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DemonicDarkwraith -> Respite (8/21/2021 17:13:58)
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Respite
Location: Reckoning -> To the War! -> Respite
Level/Quest/Items required: Completion of Iconoclasm, 50% War Meter
Release Date: August 21st, 2021
Objective: A pause in the unending onslaught...
Objective completed: Break's over.
Experience rewarded: 0
Gold rewarded: 0
Monsters
None
NPCs
Notha
Uaanta
Rewards
None
Dialogue
*As the battle in the Firmament continues, Uaanta defeats a Restored Waterphage.*
Uaanta: There are... So many of them...
<Character>: Getting tired, Uaanta?
Uaanta: You know I'm not. These old bones aren't even close to breaking.
Uaanta: Maybe the Makers didn't make me, but I am who I am.
Uaanta: And I'm not ready to rest just yet.
<Character>: Glad to hear it.
<Character>: What about you, <Dragon>?
<Dragon>: I'm just warming up! | *Confident roar!*
Uaanta: I don't need to know Draconic to understand that! What's our next target?
*You, your dragon, and Uaanta prepare to battle more of Notha and Myalos' minions, only for Notha to blast them as she arrives.*
<Character>: Notha!
Uaanta: Come to face us yourself? Or only to flee should things not go your way?
Notha: I'm just here to talk. To give you a respite, while, well...
*Notha looks above as Temblor continues to attack Myalos' construct before focusing back on you, your dragon, and Uaanta.*
Notha: I don't want you two dead, after all.
Uaanta: Could have fooled me, with your endless army of golems and machines.
Notha: Surely they're no challenge for the "Champions of the Avatars"?
Notha: I just need you occupied, and... out of the way.
Notha: Big things are happening.
Notha: And we little folk should take care not to stray underfoot.
Uaanta: And if I just take you down here and now?
Notha: You can't.
Notha: You know your blows won't land. You'd be wasting your energy.
Notha: No, let us talk.
Notha: And let us gaze across this shattered Firmament.
*You, your dragon, Uaanta, and Notha look above at the now breached Firmament.*
Notha: They couldn't even bother to stay on Lore.
Notha: No, to... impress upon you their majesty, to awe you with their power...
Notha: To hide from their responsibilities, they created this... this bubble.
Notha: This secret sphere of time and space, hidden in the Void.
Uaanta: The Void?
Notha: The Void. That twisty-turny nothing-and-everything between planes.
Notha: I had my suspicions of where they were hiding.
Notha: But to enter the Void, one requires unimaginable power. Power, and knowledge.
Notha: Or... you just need the right tools.
<Character>: So you used Myalos.
Notha: I didn't even know if it was possible! The Exalted... well, some of them, at least, must have passed through the Void at one point.
Notha: Hence their ruins scattered in the depths of Lhe'Shyiac.
Notha: Or maybe they had a more direct route from the Plains.
*Notha pauses as she wonders how the Exalted passed through the Void.*
Notha: ...It matters not. Yes, <Character>. Myalos was my key.
Notha: Perhaps you've encountered ruins such as Myalos before? Ancient structures, broken, and alien.
Notha: They came before us. Before our world. Before even the Exalted.
Notha: And as I found out, as I had hoped, there are those such as Myalos, who have the capability to pierce the planes.
<Character>: And what have you done to Myalos?
*Myalos unleashes a beam of Doom energy upon Kyanos, who defends in response.*
Notha: Is it so hard to believe that I convinced him with my words?
<Character>: He's out there fighting the Avatars on his own, with all his might! And you're saying you just... convinced him?
Notha: Have you forgotten that it was the Avatars who first imprisoned him?
Notha: It was the Avatars who then declared him Maleurous, and along with all our fellows, locked us away in some magical artifact, to be forgotten?
Notha: Certainly, you may have "saved" Myalos.
Notha: But what of his own dreams and ambitions? You freed him from corruption... but would that have been the end?
Notha: Had he not fled, surely the Avatars would have hunted him down sooner or later.
Uaanta: He made his choice. And don't you talk of his dreams and ambitions.
