Talk:Monument of Remembrance/@comment-65.51.18.20-20160603180051/@comment-24634511-20170427175524

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"I have wandered lost in this damnable maze for…it must be a year now, yet have found no hope of escape…" "At times, a voice unknown to me seems to resound in the back of my mind, but my own daily fight for survival has left me with scant energy for pondering such mysteries…" "From here on I shall strive to make a record of my journeys, if only in brief. Perhaps a journal of my thoughts might bring some small comfort —to me, or to any who would follow… ---Arthacos"

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"I have encountered many fellow wanderers in this queer place… There are endeavors for which I would entreat their aid, yet any attempt to join my cause with theirs has been futile." "The others are oft preoccupied with matters of their own. Some regard me with hostility, while others slink away with nary a word… Indeed, many seem to have parted ways with their own reason." "Perhaps it is to be expected among those in such harsh environs, but with each rejection my pangs of solitude take on a sharper edge…"

Page 3 Location : The Pilgrim's Gauntlet - On the first floor, in the northern area with the rocks that can be climbed upwards to a chest.

"He lashed out at me like a wounded animal, malice clear in his bloodshot eyes. I have finally managed to calm him, somehow, and he told me his tale." "He spoke of losing his heart to a dragon, so that he might avenge himself against the noble responsible for his daughter’s death…" "But when I suggested a union he would not hear of it. Instead he vanished back into the labyrinth’s depths from which he came. I have not seen him since…"

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"…a women of scant few years. She said she was Arisen, too, and in search of armaments from some prophecy or legend." "She had a composure far beyond her years, and her manner gave me hope of fellowship. But she refused my invitation flatly, calling the duty hers to achieve alone." "Maybe she had some fear of me? She, too, I have not seen or heard of since. Perhaps she found the items she sought? Or perhaps something else found her first."

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"All the folk I have met in this labyrinth, without exception, are acquainted of a dragon. They are all Arisen." "Tis curious indeed to meet so many with a destiny so like my own… Have we all been led here? Who would design – or gain from – such a ruse? What could await us at its end?" "Questions I must ponder, but another day; I mustn’t let it distract me from the task I have sworn to complete…"

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"I am weary from toil and impatience both, and still the whispers continue…" "I have steeled myself for a hard journey, but ne’er did I anticipate an ordeal such as this… One might think I’d grow accustomed to the isolation, having long since lost my attendant pawn, but it only grows harder to bear. There are riftstones here, but they are all broken, and I shan’t expect to see them mended. Now my only companion is that strange voice…"

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"That voice… It speaks e’er within me, growing louder by the day, frustrating any attempt to ignore it. Even keeping hold of my own thoughts has become a struggle…" "Is this some omen of impending death? Clearly it is not the voice of my dragon steward…" "Its monologue is incessant, its word clear and crisp, but I cannot grasp their meaning. Perhaps strangest of all is how little I’m bothered by hearing it of late…"

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"Could this voice be attempting to instruct me how to proceed? Might it enlighten me about the darkness in which I’ve been sealed?" "But I must not forget! I have a duty to perform. A duty… But what!?" "Ah, ‘tis impossible to gather my thoughts! What was the duty I pledged myself to? What was it that once I believed!?"

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"…will record it here in case I should ever forget again: I am Arisen. Tis my duty sworn to bring everlasting peace to my homeland by making an offering of untainted souls‘ – one thousand human sacrifices – but as of yet I have fallen short of my obligation." "I swear again I will honor my promise to the dragon and receive its boon. I will locate and deliver the souls required, even in the depths of this dark place."

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"I had only to listen…" "What was once only fog is now as a spring day to my eyes…" "What was once only noise, now as a song to my ears…" "It whispers the answers before I need even ask questions…" "I must continue the sacrifices." "And so come the Arisen to this place, like salmon climbing down a great, dark stream…" "They aid not in life, but in death… their blood fulfilling my promise and my duty…" "...I had only to listen"

Page 11

Olra's Account

"To serve her master, and be as she commands. To be shaped in her image. That is the part of a pawn. But my master’s image is no longer her own. Defeated by the world-steward, she fell into perdition. Having witnessed her fail to achieve her purpose, my breast was filled with regret. Yet amid that darkness, a spark of light, too, took root. Within my soul, a crude and inchoate mirror to the Arisen’s own, a new strength emerged, I had awoken to love.

I came to notice the changes within me as his tireless ministrations saw my shattered memory slowly mend. I came to love him. Though his heart was lost, he seemed more alive than ever. He burned with new purpose: to slay the wyrm and avenge Grette. I became his pawn of my own will. I, too, saw in this a new calling. To love him, serve him, and lend him strength. Ultimately, to become as him. It was a fate I welcomed gladly.

Defeat me, or speak your wish and offer up a sacrifice. A second time, I heard the dragon’s bargain spoke. Yet I felt a strange reluctance in its tone. As if the ultimatum were given unwilling. And in that moment, I knew it. The wyrm we now faced was my former master transformed. The revelation tore him apart. Whichever his choice, the wages were cruel tragedy. A new and dark desire poured forth from his sundered soul. His wish for power to destroy all existence marked me for death.

