Fate of the Herald of a New Dawn

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See also: Herald of a New Dawn

(As explained by Aedin...)

I am a god, but I am a young god. Due to the Wall, I am limited in my ability to communicate across great distances.

This is a story about you, but it will take a bit for that to become clear.

In your mind's eye, you behold the great city of Naktamun, on the world of Amonkhet. My world is cursed with massive deposits of lazotep, a blue-black mineral with dark necrotic power. As a result, the dead walk. The living have adapted to this challenge in creative ways.

Nicol Bolas is a villainous dragon demigod. He conquered Amonkhet and transformed our civilization into a factory for undead soldiers. He used lazotep to craft exceptionally dangerous zombies.

Bolas also built a mega artifact of lazotep: a black pyramid called Adinzar. In 2004, when Nicol Bolas activated the artifact, he was trapped inside and remains there still. He is restrained but not completely without reach and influence.

I am part of Adinzar, along with Bolas. Adinzar also contains a Face of the Maniac called the Relentless Understanding. Finally, we are joined by a Unbound woman who we call the Warden. Together, the Warden and I try to keep Bolas from escaping, and care for the Relentless Understanding. We're a bit like zookeepers.

The structure you are standing within on Amethyst 3 is not the main body of Adinzar. We think of that first pyramid as Adinzar Prime. The pyramid on Amethyst 3 is one of several... echoes... that I have created. We sometimes find it optimal to move entities in and out of Adinzar Prime, without revealing its location on Amonkhet.

The ruse against Bolas was part of the Adintec Conspiracy: a vast, secret, long-term plan carried out by the forces of the Nine Hells of Baator. But even the devils were deceived, for the true author and puppeteer was an Illithid elder brain named Quarsis.

In 2017, a team of heroes called Raptor Blue got involved. They were mostly from a planet called Earth.

Raptor Blue uncovered the the Adintec Conspiracy and stopped some of its work. They stopped an effort to free Nicol Bolas. They also helped the living people of Amonkhet reclaim their capital city of Naktamun.

Raptor Blue wanted to keep Adinzar out of the hands of anyone, and especially Quarsis. They wanted to keep Bolas imprisoned. One member of Raptor Blue became the Warden. Others helped spread confusing and contradictory information about the Black Pyramid. This has left many individuals and groups to believe it is a myth.

In their adventures and triumphs, Raptor Blue was aided by an alliance of gods called the Covenant of Chain Breakers. They are a motley group, including Bahamut, Dolmodeen, and Erevan Ilesere. I am also now a member of the Chain Breakers. We share a hatred of slavery and slavers.

The League of the Rusted Crown is a cartel of slavers, and a part of the Adintec Conspiracy. Slavery and the murder of slaves are essential to the Conspiracy's advancement. This included constructing and empowering Adinzar. The LRC's involvement will matter later in this story.

Now we are ready to talk about the Amethyst System and Amethyst 3, the world you crashed on.

Dolmodeen created this world as a wedding gift to two gods, Ahvilora, Lady of the Primal Heart, and Ektalya, the Painter of Wild Skies.

Dolmodeen modeled Amethyst 3 after the world of Earth, but with far more saltwater. Creating a world is a major effort, even for a god such as Dolmodeen. She is permanently invested in the project.

The Adintec Conspiracy knew that Dolmodeen would work against them. They specifically targeted her places of power to weaken her, including her first temple on a world called Tessera. They also unleashed an undead plague on Amethyst 3.

By the Law of Contagion, Amethyst's undead erode Dolmodeen's power. They must be stopped.

Furthermore, the presence of the Planters is also an irritant to Dolmodeen, Ahvilora, and Ektalya. The Planters are slavers, too, in their own way. However, the gods of Amethyst have developed their own ways of dealing with the Planters: the genetic resistance to assimilation, the Green Dark swarms of co-opted bots, a periodic global pulse of electromagnetic radiation, and the autonomous airborne leviathans. The leviathans are children of Dolmodeen, charged with preventing the Planters from leaving and others from joining them.

Here's where you enter the story. The Herald of a New Dawn was a project of interest to the Covenant of Chain Breakers. You were bound for Amber Rismuth, an unsettled system in the protected space of Tanyth Aramont.

The Herald's captain was Nadia Voss, a Human warrior. She was chosen for her strong code of honor. However, this command was a greater responsibility than Voss had ever held. It made her anxious.

Voss prayed for guidance and connected with a divinity. The divinity gave her dreams of reassurance and hope. But we know now that the source of the dreams was actually Nicol Bolas, in disguise.

Alas, the Warden and I cannot fully monitor and control both Bolas and the Relentless Understanding. We try to use the Relentless Understanding to contain him, but Bolas has also built his own relationship with it.

Bolas used his link to Captain Voss to track the Herald of a New Dawn. An LRC scout ship happened to be relatively close. Bolas shared your flight path with the LRC captain and he moved to intercept you. They planned to capture the ship and enslave you all. They secretly docked with the Herald and came aboard disguised as crew.

But by now Captain Voss had realized her mistake. She prayed to Dolmodeen for aid. Dolmodeen guided Voss in secretly rerouting the colony ship to the Amethyst System. She had prepared for this contingency plan, including putting anti-Planter tech and schematics onboard. She thought you would have plenty of time in orbit to prepare.

Meanwhile, the LRC infiltrators disabled the firewalls, unwittingly exposing the AI cores to attack by Planter code from the surface. Then, just as you approached the planet, the Wall went up.

Thus, now no one knows where the Herald is.

You were not supposed to be here. But Dolmodeen has done her best to kill two birds with one stone: hide the Herald and its passengers from the LRC, and bring Unbound to deal with the undead plague.