Saturday, September 29, 2012

[Chapter Summary]: Mathosia

Mathosia Storyline     

     And here we come to the end of the first of Raeslyn's 'Tales of Telara'. I hope everyone who's read it enjoyed the story thus far, and I am quite proud to have actually kept it up too. I also learned a lot more about Role-play in general, and about Rift lore in particular while writing the blog! Of course, the story is far from over. After all, Rae has only begun her new journeys in Telara, and all them will be witnessed here! This entry is going to serve as a break between chapters, and as an easy to find index of the first chapter, with everything neatly arranged here for ease of access if I want to quickly check back to a particular lore excerpt or chapter piece.

Chapter One Archives:                                                           Chapter One Story list:
     Archive I: Prophecy of the Ascended                                       1.0: Chosen
     Archive II: City Record of Ardenburgh                                    1.1: Stirrings of War  
     Archive III: Ardenburgh Proclamations                                   1.2: Ardenburgh
     Archive IV: Ascended                                                           1.3: Defiant Wars
     Archive V: Cyril Kalmer                                                         1.4: Army of Regulos
     Glossary I: Battle Terms                                                        1.5: A Dim Dark Eye
     Archive VI: Coming of the Shade                                             1.6: Shade of Regulos

Extras List:
The Story Thus Far:
      So, Raeslyn has been resurrected from death by the messengers of the Vigil, glorious winged beings who are apparently quite powerful. She awakens in the Sanctuary of Rebirth, shocked and confused to find herself alive again. According to the messengers and the other devout followers of the Vigil, Raeslyn, along with other Ascended, have been chosen to help fight back against the tyrant Aedraxis after being heroically slain. She has been given unparalleled powers, blessed to be the Vigil's chosen warrior in the fight against the Planes and the Blood Storm and the various other corruptions and evils in Telara. Raeslyn is sent out on a mission to help the beleaguered defenders of Mathosia fight off Aedraxis's undead minions and to prevent him from bringing untold evil and peril into the world by opening a death rift. Along the way she meets Shyla Starhearth, the High Priestess of the High Elves and an Ascended as well, and Borrin Gammult, a Dwarf from Lord's Hall. She learns that the Dwarves no longer have a home to return to and that most of them died in battle against Aedraxis. Borrin was also resurrected as an Ascended, along with Cyril Kalmer, a prominent and heroic figure from the Mathosian kingdom. He loyally fights by the side of Prince Zareph. There are various other notable figures that Raeslyn has the fortune to meet along her quest to destroy Aedraxis and his evil minions. One of these figures is Carwin Mathos, who unfortunately loses his life when Raeslyn arrives too late to stop Aedraxis from opening the death rift. Aedraxis is able to sunder the Ward, thus allowing the rift through, bringing with it foul, planar death magic. To give himself the ability to defeat the array of Ascended who have arrived to challenge him, Aedraxis calls upon Regulos the Destroyer to take his body as an avatar. Regulos quickly possesses the body and kills poor Carwin Mathos, and than attacks the rest of the group. Eventually, working together, Raeslyn, along with Shyla, Borrin and Cyril, are able to defeat the monster and close the rift. In order to prevent Regulos's spirit from finding a new host and a new way back onto Telara, Raeslyn took a mighty hammer and shattered the Shade of Regulos into dozens of pieces. Shortly after this, Raeslyn was suddenly pulled from Telara and brought somewhere else, where she was given a warning and a message by the Vigil...or was it the messenger speaking again? She isn't sure. Because of this message, Raeslyn now knows that the world of Telara is forever changed by the events she just witnessed. The Blood Storm will awaken, all that the newly created Guardians stood for will crumble, and darkness will sweep the land. She knows that she has to do what she can to prevent this from happening. Something to note is the fact that Raeslyn doesn't know where the broken shards of Regulos end up. If only she'd thought about that, or remembered it...