And yet I never blamed him. For as my life was snuffled out. I held firm to my belief. The day would come, I knew, when he, our master, and I myself would find redemption."

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Ashe's Account

"Still a child, I stood amid the ashes of my village. Through the driving rains two figures came. One, a woman of golden hair, extended me her hand, perhaps in pity.

Grette was the name she gave. A hunter of sorts, she said.. Her quarry, the wyrm. As she spoke, the woman at her side simply stood and watched me, wordless. She was a pawn, come of a different world—the first I had seen. Her air was strange, yet somehow alluring.

I chose to join them, this Arisen and her pawn. It seemed that, or stand forever in the ruins of a lost life. They offered no words of invitation, yet neither did they turn me away as I followed. As we traveled, I was taught to fight. Grette was my mentor, my mother. She breathed new life into my parched soul. Then came the day the huntress found her mark. She left to face the wyrm… That day’s parting proved final.

Her pawn returned, alone and scarce alive. Gone was the bold and faithful myrmidon who had served as Grette’s steel. Her empty eyes stared through me now. And what of the wyrm? Had our mistress felled the beast and stayed calamity? The pawn held no answers, her mind and soul as broken as her body. Yet no more of the earth was swallowed up. No more was the sky stained black. It seemed the world had been ransomed. Or left, at least, to fester in the custody of humankind.

I was left with a single hope. A single wish. To bring back light to the deadened eyes of a masterless myrmidon. She was a pawn I knew it well. Not human. Not of this land. And what of it?

She bore Grette’s mien. Her face. Will or nil, I soon found myself in love."

Page 13

Grette's Account

"To know the unknown—that was my dream. To walk new frontiers and ancient halls alike, and to see all that this world holds. I was prepared to overcome any obstacle that barred my wandering.

And so, when the dragon plucked the heart from my breast, I knew only joy. With new power and ageless life, I was free. I knew no greater treasure than freedom. No higher virtue, And yet… What drove me, then, to take him with me? What ought have seemed a fetter became my greatest joy. My greatest love. And now… I haven’t even the freedom of my own will. I followed the Arisen’s path, past the wyrm and to the halls of the world-steward… And there, my path ended. In defeat, I was remade a dragon.

From the moment I donned a dragon’s skin, I was controlled by a single, driving, urge— To serve the Seneschal. This one thought consumed me, its pull inexorable. It was a hunger. An instinctual need. I burned for one who would defeat me. Who would succeed where I had fallen. I craved a new Arisen.

It is man’s will that animates him. Can a being devoid of will truly be said to live? Am I alive, as I am now? The will that drives this cursed form to seek the Arisen is not my own. My will, my love, and all I am is crushed beneath its weight. Its force does not allow me even the luxury of regret. I am near drunk with it, though I war against it still with every shred of what I was, In my final act as a thinking being, I chose him for my destroyer.

The question fell from my lips unbidden— What was your choice? Were it his wish, I would welcome death at his hands. Nay, I desired it. But his wavering gave voice to a new wish. That the world, its gods, and he himself be damned. My role was set. My actions bound. I existed in that moment solely to give his wishes form. And so I did. I answered his desire, his cry of despair… And his love, my former shadow, was the price.

My dreams have died, unfulfilled. Though I have neither the means to change that fact nor the free will to mourn them, perhaps… Perhaps what has transpired will serve some greater use. Let it be as a wedge struck into the chains that bind our endless, hollow, world, that those to follow may shatter them. I failed in my quest to explore the unknown. But if it serve some use in ending this cruel cycle, I can believe my life held meaning."

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"In memory of Grette,

Silent-hearted, dragonforged. With hair of gold and will of tempered steel.

You ransomed me from a village burnt to Ash—instilled life, and fight. Dearest mentor, I commend you now to rest eternal.

Your servant, bereft of master and memory, I keep now at my side. She lives on, your mirror in soul and body both, and I will not lose her as we have lost you.

This I swear before your empty grave."

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"Now, choose. Stand against me, or speak your wish.

Offer your beloved in forfeit, and I shall see your will done.

Choose? How am I to choose?

No matter my answer, the price is death. A hollow choice… Who am I to stand as arbiter of two lives? …Of two loves. What would you have me do? You brought me here. You… If this be the will of the gods… the order of the world… Then damn the lot of them! I’ll tear the whole of it asunder!

Very well… If that be your wish, I shall claim my price.

Stop! NOOOOOO!"

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"“You have been chosen.” So saying, the wyrm prised the heart from my breast,

I was made Arisen: known to the dragon, and bound to hunt it. It is a fate I embrace. What use have I for a heart left hollow?

In a world without sweet Grette—my mentor, my mother, my beloved…

I live only to see the dragon that claimed her slain. I will see its scaly hide stripped from bone by my hands ere I rest"

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"…Arisen. Bearer of the dragon’s mark. Undying corpse, enjoined to make your will manifest.

If my voice reaches you, heed me well.

The Arisen, the Seneschal, the whole cursed world… All is but an illusion.

A meaningless refrain. A hollow echo… What sense is there in giving one’s life for these falsehoods?

I damn them all.

And I will not cease in my destruction until the last senseless cycle is broken, the last bond rest to dust."