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    The Arx Secrets Thread

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Rough and Rowdy
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    • DrQuinnD
      DrQuinn @Tez
      last edited by

      @Tez It seems like later players were able to run with that second secret (I’m sure they were able to uncover more about it than I ever did), so it was definitely a good swap!

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      • OmenO
        Omen @TNP
        last edited by

        @TNP That was my interpretation as well. I pursued it for a while on him in 2022 the best I could but it ultimately stagnated. I’d love to know the meaning behind it, too!

        I could never grow trees
        Still I planted my seeds

        RozR 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • NarsonN
          Narson
          last edited by

          Preston’s secret was nice and easy. He was the bastard son of Fawkuhl Valardin, the Dominus of the Faith (legate at the time). His mother was no-one important, but tried to blackmail Fawkuhl using Preston. Fawkuhl had her killed, and presented Preston as an abandoned orphan and took him into the rectory.

          Archeron’s was that when he was a ranger with Grayson during his exile, he saw something during the War of the Silence. His fought a guy with a vinewhip, hence his scars, and Archeron managed to kill the man, but was left wounded and the last survivor. While there, lying wounded in the woods, he saw something - or rather didn’t, as there was a hole in his memory. But at night, he had nightmares about that moment and would wake up just before the thing’s face was revealed.

          I discovered that he was being hunted by Fade, which is why he generally avoided the woods after that. He ultimately got Fade off his back by making a pragmatic deal with the Abyssal lot. And at the end of the game, Archeron gathered the Tydes and weathered out the second reckoning with his cousin Reveka, using a blood candle she sent him for his wedding to summon her.

          When someone shows you who they are, over and over again? Believe them.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • RozR
            Roz @Omen
            last edited by

            @Omen Yeah, from having RPed with several Jashers over the years, I’m pretty confident that he was godtouched by Mangata, but I don’t know if there were more details.

            she/her | playlist

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            • NarsonN
              Narson @Snackness
              last edited by

              @Snackness said in The Arx Secrets Thread:

              ETA: @Narson NOT DEAD!

              Just abandoning Preston for /years/ without writing then. Harumph.

              I did almost do another journal entry to Esoka and Thena before the end.

              When someone shows you who they are, over and over again? Believe them.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • kalakhK
                kalakh @Evilgrayson
                last edited by

                @Evilgrayson said in The Arx Secrets Thread:

                @Rhamnious Looks like the Accords from here. Red Wardens, Prismatic Order, Triarchy, Smiling Shadows, and True Lyceum. Two ‘good’ orgs, two ‘bad’ orgs, and one ‘neutral’.

                It’s this, yeah.

                It occurs to me I can break open those songs now, so I think I’ll do that. Hi! I wrote Lucita’s last three True Songs (they were all action results), which ended up being some combination of riddles of current events, and vague predictions of future ones. The upside and downside of Arx’s setting was that destiny and fate were, canonically, not a thing, so any prophecies amounted to very shaky versions of Christmas Yet to Come, an ‘if events continue as they are now’ sort of thing, but even more precarious. This meant GMs weren’t constrained to following them, but it also meant players might be kinda disappointed if predicted events didn’t happen. I tried to be very, very vague with anything that wasn’t just a version of ‘this is happening right now’, even if I had a good sense of where a plot was going, so that it might be interpreted however which way. I’m not sure I was very successful at that, but that was the intent.

                I really loved writing Arx clues, and I really, really liked seeing folks run with these, so I hope they ended up being entertaining at the least.

                They’re really long, so I’m going to break up the songs into individual posts and not post them all at once.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                • WizzW
                  Wizz @Tez
                  last edited by

                  @Tez said in The Arx Secrets Thread:

                  A good example of how things that could sound fun can fall apart on contact with players.

                  I’m curious to hear more secrets that just Didn’t Work, for reasons that weren’t just like “oh well everyone involved idled out years ago.” I remember a few people vaguely griping about them in the old Arx thread on MSB back in the day and would find it really interesting to hear the full details about what made them so challenging when it came to actual play versus the intent when they were written.

