Welcome back to the Akashic Records. A series of posts about the lore of Chronicles of Elyria. Yet again we turn to words from Anara Starsong, the Keeper of the Chronicles and the character through which we are slowly learning the story of the world. It turns out she also goes by another name, the origin of which has been revealed in a lore post over on the official forums.

Perhaps they all resigned to their fate. Perhaps they’ve just been hiding, biding their time. Nobody knows for sure. In either case, it’s been eons since anyone has seen the ancients – the true Ancients. Sure, there are those who claim to be descendants, but even their blood is diluted by now.

What is it she refers to? Who are these ancients? The piece raises an awful lot of questions, but it does hint at some of the answers. I am not going to repeat the whole lot here, so I suggest jumping over to the forums first. Perhaps now would be the best time to do it before we go any deeper!

The tale takes place at a University, whether this will be an in game location or not we cannot tell. What it does tell us is that Elyria is a world where there are educational institutions, places of learning. However, I question what they teach. The university’s name is Unseen, a name that might be familiar to many. If we look at its Pratchett counterpart we are looking at wizards, magic, colossal near world ending disasters. Should have stopped at the magic! Could it be that in Elyria it too is a place where magic is taught, honed, wielded? After all the character in the story is referred to as an Adept, a rank often associated with magical orders. It being a school of magic may also explain why a woman falling to the floor with glowing eyes warrants no greater response than standing around waiting for it to be over!

It is what is said when she awakes from this mysterious vision that I think holds the key to that first paragraph. And one that makes me incredibly nervous for the world of Elyria:

Somewhere, someone, has done the unthinkable. An Antepyrovian has been awakened.

Anara Starsong, Keeper of the Chronicles and also known as The Seer. She is the one experiencing these visions. These dark visions. I am sure we are all aware that when a deed is unthinkable it is never unthinkably good. It just doesn’t happen. I think we should all be worried about what has been seen.

Antepyrovians have been discussed before on the forums. They are the beings from who the races are descended, humans are the children of Mann, daemons are the descendants of Daemon (appropriately!). These are likely the ‘true Ancients’ referred to in the first paragraph, the line regarding diluted bloodlines certainly fits that idea. However, ‘their fate’? ‘Hiding’? ‘Biding their time’? Does this suggest that these beings never left the world. Never died. What sort of fate could it be, is it immortality? The years stretching on with no end. Is it that they have been locked, bound and held asleep? It could explain why one has been awakened. Whatever those words mean, it sounds bleak.

One final thing to consider is we do not know how this fits into the time-line. It could be before launch, or develop months, maybe years down the line. That is one of the things that intrigues me with the planned 10 year story. Just how much is preplanned? Do the developers know the key plot points they want to reach and it is just a case of the players deciding how we get between them, or is it more open to ebb and flow? One thing is certain I cannot see it being too rigid, we as players are going to have an impact. We shall create a new story on each retelling. No two servers will be quite the same.

I am ready to find out just what The Seer has witnessed. It sounds like a challenge that we will have to band together to defeat. Will Kingdoms lay aside their differences to fight together? Or will this trial be best met in another way? Hopefully it will not be too long until we find out.