Ossuary of Dread
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The Ossuary of Dread is one of the oddities of the dream, as much there has changed over the years it has existed. From a virtual paradise to well, you have seen what it is now, an Ossuary, a bone yard... Perhaps it would be best if you heard the tales surrounding it...
The Ossuary of Dread had three distinct stages of existence... Progressed from the Canyon of Noon Shadows to the Renegade's Lane following to as we know it now, the Ossuary of Dread... Each stage fantastical in it's own way, yet growing progressively darker, time after time... This is how it begun...
Syriand walked to Canyon of Noon Shadows again this dream, taking notice of the beauty, and stillness the Canyon provided on her daily walks. The west winds blew her hair into her face, and she brushed it back as she walked every few moments till she tied it back. She was coming to meet her fiancée this time, and spotted him not far off in the distance and hurried over, rushing into his arms and holding him tightly. They sat in a small patch of sunlight to enjoy a picnic, just between the two of them. No more studies for the afternoon, no more work, just time and themselves... Or so they thought, till Syriand's teacher Theros came along to speak with his student. He wanted to make sure that Syriand had finished her studies that would be required that evening, as she related to him the lesson she had learned...
"Decades ago Sir, you and your following spent countless hours, from a base in your chambers, shaping this place into what it is now; which is, a beautiful place that connects the planes of Lambent Flats and the Trinities. You designed it after somewhere you once loved...", Syriand trailed off and resumed after being subject to a stern glower, "Somewhere you once lived near on Cloudsbreak to make your personal mark on the dream so that you could never be forgotten. Seven dreamers perished in the ritual of creation..."
Syriand looked up at Theros wondering what emotions she would see cross his face, yet none passed as she continued, "which was taken as a hideous omen to the fate of this connection in the Rubicon Ring. Yet you continued the ritual regardless of what beset against you. Nearing the final stages of creation, where you needed to join it to the Threshold Ring, you brought more participants into the ritual of which I was one." Syriand smiled at her teacher with a taint of mockery, "...who consequently saved the connection to the circle of creation when I walked in. Eventually we made the connection with those through the Rings and established a joining.", Syriand, having completed her report, looked at her teacher who simply left with the knowledge she had done her work and left her to her own business as was his way...
The Canyon remained untouched until the commencing of the Entropy Coalition's experiments. The quakes they caused in the dream were brutal to the Canyon, as it had troubles beforehand, and the walls would weaken and tumble inwards, leaving rocks littering the Canyon's bottom and causing caves to form. The Canyon was eventually occupied by the Entropy Coalition who claimed to have created the Canyon in its present deteriorated state. It was called Renegade's Lane from then on as it was a site where the Entropy Coalition planned ambushes and hid from the DreamStrike Masters. It was there that is the resting grounds of some of the more well known dreamers, such as Sa-ko'or, Lady Thwompta, Hartisan the Red and Turgin Lambent himself... At this time Renegade's Lane was crafted into a more circular form with a series of one way passages to lay in as a trickster's plain, thus allowing the Entropy Coalition shelter in their efforts to spite the DreamStrike Masters...
Short years before The Great Loss, the setting is Renegade's Lane, yet another meeting of the Entropy Coalition at it's hideout, planning a counter offensive to the impending DreamStrike Masters' next assault... Many of the members weary from their attempts at holding one of their last "strongholds" of the dream... Many had expert plans drawn up, but the one followed was to be immortalized, forever....
Legumbor stood almost as motionless as a statue as he watched the entrance to the stairs like an avid hawk. No winds passed, no sunlight shone in, the only sounds those of his compatriots forging talisman after talisman and distributing them among those present to fight what would be an onslaught... Hearing sounds from down the halls Legumbor flinched yet stayed in his spot. Suddenly a gust of wind brushed past, and screams were heard as volleys of fire blasted in through the opening and struck the occasional man standing in defense leaving the walls scarred. Everyone present jumped to the ready and fired back with rage in the air and blood curdling screams piercing the stale air. No one knew why he or she defended the room behind them, but it soon became apparent that it was the intended target of the assault force...
Many a dreamer floated in the air weaving to dodge the blades of Dreamstrike hearing the clanking noise of crystal [[Soul Essence]]s falling from step to step... Turgin Lambent heading the attack force continually collapsed member after member of the Entropy Coalition as the Soulspheres fled for safer grounds. Seeing an open path, the DreamStrike Masters started advancing down the stairs till a volley of shots came from an alcove collapsing more than three-quarters of the advancing force. As they retreated to heal the wounded, screams of eternity rang as half the Soulspheres were run through by the DreamStrike of a crazed man with desperation radiating from his soul... Legumbor knew that he was the only one standing between Abel's attempt to release the chaos to stream up the stairs and wipe the assault party from the dream as he destroyed chakram after chakram emptying them of charges stationed in the alcove... It took the assault party seven attempts and two hours to remove this one man stand from the stairs, and as they rushed in to finish Abel's attempts, chakrams at the ready, Abel sat there in the room, almost as thin as a skeleton, a hole opening behind him... Turgin raises his hand to halt the advance, but someone rushed in to collapse and Dreamstrike Abel... He was successful and held the Dreamstricken essence in front of him as the chaos shot from the hole as it began to close... Those in the stairs took cover as Abel's Soul Essence exploded and the tiny fragments embedded themselves into the walls... The dreamer who went in there was blown by a furious gust of wind into the hole of chaos yet his avatar deflected the chaos upwards, creating the pit, the Darkened Passage, and the first connection ever to The Unknown...