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                  • kalakhK
                    kalakh
                    last edited by kalakh

                    Keep in mind, I wrote these as deliberately vague in a lot of places, these were just my original intent as to what was being alluded to.

                    [There’s Nothing to Worry About] (25 Rating)

                    I could have named this The First Verse. HINDSIGHT.

                    When tower falls and shakes the world
                    Metal speaks, red cloak unfurled
                    Dragon thunders, Children act
                    And hardened hearts must make a pact

                    This is about Copper’s death and events immediately following.

                    Tower falls = the clock tower
                    Metal speaks = Brass’s proposal
                    Red cloak unfurled = Ashe’s proposal
                    Dragon thunders = Cardia’s proposal
                    Children act = the Undying Empire’s proposal

                    And hardened hearts must make a pact = this is referring to the Accords, which was a rather fraught treaty being negotiated between various secret orgs at the time, with the purpose of more thoroughly binding Ruin through very hard alliances. It was still being negotiated when I came on staff, so this was a lot of hard work between PCs, but it was ultimately successful.

                    With Serpent severed, Griffons rise
                    Bloodied water draws all eyes

                    Thrax Civil War, Alaric III has renewed interest in returning to Arvum (though this didn’t ultimately end up happening, it was one of the potential plots for a small timeskip after the Horned God died for a little bit).

                    But ancient vengeance lies in wait
                    And more than swords must battle Fate

                    Just referring to the Horned God plot about to shift into overdrive after the civil war ended, which sets the stage for the rest of this:

                    Princess of Trees and Queen of Wood,

                    Mia and Samantha were both Daughters of the Horned God, Mia had been recognized as queen by the Sylv’alfar of Last Oak, Samantha, sadly, never could keep a player in the last years.

                    Whispers lead where he once stood

                    There was an attempt to find a spot where the Horned God had sacrificed previous Daughters. A bunch of vengeful ghosts revealed where it was, and Volcica brought a chunk of the altar he used to Harrow Hall.

                    Bitter thorns seek to atone
                    No daughter of his should stand alone

                    The poor, poor Thornweaves. This refers primarily to Oberion.

                    Speakers, seek what once was lost
                    But singers must accept the cost
                    All but two, their souls must try
                    One is dead, and one must die

                    This whole thing is about the Long Song of the Venandi plot, which had some fits and starts due to real life kicking a number of people repeatedly in the face. The ultimate meaning of the lines more or less stayed true, though: the spellsingers who wanted to sing Wolf’s Song had to “try their souls”, which was originally going to be a harrowing series of dangerous tests, but ultimately ended up being some really significant personal sacrifices.

                    “One is dead and one must die” is referring to Sunaia (who was the reincarnation of the first Mor’ral to fall to Legion), and Shard (who was really close to being semi offscreened with a near/fake death). They both had khati souls, which meant they didn’t have to jump through the same hoops to be able to sing the Song. So, yeah, that means Sunaia could have potentially been one of the singers.

                    When Traitor takes once dead queen’s crown
                    Shadows of white must strike him down
                    If tasks complete, and duties end
                    Beware, Red Queen is not your friend

                    Of all the stanzas I wrote for these songs, this one I’m least happy about, because I was basically just throwing stuff at the wall without having any idea what might happen there. It’s referring to the Horned God taking Alarice’s crown and very, very vaguely to the White Stewards, who had at that point wanted to change their whole purpose around to actually helping the Compact rather than serving the whims of Aetheris. Red Queen here could have referred to Ruby (the most obvious interpretation) or Monica Thrax (who had been reincarnated and who was the one who originally took Alarice’s crown for herself, leading to it being lost). None of this ended up being a thing aside from the Horned God taking the crown though.

                    Wardens stand, look to the north
                    Watch those claws he’s sending forth
                    If hungry eyes should break the wall
                    One will die to save them all

                    Wardens refers to the Red Wardens, and the wall to the Castle of Yesterday. At this point the Horned God’s attention had been drawn to the Castle of Yesterday through the Mor’ral (specifically, Tolv), as being both Copper’s castle and probably full of primum. The idea was the castle might eventually be attacked by the Horned God, and the potential death was Irony, one of Copper’s adopted dragon kids who wanted really badly to be a heroic knight, who might sacrifice herself to save her siblings and the other Red Wardens if things went poorly.