There's also some really interesting cameos by important characters to the story of Telara in the Mathosia zone! Here's a list of the ones I found.
  1. Asha Catari-her body is found at the co-ordinates I listed below. It's cool that Trion kept the lore and included her body after she had fallen when she went to warn her lover Zareph about Aedraxis's treachery.
  2. Alsbeth Rothmann-you can find her standing innocently enough in Valor Hold, dressed in noble's robes. She looks "normal" and not like a death-infused cultist leader, so this must be before she completely went dark side, but I would imagine she had been heading down that path for some time. She may even be a plant here, just following the Guardians like a good little girl and waiting for her moment to strike. That moment ended up being Port Scion, sadly.
  3. Stanig Malm-Scotty's father is also seen! I loved that storyline in Moonshade Highlands and it's cool to see him alive, as he's only a ghost when you encounter him later in present day Telara. I would suppose that after he participated in the war effort against Aedraxis and the Ascended were swept up by the Vigil's prophecy, he ventured back to Moonshade to try and reclaim Hammerknell back from the Abyssal and met his death there. Poor Scotty had only been a mere babe at the time and didn't remember any of this, and his uncle never mentioned specific details about his father, only grand bedtime stories of heroism.
  4. Brother Jebiah-this fanatic of the Vigil seems to be everywhere in Rift. You can find in the alternate Defiant future at the end of the world, imprisoned by the Defiant and spouting nasty threats about the "heretics", saying the Defiant needed to repent and kill themselves in order for the Vigil to come and save the day and raise up the pious to take back Telara. Ya right, Jebiah, you nutcase. In present Telara, he can be found in various zones, usually with some right wing quest or comment. Still, it seems he's much calmer in present Telara. Of course, the end of the world always brings out the worst in people.
  5. Major Kain-I'm assuming this is Fredrick Kain, the guy who became famous for taking things just a liiiiiittle too far in his desire to keep the artifact of Regulos out of evil hands. He carried it for too long and got corrupted. But it's interesting to see him here, being normal and human and sane. Kind of feel sorry for the guy, actually. He did mean well.
  6. Orphiel Farwind-He's seen a few times in this zone actually, and it's interesting how he's viewed as a crazed heretical lunatic who's obsessed with technology to the point where he would doom Telara to get it, but at the same time, he's viewed at the opposite end of the spectrum in the Defiant alt future, so which view is the right one? Both, and neither, I say. I think they specifically made each opposing factions' NPC's specifically "evil" in the opposite zone just to give the players more of a reason to be against the opposite faction. Red vs. Blue thing. I could be totally wrong though, but that's just my guess. I also think that Orphiel knows way more than he lets on, and he's secretly playing with the grand scheme of events from the background in order to make sure Telara follows the path he wants it on. Whether he's doing it for the good of Telara or for his own benefits, or to specifically betray our world to some other, greater threat, we don't know yet, but as of the latest expansion: Starfall Prophecy, you're getting lots of interesting info on Orphiel! I won't spoil it though!
  7. There are several others, including famous members of the Icewatch, Dragonslayers Covenant, and other orders that swore to fight the dragon.
**Before I go ahead with details about the tutorial zone, I'd like to post here that when I went through this area, it was quite a long time ago, before all the streamlined changes and tweaks that Trion changed. So of course if you play through this zone today, it will probably be a bit different. Just in case you're confused.**
 Zone Details:
  • Mob Types
    • Humanoid
    • Undead
    • Construct
    • Planar
  • Total Time Spent In Zone
    • 5 hours (I took my time and explored everything)
    • 1-2 hours approx. if you don't want to dally
  • Level Upon Leaving Zone
    • 8 (killed all kinds of things just for fun and got lots of exp.)
  • List of Questgivers
    • Messenger of the Vigil
    • Sanctuary Warden
    • Fayne Daron
    • Orin Bancroft
    • Borrin Gammult
