Overview

Season 1 is a crucial series of events that resulted in the founding of the player nation, Astorea. It is the first time where the roleplayers' actions completely steered the direction of Terrasphere's main story and influenced the current landscape of the world.

The result of these events tie directly into Season 2, which is essentially a continuation of this storyline.

Events

Against the Wind

After the events of Season 1, King Theodore sent a message to many players. His youngest daughter had gone missing during an expedition past the unexplored mountains to the east. Seeing this as a way to begin mending the relations between Falderen and Astorea, many adventurers accepted, including King Astor Balthas. The plan was for many small groups of players to go through the mountain range and then group up with the Falderen forces on the other side to mount a rescue mission. Strangely, the mountain was also being guarded by the normally sea-dwelling Aesir raiders, adding another layer of difficulty to the rescue mission.

Unfortunately, soon after the players left Astorea, Princess D'vangelline de Falder, King Theodore's eldest daughter, personally rode to the new kingdom. She intended to warn the players that the plea for help was all a ruse, and King Theodore intended to betray and capture the players. It was also the prelude to a planned invasion, King Theodore intending on taking back the territory that had once been Adecus Forest and that his forces were ready to march into Astorea.

Back at the mountain range, the players were caught in a trap jointly sprung by the Falderen forces and the Aesir raiders. Stunned from the ambush and exhausted from the climb, they could not fight back as they were captured. The Falderen soldiers all behaved oddly during this attack, their eyes glowing with an eerie light, their movements ruthlessly disciplined. They were not above causing pain to players who tried to struggle, but made sure to keep them alive to deny them the ability to respawn. Hands bound behind their backs to prevent them from accessing their game menus or using abilities, the players were taken captive.

The Rescue Entourage

Given that players possess an indefinite amount of lives and being able to respawn in any temple after they are killed, King Theodore completely negated this by taking them prisoner, rather than killing them. With zero contact and Princess D’vangelline’s haunting warning, it was now up to the players who remained back at the capital to go on a quest to rescue the imprisoned team who had departed a week prior. Although many players and NPCs alike were mistrustful of the Falderen princess, she was still able to gather a small expedition to head up to the mountain ranges to rescue the Astorean King and his elite force.

With a multitude of wagons and horses, holding players and soldiers alike, the traveling entourage was anything but silent. Given the lack of time, the entourage took the fastest but also most dangerous route towards their goal. This shortcut attracted unwanted attention from a group of highly organized bandits, who chased after the entourage, intending on robbing them dry.

The chase was fierce and completely chaotic. To add fuel to fire, the chase took both the entourage and the bandits through a marsh where flying alligator were blocking their path. After a nasty encounter with the juvenile alligators, a half-crystallized flying alligator brood mother that could have easily been mistaken for a dragon appeared. Her sole presence struck enough fear into the bandits that they gave up their chase, allowing the entourage to reach the Crystallized Zalra that night.

The entourage set up camp in the eerie crystallized country, spending their down time repairing the wagons, socializing and scouting their surroundings, it wasn’t until morning when their trip would continue.

The Rescue Entourage II

The morning after the entourage broke camp and got ready for their departure, Princess D'vangelline received news from her scouts, whom she had sent ahead of the entourage. It appeared that there were six different locations where the prisoners might have been kept.

Since they did not have much time left before the invasion began, the princess spoke to the party of players, convincing them to split up and hit each of the location individually. For those who were staunchly against splitting up, whether it was because they didn't trust the princess or that they thought the plan was terrible, D'vangelline pushed for the fact that they would also be able to hit the key locations that the invaders could use as their base. In fact sense, it was killing two birds with one stone. The majority of the players agreed and split up into five teams: red, blue, white, green, and orange. D'vangelline headed the sixth location with her riders.

Red

Red team headed down to the coast where they encountered a massive Aesir ship, which was Falderen's gift in exchange for their service. They were able to sneak in and confirm that the prisoners were not kept there. Although they had planned on destroying the ship, a schism in the party ruined the plan and they had to leave early, only managing to put a hole in the ship.