                    Ultimately, the attack did happen when Helena Thornweave rolled up, but the dragon kids were shuffled off right as it was happening (the folks who showed up to defend the castle got a letter about how they’d bought time or something afterward), and you could argue the death ended up being Petraea Livy instead.

                    Mad mage’s kin and choices three
                    He will not forget what used to be
                    Watch gem of light and Queen of Black
                    Lest one of these may not turn back

                    This refers to Skald’s kids (Aleksei, Redrain) and the people of the Third Choice, which were the various Ravashari clans. I’d originally intended to do a lot more with the Ravashari, with the Horned God’s forces hunting them down for sacrifice and out of revenge. This would have involved an attack on Riva, but also a lot of hunting of the various non-Compact affiliated groups that PCs would have had the choice to try to save, etc.

                    Gem of light and Queen of Black refers to Prism and Queen Triscali, respectively. That’s…complicated. Prism effectively split her soul off into parts for a while, so her various reincarnations had their own minds/bodies, but were still connected. During the attack on Sungreet, where there was a thrall rebellion, Triscali turned up to help with the fight, and ended up being poisoned by the Horned God, and slowly corrupted, which also put the other Prism pieces in danger (so, Prism, Esera).

                    Weeping sister seeks release
                    And only song can bring her peace
                    Find hollowed throne, and there inside
                    Sing your soul where she once died

                    This was for Tikva’s secret, where the Lianhan was effectively a ghost attached to her sister’s reincarnated soul, suffering an desperate to finish the song that killed her so that she could move on to the Wheel. It’s probably the most straightforward thing in these songs, it happened pretty much exactly like this, with people finding A’kioh’s throne room and Tikva doing some soul singing.

                    In forest dark, a mother’s fall
                    And only one will hear that call
                    Choose their bonds or treachery
                    Or kill them all, and set them free

                    This refers to the Witchwood and the Mor’ral. It was specific to an individual PCs secret, though the Witchwood story ended up being solved in a different way. Originally the PC’s mother was meant to be the voice reaching out to try to get him to come to the Witchwood and free the Mor’ral (human and otherwise), the role was eventually shifted to being a named NPC in the Mor’ral backstory. Very vague possibilities of freeing the Mor’ral: break their chains, trick them somewhere they wouldn’t be a danger to other people, or just kill them off.

                    Where kings are broken, tyrants reign
                    A would-be God will do the same

                    The Horned God ultimately planned to carry out his final step at Harrow Hall.

                    Moon blood drips, wolves have no doubt
                    All know their time will soon run out

                    The red moon would signal shit getting real. Originally the Primasen of the Wolves might have played a bigger part here, but there were plenty of “wolves” already involved that could guess at what that meant.

                    Heed these words, this warning take,
                    When slaver dies, all chains must break.

                    When we rolled into endgame, I ended up more or less a player rather than a staffer in the involvement. Writs being broken and vanishing as a possibility from the Dream, however, was a pretty long planned thing for if the Horned God was killed (something we figured was much, much more likely than not, though it wasn’t set in stone). This was one of the few things I knew was still going to be a factor going in, though I didn’t know the details of how it would eventually shake out.

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                    • kalakhK
                      kalakh
                      last edited by

                      [The Second Verse] (30 Rating) Tags: True Songs

                      Second verse
                      Much like the first
                      All list’ners should take heed

                      Some things are done
                      There’s more to come
                      The path is long indeed

                      This is all pretty straightforward. Yo, listen up, some of the things in the last song have happened, more stuff’s on the way.

