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Shining Spirit Cloud
059120
>>333905
Exuno's Resonance Recap, Episode 3!
MYSTERY years ago, (probably on the scale of 10-15k years?), some humans discover dimensional travel (By accident, probably, but the wording was ambiguous.) There they discover ton of Kaier, a special kind of crystal that can store any type of energy as magic. Using this, they start exploring the multiverse, and meeting up with new alien civilizations, which they let into their awesome multiversal magic club, which they call the Golden Empire.
Eventually, as always happens when too many people get together, especially with too much power, they turned into dicks. Gone were they days of meeting new species, replaced with subjugating and colonizing them for their own benefit. This was probably a slow process, but there were a couple incidents that stand out. Namely, when they encountered the Decatur, and the Sserred, two species which naturally use Kaier as part of their biology. See, Kaier, when it's big enough or arranged right or has enough magic in it or something, can host an intelligence. This is the case with the Decatur, which has it in their brains, and also later with the craftkind on Ter. The Sserred probably just have normal crystal dust floating in their bloodstreams.
So, yeah, the Golden Empire, an empire built on magic used by Kaier, really likes the stuff. Enough to enslave and farm these guys. This doesn't really go over well with everyone. Somehow, a Decatur, later taking the name of First and Last, forms an alliance with only one purpose. A Machine for destroying the Golden Empire. The Decatur and Sserred are the primary members, but it's said that many of the Golden Empire defect to join it, too. Most notably mentioned was a significant portion of the humans of the Empire, which by this time had lost most of their influence as founders.
First and Last is apparently also retarded (which is possibly a requirement for kicking off a revolution like this), or else decatur are really useless, since he builds a robotic combat shell to permanently lock himself in, an act which most of the decatur seem follow him in. And so war erupts, and I don't think we ever got a timeline of how far back it started, but it's been a while.
Okay. History of the Machine and Empire done. Next, we get even bigger in scale. See, universes don't really line up well. Inbetween them, there's this stuff, Abstract Chaos, which is really just a different kind of matter-like substance. This stuff is supposedly made out of things that fell out of the universe and then decayed into in the absence of natural physics, if I remembered Cirr's ramblings right? Anyway, what's important about it is that it can also host a consciousness, these known as Chaos Creatures. The other thing to know about it is that traveling between dimensions pokes a hole through this stuff, and it can leak out, or something like that.
While I'm going over the Chaos, there's one event I need to cover. The Golden Empire's science divisions (in their quest to prove themselves better than those damn Space Pirates) like poking at the all consuming outside of reality. Like when when they shot The Thousandfold, a massive collection of souls that yells at people, into it to see what it would do with a chaos creature (Answer: Tried to make it understand love.) After a while, they captured this creature, Sensation, along with another near it, Truth, and took the Thousandfold out and stuck it in a rock. Eventually they built a robot body for Truth and he escaped and started being an information loan shark or something, but the details are unconfirmed.
Segueing with the science divisions, they also have a penchant for creating races to populate the newly colonized worlds. Like somekind of weird floaty swimmy things that can turn off magic, or birdfaces that can analyze magic, or glowy lizards that explode when they use magic too much. These three would get stuck on a terraformed planet named Ter, which's purpose was to host The Resonance of the Empire. This is a superweapon that can... destroy something, and also anything like it? Which I'm not sure how you really use effectively, but it's probably bad. Oh, yeah, and it uses the said races' lives as energy source, like some kind of giant transmutation circle. It also happens to be made up of nine towers arranged in a circle, but you only need one left to fire it, or something.
The Resonance was built as escalation after the Machine completed the Incarnadine Dream (henceforth referred to as just Red) which we have gotten specifics on, but can totally wipe out at least a planet. Painfully.
One more backstory event to cover is Obsidian. Obsidian is the homeworld of the Machine (I think, it's at least Force's), that the thousandfold helped set up in one of it's past incarnations. They also helped assault it in a later incarnation. We didn't really get any details, but it's a pretty good example of why everyone hates the thousandfold.
Okay, history lesson two done! One more, and we can finally get to current events! Now, we move onto Ter. See, even though it's basically a giant weapon, it's also a planet, filled with people, and civilization. Which is what we're trying to save, by the way.
