan their next move without her.
Blish offered a solution of tracking Kralkatorrik, though it would take a journey to the Mists to do it. Ana and Rurik agreed to go with Blish together, using Balthazar's discarded sword and the fire from Sohothin as the bait the tracker was attached to. Despite the chaos of the Mists - Kralkatorrik's influence, ghosts and Glint's army combating waves and waves of Branded minions - they were able to lure Kralkatorrik.
However, when Ana and Rurik returned through a portal, it was without Blish. The golem-based asura had sacrificed his powersource to fuel the tracker, and had also told them to pass on a message to Taimi - stop keeping secrets from others. So one bad news followed another - Taimi's degenerative disease had relapsed. She didn't know how much time she had left, just that she wanted to do everything she could to make it count, including their current mission of dealing with the elder dragon.
Caithe arrived shortly after, and brought the collective group to Thunderhead Keep, to talk to Ogden about their future plans. Ana and Gorrik where still very much grieving, but they knew Blish would have wanted them to keep going forward. At the keep, they were instructed how to make more Dragonsblood Weapons, and Ana and Rurik went back to Glint's lair to complete further training with Aurene. Caithe waited two days, while the twins inside had no conscept of time during the training. They left with more knowledge as well - Ascension, how it involved Aurene, and that Glint once had a vision of a world without her master.
Once more, a mighty battle was raged, several armies against Kralkatorrik, but despite all that they couldn't change the vision Aurene had seen. They faced the dragon down, only for her to be impaled on the Brand as she had seen, and killed.
Wounded, shaken, absolutely beaten into the ground by Kralkatorrik's attack, they all limped back to the chamber where Aurene's corpse was frozen into place by the crystals. Asteffiel simply laid on the floor and wailed alongside Taimi, Ana unable to stop the tears rolling down her face, and even Logan there to mourn with them. Caithe decided that the final goodbye could be given by removing the crystals from Aurene, and as the first one left the dragon, she began glowing, and so the Zephyrites who had gathered joined in singing, weakening the brand further, and made breaking the crystals off easier.
Aurene returned, alive, breathing, speaking, as Dragons feed on magic, and Aurene had fed on a lich. All the magic that kept a lich going was now hers, and healing through a spear of crystal through her heart simply needed the crystal removed She spoke of Kralkatorrik's continued devouring of the Mists, and insisted on following, loading the twins up on her back and giving chase.
Blish's tracker still functioned, and so Asteffiel and the rest loaded up onto airships and tracked the potential exit point, approaching the area in time to see a rift open, and the dragon tumble through with fragments of the godrealm islands, crashing into the sea. The new island was dubbed Dragonfall, Kralkatorrik pinned under bits of land and an entire wing shorn off and forming another section of it.
Rurik, Ana, and Aurene landed as the ships found the safest places to disembark, and teams were dispatched through the island with Taimi and Gorrik at the helm of communications once more. Bases set up with various groups leading in various sections of God-Island, they did their best to quell the Brand that Kralkatorrik gave off himself. Kralkatorrik's wing gave them a ready supply of blood, and so they forged more Dragonsblood Spears for the Ackermanns, halting the dragon's healing from leyline energy, and taking the dead-body state as a way to enter the heart. Aurene still was only of a size to fit two, so the Ackermanns took the final fight to Kralkatorrik's heart.
Another Elder Dragon was killed, but this time another rose into it's place - Aurene Ascended, giving rise to the first of hopefully many benevolent Elder Dragons.
Ana and Rurik explained that Kralkatorrik was driven mad by all the magics he had absorbed, and other tidbits that had come from being in the dragon's heart before ending him, and they returned to the guildhall after to fully begin building the Blade Coalition. Asteffiel and Viliandre were among the first to move into the new hall, and immediately set up sprucing up the environment. Sure, the desert was not suited to being as green as The Grove they had grown up in, but there were still many plants that could grow there, and it was a little bit more of various homes they could bring in.
> Icebrood Saga Prologue: Chapter 1
Ana, Rurik, and several others of their guild were called to attend the celebration, a summit for the Charr legions and Metal Legion concert in Grothmar Valley following Kralkatorrik's defeat. Ana and Rurik left after the concert to return to the guildhall, leaving one of the norn guild members, Freja Rasmussen in charge of smoothing over ruffled fur that Aurene had caused with her sudden appearance.
Asteffiel stayed to keep Braham a little more company, to inspect the plants growing near the Aurene's version of a brand, but also left most of these charr relations things to Freya, returning to the guildhall with new little plants to see if he could add them to what was already growing.
Not long after, Dragon Bash started up again in Hoelbrak, and Asteffiel raced off to see how the festivities expanded with the newest dragon defeated, actually take part for once, and also to collect candy to snack on through the rest of the year.
