Tartarea's Story

"Sagittae and Atargatis, how did Eras get his power back from him?" Empyrea wondered. Tartarea spoke up. Nobody had noticed his presence arrive, but he wasn't happy.

"The stones have been removed from the tower, is how," He rumbled. From above, the pool would emit the sounds of crashing waves as the spirits of the seas on Gaia went back and forth, blaming each other for losing track. Had anyone alerted the dragons?

"Patience," Gaia whispered. Eras had been hard at work over the thousands of years since his power was so stripped. The pool pulsed as the powers shifted and some of it was returned to Gaia.

"A great threat to the grotto!" Gaia wailed as she felt the jotunn shift. She knew it wasn't what it seemed; they all did. As there was a great disruption in the Weargtooth Mountains, the pool began to whisper. The Bogscale began to gather at the edge. They heeded the call to action, but knew they had little power. The Reshar too understood, quizzically enough, and scattered to warn the Alneh.

The waters grew still as Tartarea leapt to action, channeling his flows to strengthen the waters of the grotto and beyond, the channel to the sea. The grotto must be protected!

The waters of the Hearthwater Channel, while appearing still, were undergoing extravagant change. Tartarea, the spirit of the sea chopping into the northern coast of Ellaria, had taken action against the threats to Lifegiver's Grotto. While the Alneh Sanctum proved slow to respond to the looming threat of Nightfall, the Bogmen prayed to the Gods for help. With each cloud-filled day and rain-filled night, with each distant strike of lightning, another had called for divine interference.

He couldn't do much, but the Lifegiver Grotto required protection.

From the west a great jotunn moved. The largest peak while standing, from here the great jotunn appeared as if one of the mountains had decided to come alive. It grew as it took a step closer, one great foot landing in the waters just north of the Hearthwater Channel.

Since the jotunn moved oh so slow, Tartarea was able to redirect the force of the landing of the step elsewhere with a great current as it descended through the waters. By the time the foot reached the bottom of the waters it was safely just beyond the mouth of the channel. Blocking it entirely, sure.

The waters in the channel surged up a few feet. Those unlucky enough to live near the water and prefer it dry suffered greatly. Many dwellings were forced underwater, and there was enough drownings to cause upset. The Alneh had not responded quick enough beyond the Razor Tiara to the giant in northern Ellaria. Despite the destruction, the Mother Tree remained unharmed. The Hearthwater Channel, while largely inconvenienced and semi-traumatized, had hopes to rebuild.

The second step never had the chance to land. The Hearthwater Channel was deep in all spots, having had been a canyon at one time flooded as time passed by. In the center was a grotto, widely underestimated. The Alneh Sanctum respected the Mother Tree and Lifegiver Grotto, though they didn't understand why the bogmen worshiped such a place. Even after the day the waters rose and the northern mouth was blocked by a pillar of mountain falling from the sky the Alneh didn't realize.

Tartarea had done his job well redirecting the step as it fell. In the deepest depths of Hearthwater Channel, Lifegiver Grotto churned with the forces of Gaia and the seas. Tartarea couldn't stop the step from landing but he could protect the last sacred spot untainted by Eras.

The waters in the channel surged up a few feet. Those unlucky enough to live near the water and prefer it dry suffered greatly. Many dwellings were forced underwater, and there was enough drownings to cause upset. The Alneh had not responded quick enough beyond the Razor Tiara to the giant in northern Ellaria. Despite the destruction, the Mother Tree remained unharmed. The Hearthwater Channel, while largely inconvenienced and semi-traumatized, had hopes to rebuild.

Being as such, there was no tidal wave to surge into the channel. Instead, Tartarea harnessed the force to direct the waves in such a way that they undulated back out to sea. The bulk of the waters wasn't able to wreak havoc to Ellaria, although there was something else entire to be said for anyone unlucky enough to be out on the Tartarean Seas.

Much like in the Hearthwater Channel, though not as dramatically, the northern coast of Ellaria would experience a surge. The waves lapped further inland. A few cliff faces deteriorated into the sea on impact. The newly created ravine flash flooded. The waters continued to surge around the ankle of the jotunn, attempting to stop it from moving on south.

”Oh ye of little faith…” Ha’Ari spoke, a purring bass that filled the air with a serene peace.

He appeared in the grotto, an enormous lion of fire and light. Leolik looked upon the three spirits with eyes alight with compassion. His flame was like a soothing balm - a comforting hearth - and the light that shone from His face chased away the darkness of the heart.

