Pax Istaria

[awdz]

I really enjoyed the Master Lorekeeper of the Great Library of Tazoon's gathered writing about the the world of Istaria providing the historical events behind The Great Peace Accords, on display at
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcv3hb6k_87cdpp4w83

I've been enjoying the event with the raffle and new items to fill up my inventory stack too :-)
Here's how I experienced it:


Awdz finished her chocolate mousse at the tavern, swallowed the last dreg of her mugful of klava to wash it down, and let out a contented sigh. There was nothing quite like a fine meal to restore her strength after intense battles with the Withered Aegis. The latest forays into the Eastern Deadlands had been particularly difficult, but she and her party of gifted allies had driven back the blights once again to keep Harro safe.

Pausing to wave farewell to her friends on leaving the tavern, Awdz caught sight of a new official notice posted on the community board, with “PAX ISTARIA” across the top and splashes of color to make it stand out. Curious, she read more closely.

The Bureau of Observations has decided that no yearly celebration calendar would be complete without properly observing The Great Peace Accords which brought all the Living Races of Istaria together. Tents and special vendors are set up outside Tazoon, just south east of the town walls, for citizens of all the Living Races to celebrate "Pax Istaria".

“Wowsers,” Awdz exclaimed. It was the first time she had heard of the empire doing something fun to celebrate the treaty; usually when representatives of the various races got together for something, it was either to drive back the encroaching blight or to rebuild what had been destroyed. Had the gifted managed to hold off the Withered Aegis enough for the empire representatives to focus on less crucial affairs at last? She wondered briefly who had come up with the idea and managed to plow through the bureaucratic red tape to make it possible. Shrugging, she trotted to the nearest portal and headed for Tazoon.

Awdz kicked up sand on her way out of the city gate. She could see the tents and a bustling crowd, and hurried over to see what was there. Nearing the first tent, she heard the food vendor hawking his wares.

“'Get your festival food here! Bread bowls, candied carrots, and spun sugar to tantalize your tastebuds! Care for our famous gruok wurst? Give it a try! Nothing better to round out your day than a hot beef pasty!”

Spun sugar! It had been ages since Awdz had last had some. Happily she requested some, only to have the vendor refuse to serve her for coin.

“I’m sorry, miss, but you’ll have to buy festival tickets before I can serve you,” the vendor said, and turned to entice other passersby with his food. Disappointed, Awdz looked about for the festival tickets booth and was spotted a guildmate, Jormungandrr, who hailed her. She waved to return his greeting and trotted over to him.

“Have you found the ticket booth yet?” Awdz asked. Jormungandrr indicated the ticket vendor, so she went over and peeped up over the booth shelf, hoping to buy some tickets. However, even the ticket vendor would not take her coin, insisting that she present imperial bounty markers instead.

“This is a celebration of the founding of the empire, miss. If you have markers showing service to the empire, I’ll gladly provide you tickets in return for them.”

Awdz rolled her eyes. As a gifted gnome, she had earned hundreds of markers and had to fight the urge to be sarcastic in reply. Passing over a wad of markers, she waited for her tickets.

“Well missy, you’ve been a busy little gnome, haven’t you!” the ticket vendor said in surprise. “You must be gifted. It’s nice to have gifted of all sizes running around… and here you are!” He had efficiently counted out all of her tickets while talking. “Enjoy the festival!”

Getting warm in the heat, the first thing Awdz bought with her festival tickets was something to drink. A cup of iced tea cooled her down; since she was hungry as well, an iced cream cone hit the spot. Finally munching on some yummy spun sugar, she wandered over to the petting zoo. The zookeeper explained how it worked.

“Welcome to the petting zoo! We've got a variety of creatures from Istaria tucked in here; as long as you treat 'em right, they won't do you any harm. I'll be glad to sell you food if you want to feed 'em: one ticket for regular feed, and two for the extra-special type.”

