A long period of peace

The mage Aborek and the creation of the Blood Dagger.

"The death of Dethras was followed by a long period of peace. During that time, the Curio was separated in three. Mirith, Marali, and Andris still keep their respective parts to this day. With some minor interruptions, of course."

"I have heard that Lancaster stole a part from Andris and built the Ice Dungeon with it," declaired the clairic.

"Yes, my dear," nodded the Stranger," but that is recent History. A long time before that, it was Marali who risked to lose her fragment. It all started because the splitting of the Curio angered Lerilin and Brogan's Keep."

The pleasure taken by the Stranger after throwing a new name to the conversation was obvious. He knew that none of the girls would have ever heard the words "Brogan's Keep," and their reaction was as surprised as he would expect. Nothing like teasing youngsters' curiosity to make your story worth listening to.

"Lerilin was deemed not secure to have a piece of the Curio. On the other hand, Brogan's Keep was the strongest military force at the time. Far, far superior to Marali. But it was a mere fortress, not worth calling a city."

"Was Marali strong at all, at the time?" Asked Cassandra, revealing some remaining bitterness towards Maralian current situation.

"Marali was a very strong military force before the Twins invaded it," assured the Stranger.

"Where was Brogan's Keep?" Inquired Claire.

"You will find that out in a minute. Back to our story. The fact that they were deprived from a part of the Curio really angered the leaders of Brogan's Keep. Especially a certain Black Magician called Aborek." At this point, the Stranger paused for a second to enjoy the exclamations of puzzlement uttered by the mages.

"He decided to show the rest of the world how safe Brogan's Keep was, and to do that, he would steal a part of the Curio. Deep in the catacombs of the fortress, Aborek opened a portal to Marali's vault. Him and his assistant Ayara planned on invading the Vaults, sealing it from inside, and stealing the Curio."

"Did they succeed?"

"Well, the story is more complicated than that. Aborek had other plans for the Curio. I must add that he used to be a very trusted and respected wizard; one whose power would surpass many. However, as most of the book wager, he used too much Black Magic to open the portal to the Vaults, and became a consumed."

"What happened then?"

"How it really happened, we don't really know. Our main source of information about Aborek are some sparse notes Ayara wrote here and there. We do know that suddenly his plans went from simply stealing Marali's fragment of the Curio to creating an artifact from the two strongest sources power in Oberin."

Cassandra lit a new candle. Somehow, candles tend to extinguish when people talk about mysterious forces. It would be better to have a ninth one, than to find themselves in the darkness. The outlines of the Stranger became slightly more defined with the extra light, although not enough to reveal his identity.

"He wanted to create an artifact by combining the power of the Curio and the power of the Centaurs. Ayara witnessed him going mad and speaking of reaching powers even the Curio couldn't grant him: Aborek was trying to craft the Blood Dagger."

"How was he expecting to talk the Centaurs into that?" asked Claire.

"Talk? Who mentioned talking? Anyway, he did ask for a meeting with four Centaur leaders to discuss about Brogan's Keep demanding a piece of the Curio. That meeting was scheduled to happen in a few days when the invasion of Marali's Vaults took place."

"So he stole the Curio before the meeting?"

"Yes," proceeded the Stranger, " No one before and after Aborek managed to even breach in Vaults. But Aborek made it; he invaded the Vaults, stole the Curio, and sealed it from inside. As Vaults are bound to a designated Guardian's soul, the Guardian of Marali at that time was immediately warned. Aborek didn't even try to cloak or hide his identity, he wanted them to know. Needless to say a few hours later, Marali's army was gathering and getting ready to attack the fortress..."

"Wasn't Marali weaker than Brogan's Keep?" Objected Cassandra.

"The armies of Marali, Mirith, and Andris gathered in an unite force to take the Curio's fragment back. It took them but a few days to have an army ready for what promised to be the greatest war of all."

"Uh ho..."

"So war was at stake and according to Ayara's note Aborek's mind got totally eaten by consumption. He decided to use the Blood Dagger's power to totally wipe the united army."

"That means that he managed to craft it. Did the Centaurs accept to help?"

"Do you know how the Centaurs' power work?" asked the Stranger. Both girls shook their heads in negation. "The Centaurs are guardians of an amazing, yet very puzzling power. One that only unleashes upon their death. If they sacrifice themselves, the power that emanated from their body is the most curative of all source of magic. It can heal deadly wounds and cure the most devouring of all plagues... If they are murdered however, that power turns into one of the most dark, destructive force one can imagine."

"He didn't kill the leaders, did he?" Claire sighed.

"Aborek's original plan was to use the Curio, and join it with the Centaurs' curative power to create an even more powerful artifact. In his madness he thought he could kindly ask a Centaur to sacrifice for his experiment. But seeing the army gathered at the footsteps of the fortress, he changed his mind. He would assassinate the Centaurs during the meeting, and craft the wielder of ultimate destructive magic. And so he began the ritual. With a single Holy Dagger, and the Curio's fragment he had stolen. He stabbed Ayara with the dagger, and put it together with the Curio in a golden box."

