Ember Isle Lore Segment (updated)

 To understand the Lore relations between the Ember Isle and Telara,  I have tried to provide a brief synopsis of key events in Telaran lore.

As a major component to the Ashes of History, the Ember Isle will reveal some important insights on the forging of Telara. On the Ember Isle, an alliance will form between the dragon cult of Laethys (dragon of earth, represented by the Golden Maw), and Maelforge (dragon of fire, represented by the Wanton). The cultists have been overpowered by the influence of these dragon aspects, and it is from the Isle that they intend to build their forces in secrecy, so that they might prepare an invasion force capable of conquering Telara.

The cultsts' enslavement by the dragons has lead them to this place. Due to Akylios's death, the Telaran sea (currently impassible), has been made accessible to the Telarans via enchanted Travel Stones. And it is reported that the dragon cults joined forces to transport mysterious artifacts across the sea, though the purpose of this activity is current unknown the the Ascended.

It is speculated that Maelforge himself is imprisoned within a menacing Volcano near the Isle, and it is the objective of the Wanton to free him. Just as Prince Hylas sought to dispel the magic that confined Lord Greenscale, so are the cults becoming ever more successful in their quest to free the dragons. Should these activities continue unhindered, all of Telara will be consumed by the same warfare and destruction that threatened to destroy it a millenia ago...

          Background

When the gods formed Telara from Sourcestone (a material capable of converting elemental energy to mass), at the nexus of the elemental planes, they were pleased by their creation. Much to their dismay, however, the newly formed planet attracted the unwanted attention of the gods of The Blood Storm. These malicious gods were a pack of intergalactic invaders who, in their mission to conquer, consume, and annihilate, sought to plunder the world of its Sourcestone, leave it in ruins, and move on to the next healthy host. These invaders embodied the six essential forces represented by the elemental planes: life, death, air, fire, water, and earth.

Upon reaching Telara, the gods of the Blood Storm manifested the attributes of great and powerful dragons. Their leader, Regulos, Eater of Worlds, represented the force of death. He was a harbinger of darkness who traversed the cosmos in search of more Sourcestone to devour, and his Blood Storm assisted in this goal by disregarding all forms of life.

At the height of their assault, however, the malefic gods decided not to consume Telara, but rule over it instead. As members of the Blood Storm quarreled over who would assume the leadership of the Sourcestone-rich world, this decision lead to dissension. Relentlessly, the members fought one another to assume control, resulting in a rebellion against Regulos, who simply wanted Telara to be destroyed altogether.

Divided, the Blood Storm was heroically driven back by the stalwart denizens of Telara, and, being too strong to vanquish them outright, the gods were imprison by elemental bindings within the world itself. It is known that Laethys and Maelforge, participants in the Blood Storm, are currently imprisoned within Telara, and their power increases in proportion with that of their native elemental Planes...

       Defiant Perspective

It is important to note that during the early years of the rifts, Ember Isle had been a Kelari capital city. They had thrived here before the Blood Storm, and were making bonds with the resident elemental powers for hundreds of years. When their sacred bonds became influenced by the imprisoned Planar dragon aspects, wherein the goal was manipulation, the spirits of these Kelari became corrupted, dismayed, and altogether consumed. Fortunately, not all the Kelari had succumbed to this malign influence, despite the temptation of increased power that it offered.

  

As the corrupted Kelari gained more and more power this way, their minds became warped, their spirits changed, and they were Kelari no more, but Pyrkari- ones who had sacrificed their will to the destructive influence of the dragons. Eventually, the normal Kelari who'd remained, lead by the High Priestess Anthousa Mona, began to take actions into their own hands. Together, Anthousa lead a force opposing and fighting back against the Pyrkari. Unfortunately, the outcome of this conflict did not sway in her favor, and eventually she ordered her people to flee the Isle, so that they might seek refuge and find a new home for themselves. This lead the Kelari to Freemarch, where they allied with General Catari. However, the High Priestess is still quite adamant that the Kelari are her people to lead, and no one is willing to question that authority.

And so, the renewed focus on the Ember Isle, for the purposes of suppressing the dragon cults, serves a dual role for the Kelari, as this also gives them the opportunity to reclaim their homeland.

Guardian Perspective

Hundreds of years ago, a rag-tag band of Dwarven heroes came from all around Telara to settle on the island. As dwarven ingenuity would suggest, they quickly established a society with what little means were available to them. When faced with diversity, it was due to their dwarvish creativity and knack for improvisation that enabled their. Throughout the years they prospered, but conflicts arose with their Kelari neighbors on more than one occasion. Being the dwarves that they were, it would have been their initial intention to share stories and alcohol with the Kelari, though it did not appear as though any mutual cooperation might have arisen from these actions.

The ghost of Karine, the first Bard, has reached out to the Ascended, and the Guardians are unrelenting in their resolve this mission, for it was Karine who was part of the force that would guard Maelforge's prison within the Volcano. Very few Guardian dwarves are even aware of the existence of this island clan, and very little is known about them. What is known of these dwarves is that they've unlocked secrets regarding the forging of Telara, and what they have done with this power in the meantime has yet to be determined. If anything, progressing through the Ashes of History will hopefully culminate in a reunion between long-lost peoples, and many drunken celebrations are anticipated.