Awdz decided to try one of each of the feeds, to see if she could make friends with all of the creatures there. As she approached a nervous-looking baby ruxus, it let out a pitiful “Groooooar.” Unsure what a ruxus normally ate, she tried offering the various feeds to it one at a time. The baby ruxus stomped his front legs upon the ground in appreciation when fed ore pellets, and looked for more. Digging into her pockets, Awdz pulled out some slag pellets and offered them to it. The baby ruxus turned away from her in disgust with a loud “Grrrmmp” and looked for another offering from someone else to satisfy its hunger. She petted it anyway, wrinkling her nose a little at the slimy feel of its mossy coat.

Finding a cow that looked either sick or drunk, Awdz patted it comfortingly. The cow mooed at her and refused any hay offered it, but ate some of the grain she offered it to help it regain its strength. She also found a sad-looking deer to pet, which perked up a little at the juicy treat she fed it. On her way across the petting zoo, a big maggot made an urbling noise to get attention too. Not wanting to touch it, she threw some leftover rations at it and hoped that its subsequent curling up did not mean that she had killed it.

Next Awdz approached a spindly fyyaki. At first it just hissed at her, but after she talked to it a bit and enticed it with the right treat, it spun a web with her name on it.

“Oooh!” Awdz cried, delighted. Petting it, she found its hard shell to be glassy smooth. This tame creature was far different than the wild fyakki she had killed many times in blighted areas, and she realized that Pax Istaria meant better lives for all the living creatures in Istaria, not just the intelligent races that had signed the accords.

“Prevail, the Empire!” she whispered, and headed back into the festival crowds to celebrate the rest of the day.

[LOVWYRM]

So sorry I missed you there, Awdz.

I would have loved to provide you with the biggest Spun Sugar,
you`ve ever seen-in return for all the good Klava I always get from you.
But as the festival goes on- postponed is not abandoned

[Hasai]

“It changed twenty minutes ago, and no, in the past century and a half that I’ve been guarding this stupid, heavy, unexplainable lump of useless junk, it has never, ever done this before.�

. . . . Is it just my chronically faulty memory playing tricks upon me again, or does this fly directly into the face of the legends found within the Ancient Rite of Passage?

Hasai's eyes narrow into a suspicious glare.

You naka aren't doing your loose-leaf-notebook version of history thing again, are you?

[Velea]

In what way?

[Hasai]

Please refresh my memory; was not the Device that was used to end the Battle of Tazoon the result of the sacrifices of a certain dragon researcher?

[LaughingOtter]

Ellean does not appear in the official versions of the Battle of Tazoon because Drulkar (through Valkoth and Semeneth) commanded it. This is also why Ellean is not officially listed as a member of the Protectorate. Had Ellean's involvement been made public knowledge, it would have also made public his discoveries involving the Gate of Embers. This was not in accordance to Drulkar's will. V'Tieru talks about this secrecy when discussing Ellean with the ARoP candidate.

Ellean's discoveries and sacrifice were part of what made the activation of the Artifact possible, but only a part. Ellean was not mentioned in "We, the Living" because telling his tale is reserved for the ARoP, and is not a thing for Naka to know.

[Hasai]

I stand corrected.

[Shian]

(At work and bored. Hope you don't mind the hijack, but I thought adding to this would be more preferable to having a few more topics on the same subject)

Shian had slept in for the better part of a day. She was exhausted from gathering ore not only for herself, but for the gambing hall that had recently been put up, so she felt she deserved to rest up as best she could before starting back up again. There was still work for her to do.

Yawning and dragging herself up from the lower reaches of her lair, there was an unusual chatter whispering on the wind, so hopped up to the nearest portal to follow it. Bristugo seemed to be the likely place to get information.

She blinked in the glaring sun and asked a passing dragon-one she had only seen a few times before but had not yet learned her name what the odd excitement was.

If it is another anchor attack, I'd have to find where I put my combat scales...

"A festival!" squeaked the dragon. "South of Tazoon." With that hurried answer given, the dragon was gone behind the Scorpian Island portal.

Tazoon, huh?