                      On sorrowed seas
                      No balm can ease
                      A brother twice betrayed

                      Once more referring to the Thrax civil war, which had just turned hot, but specifically to Dagon Thrax, who kicked it off. There were a lot of really opportunistic NPC assholes egging Dagon on, but his major reasons for doing this were not only genuine, but completely true. The first was Victus challenging him and then taking the position of High Lord, which was not actually how things were meant to be done, but early game Thrax was extremely weird and ran off theme a lot. The second was a PC who had effectively agreed to trade one of his kids to Reveka Tyde (I forget details here), as part of some deal. He found out about it and Was Not Happy.

                      No puppeteer
                      Just men to fear
                      And a price that must be paid

                      A lot of folks really, really, really thought Dagon was either Donrai or being controlled by him, and a lot of other folks thought he’d been corrupted by the Abyss and that’s why he’d turned against Victus. Neither were true (if anything, the PC side was a lot more involved with the Abyss and Abyssal forces), this was an attempt to put that out there. Dunno how successful it was.

                      Though home reclaimed
                      And allies gained
                      Griffin will find no peace

                      Basically going into ‘status of X house’ for a few stanzas here. This one’s obvious: House Grayson had just got Bastion back, and made some very tentative agreements with House Blacktree - an Abandoned House that had been occupying it, but which fought alongside Compact forces in the final battle- to stand against the Horned God.

                      Dragon stand tall
                      He’ll come for all
                      Take vengeance piece by piece

                      Watch out House Valardin. Could have referred to either Malar or the Horned God, if you wanted to you could argue this ended up being Azazel.

                      Fox murders gold
                      Yet gains four-fold
                      Once more between the worlds

                      House Velenosa ultimately killed Malrico when he decided to make a push for greater power. This was certainly a good thing, and they managed to recover a fair amount of wealth he’d stolen over the centuries, but something that I don’t think really swung into being all that much due to real life was that this returned Velenosa to a previous state of being really in tune with ghosts and things of that nature. I don’t know a lot of details of that, I’m afraid, as it wasn’t a plot I was handling.

                      And blood drunk doom
                      Will slumber soon
                      'Round chain silk fingers curled

                      That damn House Pravus messing up the animal motif. This is referring to the threat of Kal’kul’raja (I know I’ve completely misspelled this) being ended. Kal’kul’raja was one of the Primal Spirits (Volcano, maybe? I’m not sure), who developed a taste for cannibalizing other First Children, something which made it get so dangerous that it destroyed Dawnhome (the original home of the First Children), and so powerful that it could not be killed, only put to sleep. This is the origin of spirits absolutely hating blood magic, for the record, and if you think this sounds rather familiar, yes, this is also the reason the Maw of the Blizzard was banished from Cardia. Dawnhome was originally in the Saffron Chain, and this stanza is also referring to House Pravus solidifying its grip on the Saffron Chain in general.

                      Once freedom hath
                      A sister’s wrath
                      Her shackles now denied

                      I’m not sure how clear it was to players, but the sacrifice that freed the Thornweave from Legion also immunized them to being enslaved again. Helena Thornweave was originally on board with the Horned God’s plans, but ended up completely twisted from the experience of being bound to Legion, and discovered, much to her horror and fury, that she could never go back.

                      She’ll let it burn
                      And burn in turn
                      There’s nowhere he can hide

                      Helena was especially pissed off at her brother Oberion, and did a lot of things just to spite him in specific. This ultimately led to her own destruction, but Oberion didn’t survive it.

                      The Blizzard’s jaws
                      Sun’s blood it draws
                      Elf prince’s deal has swayed

                      The Horned God made a bargain with the Maw of the Blizzard to go fuck up the Rex’alfar city in the Everwinter to keep them out of his hair (and also because the Maw was happy to do that anyway).

                      Keep one eye open
                      Vigil unbroken
                      Frozen death is but delayed

                      The Maw of the Blizzard was going to become a major antagonist at some point.

                      Though long forgot
                      It’s rested not
                      A dark and hungry wood

                      This is referring to the Witchwood again. The Witchwood was the home of Clan Mor’ral, an enchanted forest that would shift and change in order to protect the Mor’ral from outsiders, hiding their settlements and causing invaders to get horribly lost at best. Once the Mor’ral fell to Legion, the Witchwood itself was corrupted into a shardhaven that slowly expanded its borders (and sometimes simply moved altogether), devouring everything. Those emits about vanishing villages and Knights of Solace outposts were because of the Witchwood’s expansion; once the Mor’ral started acting outside of their home, the forest itself started growing.

