Lore of Spira Chapter 2 - Mischief
Vanwe Village became the new settlement for the lost travelers arriving. There was a Lagomorph of the name Leeloo who happily greeted newcomers and would help them settle in and find a means to get necessary shards to pay for lodgings, food, and resources. The Vanwe Tavern became quite a lively gathering place for adventurers to gather, meet, make friends, and plan journeys about the land. Beyond the village’s walls was a quaint little forest, some farms, a dock to accommodate the lost ships that came in, captured by the barrier with their cargo of passengers, and the Mors Magi Great Hall up on the hill overlooking everything on the Sapphire Isle as the new generation of mages followed unknowingly in the footsteps of their predecessors - gathering what information they could about the land and attempting to learn how to tame the wild fae magic.
Within the enchanted forest, the fae seem hidden, still quietly mourning the loss of Titania and guarding where her body was laid centuries ago. The forest blooms, and little sprites can be seen darting amongst the tree leaves watching curiously any travelers that might pass through. Here the wild magic seems to be more strongly felt, as it protects the trees, forest animals, and those that live within. There are those who know of the legacy of Titania and the reason behind the Veil, while the rest of the land forgot, they did not. They are known as Titania’s Children and strive to protect what is left of Titania’s touch upon the land, and stand against those who are tainted by the chaos agents known as Pan’s Blessed who hide away plotting in the frozen wastes.
As time passed by, Pan would continue to plot his return from Purgatory where he is bound to, seething over his punishment. Still not quite aware that his beloved Titania is dead and lost to him, his sanity would slowly slip over time - his mind so focused on breaking free of her binds of love to retake Spira and twist what was created so pure and sweet. He began to notice a weakness in the elemental realms sealed away. The water elementals headed his call first, allowing him to gaze upon the fae lands once more and note what changes had taken place over the centuries he had been locked away. He sent out a whisper to any children of chaos who might heed him after so long a silence, sending each on a quest. The first was a little dark fae to the Mors Magi Halls to seek out the pages of a spell so as to open a rift. The second was to locate the remains of a lust demon for its bones and the third to find a rare plant in the deserts to give the necessary ingredients to help activate the gateway spell. Once his little minions were successful, he began to create rifts via the various elemental plains in an attempt to breach them, tainting them with unnatural forces beyond even his own comprehension.
Within the elemental plane of air, he allowed divinity to seep through. Yet, through the combined faith of the adventurers peering through the rift, the seraphs were soothed and returned to their signing. The plane of earth was tainted with the essence of entropy and decay – which refused to heed Pan’s call when summoned. Within the plain of water, he opened a rift to unnatural psionic energies from a place unknown even to him – flooding its waters with tentacled masses that whispered in agreement to aid him. Lastly, Pan’s tainted the flames with his own chaotic energy once more, causing the rift to open and bellow out a riftspawn that should have razed all of Spira to the ground, and yet something had tainted it – as an ever-watchful eye that bled psionic energy remained behind it at all times.
Tartarus, tainted by whatever creatures now inhabit the water planes, found himself bound by Pan’s command, ordered to create as much death and chaos as possible in an attempt to destroy the Veil that bound all. Unfortunately for him, there was a resistance, as it seemed the inhabitants had been noticing the various odd occurrences going on around the land. Led by the Grand Magus of the Mors Magi, adventures, spellcasters, warriors, and more rushed to stop Pan’s Champion from getting any further than the swamp he manifested within.
The battle raged for a night and a day, some falling, and more rushing in to reinforce the ones still standing on the battlefield. Over time, they began to notice that the riftspawn was feeding off of the magic and might they were using to attack him – further expanding his domain with every blow they dealt to him. It wasn’t until one adventurer used other, more nefarious means that the creature found himself distracted. As his combatants became sly as foxes, and used various means to distract his attention, Pan’s Champion would slowly lose, granting the psionic creatures from the right behind him the ability to slowly consume his energy from within the mortal plains. When he could no longer remain within Spira, Tartarus found himself disintegrated as his energies were consumed by the rift, yet he made sure to warn those around him that this was not the end.
While the other statues grew silent, a soft and strange whisper could be heard within the mind of those who wandered near the water elemental statue, a sign of things to come.