Blue

Blue team made a long trek up to one of the outpost at the peak, though, they untimely ran into earth elementals, which nearly killed them. With skill and luck on their side, they were able to complete their mission and captured the outpost. However, the prisoners were not held here.

White

White team discovered a Falderen fortress up on a tall cliff. The group decided to go up through the inside of the mountain instead of skirting around the rocky rampart. After escaping poison, they encountered incredibly strong frog warriors, who they barely managed to defeat. By sparing one of the frogmen and attempting to communicate with them, they were able to employ the help of the frogmen tribe to capture the fortress. Though, the prisoners were nowhere to be found.

Green

Green team ventured up a long hill to a fortress where Falderen troops were stationed. After escaping death on their way up, the team botched their plan to sneak inside, which resulted in another failed plan to negotiate with the Caenis mercenary, which controlled the Falderen soldiers there. After a few back and forth, Snefrid, the leader of the mercenary decided to spare the group and handed them control of the fortress. Though, the prisoners were not a part of it.

Orange

Orange team encountered a heavily fortified city with a massive keep in the center. Through sheer will and effort, they managed to sneak inside. However, their attempt quickly fell short as they were discovered and had to escape.

Imprisoned

The captured players all woke in dark cells, stripped of all their armor and weapons, their inventories all emptied. Soldiers with those strangely glowing eyes made their patrols around the prison, which also dampened magic within its confines.

Working together in small groups, they managed to escape their cells. Some groups managed to launch an attack on the guards, others helped to free nearby prisoners who had some knowledge of the prisons, and eventually they managed to regroup and find their belongings. One group also managed to find King Astor, who was imprisoned separately and tortured, while another group incited a small prison riot.

Along the way, they discovered some important facts. Chief among them was the fact that King Theodore was able to take control of the minds of the citizens of his kingdom, hence the glowing-eyed soldiers.

Their escape was not yet over, though. Standing in their way was the Warden of the prison along with a small army of those soldiers with glowing eyes, ready to fight to prevent their escape. Pulling many of them into the room with him, he summoned a flaming boar, that split into smaller and smaller boars each time it was defeated. After a desperate battle, the boars having multiplied and perfectly healthy once more, it looked like it was all over...

...And then, a young woman named Ursula Goldsmith stepped up. With her tinkering expertise, she rigged up the stone prison to explode around her, taking out the boars at the cost of her own life.

With the explosion, they were free. When the imprisoned group exited the dungeon, they found themselves beneath the fortified keep that orange failed to sneak in half a day prior. Fortunately, Princess D'vangelline came just in time to discover the group. In order to sneak into the city and help the group escape, she posed as one of her other sister, pulling the rug out from underneath the Falderen's troop without them noticing.

With the help of the Ynglar Brotherhood, portals wereset up to transport the imprisoned players and all of the fractured entourage back to Astorea, where they could rest, recover, and prepare for the coming invasion.

Storm Preparation

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Tunnel Clearing

With a plan created for King Theodore's assassination with help from his own daughter, D'Vangelline de Falder, a group of adventurers took to the tunnels below Astorea's capital of Dormont. This system would lead them, knowingly, to the sewers of Stokbon, holy capital of Falderen via the tunnels the blood wurms have dug beneath Dormont.

This team's goal was to clear the way for those that would join in the assassination later alongside the princess. When done with their part of the work, they planned to return to the front lines in Astorea, to aid those who could use their fatigued but ample skills while the assassination was in progress. The princess planned to join them without the aid of her men, to watch over them and be ready to continue when their role was over.

It was a weary delve, with poison and confusion abound from breathing alone, monsters taking turns in attacking alongside it. What caused havoc was when the space of the tunnel twisted and changed altogether the closer they got to the stairs. A chaotic beast blocked their path, with the power to cause various ailments depending on their attacks and luck. Luck was not on the player's side as they were demolished by the creature. Though, before it finished them, they were ejected from the strange space they were unknowingly sucked into.

The exhausted princess moved on upon their exit to find the assassination team waiting and ready. Having to explain what had happened within, the only sure thing was that it was their turn to go through the sewer system- and to fight the final battle to end the war, once and for all. Those that had been with her went on to other parts of the battlefield of Astorea to give any aid they could.