    • Shyla Starhearth
    • Brother Jebiah
    • Tam Daggerborne
    • Cyril Kalmer
    • Marshal Kain
    • Messenger of the Vigil (2)
  • List of Quests
    • Chosen-speak with a messenger of the Vigil
    • Ascended Allies-speak with Fayne Doran
    • Avenging Hand-kill 6 Ashen Defilers
    • Steel Reckoning-collect 4 imbued swords
    • Knight's of Aedraxis-kill corrupted knights in Hallowed Hill
    • Unholy Shackles-destroy 3 morbid infusers
    • Weakened Ward-collect 8 sanctified spheres from Ardenburgh horrors
    • High Elven Inquisition (race specific)- Pray at the altar of Tavril, kill 6 thralls
    • Uncivil War-speak with Brother Jebiah at the gate
    • Sourcestone-collect 3 sourcestone cores
    • Rifts Between Worlds-purge 5 construct corpses
    • Betrayers-kill 5 Defiant traitors and 4 Defiant thaumaturges
    • Brood of Regulos-Place the Warding Orb of the Vigil
    • A Nimble Art (Rogue specific)-Speak with Rovena Karn
    • Fields Run Red-Kill 3 of each deathbound mobs
    • The Pariah-disable Orphiel's corruptor
    • Rightful Owners-Collect 6 Mathosian remains from carrion flayers
    • Gathering Strength-cleanse a shadetouched horse and ride it back
    • Shot in the Back-launch a catapult, killing mobs in the field
    • A Dim Dark Eye-disable the rift pillars and reveal Aedraxis the Tyrant
  • Locations of Note (by co-ordinates):
    • 815, 1009-Rare mob-Road Warden Molnar
    • 815, 1009-Book-Acacia Nysyr: Inquisitor
    • 842, 1095-Book-Niyol Cliffswind: Sentinal
    • 852, 1089-Buff-Remnant of Mariel-Taun: Stamina
    • 872, 990-Asha Catari's Body
    • 888, 1165-Altar-Rare Mob-Shade: drops nice rogue costume
    • 922, 1059- Dead Soldier-Green leather item
    • 925, 921- Book-Acacia Zardonis: Nightblade
    • 931, 1136- Buff-Remnant of Tavril: Spell Crit
    • 931, 1144-Book-The Unholy Blight: Reavers
    • 947, 906- Rare- Gate Keeper Nurtullis-Green shield
    • 975, 902-Book- Vesseslav: Assassin
    • 976, 903-Blocked Barricade-Trapped Citizen: 1gold 4silver
    • 993, 880- Buff- Remnant of Thontic: Wisdom
    • 995, 941- Enemy Weapon Rack: 86silver
    • 1019, 1121- Rare-Frona Lykeria: Green bow
    • 1022, 1147 & 1167, 1058-Workbench with magitech tools. When approached, Orphiel Farwind appears and yells. He leaves behind a letter from Aedraxis.
    • 1022, 1056-Book- Amardis Mathos: Paladin
    • 1068, 1268-Book- City Record of Ardenburgh
    • 1078, 1204- Book- Durnes: Ranger
    • 1078, 1404- Book- Talos Roda: Purifier
    • 1093, 821- Buff- Remnant of Thedeor: Dexterity
    • 1130, 1107- Book- On Neddra the Warlock
    • 1130, 1384- Book- Journal of Zareph Mathos
    • 1158, 1059- Discarded Defiant Junk: 70silver
    • 1180, 1028- Buff- Remnant of Tavril: Spell Crit
    • 1162, 1218- Book- Elementalists: The First Mages
    • 1169, 1191-Book- Vachir Altan: Champion
    • 1173, 1196- Abandoned Crate: 26silver
    • 1216, 1300- Rare mob- Maurice Sullivan
    • 1219, 1236- Book- Phynnious Rothmann: Pyromancer
    • 1239, 1228- Dead Female Villager: Gray item
    • **Note that at least one Soul story book is missing, as pointed out to me by a friend on the Prime server. Necromancer for sure is unaccounted for**
  • Map of the Zone:
My Opinion of the Zone:
     I really enjoyed questing through the Guardian starting zone. Religious fanatics and bloodthirsty warrior types aside, the zone runs rather smoothly and pushes you along at a fast pace. It also gives you a good understanding of where your character stands in Telara, and what role your supposed to play (save the world). It's a pretty small zone, but there's a lot of information and other interesting little oddities packed into it. It wasn't until I had run through the zone and then subsequently deleted my "Raeslyn's" when I didn't like them, to start over again, that I began to notice curious little items and clickable things that I hadn't noticed before! Like those sneaky, out of the way items that belong to the gods and when you click on them, give you a buff. Or the dead bodies that give you an extra bit of silver, or a green item if your lucky! Also, the trapped citizen that you have to save was really cool. And the books will definitely make a huge asset toward creating future lore articles in my blog. All in all, I give the Mathosia tutorial zone a 4/5. I had no problem with it!

Back to the Prologue
Chapter Two: Silverwood Summary



Extra Screenshots:

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