January 30, 2009

Legend and Lore: The races of Aion

Developers’ journal reveals the continuing back story to NCsoft’s upcoming MMO

The land of Atreia is a beautiful and mysterious place, peopled by disparate races with unique perspectives of the shattered lands they call home.

The peoples of this land have no love for the other, a fact that colors their individual histories and the lore about the origins of the world. Harken now as the two races, the Asmodians and the Elyos, tell – as each perceives it – of the origin of the world and peoples of Aion: The Tower of Eternity, the upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game from NCsoft.

The first five chapters of the lore were published in mid-January.

Aftermath: The Asmodian perspective

Slowly our eyes adjusted, and slowly we found each other. Our people were distraught, terrified: no-one knew how we had survived at all. I told the people that I could find to make camp and stay warm; I then set off towards the stump that was the base of our tower.

It was there that I found a blessing: the five Empyrean Lords who had been sent to hold Aion intact, still alive. They gathered us all together, told us that our world had changed forever, and told us why. Worse still was the cost of this attempted peace: we had lost millions, and Siel and Israphel, the two Guardians of the Tower, had sacrificed themselves so that we might live in their stead. In life they had committed a great folly, but their deaths had not been without honor, and in silence we remembered them.

I returned to our makeshift camp soon after and helped to construct a huge fire to attract other survivors. Over the next few days, thousands would come to us, battered, bruised, and distraught at the events that had transpired. I was fortunate enough to find Phalaris, my child, amongst the survivors, though no-one else that I had known from my settlement had survived.

Days passed, then weeks. It became apparent that our world, our shattered world, had stabilized, and our destiny was once again in our hands. Aion, it seemed, had departed, as had the Aether that had empowered me. For the first time in a long while, I felt vulnerable again. Not wanting to let fear take control of my wits, I spoke with Asphel, and set about plans for founding a new home for us all.

Seven hundred and fifty long years passed, and in that time I saw a great many things change. We soon ran out of firewood, though our eyes were already adapting to the encroaching darkness. Our town was built, named Pandaemonium, and soon expanded into a great city. I saw our people flourish, adapt, evolve against all odds, always under the direction of our Shedim Lords.

Our evolution took on physical characteristics too; our skin grew pale in this engulfing darkness, and the hard ground, littered with razor-sharp debris, turned our feet into claws. Our hands, too, acquired graceful talons, as if to say that none of our race would ever go unarmed again. These marks were once difficult for me to accept, but if they were necessary for our survival, and they were, then we had no choice but to carry their burden. To us, they were the price of Israphel's attempted peace, which Ariel had been fool enough to support.

In that time I also saw Phalaris grow old and die, along with his children, and theirs. Such is the life of a Daeva.

Aftermath: The Elyos perspective

I am one of the Elyos, the people who found themselves on the lower half of Atreia, our new world which we labeled Elysea. At first, our eyes burned under the virgin light of our nearby star, so fierce compared to the cool, calm glow that had been emanating from our tower before it had shattered. We soon adapted, though, and found ourselves celebrating this newfound world on which we lived. Our people could look skywards and see the darkened remains of upper Atreia, spinning slowly as it clung on desperately to our glorious sanctuary.

The light from our new star was magnificent, and turned our once meager fields into bountiful pastures, just as it turned us into such beautiful beings. Our skin glowed with vigor, our hearts beat strong and sure, and soon we had found our feet. Aion, some quickly resolved, had meant for this to happen. We were the Elyos: Aion's chosen few, and we had been delivered by our god to Paradise! This was a world which not even the Balaur could reach - we learned from Ariel that they had been banished by Siel and Israphel to an unknown void, just before those noble Daevas sacrificed themselves during the Epic Cataclysm.

The five Empyrean Lords who were sent by Siel and Israphel took us under their wing, renaming themselves the Seraphim Lords. Our Seraphim Lords told our ancestors of their struggle, and how the other five Empyrean lords had provoked and insulted the Balaur, goading them towards further conflict. Our world, once so stable and harmonious, was now rent in two, and we were told it was all because of the actions of the other four Empyrean lords and their cursed leader, Asphel.

We began rebuilding our lives, and with them our new city, a glorious creation fitting for our world and our Lords, to be named Sanctum. We were sworn to protect our new home, and the strongest Daevas amongst us were appointed guardians over it by our Seraphim Lords.

Seven hundred and fifty years passed on Atreia in this manner. We were at peace for the most part, and we prospered as best we could. However, things were about to change again, as our planet started to heal itself.

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