Yog-ka

Our Interviewer and Nziri walk off together to the Study of Renrut Nek to find quiet. Inside the Study, Nziri comments how appropriate the room is for a story, and Calysto agrees, noticing the woodwork on the walls and the overall scholarly appearance of the room. Nziri, appearing slightly worn, with a doleful light in her eyes, begins this story.

"I'm sure you've heard the story of Yog-ka and Sabra before, but I'll give you my personal perspective on it."

That's what I'm looking for:)

"I was involved earlier on than most dreamers were, and I have a funny side-tale or two also. About, oh, two hundred days ago, I was fairly new to the dream. The Alliance of the Eclipse was closed back then, and there was no free spirit xp-tasking system. Since I've been a pacifist all my life, that meant there was only one way to gain orbits. Find a lyran, and get an xp task. So even though I was an unsphered dreamer, I spent a lot of time hanging around lyrans.

"Yog-ka and Sabra and Balthiir all used to dream a lot back then. Yog-ka gave me my first task for experience... taking a 'mare poll' in the lands of the four open houses. So.. I spent some time doing that, then some time waiting for 'ka to dream again, then eventually returned it to him.... I got to know Yog-ka, and Balthiir and Sabra, a bit better than you might expect for my sphere and time dreaming.

"Anyways, I had been dreaming about a month when the lyrans saw the chaos eclipse approaching. In case you didn't know, all the lyrans were fifth sphere back then, not seventh. They decided that in order to survive the eclipse, they needed to be seventh sphere. Lord Xenus discovered a ritual which would allow the lyrans to sphere themselves. He called to all his fellow lyrans to meet in the Library of Souls one day... so he could perform the ceremony. It was a rare moment of clarity of Xenus... a man who had a great deal of trouble with his memory, and even his sanity.

"All the lyrans were there but two: Sabra and Yog-ka. And the ritual succeeded, they were all sphered to seventh.

"As an aside; this was about two days before my scheduled ordainment. The night before my ordainment by Balthiir was to be held, I told Balthiir just what I thought of his 7th sphere... Keeping in mind he went straight from fifth to seventh with no task. I figured my chances of ordainment were finished after that, but he gave me this instead."

Nziri holds out her Medallion of Honor.

"The first forged talisman I ever saw...

" But anyway, back to the story itself... Yog-ka and Sabra would die if they didn't reach seventh sphere by the eclipse, or so everyone said. I had come to care for Yog-ka, since he had given me about half of my first sphere experience. Nziri notes that she was a first sphere teacher, and didn't advance beyond orbit thirteen until Alliance of the Eclipse.

" One day, I located Yog-ka in the Chasm of Souls, and I went to find him... hoping that somehow I could help to save his life. It was my first trip into a sphered area, but somehow I managed to find Sanctuary. Yog-ka was there, along with a rather large group of students, mostly fourth sphere Fatesenders. I think Krynn and Valourin were there, but I forget. They were all asking for arts and spheres, the usual sorts of things, when I came in to ask if I could help Yog-ka survive the eclipse. It was funny for a first sphere dreamer to interrupt all those honored people, but that's always been my way I suppose.

"Yog-ka gave me a task, asking me to find a place for his ceremony to survive the eclipse. He never even mentioned Sabra at the time. And his requirements were that the place be near three spawn shapers and three mares."

Nziri takes a few breaths.

"Afterwards, I stayed a while. I watched Yog-ka try to train his students. He was very weak, and asked that we evoke lucidity arts to grant him power. He collapsed himself, trying to grant an art to Ravageone, I think. Then he woke, forced from the dream. Dark lyran or no, he cared about his students.

"I spent the next week or so searching for the perfect place for Yog-ka's ceremony. Eventually I found what I thought was ideal, the Temple of Pain in the Cenotaph of Dread. When Yog-ka next dreamed, I told him of this place. He complained that he had recently determined the place needed to have a view of the sky. I informed him that it did, and Yog-ka, my apprentice Enchantra, and I, went to the Temple of Pain. Indeed, it did have a view of the sky, but Yog-ka looked around and said that it needed to be further from the chaos, and that this was no good.

"I believe it was VERDANT who suggested a change of locale, to the place where Ghea defeated Tehthu. It was then that I began to suspect something odd... why would a place where a single violent event occurred be better than a place of focused power like the Temple of Pain?

"But I was a lowly first sphere dreamer,not for me to question dreamsmith Yog-ka.