The history of Ter starts... maybe a few hundred years ago? The closest we get is Ir saying "two centuries running in secrecy". The Empire terraforms the planet, hops down with the Umbrals, Seltwils, and Cenesuils, and starts building their towers. They also make some Craftkind, which are like kaier robot things, to collect materials. Eventually, though, probably once they finish the weapon, they pack up and leave, hiding away in one city, Zenith. Sources are terribly contradictory on when and how this happens. The most common number seems to be just over 150 years, though?
In the absence of the empire, war breaks out between the city states, and lasts for decades. Finally, 60 years ago, a treaty is signed, and the Unified Tereans is formed between the cities of Terea, along with Koroi, I think. They apparently hide away any records of the Golden Empire, preferring to start anew, or something? Once again, Teteke seems to not really be very well versed in things.
So that's basically Ter's history. I guess I'll cover geography a bit, too. There are four continents on the planet. Terea, Koroi, Nebrios, and Gilde. Terea is the most populated, and is where we've been hanging out. It has five major cities, Rillford, Seawind, Southfort, and two more to the north we haven't gotten the names of. Rillford is Teteke's hometown, and is towards the center of the continent. It's a mixing ground for any of the races, pretty much. Like Seawind! This is the town to the east, and as it's name implies, is a port town, and a center of business. It also appears to be the capital of Terea. Southfort is a city only open to Seltwils. It's most notable feature is the magic guild or whatever that Sei and Lesin are in. They also seem to be completely aware of the Golden Empire and it's history, unlike the rest of the world. The other two towns are north of a mountatin range, and are supposedly mostly cenesu settled, but that's on Tacobird's word, which has so far not been the most reliable.
Koroi's in the southeast. We haven't heard much of it, besides that Ir is it's guardian essence. According to Azni's map, it's only has two major cities. Nebrios is to the north, and is primarily unsettled, and has said to be mostly a wasteland. In the center is Gilde, which has Abat-Null and Zenith on it. Abat-Null is the primary home of Umbrals. Uwix and Nyix are from here. Zenith is the Golden Empire's stronghold.
Woo! Finally, onto the actual quest.
We start by being found by Teteke, a cenesu. He's a scientist investigating the mysterious tower by his home village, after running off because even with his poor grasp on history, he knows it doesn't make sense. He is then attacked by a craftkind, which is under orders to retrieve Au, a guardian essence that is bound to him. He flees up the tower, and accidentally activates it, leading to the Director of the the Machine's nearby forces, Unyielding Force, to find Ter's exact location. It also notifies Au, who comes and yells at us a bit. He gives Teteke a wristband of telekinesis, though, which the bird uses to defeat the craftkind. After giving us some exposition which would later be contradicted, Teteke notices a giant hole in space which a Machine ship falls through. Unyielding Force then pulls us away and yells at us. Chapter End.
In Chapter Two, we meet Seilea, a seltwil mage from southfort. She's having a bad dream about the imminent invading machine forces. She wakes up, yells at us, and then Ir shows up, and yells at us. Once he's done expositing, we are interrupted by Truth trying to kill Sei's friend Lesin. Lesin's grandfather got some information from Truth but never held up his end of the bargain, so Truth has been killing his family for generations, now. We help out, and talk to Truth, who manages to not yell at us, which possibly explains why we like him even though he's probably the most villainous character.
Truth reveals that we have no memory since the Thousandfold traded it to him for all his information. Since that is a really awful deal, we still have quite the debt left with him. We use all of it to save Lesin's life, which is apparently an even worse deal, but whatever. Truth heads out.
Sei and Lesin head to Rillford, but they run into Machine seekers on the way, which they are able to laser away. Sei almost dies, but she gets better. They then encounter Teteke dealing with some craftkind, and help out. They then campfire backstorytime. Chapter End!
We get an intermission here where Th exposits a bunch. He tells us he is trying to stop the Empire, since they are terrible now, and Ir pretty much agrees with him. Au is still loyal, though. He also says that anything we do will work to aid his plans.