“I have heard your cry, children of the cosmos, and I offer salvation from the Longest Night if you only ask. My own champions have been called, and I have claimed the land of the Royale Prairies as an inheritance for my children.”

Far away, amidst the rolling plains of the Royale Prairies, the Avatar of Ha’Ari roared in defiance of Eras. No, it was more than defiance. Leolik, the King of Kings, rebuked the errant star and its wicked heart. His gaze peered into Eras’s innermost being, into the crooked corruption within, and He felt both pity and disappointment.

But the Everlasting Flame still burned, and as long as He willed it, that region would be protected from the life-sapping power of the evil star.

"Gaia would rather destruction than her Spirit feed Eras back to power," Atargatis swept into the Grotto. Periwinkle twinkled on the waters above. Still the Groenbogs were hubub with chaos as Nightfall was realized.
"Those from elsewhere have really opened the door. We need to return the stones-" Atargatis was silenced by a harsh look from Tartatea.

"The stones are a lost cause," Tartarea sighed. He retired to keeping an eye on the shorelines. Gaia herself had fallen into a slumber.

"They aren't," Atargatis calmly finished explaining how the stones had saved them the first time around. The acid lake, true enough, was no longer a challenge. The rooms, though! Still a few stones remained. Sadly the number, unless all, would never be enough to stop Eras.

"We can improve upon it later," Empyrea chimed in with a yawn on her breath. Something was draining her more so than the others, "Welcome to our humble Dance."

The Lifegiver Grotto was all the much more radiant and potent with the giving of life to the Alneh now that a new God had been welcomed.

Leolik nodded to the two spirits. “Eras’s hubris is great, and he has hardened his heart to almost the point of no return. My prophet conveys my warnings to him as we speak, but he will not heed my voice. Though I protect Gaia from his fury with my outstretched hand, and my champions stand against his titans, I will only stand against his authority for so long.

“If the stones will not be retrieved, then a plan of redemption for Gaia must be written into the Weave - a plan that will release her from Eras’s yoke.”

"The champions have been called," Atargatis continued as if he had no ears, when he knew the fate of Gaia truly rest in the hand of her children, and the Champions. Tartarea grew dark and disappeared. With him the twilight glimmer faded. Empyrea frowned after him, then after a moment her astral eyes grew wide as the moon. She too grew dark and disappeared back to her waters.

When Atargatis spoke of Champions, he was not just speaking of those native to Gaia. When Gaia, the planet, sent out her call, he felt it brisk by his spacial mass. Atargatis had no doubt the call would reach those from other realms - just as he remembered a different type of call reached other realms not so long ago.

Atargatis pondered on this, before finally speaking up again to Leolik.

"Redemption, is for the guilty. Of what guilt should Gaia be redeemed?"

A violet glimmer descent upon the waters of Hearthwater Channel for an entire day, before dissipating out north to sea.

As they rose above Ellaria, a few things below caught the eye of the dragon. The Empyrean Sea, far, far, far to the south was sending forceful winds north. They ascended even higher, the skies were visibly dark and brewing over the sea. Just north in the mountains was a settlement in a bay. It was populated, active, thriving. However something about it didn't seem quite right, Crimson stained the snow and the people moved in strange patterns. A great ship also rested here. There was a depression in the mountain where it had slid down. A new ravine had formed as well. The rock face inside was stark and black against the white of the other peaks, the Tartarean sea swirling the bottom into mud. Just as Zirconia was about to breach the clouds she noticed the Hearthwater Channel pulse a periwinkle. Her heart surged, for that was a good sign.

As the storm raged in the Empyrean seas, the Wyrm's gleeful whispers snaking through the waves, Urakena shuddered. The signs were all present and she was not sure all that she could do here under the sea. She was but one dragon. It was then a glimmer of purple shot from somewhere over there, north over the home of the originals.

Urakena followed the periwinkle, knowing the signs when she saw them.

As she swam through the celestial lights in the waves, Urakena might have noticed her own glow beginning to fade. It seemed her vibrant blues, as she swam through the purple, were left behind in the light. She grew darker as she went, her beauty fading as if she was sinking.

In the skies above the clouds, a strange shape winked into existence, and began to move slightly, a keen eye could make out it's artificial, bulbous nature.

The skies above Ellaria and all of Gaia had emptied and refilled. New constellations dotted the sky and crowded the old, strange shapes with strange lights and colors.