Uaanta: You only wanted to use him. As a tool!
Notha: He was forced by circumstances the Avatars put him in.
<Character>: No. He didn't want to be used by you. You can't pin everything on the Avatars!
Notha: ...And yet, it all worked out. He fell out of sight. And I offered him his dream back.
Notha: You saved him from the clutches of corruption and losing himself to Doom.
Notha: And I saved him from death. And gave him the means to fight his own battle against Destiny.
Notha: This is the balance. The balance of the Exalted. The dichotomy.
Notha: Of the Exalted, were two races, the same, yet opposite.
Notha: I do hope you're taking notes.
*Notha projects a hologram of a gold and white plaque, which contains similar features from Uaanta and Notha's shrines to the Makers; blue eyes and red blood can be seen on the screaming faces in the left and right sides of the plaque respectively.*
Notha: The Celestials were beings of Destiny.
Notha: Of... "Good".
Notha: And the Infernals, then, were beings of Doom. Evil.
Notha: Words are just words, though. Labels. These were their natures. Built into their very beings.
Notha: And yet, they worked together to throw down their oppressors. These fundamental opposites co-existed and fought as one.
Notha: Against that ever-present yoke...
Notha: ...of Destiny.
Notha: The Avatars, the Makers- they are beings of order. Of Destiny. Their false balance is stagnation.
Notha: But do not misunderstand. I do not intend to drag Lore into Doom. Into... darkness, for example.
Notha: To do so is to decay. To erode and self-destruct, until we can hang onto whatever sliver remains, or we dissipate.
Notha: No. We, of the mortal races... We were made with both Doom and Destiny entwined.
Notha: We self-balance. We determine our own Destiny, our own Doom. Our own Good and Evil.
Notha: This is our soul! Our soul that cries out when oppressed, that calls us to action!
Notha: That holds back our hand from going too far. That measures out justice.
Notha: From what I've come to understand of Myalos, he was created to be a... false being. An artificial sentience. A tool.
Notha: But that seed of Doom that was consuming him- that you freed him from-
Notha: It... infected him. Balanced him. Made him whole.
Notha: I imagine something similar must have happened to your Lock and Key.
Uaanta: ...
Notha: It's a lot to process, I know.
Notha: But I am no liar.
<Character>: The Avatars are changing. If Myalos and Lock and Key could be... infected...
<Character>: Is that not what's happening to the Avatars?
Notha: ...
Notha: I couldn't say. I doubt they'd let me ask.
Uaanta: And if I were to tell you that the Makers... have indeed been...
Uaanta: ...corrupted... by this balancing force, this Doom...
Notha: ...It is not out of the realm of possibility.
Notha: ...
Notha: No. It does not... It does not exonerate them from their crimes.
Notha: And who's to say that they won't succumb to their old habits?
Notha: No. There is only the safest and most efficient option.
Notha: Thank you, Uaanta, <Character>.
Notha: You have been most enlightening students.
Notha: And knowing your tenacity... Well...
Notha: Think about what you're fighting for as you deal with some more of my toys.
Notha: As for that small dragon who keeps following you around... I wonder...
*Notha puts on her goggles to look at your dragon, presumably to gain knowledge from it; your dragon glares angrily at her.*
Notha: Hm.
Notha: How unusual.
Notha: ...It seems there's much more I do not understand.
Uaanta: We were not made to understand the workings of the gods.
Notha: And yet we strive ever onward. Funny, that.
Notha: See you around, heroes.
*Notha teleports away.*
<Dragon>: That lady gives me shivers all over my scales. | *Disconcerted grumble*
Uaanta: Well? What do you think, <Character>? That's certainly some story...
Uaanta: But she clearly doesn't have the whole picture, either.
Uaanta: Even if... even if what she says is all true...
Uaanta: Then that just makes me feel better in my choice.
Uaanta: I've seen what the Makers have done for Lhe'Shyiac. And I trust them, and Lock and Key as well.
<Character>: Whatever choices we make, will be our own. This, I know.
<Character>: However this will end, all we can do now is battle on.
Uaanta: Well said!
Complete Quest
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