Shard Storyline
The story of Requiem, or rather, that of Eden and its turbulent struggle from destruction, is a tale that has been woven for nearly three years. From its humble beginnings as nothing more than an innocent parallel to our own world, to the dark and macabre place it has evolved into, the story of Requiem is a culmination of work from numerous authors and storywriters.
The story and atmosphere of our humble shard is one of dark and morbid undertones, highlighting the struggle of a single kingdom against all odds. We employ the use of religion and morality (and often, the lack thereof) in the story we have created for you to enjoy. Players can expect to find themselves in a world shattered by war and chaos, driven to the brink of madness by both religious zealots and the evil they swear to purge.
Act IV: Resurgence
Runtime: January 2010 to Present (currently active plot)
As suddenly as it arrived, the great veil was lifted. The Everdark, which lorded over the skies of Tor for so very long, was at last lifted. Yet the city which had been present when the second great blight fell upon the surface of Eden was not the same city that emerged from the unnatural blackness. Within the dark, Tor had weathered countless horrors, and it was left a changed city.
Despite the return of day, the year of 1342 seems dark indeed. In the endless night the citizens of the capital had turned upon their kinsmen like rabid dogs, causing the flight of the Decusian Church and the Archbishop. The Consortium of Mages survived the civil war, but met their end soon after at the hands of their own Afflicted experiments. The Legion and the Foundry nearly met similar fates, leaving the fledgling Torian Representative Council to hold the crumbling city and its peoples together.
Yet threats from within were the least of their worries. When the Everdark vanished all were at last able to see the horrors that had once been hidden by the shadows. In the West the desecrated templar garrison was given unlife as the city of Sepultra, the new home of the Resolve. To the South Warbishop Naum Alexandrov and his fanatical Venerated Inquisition Corps plan their next offensive against the city that cast them out. And all throughout the countryside viscous beasts and deranged horrors are drawn to the last bastion of humanity.
Whispers also speak of an old and insidious threat that is closer to home than many realize. Ripples of paranoia spread throughout the already frightened populace as people disappear and eldritch relics are uncovered. The past may not be as far behind as one thinks.
Beset on all sides, from within and from without, Mankind holds their fate in one hand and a sword in the other. Will they rise as one or fall as many? In Act IV, you will decide.
Act III: Revelations
Runtime: February 2009 to January 2010
The great and mighty Republic, a bastion of hope in the dark and unforgiving world of Eden. Its very existence has stood as a symbol of Order amongst Chaos, a legacy of man’s victory over darkness. Since the Great War millennia ago, the Venerated Republic has represented the culmination of mankind’s evolution, a nation bound together by faith and determination.
In the year 1313, the great kingdom of men had been delivered a deadly blow by what had become known as the Torment, a debilitating disease that had stricken its victims mad with rage and insanity. Countless millions had fell to the disease and it’s infected alone, while thousands more met their fate through famine and civil unrest during the years to come.
Yet the nature of man is to overcome, and overcome the great Republic did. The year is now 1341, nearly thirty years since the Torment first wreaked havoc upon the kingdom of men. For thirty years, the great Republic has fought tirelessly to rebuild its ruined empire, to restore what has been lost to the calamity of years passed.
Yet now, a new threat emerges. Many had thought that the Torment had surely been the End of Days, undoubtedly Armageddon incarnated. How foolish they were…
A mysterious darkness has enveloped the Republic, a permanent eclipse silhouetting the land with an eternal shadow. At first, had seemed the phenomena had simply been a natural peculiarity. Yet when the first of what would become countless horrors emerged from the everlasting darkness, it had been clear the eternal night had been the work of a malicious force.
You are one of countless thousands whom are stranded within Tor, the capital of the Venerated Republic. The veil of the Everdark has made navigation out of the city difficult; the creatures stalking the darkness have made it nigh impossible. A citizen of a collapsing Republic, you can only look on as the remnants of a failing empire fight for control over the forsaken lands of Eden.
The second blight has arrived; the Everdark has fallen. Will you survive the darkness to see the dawn of a new day and age?
Act II: Abandonment
Runtime: January 2008 to November 2008 (Plot Inactive)
Many called it excommunication. Others referred to at as a retreat. It was the Freemen who first dubbed the Republic’s actions in 1335 as “The Abandonment”. Faced with a kingdom rife with famine, rioting, and death, the Venerated Church had considered the colonial efforts in the old colonies as the Republic’s last hope, praying that somehow, someway, a victory could be declared in the war against the Torment. Thousands of legionnaires, templars, laborers and even magi had been sent to the End of the World along with a colonial force of hundreds to in an effort to find the source of the Torment; the Resolve.
