Microsoft Zone Archive/Asheron's Lore/A Brief History for Travelers/The Widening Gyre
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Original Link (now dead) - http://zone.msn.com/asheronscall/ASHEhistoryoctober01.asp
The Widening Gyre
by Allan Maki
Turbine Entertainment Software
Harvestgain PY 12 / Earth: October 2001
The fires have been stoked across Dereth to ward off the coming of the harvest season's chill. Brave souls press even further against the Virindi tide in an effort to stave their advances and finally bring the cloaked beings to heel. All the while the Children of Ispar once again are set for revelry in this their time of harvest, celebrating the end of another year here on Dereth.
In Zaikhal a defector from the renegade Virindi band has come with a mission for those adventurers with steely nerves who are willing to trust him. His tales lend credence to the rumblings that the Virindi have begun to establish a New Singularity, here on Dereth. He warns that if they are not successful that the renegades will win and bring this Singularity here, washing away life as they have come to know it. He provides them with a chisel and imparts knowledge of the storage facilities that contain the renegade's materials. Armed with this new understanding, warriors heed this latest call and strike deep in the heart of the Virindi onslaught, hoping to make this the final blow. The Isparians will prevail at all costs.
Alchemists, cooks, and mages, having deciphered old riddles and found new delights, have opened their shops to all and happily display the new wares that they have to offer. Alchemists have enhanced their already potent tonics that restore Mana and close grievous wounds. Cooks display and sell new candied items. Those with a penchant for sweets have been made to smile once more. Mages have fortified the stones that can be used to store Mana so that they break less often and have also, with the help of tailors, rewoven the magical aspect of apprentice's robes to be wholly beneficial to their wearer.
After seeing the success of the Zaikhal Arcanum in forging houses befitting Dereth's defenders, Queen Strathelar has commissioned a refurbishment of the pyreal to have a brighter appeal to the masses. New shops selling furniture and other wares have opened, their patrons stand ready to collect the new pyreal in exchange for the goods and services.
In towns all across Dereth inhabitants display festival masks in a show of strength in the face of adversity. The Virindi war seems to be winding to an end and the Isparians are rejoicing.
Yet new portals have opened. Something about these differs from the portals once forged through the magical might of Asheron. These have a sense of being made by another, as a way to coax the Isparians somewhere else. Who has forged them and for what purpose?