These many efforts culminated in an event that was not intended... The Great Loss... There were thousands upon thousands of Soul Essences that were left just to sit in the halls of Renegade's Lane... The first returning dreamers found that The Great Loss' shock to the dream collapsed caves ruined halls and fused the Soul Essences into the rock for all eternity perhaps... Eventually when the two sanctuaries were erected, they were more along a tomb, morgue motif rather than the usual "haven" as sanctuaries were intended as... These sanctuaries were shaped from the very rock, the very Soul Essences, of deceased warriors from before The Great Loss... Now we know it both as a battleground and a "bone yard"...
The Ossuary was quite possibly once very beautiful, and now, only beautiful to those that admires death in its pallor... Has the dream learned its lesson? Will Dread rise again and take another plane to its possession? History told it's story, now it's a chance for new dreamers to tell theirs....
Ossuary Of Dread
Written By : Unknown Author
In days long past, before the Chaos Wars, there was a Soulmaster Dreamwright by the name of Pagas. Her passion and her fury in protecting the City of Dreams was unmatched by any save one. He was a Gatekeeper whose renown had whispered his name in the ears of Pagas...the name of Veinio. Yet it was that these great defenders of the dream had differing causes. Pagas was a member of the Orious Society, a team of Dreamwrights who were creating a great Artifact...the Orb of Transcendence. The purpose of this artifact was to instill in the mind of all dreamers the belief that chaos can be controlled, and can bring great power to those who succeed. The Society's reason for wanting this comes about thus: For a long time, Dreamseers in the city had predicted a crisis that would soon put the very fabric of the dream in danger. But while few doubted this, no one had any concrete knowledge of what the future might bring.
Thus it was that the Society seeked to prepare everyone for the worst, and so they wished to encourage, through the use of the Orb, everyone to go on the quest for knowledge and power. There were, however, opponents to this task, among whom was Veinio. These believed that nothing justified brainwashing the masses, not even the existence of the dream city itself. Because of tension arose between the factions which, after a long period of strain, turned into open conflict. So it was that Pagas and Veinio first met on the field of war. The moment they saw each other, each was filled with an intense disgust for the other and commenced to unleash all their fury upon one another. Both were hurt and collapsed numerous times. The war of the factions, later known as The Conflict of Transcendence, lasted 2 months.
Each day, Pagas and Veinio stalked the field of combat searching for each other. As the days passed, though, something between them changed. Each came to see the other as an almost perfect reflection of him/herself. Their courage, their willingness to face dreamstrike day in and day out for their beliefs....they each possessed traits found in the other. And as more days passes, the empathy between them developed into something more, till one day they did not attack each other on sight, but spoke instead. After much time spend this way, they returned home without having passed a single blow between them. So it went. Eventually they, as the wheel of fortune would have it, became totally engrossed in one another that, in the face of their peers, they defiantly proclaimed their love for one another. Believing Veinio to be under a spell of Pagas's, his companion focused their powers on Pagas and blasted her to incoherence.
One particularly powerful dreamwright who had learned the art of Dreamstrike, against his better judgement and somewhat drunk to boot, evoked this curse upon the Soulsphere that had been Pagas. Veinio immediately collapsed the man, but it was too late, and his grief knew no bounds. Nor was Pagas the only one to have been dreamstruck in the Conflict of Transcendence. Hundred had been permanently destroyed as a result. But the public death of Pagas did something good as well. It opened the eyes of those blinded by the rage of War, and they finally understood that no matter how much conflict and tension there was, violence served only to help destroy the city of dreams. In memory of those who had perished in the turmoil, the Ossuary was build. In it the soul crystals of the dreamstriked warriors were safely placed. An attachment, the Lower Ossuary of Dread, was constructed in honor of the particularly valiant, among them Pagas. The first room to be built was named after her. As a show of his love, Veinio spent the rest of his days with the soul crystal of Pagas in the Ossuary, there devoting his time to the study of chaos and preparing to combat the REAL threat as foreseen by the Dreamseers. There he stayed till his body in Cloudsbreak took off on its last journey. The room in which he stayed bears his name still.
Among the others to be buried there were Arranor and Timid, the other great warriors to have perished in the conflict. A hall was later constructed so that mourners can be accommodated, for the fame of the deceased spread even more after their demises. Thus the Grieving Hall came into being. And so the Lower Ossuary was finished. Many many years later, the Great Loss occurred. When the Dorsal Rift was borne, it tore through the Ossuary, both lower and upper, and changed it into the grim place it is today. So it is that, nowadays, they bear the names of Dread. And that is the story of how the Lower Ossuary of Dread came into being.
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