While Shian was never fond of very hot places and Tazoon had a few unfavorable nicknames among the gifted, she found the desert wind and sky beautiful. Flying over the gates of Tazoon, it was not difficult to spot the festival grounds.

Switching to Khutit as soon as she touched ground, she simply watched for a little while, giving a few of her extra bounty markers to hatchlings that came in that might not have quite as many. The festival grounds were not large and seeing so many gifted in one spot was always something that excited Shian. Seemed no matter how old she got though, she never got used to bipeds.

Being a dragon, a loud "Thwump" at her side felt perfectly normal. The bipeds nearby, even a few of the vendors jumped a little at the sight of the huge ancient that had just landed. Shian chuckled to herself at the silly reaction.

"Glit'sita Shian" came a familliar voice.

Shian craned her neck up to see the form of Saphire, one of the oldest dragons in Istaria and technically, her mother in law if dragons were to follow human customs, but Shian knew little of such matters and simply smiled and returned the greeting. It was rare to see the ancient stray from Dralk.

After exchanging her currency for tickets, Shian set up her cargo disk hidden behind the tents so it would not bother anyone. Regardless of the reviews she had heard about the festival, summer was a great time to stock up a few silos with snowballs and she smirked at the prospect.

Perhaps I can get another large scale snowball fight in Dralk going soon. The last one was fun.

She fanned out a handful in front of the Raffle vendor and grinned toothily. Even in Khutit form, surely she was imposing enough to get a few more hoard items than usual.

Her tactic worked, or so it seemed to her. Not only did she have more than enough hoard, but a number of scale formula that could be stuffed in her lair for others looking for them and a couple thousand snowballs. She had wasted a number of them whenever the raffle vendor handed her some as she would always throw one bacck in jest, grinning as the biped looked hot having to stand under the tent all day. Not really interested in scaring the tiny creatures in the petting zoo or naka food, this was enough for her.

It took a couple tries however to get into the air. She couldn't remember a time when her pack was this full, but the time it would take to get back home with a cargo disk in tow was enough time to worry about what biped formulas were good and which were not.

[awdz]

*smiles happily* shian, i'm glad you posted that, i like seeing how others experience the festival too! :-)

[lightning claw]

ya it was a fun event for the kiddies but there seams to be missing a few races
Dryads, elfs ,Dragons ,gnomes ,Kitty's

How can it be a celabrashion of all races if not all the races are present ?


that and there is not 1 quest for us to do

things i liked and enjoied where

Mountains of Free hoard , getting rid of the Stock pile of Ibms


the petting zoo i still cant get to work for me

all and all fun for a bit but back to the front lines for me Untill i am pulled down to the Deps of the underworld of istaria (the blighted labyrinth) Gods of istaria help the blight that attempts to strike me there

[Xanthia]

Ellean does not appear in the official versions of the Battle of Tazoon because Drulkar (through Valkoth and Semeneth) commanded it. This is also why Ellean is not officially listed as a member of the Protectorate. Had Ellean's involvement been made public knowledge, it would have also made public his discoveries involving the Gate of Embers. This was not in accordance to Drulkar's will. V'Tieru talks about this secrecy when discussing Ellean with the ARoP candidate.

Ellean's discoveries and sacrifice were part of what made the activation of the Artifact possible, but only a part. Ellean was not mentioned in "We, the Living" because telling his tale is reserved for the ARoP, and is not a thing for Naka to know.

Gotta feel a bit sorry for Ellean, he was a great scholar who sacrificed himself much the same way Ryson did.... yet unlike Ryson, hardly anyone knows about it cept for the dragons. Ancient dragons might I add.

That aside...

Hello, my name is Xanthia and I have a gambling problem. *spends all her Imperial Bounty Markers on festival tickets* C'mon lady luck! Xan needs more hoard! ;D

[awdz]

the petting zoo i still cant get to work for me

have the zookeeper's food in your inventory and greet the critters. each responds to their target food (e.g., apple for the deer). i don't know if you have both the low grade and the high grade food in your inventory at the time whether that causes problems. i recommend feeding a frog to the fyakki ;-)

[velveeta]

really? i got the web when feeding the decaying cricket to the fyakki - the maggot wants the frog from me....