                      Kingdoms stripped bare
                      None enter there
                      And the wise say no one should

                      Something I really didn’t have time to expand upon when I eventually ran the scene involving the Witchwood was that the reason no current maps had the location of the barony Clan Mor’ral constantly feuded with marked on them was because the Witchwood eventually grew over it.

                      Anyone entering the Witchwood would have the forest itself turn on them, with the exception of people with Mor’ral blood and/or souls.

                      On each side found
                      Both free and bound
                      Wolves giants and unsworn

                      Though be a cost
                      Much more is lost
                      If a pact is met with scorn

                      Basically just a suggestion for folks to make a lot of alliances in order to face the Horned God, and a note that potential allies existed.

                      An alliance birthed
                      Sleeps 'neath the earth
                      And soars across the sky

                      The slumbering Sylv’alfar and Dragons, respectively

                      The time’s upon us
                      Rebuild the promise
                      Or alone each one will die

                      This refers to the Promise of Oakhaven, basically bringing a bunch of allies together again in order to fight the Horned God and other threats.

                      The Spider’s bane
                      Destruction plain
                      Red Queen claimed Gray Queen’s crown

                      We’re back to Monica Thrax taking Alarice’s crown for her own. Spider’s bane refers to the weapon the Horned God took from the sack of Bastion, something meant to invoke the sun and destroy the Nox’alfar.

                      What whisper found below
                      So very long ago
                      Must now be swiftly hunted down

                      Caithness was the one who found and then figured out how to use this weapon. There were control gems or something that PCs needed to find in order to disable it so it couldn’t be used by the Horned God. I’m not sure how far this plot went before real life did more face kicking.

                      One stone fall
                      Heard not at all
                      In winter’s endless grasp

                      But none can hide
                      The mountain slide
                      Seeking crimson tears at last

                      Easily the vaguest one of these I did. Originally, there was going to be a massive invasion of the Northlands by shav’arvani from the Everwinter, with some very bare hints that something was happening up there.

                      A weapon masked
                      Unsheathed at last
                      Her fury flares and flashes

                      Petraea Livy was - knowingly - meant to be a weapon against Malar by her dragon, Cynara. She was effectively a nuclear bomb waiting to go off, a very powerful pyromancer with a deep well of anger that could be drawn on. When Helena Thornweave marched on Arx (and the Castle of Yesterday), Petraea chose to use this against her forces instead, with Cynara’s blessing.

                      With plans long laid
                      A game long played
                      Burn an empire down to ashes

                      Cynara’s ultimate goal was to make a power play against Malar to overthrow the Talons and install the Scales (and thus herself) as being the rulers of Cardia. She herself wanted revenge for the deaths of her siblings and her father Corusadin, though ultimately Corusadin was secretly alive and hiding under the name of Relavor. While this ended up being largely offscreened, it was successful, and Petraea’s sacrifice played a part; the sudden destabilization of Cardia due to writs being broken provided the opening she needed, even though she didn’t know that was what was going to happen.

                      Rogue king’s blood sleeps
                      Rouses fears kept deep
                      The hottest fires can still be drowned

                      This is still plot related to Cardia. Alaric and Brianna’s illegitimate son, Alarion, was someone who had the power to influence people through dreams, and this included dragons. There was a prophecy about how he was going to be the one to destroy Cardia, and the dragons took pre-emptive measures to remove him from the board. Yes, this is a prophecy about a prophecy.

                      Sent smiling knives
                      But he still survives
                      The dreamer has been found

                      The Smiling Shadows were hired to kidnap Alarion, at which point everything bounced off the rails as far as Cardia was concerned. The Talons eventually got him, but he was subsequently rescued by PCs that were being helped by…Cynara, who saw Alarion as a means with which to overthrow Malar.