East and West Watch

In order to protect the city, two teams were dispatched to the South and East walls. The former, led by Alaam and Kijin Shihaku, squared off against the approaching troops. They focused their firepower on those building bridges, in an attempt to slow the ever-nearing towers.

Unfortunately, while their attention was elsewhere, a sudden burst of magic robbed their countdown clock of five hours. To make matters worse, a massive stone angel soon appeared, and lashed out at the already weary players. Though the South Wall fell because of the new foe, the team was not without other victory. Due to their valiant efforts, the angel was defeated before it could enter the city, or wreak havoc on the souls defending the East Wall. Unwilling to leave the war half-fought, many members of the South Watch joined the other team after their work was done.

Those who belonged to the East Watch faced many of the same threats as their Southern brethren. However, rather than the stone angel, it was Snefrid who turned out to be the team’s greatest foe. The woman first appeared in an earlier mission, proving herself to be a capable fighter and beast tamer. At the wall, she was aided by men with both the appearance and the strength of wolves. The East Watch, with the commands of Alonso Thorlion and Blithe Bombon, were successful in ending her life with few casualties of their own. With the city protected, it was left up to the assassination team to finish the job.

The Assassination

King Theodore was the Mad King of Falderen. He had proved that he had no intention of trying to make peace with the players. And he would not stop until Astorea and its inhabitants were destroyed.

As Princess D'vangelline's suggested, assassination was the only course of action left. The siege on Astorea would not end until King Theodore was dead. Along with a team of some of the most powerful players of Terrasphere, she infiltrated the castle in an attempt to kill the Mad King.

However, he was expecting the party when they arrived, dressed for battle with his sword and shield beside him. As D'vangelline attempted to reason with him one last time, an arrow made of light appeared out of nowhere, pinning her to the wall. Three glowing translucent women, seemingly made of the same material as the arrow, appeared in the room, one an archer, another a cleric, and the last a sorceress. Without the element of surprise, the only option left was to battle.

King Theodore was slain after a short, frenzied fight. But in the moment just before he died, time seemed to freeze, and a sickly-looking shadowy figure materialized. Though the players could all perceive what was happening in the room, they were helpless to react as the figure took King Theodore's sword from his grasp and stabbing some players, and manipulating the ladies made of light to make a final, lethal attack against many of the members of the assassination team.

This done, it retrieved two amulets from King Theodore's corpse, and then vanished. One amulet was able to bind the souls of one's companions to it, and the other compelled those of the de Falder bloodline to obey the mysterious figure's orders.

For now, though, things were over. Princess D'vangelline survived thanks to timely healing, and was now able to take the throne as Falderen's new queen.

Important Characters

Astor Balthas

Astor was made the King of Astorea as a result of the three guild's leaders' plan in Season 1. Being a police detective in real life, he felt somewhat up to the task of managing and protecting a newborn nation, however, the job became more stressful than he had thought as he had to deal with a foreign enemy while his subjects struggled to keep their head above water.

Because of his lack of political skills, he and his elite task force fell prey to King Theodore's ploy, starting the chain of events that led up to the season 2 finale.

Aaron Steele

Aaron is well-known for his grand ambition and obsession in becoming a hero that the world of Terrasphere would remember. Thanks to his huge fortune, he single-handedly established the Heroes of Falderen [VALOR], one of the three top guilds in Terrasphere.

Despite his righteous moral compass, he went along with Jack and Merkaba's plan, though not without a massive backlash from fellow guild members who thought that he had lost his mind.

Merkaba

Merkaba is a cold and quiet woman who was mad with delusion of Terrasphere being the 13th dimension. Thanks to her tenacity and obsessive grinding, she had enough wealth to single-handedly create the guild called the Cult of the Black Star [COVEN].

Aside from the occult and the prospect of being able to research demons in the north, Merkaba was indifferent to the war between Yladia and Falderen. It was ultimately her devious plan that lead to the result of the season 1 finale.