[Raptress]

(Ooh, my turn! I'm rather happy with the event, myself. Both that we, you know, have one, and with its functions. I really wanted those fireworks formulas. X3 I really like the story the goes along with it as well. Always nice to have more lore to work with. Yay, VI!)

Though the Tazoon desert is usually sweltering, in near perpetual shade stone stays quite cool. So it is against the stone walls of that dim lookout in the Tazoon wall that the fiend that was not really a Fiend, Sathriel, was leaning his back. His knees were bent as he sat there, gnawing contentedly on the tip of his dagger with his eyes closed. How he'd picked up that particular habit was anyone's guess.

He heard footsteps and the rustling of wings some distance away. This wasn't too unusual; occasionally people needed to visit that quartermaster near the port pad that was down the stairs from Sathriel's hangout. But soon there were more footsteps, then more rustling wings, and he began wondering what was going on.

With a sigh, he sheathed the dagger and stood to walk over to the stairs so he could look down without being too conspicuous. There was a real crowd starting to form down there. How odd. And they all seemed to be headed towards the Tazoon gateway. Sathriel went back to the room in the wall and went up to the 'lookout slits' as he called them. Grabbing hold of the edges of the stone, he leaned out into the air to see what was so interesting out there.

Tents. People. Stands. ... A bunch of animals? What was this?

"Hrr...."

Sathriel was not one to ignore things that he was curious about and was soon going down the stairs. He slipped quietly past a few that were chatting at the pad and out through the gateway to the desert. He came upon the festival grounds soon, and stalked around the perimeter about as stealthily as one dressed in black can against the light desert sand.

He saw fair-goers exchanging those bits of green paper - Imperial Bounty Markers, if he remembered right - for tickets. They further exchanged those tickets for all manner of typical fairground fare, fireworks, food for the animals, and.. and.. Oooh ~ . There was a cluster of people around one of the stands, all of them walking away with bunches and bunches of shiny, shiny hoard fodder.

The Fiend waited until there was a bit of a lull in the activity to swing by and exchange his paltry sum of markers for tickets. He would have spent all of them on the raffle if he hadn't checked with the fireworks vendor first to get the formulas for making them himself. Whatever he had left though was soon gambled away. Not that there was much risk involved in such gambling, as he walked away with an armload of pretty coffers and scepters and such.

Such an opportunity was not to be missed, so he had to make himself finally get over the stigma he'd attached to entering Siivyra's lair so he could both get more tickets and.. get a 'change of wardrobe.'

--

A while later, the sinister-looking dragon hatchling Malestryx, hoard freshly topped off, was leaping excitedly through the portal to Tazoon, quite intent on spending all 200 or so of his markers at the fair. If he weren't being blinded by all the shinies, he might have appreciated the irony of one such as him attending the Pax Istaria event.

A while more later and the red-eyed beast would be at Dalimond Ridge, grinning madly with glowing eyes at the hordes of ruxus before him. His hoard count was well over 700,000 now and he was fidgeting in the anticipation of the coming usage of it. "Now.. let the probable near-extinction of ruxus.. ruxuses.. ruxii.. - whatever!- Let the massacre begin!"

The maniacal laughter started as he pounced towards the first of his prey, and would probably not stop for some time.

--

A few hours later, the hatchling turned up at the fair yet again, laden with fresh bounty markers-turned-tickets, a delighted grin on his face, enjoying iced cream while happily gambling away for more hoard.

He would be after the large ruxus next.

[Vandalin]

I finally took a moment to read the "We, the living" and enjoyed it very much. Then I got to Ryson's speech...does that ring a bell for anyone else or is it just me? *cough* Independence Day *cough*

[awdz]

raptress, i love the way you portray the fiend checking out the festival... and especially the dragon making use of what the festival has to offer :-)