Then we start Chapter 3 for real with an umbral, Uwix. He is on an adventure with his friend Nyix! They are visiting one of the conduit towers by Nebrios, to see how it's doing after the invasion. Th turns it on. Then a Machine soldier shows up there, Quiet Resolution. He hugs it! This manages to solve everything. Really. Quiet and Uwix go to find Nyix, but she is being attacked by a chaos creature! We call Truth to help us out, and after freaking out and telling us never to get him involved with the Chaos again, manages to send it back. But Nyix needs a doctor or she will die.
Quiet says he can take them to the Machine's base, but we instead suggest meeting with the other party in Rillford. Quiet flies them towards there, but is interrupted when they run into a group of Empire soldiers on Gilde. They capture Quiet, but seeing that he is willing to negotiate, decide to take to him to Zenith, along with Uwix and Nyix, to heal her.
Once they get there, two of the soldiers, Reseri and Tezex get into a fight, and Tezex gets shot because Reseri an unstable psycho, further evidenced by her completely breaking down. Th manages to retcon it so Tezex survives. Everyone decides that here is too crazy, and that they should run away. They go to get Nyix, but run into Opus 20, some kind of mind control robot. After convincing him to go away, Uwix meets Nyix again, and they are able to flee the city, but the soldiers they met stay behind to regroup. Chapter End!
During the end of thread intermission, we talk to Quiet a bit, who has managed to get back to see the Director. He tries to convince her to back down a bit, but when she learns that the towers are already being activated, she orders the firing of the Red Dream.
In chapter for, we head back to the first party with Lesin! He's waiting for Teteke, who went to see a friend of his. We talk at him a bunch about what is going on. It's bad. Teteke gets back, but is followed by Reketi, a fellow scientist who is much less impulsive and better at decision making. They yell at each other a bit, and Teteke tells her about what he learned about the Empire.
After she deals with that a bit, they all head off to their original destination, Azni's house, an umbral friend of Lesin's. She is able to read crystals to get answers on some things, most importantly that the only way to stop the Resonance is by breaking all the towers. Lesin also talks to Azni a bit about her past, when she was magically enchanced to act as a replacement for one of the Empire's Opuses.
They then head to another colleague's of Teteke's, a seltwil named Nel. He supposedly would know how to break a tower. When they meet him, he acts bitter about Lesin being a mage from Southfort, but thankfully no one's tail gets set on fire. He gets some explosives, and joins up with the party, along with Leaf, the tiny guardian essence he made. They meet up with Reketi and Sei, who found a carriage they can use to get to the nearest tower.
They all head off, but encounter a machine soldier along the way. We manage to yell at it enough to make it leave, but it is quickly replaced by a swarm of seekers. Ir comes back, and uses Sei to destroy them and the first tower. Unfortunately, this milestone is also marked by an Empire Ship arriving. Chapter End!
So, yeah. For the actual question you asked? The Empire are bad people, so the Machine was formed to destroy them. At any cost, which also pretty much makes them bad people. They built the Red Dream, then the Empire set up the Resonance. The Machine wants to destroy the Resonance, so they are going to kill everyone on Ter. The Empire doesn't really care about anyone on Ter, so they are going to use them to fire the Resonance. Right now, The Machine has invaded Ter, but is calling it off to fire the Dream. The Empire just now counter invaded, and is ready to use all of it's natives in this fight. We have to break the other eight towers while not getting killed by either side, before either weapon fires. Then, we can convince the Director we aren't a threat, and have the Machine help fight off the Empire.
Character Goals!
Most of the main characters: Stop everyone on Ter from dying. Lesin's really the only one with a goal not related to this now, with his quest against Truth.
Au: Dutifully to protecting Ter, which very much includes it's purpose as a weapon of the Empire.
Ir: Also protecting Ter, but realizes that the Empire basically wants it destroyed.
Th: Realizes the Empire is a blight on the multiverse and wants it stopped.
Force: Wants to protect the Machine at any cost. Which totally includes the absolute destruction of Ter before the Resonance turns on.
Truth: Is a big jerk.
>>333911
It takes a while to write a post this long! D:
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