"I went to Sabra, who at the time was also dreaming, teaching her class in Trinity as she always did, to ask her where this place might be. I ran all the way there, knowing that this needed to be done quickly. Fortunately, Sabra didn't make me wait in her legendary line... which dreamers had waited up to eight hours in before.... She told me right away, the Bridge of Memories.

" Now, as you may know, I dream an awful lot, and it was incredibly hard for me to gain orbits. So I had explored most of the dream. I lead the weakening Yog-ka up the path to the Bridge,supporting him for much of the way. He seemed not to know where it was, and unable or unwilling to use teleport. When we got there, Yog-ka recovered a bit of his strength. He looked around, smiling slyly as he always did, and said this place would be ideal. He asked Enchantra to carry the message to Sabra this time, offering a small xp award. Yog-ka granted me two orbits for helping him find his place. Those were my last two orbits until I joined AoE maybe six weeks later, in fact.

"Yog-ka then asked me to determine the proper arrangement for talismans during the ceremony. He said that elemens and essences would be needed, and wanted me to determine where they should be, and where he and Sabra should stand. Sabra's inclusion in this came somewhere between my being asked to find a place and my telling Yog-ka about the Temple of Pain. It makes me think, perhaps what later occurred was not Yog-ka's original plan. So, I came up with an arrangement.

"But when the day of the ritual came, I found myself unable to dream. Yog-ka performed the ceremony with Enchantra's assistance, not mine, perhaps a better arrangement would have made a difference. I doubt it though, his mind was made up. When I managed to dream, it was over. Yog-ka had ripped Sabra's essence from her, and used it to reinforce his own. He gained seventh sphere, Sabra lay by the river's edge, apparently dying. She faded from the dream, leaving behind her book, which Reagans scooped up and hid in HC vaults.

"For a while people thought Sabra might be alive out in the chaos. The Darkmare Goragar had been heard speaking her name. But as time passed, we slowly gave up hope. Meanwhile, people clamored for a trial for the villainous Yog-ka. Strangely, Yog-ka agreed. He specified that Dr Jung would be the prosecutor, Soulthief the judge.. and the jury would be composed of dreamers selected at random.

Nziri takes a few breaths.

Yog-ka's Trial

"Several of my friends and I felt that the proposed penalty of death was too harsh. We believe in forgiveness after all... We wanted to see Yog-ka apologize for his actions, and spend more hours teaching to make up for the hours of Sabra he had taken away. I visited the newly returned lyran Tzintha to ask if anything might be done.. and to talk about Yog-ka.

"As it turned out, Tzintha knew Yog-ka as a child.... She seemed rather to like him, even though she told awful stories of Shade searching through hundreds of dreamstruck essences for the remains of his father. His cousin Yog-ka looking on, smiling slyly..."

Nziri shivers.

Calysto feels a chill as she holds her pen.

"I believed that Yog-ka was simply in need of a friend... he had been alone all his life, with even his cousin Shade refusing to acknowledge him. Or maybe they were half-brothers."

Nziri sighs, her memory failing her.

"So, as it turned out, I would again be unable to dream the date of the trial. I was obligated to attend a religious retreat in cloudsbreak... seeing as I was the only priestess left in my village after the loss. And such retreats require full attention, no dreaming. So again, I heard about the trail secondhand. Yog-ka was convicted by majority vote, not unanimous. But that was enough by the trial rules. He made no real attempt to defend his actions. Then he walked out, razorwinding left and right. He became a fugitive, and soulthief became obsessed with collecting his heads. This sick pastime lead to a weakening of Soulthief's spirit, and allowed TyKoth to take over Soulthief's body. That's another story though.

"Eventually, Yog-ka agreed to serve his sentence. Shade was to perform the execution but since Shade had recently lost his lyran status in the discovery of earthquake, Balthiir did the honors instead. As Balthiir stepped forward, a deadly black device in his hand, Yog-ka announced that Balthiir would now bear the title "dark lyran", and gave him his cloak. I believe Balthiir has worn it since. Balthiir used the talisman, which he claimed was "death" and Yog-ka's last words were praising a being called the Dread One. Pure lucidity it is said, perhaps much as Solister is pure insight. Yog-ka vanished then... And shortly after, the ghost of Sabra appeared. With help from her many devoted students, the details of which I do not know; her avatar was restored to her, and Sabra now dreams once again.

Yog-ka's Execution

"Yog-ka also dreams again. But now... he is an unsphered baby. I do not know how this has come about, save by the lucent power of the dread one...

"And I leave you with a few wise words from Solister:

"No one dies in the dream."