                      Hope’s sacrifice
                      Can’t happen twice
                      In fire are heroes tempered

                      Copper’s death (or ‘death’, it’s complicated) happened in the process of turning time back to keep Azazel from getting free and ending the world. As Copper was the only one who could or would ever wield time magic, this is basically just saying ‘no more second chances’, the PCs will have to be the heroes who end the threat. Azazel getting loose was always intended to be the event that preceded magic returning to Arvum, so I really like how things ended up shaking out here.

                      Events equivalent
                      Make this time different
                      In the end all things remembered

                      Copper’s actions only delayed the Second Reckoning, with all the pieces still in place for it to happen if Azazel got loose. With Azazel dead, the Despite would break, and people would remember all the stuff he’d hidden away/eaten. This would not have necessarily been entirely a good thing; remembering magic also includes remembering all the horrors that come with magic, and Azazel did a lot of absolutely horrifying shit that people would then have knowledge of. There was a hint of this some years back when a group of PCs went out to kill a bunch of Azazel!crows, where the Despite broke in several places causing an emit where a lot of NPCs in Arx remembered past clearly magical events.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 6
                      • SmileS
                        Smile
                        last edited by

                        Also memories of horrible stuff mages did. The anti-magic Forgotten Sentinels would have had a lot of public support.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                        • AposA
                          Apos @helvetica
                          last edited by

                          @helvetica said in The Arx Secrets Thread:

                          Lumen had a killer demon tricked into being trapped in the body of a little bunny rabbit. He horribly devoured her enemies.

                          ngl I think people got a good example of my sense of humor when I added secrets like that, the actual secret text here for posterity:

                          "To be fair, Lumen hadn’t really expected the rabbit to talk to her.

                          It seemed such a mild thing to adopt the obvious run away pet rabbit. She had just received a locket as an anonymous gift, a beautiful if quite strange locket shaped in to resemble a rabbit, with a very old picture inside of a woman that bore a striking resemblence to Lumen herself. It was somewhere between charming and creepy, as anonymous gifts go, and perhaps it was a sign when she just found a rabbit in her room the night after she received the locket.

                          It had to be a runaway pet, spirited away by another Whisper, of course, and while dinner wasn’t out of the question, Lumen couldn’t say what quite had stayed her hand and allowed the fluffy floppy eared varmit to stay. The white, wide-eyed hare looked like an adorable snowball, gazing at her thoughtfully, and maybe it had just a tiny edge of an imploring edge to it. But she did tell him that he was permitted to stay.

                          And then on the thirteenth night of the month it spoke to her.

                          Baron Flopsarian the Annihilator of the White Legion, Viceroy of the Mirror Plains, Grand Vizier to the Archduke of the Silent Wastes, and sometimes called Flopsy the White Rabbit, explained that he is a guardian demon that was bound to the locket some five hundred years ago by a Whisper. He’s still rather indignant at the form he’s forced to take, in accordance to the original Whisper’s directives binding him to whomever holds the Locket of the White Rabbit, but he points out that in fairness, he was expecting someone taller for his next master so she really can’t throw any stones. Flopsy says in accordance to the Convenant of the White Rabbit, he is a guardian charged with defense of the Whisper House if the one holding the locket commands him to do so when it comes under direct attack, and also he can answer one question to the best of his ability truthfully on the thirteenth night of the month. He says if she’d like to renegotiate the terms, it’s fine by him, and she just needs to break the locket and free him. The first Truly Answered Question she asked if that was a bad idea had him admit, “Oh yeah, absolutely terrible. Under no circumstances should you do that.”

                          For most of the time, she just has Flopsy the white rabbit following her around. Most people never, ever notice the hateful little eyes, and he never speaks to anyone else under any circumstances."

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 11
                          • SillylilyS
                            Sillylily
                            last edited by

                            He was a belated but wonderful inheritance.
                            (oocly, icly Aco has opinions) still going strong and well loved.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                            • B
                              Buttercup
                              last edited by Buttercup

                              Abbas was touched or marked or something by Despair. Right before he died he was about to take over House Ischia/Seraceni and had sacrificed a ship full of prisoners stranding them out in the ocean. He died before that occurred, but I did get to add a House to the game which was cool.