"Where were the Centaurs, by then?" asked an impatient Cassandra.

"That is of course where Ayara's notes end. But other books were able to catch up," remarked the Stranger. "It is said that the four centaurs arrived for the meeting, but seeing the combined army decided to cancel it and leave. Aborek had everything planned however, and as the centaurs were turning away they got ambushed and captured by his men. They were brought to the catacombs of the fortress, and murdered, at the very same time the united army began its attack on Brogan's Keep. To ensure the corruption of the Holy Dagger, Aborek added a magical Black Stone inside the box, with the Curio and the Holy Dagger, drenched with the blood of Araya and the four centaurs. The Blood Dagger was created."

"Did he defeat the army?"

"No. No one can try to possess such strong magic and survive. The Dagger, corrupted by the Black Stone, fed with the Centaurs soul, possessing even a bit of the Curio's energy, developed a mind of its own.
The fortress fell, and soon the only thing that was left for the united army to fight was a bunch of blood creatures. Brogan's Keep was destroyed and reduced to ashes. The army got the Curio's fragment back, but never found the dagger. Only much later a certain wizard called Elefin did. But that's another story..."

"What happened to Aborek?"

"That is unknown too, it is said that his soul is still tortured by Ayara's departed spirit, and the echoes of his screams can still be heard by travelers in the ruins of what you now call 'Aborek'..."

The Stranger leaned back and lit a pipe, filling the library with smoke. One more story had been told, and even a man like him needs a break before engaging in the next chapter.


[Once again, the source is Stefan, and his words were preserved as much as possible.]

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A Stranger talks about a young girl

The story of Elara, and how she faced the Black Plague.

"Are you, ladies, going to stay here for much longer?"

Both mages turned at once to the corner from where a voice had come. They could not tell, amongst the shadows, to whom the voice belonged. It was, nonetheless, a warm sound, that did not terrify them, despite the surprise."Knowledge must be gained," said Claire, putting on her best Bone Lordish accent. "We are looking for all the clues we can gather about the past," added Cassandra.

"I see. And what do you expect to find here, exactly?"

"Anything! Do you happen to know about History?"

"Maybe. Well... You know... There used to be a big library, much better than this one. Unfortunately, all that is lost."

Claire nodded slowly. "Yes, Brigobaen. We managed to find the few scrolls saved before the pillage. One of them is about Elara and the foundation of Mirith..."

The Stranger murmured an assent. "Elara. Such a young girl. You know that she stopped the Black Plague, right? No? Hmm. When the world was being destroyed by Black Dragons, a few humans hid in the Volcano. Elara was among them. It is known that the Goddess chose her, and gave her the power to leave the volcano and fetch a fragment of the moon that had fallen on Oberin."

"The Curio?" asked one of the girls tentatively.

"Yes," continued the Stranger, "with the power of the Goddess, and the Curio, Elara managed to send the Dragons back to sleeping under the earth. Where they still sleep..."

"And after that, she founded Mirith?" asked Cassandra.

"After that humans emerged and cities were built. Yes, she founded Mirith; her statue is still there. Her ultimate fate is told in an old scroll... Maybe you should ask Cecil about that; I've heard he is back."

"Oh, but wait a second," interrupted Claire, "I still don't understand completely what happened before the Black Plague, much less what happened to Elara!"

"Before the Plague? Before the Plague we were all fighting the Sorcerer Council."

Cassandra turned a page of her notebook and wrote "Sorcerer Council" in big red letters.



[Thanks to Stefan for chatting with us on a Saturday afternoon. Some of the Stranger's lines, in this post as in the others to come, reproduce word by word what Stefan told us. We couldn't possibly phrase it better!]

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Inauguration

Welcome to the Tome of the Lost.

You open the door of the library and notice there is someone else already there. Under the light of eight candles, a young cleric and a red robed wizard seem to be lost in conversation. They exchange dusty papers, they point at old drawings, they make theories and conjectures about names that belong to the past.

"Oh! Welcome!" says Cassandra, looking at you over her reading glasses. "We are just collecting old stories. Feel free to join."

Claire glances at the wizard. "Who is that person, Cass?" she whispers. "Is it in our files?"

You know that there are many libraries and librarians in Oberin. You also know that organization is hard to find. Now it's up to you to decide whether or not you want to waste your time in one more messy research project.

[This is a public notebook of what we've heard and read about the history of Obie. Ideally, an IC thing. Ideally, with more people's input than only Claire's and mine. Feel free to comment or to become an author (send any of us a pm through the Oberin forum if you're interested in the latter option). Just don't forget to label your posts according to the part of history they refer to.
Bits and pieces of storyline, posts about specific characters, links to old and dusty archives, everything is welcome, as long as pertinent.]

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