Summary


The Ember isles are rich in Telaran lore. First and foremost, the Isles represent an allegiance between the  Wanton and Golden Maw cults. One might recall that the wanton are a dragon cult associated with Maelforge, the dragon of fire, and the members of this cult are chaos-seeking pyromaniacs. Maelforge simply wants the world to be bathed in eternal flame, inasmuch the Ember Isles provide a perfect outlet for this cult’s thirst for destruction.

Members of the The Golden Maw cult, associated with Laethys, the dragon of earth, are a backstabbing, corruptive people overcome by greed and sinister intentions. They prize wealth and resources, and are captivated by the acquisition of material profit. They will stop at nothing to hoard their way to ultimate riches. The Ember Isle is where the forces of Laethys and Maelforge unite to combat the Ascended, so that they may escape from their prisons and wreck havoc upon Telara.

Who among the Ascended are brave enough to stop them?

(all images courtesy of http://rift.mmosite.com/patch1.5/gorgeous_screenshots_from_ember_isle.shtml )

(Kelari image provided by me).

Worst Video Game Moment - 1 Week of Pain

At the dawn of the release of a brand new TBC raid dungeon, excitement ripped through the clandestine waves of Zangarmarsh...


Hydross the Unstable is the worst boss I’ve ever encountered in a video game. This gigantic water elemental lived in the watery dump of Serpentshrine Cavern, located in the deep tangled mess of Coilfang Reservior. As I recall, he was always angry, and treated all raids with such callous disregard as to mop the floor with 25 dead bodies. He did this while laughing at under-geared tanks and other fools who'd stand in clumped groups to get AoE bombed by Ice-tomb. This was the state of things before the nerf bat, at least.


What seemed like a basic tank-swap/positioning/dps-race fight turned into an over-tuned cluster-F of confusion and chaos. Every night for a week, the brave raiders of <Eclipsed>, including myself, would burn through 2 flasks (4 hours) of attempts without feeling any sense of progression. As many died to the mysterious elevator boss and over-tuned trash packs, frustration occurred even before the encounter began. After about the first hour of these shenanigans, the raid would be in no mood for fighting Hydross the Bloated, which simply made matters worse.


Now, the Duke of Currents, Hydross, was no more than an angry sack of water who generously spewed forth deadly bolts nature and frost junk. Upon engaging this boss, he would start out in the nature phase, and you’d need a maxed out nature resist tank to handle him during this phase. Then he’d switch to the frost phase, where you’d need a frost resist tank to take control. This delicate swapping had to be perfectly timed, as improper timing resulted in deaths. No less than 6 healers (preferable 7-8), were needed for this fight, because not only did Hydross hit your tanks for pain-trains and rocket-ships, his ample supply of raid-based AoE damage was substantial, and it became worse as the fight progressed.


The initial pull of the fight led to more wipes than I care to mention, despite the skill of the hunter who initiated; if he wasn’t positioned perfectly, Hydross would simply do his own thing by one-shotting raiders at random (usually me, Hydross didn’t seem to care about my priestly Fade ability). This had something to do with the boss’s tendency to ignore the invisible barrier that accounted for his current damage affiliation (nature or frost). To add insult to injury, a curious raider would occasionally stray too far ahead of the main group, hit a pack of nearby water elementals, and aggro the boss without warning. More frustration and repair bills that could have easily so been prevented! Yay!


A short time into the fight, a ‘water-tomb’ mechanic offered substantial raid damage. This random-target ability affected all players within 8 yards, stunned them for 4 seconds, and caused 4500 frost damage to all affected players over 5 sec. In addition, a raid-wide debuff (Mark of Hydross) stacked up to 6 times, for a max of 500% increased frost damage received for all. As a healer, this was my worst nightmare, as every attempt resulted in the unnecessary deaths of dps and healers, who were simply too lost in tunnel-vision to stay properly spread out. However, to their credit, it was difficult to stay fully spread out, as the platform where the fight took place was far too small and ridiculously shaped for everyone to be safe.


In fact, the entire fight was ridiculous, inasmuch many an ambitious raid group chose to skip Hydross in order to kill The Lurker Below, and forget Hydross altogether. Unfortunately, rather than wait for the inevitable nerf bat, we were far more concerned with maintaining the sense of elitism and pride that came with being a server first guild, so we merrily trucked along in the face of adversity. This outright lack of common sense resulted in a mountain of broken keyboards, a slew of mental breakdowns, and a server-first kill. Only after several <5% wipes!


After all was said and done, we were left with a garbage pair of epic warlock boots, which were soon converted into enchanting materials.


And if you’re the type of person who might attribute this fail to poor raid leadership or lack of skill, consider that we’d cleared all Vanilla content (excluding the final bosses of Naxx 40-man), prior to Hydross, and had maintained top 3 server progression throughout (we were neck-and-neck with our rival guild at all times). Admittedly, we weren’t the best of the best, but we knew how to crush content nonetheless. Or so we thought!