                              Ahriman was in a body timeshare with a demon.

                              Gunther was a Dwarf in a past life, I think? I actually wish I would have gone after his secrets and uncovered more about him. Such a great bit.

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                              • W
                                watno @helvetica
                                last edited by

                                @helvetica said in The Arx Secrets Thread:

                                Lumen had a killer demon tricked into being trapped in the body of a little bunny rabbit. He horribly devoured her enemies.

                                Cedric was on to Flopsy.

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                • kalakhK
                                  kalakh
                                  last edited by kalakh

                                  This one was written shortly after we’d decided internally to end the game, and released shortly after it was announced. You can kinda tell with this one that I only had vague ideas - if that - of what was going to happen. The last few months I was largely just finishing up plot ends I still had left to GM, and then playing as a PC, so I was about as ignorant as anyone else as to what was going to happen.

                                  [The Final Verse] (25 Rating)
                                  Turn an ear, children of Choice
                                  Listen now, this single voice
                                  Look well and see the looming eye
                                  It tells a tale none can deny

                                  Eye = moon

                                  Kinslayer bends all wills to his
                                  Ambition set to change what is
                                  His vengeance near has made him blind
                                  For vengeance cold is paid in kind

                                  Just talking about the Horned God again.

                                  Where human kings have left their mark
                                  In ruins deep and cold and dark
                                  There Traitor goes, his sins laid bare
                                  But of the Three he does not care

                                  Once again talking about how he’s going to do his final ritual at Harrow Hall, and how he thinks he’s safe from the Kindly Voices.

                                  The walls of time will still hold fast
                                  A sister’s madness drowned at last
                                  But another sister’s lost to fire
                                  And Mania dark can still inspire

                                  This is referring to what happened at the end of Helena Thornweave’s attacks on Arx. The walls of time refers to the Castle of Yesterday, the first sister is Helena, and the second sister is Petraea.

                                  Joscelin, who was Inspiration, split off into both Inspiration and Mania at seeing Petraea sacrifice herself. This is why a lot of witnessing PCs got magesight and people had to do a check to avoid getting caught up in the supernatural emotion of everything. We didn’t really do a lot of player-facing stuff with demigods and the like, and I’m not the person to really explain it, but maybe Arx 2 will go into more detail on how that whole thing works.

                                  New voices brave have paid the cost
                                  To learn and live what once was lost
                                  Though all are gone one still remains
                                  The chosen sing to break his chains

                                  The Long Song of the Venandi has been learned and the human singers have sacrificed to Wolf in order to gain the ability to sing it.

                                  Cloak, crystal, sorrowed, shadow’s glee
                                  And old gray fox makes two sides three
                                  In secret foes have forged alliance
                                  But more may aid their bold defiance

                                  Brought up above, but a little more detail.

                                  Cloak = Red Wardens
                                  Crystal = The Prismatic Order
                                  Sorrowed = Despair (or the Triarchy in general)
                                  Shadow’s glee = Smiling Shadows
                                  Old Gray Fox = The True Lyceum

                                  This is referring to the Accords again, which at that point had been well established. All this and the next stanza are really referring to is a suggestion that more folks could join the Accords for the big finale. This didn’t really end up happening (time being the biggest factor) I think, though the secret orgs in general became a lot less secret.

                                  Bring to light what lies unspoken
                                  Of enemy bonds in trust unbroken
                                  Forest scorned may make a vow
                                  Dragon blood your time is now

                                  Forest scorned = Gray Forest Fellowship
                                  Dragon blood = Cardia

                                  Basically two secret orgs that could possibly be brought in, but these were just tossed in as examples.

                                  No wars of blood can be undone
                                  No true regrets bring back the sun
                                  But human lives are not so long
                                  Thus fleeting deeds can still be strong

                                  Speaking of secret orgs, this could be seen as aimed at the White Stewards in particular, but mostly it’s a general call to action for people to put aside their differences and form alliances. Bit of a theme in this whole deal.