For ten long years, an effort was made to retake the lost territories of the old colonies. Five years did the Republic attempt to hunt and destroy the Resolve in all of its varying forms. Ten years did the battle of the Gate wage.
Ten years, all in vain.
The Resolve has proved more powerful than anyone could have ever predicted. Efforts across the old colonies had been fruitless. Thousands of Republic soldiers had fallen to the forces of darkness in a battle that would seal not only their fate, but the fate of millions.
It hadn’t taken long for one with a dark soul and ambitious heart to take advantage of the dire situation that engulfed the Republic. In 1335, the position of Archbishop had been declared re-instated, and with such a position of absolute power did come an era of darkness. Dissolved was the Republic Senate, and the voice of the people. Ignored were the leaders of the Legion, Consortium, and Foundry. Silenced was the voice of the people.
Territories across the Republic had been left abandoned by order of the Church and Archbishop Anslem, their defenders ordered to fall back eastward towards safer and more stable states. Where once life flourished under the protection of both legionnaires and templars, death took claimed residence. Thousands had perished in a matter of weeks following the retreat, claimed by the mindless afflicted who roamed the ruined western territories. Even more had died when attempting to flee eastward, cut down by the scores of legionnaires and templars under direct order by the Archbishop.
As part of the Archbishop’s plan to reclaim the kingdom from darkness, the efforts in the old colonies had been deemed a failure, and aid had been cut off indefinitely. Thousands had been left to fend for themselves, declared outcasts and excommunicated by the Church and state. The remnants of the Republic that existed in the colonies, consisting of Legion soldiers, Church templars, Foundry laborers, and Consortium magi, had all splintered from one another, spreading across the land to perpetuate their own goals and agendas.
The Resolve had seemingly vanished as mysteriously as they initially appeared, and the old colonies had become an outcast land, reserved for only the most daring and desperate to brave the harsh waters and long days to get to. The Republic continued on its course of reclamation, abandoning territories and states in an effort to re-enforce the strength of areas untouched by the Torment. In the end, twenty territories had been left abandoned, not including those of the old colonies. Those that dared speak out against the authoritarianism of the Church had been silenced quickly by order of the Archbishop, and the Republic has entered a new era of fear, induced by the Church itself.
Yet what of those left behind in the old colonies? Of the hope at finding a cure to the Torment, and victory over the forces of evil? It is here, in this forsaken place of broken promises and abandoned souls, that the story of Eden continues…
Act I: Origins
Runtime: Late 2006 to January 2008 (Plot Inactive)
It had been ten years since the first outbreaks of the Torment were reported. What appeared at first glance to be nothing more than a simple flu evolved into something far more sinister. The Nations of the Venerated Republic, the grand benefactor and superpower of the grand world of Eden, paid little heed to the early days of the Torment…
Such an act would be their undoing. By the time the Afflicted had turned feral and mindless, the time for action had already come and gone.
In the first year after the Torment came, the Republic could only watch as cities fell to the groves of those infected. Millions believed it was truly the End of Days. The Torment spread like wildfire through the countryside, across nation and state, town and territory. By the time the Venerated Church and Decusian Legion could secure and protect the remaining unaffected states of the Republic, half of the known kingdom had been cast into darkness. Death ran rampant through the kingdom, and civilization fell and toppled like a house of cards.
Hope, however, still existed in the hearts of few.
The old colonies had been considered the Republic’s best chance at finding a cure for the Torment. It was the Venerated Church that had put the plan into motion to cull thousands of downtrodden and desperate citizens to the colonies. Presented with an opportunity to leave the ravished lands of the Republic, countless men and women jumped at the offer to serve the Republic by making the exodus. Under the guise they would be aiding the establishment of a new kingdom upon the lands of the End of the World, these unknowing souls were shuttled to the old colonies by the hundreds, only to be faced by the grim truth of a dark reality.
What exactly had been the true duty of these betrayed souls? To reclaim the city state of MacArthur’s Gate where countless hundreds had already failed, and somehow, uncover the secrets behind the Resolve in hopes to rid Eden of the unholy Torment.