                                  A season’s turn is drawing near
                                  A time of death and blood and fear
                                  In this bold hearts remain unshaken
                                  For every choice is one step taken

                                  Shit’s about to hit the fan. As I said before, one of the few things I knew about what would happen when the Horned God died (because it had been established years prior), was that killing him would break all writs and release Azazel. This was not inevitable; it was an actual choice, and if writs hadn’t been broken, a different big bad would have served as the final conflict. But it was definitely the most likely outcome.

                                  There is no path, your way untrod,
                                  By elf or wyrm or fiend or god
                                  Where all of them have feared to tread
                                  Skald’s children there shall walk instead

                                  Skald’s children = humans/humanity, but pretty self explanatory.

                                  For the only lasting truth is change
                                  And nothing now will stay the same
                                  Blood red sky and dooming curse
                                  Listen well, this final verse

                                  Also self explanatory, but a meta nod to the end of the game, and how Arx 2 will be quite different in many ways.

                                  That’s it! Thanks for putting up with three songs worth of often obscure nonsense.

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                                  • crawfishC
                                    crawfish @kalakh
                                    last edited by

                                    @kalakh When you included Joscelin and Petraea’s thing in there I legit got weepy. 💜💜

                                    I draw things! http://www.mahaldoodles.com

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                                      Arik
                                      last edited by

                                      Arik Halfshav

                                      Sekrit #1 - He was a White Warden? He was part of the whole Aetheris / Rex’aflar fanclub thing only those guys were openly revealed and evil at least by game standards. So I just played it as used to be part of it, it all went to shit, I don’t talk to them no more. I think very few people ever knew that.

                                      Sekrit #2 - Arik ded… that was way more public. He made jokes about dying. So tldr he basically got executed while being part of the group that saved Alarion from Cardia. Managed to pickup some cardian swordmaster’s blade and it immediately executed him. I don’t remember if I just rolled crazy good or the staffer running the story was like lawl I like your moxie kid. Something about how he died basically shunted him out of the wheel / queen of death. So if he died prior to fixing his soul he would just end no reincarnation no shining lands no nothing just void.

                                      My question is… was Alarion like essentially a future evil mindcontrolling big bad? Because from the story stuff we got prior to me stopping playing there were some scenes I was thinking… Arik suggests executing the kid before he ends up being some super evil reincarnated as a kid with dream mind control powers.

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                                      • RozR
                                        Roz @Arik
                                        last edited by

                                        @Arik said in The Arx Secrets Thread:

                                        Arik Halfshav

                                        Sekrit #1 - He was a White Warden?

                                        White Steward

                                        My question is… was Alarion like essentially a future evil mindcontrolling big bad? Because from the story stuff we got prior to me stopping playing there were some scenes I was thinking… Arik suggests executing the kid before he ends up being some super evil reincarnated as a kid with dream mind control powers.

                                        Apostate answered some questions about Alarion in the recent AMA you can read the event log for and: no. He was just a kid with dreamwalking powers, which is something that some people just have, nothing evil. (I think some PCs might have had it as a secret?) That and being part of the prophecy about Cardia that could be fulfilled any number of ways, or not fulfilled at all.

                                        she/her | playlist

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                                          Rhamnious @Arik
                                          last edited by

                                          @Arik said in The Arx Secrets Thread:

                                          How he died basically shunted him out of the wheel / queen of death. So if he died prior to fixing his soul he would just end no reincarnation no shining lands no nothing just void.

                                          You’re welcome for making you into a bard!

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                                          • I
                                            insomniac
                                            last edited by

                                            So, Thesarin had two Secrets, one as a direct result of the other.

                                            The one I started knowing about was that he had some ability to detect Abyssal taint, and seeing it on the elders of his tribe (even not knowing what it was) is what drove him to break away as much as he could and leave, which of course is what brought him to the Compact in the first place.

                                            Later I learned that it was because he’d been the Sword of House Redire in a previous life, and he’d inherited the ability to detect the influence of Legion, which is generally cool!

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