The Old Man and the Way

[Pentaxius]

It has been a very long and wild ride. I'm proud to say he had the greatest story I've had the chance to experience on EFU so far. I'd like to thank EFU as a whole for making such magic even possible. I can't start to single out people or this death thread would turn out to be an endless list. But you know who you are - in the end, it turns out to be the great majority of EFU's playerbase :)

I'll just say, for EFU:R - special cheers to Meldread, for his mad (and ongoing!) support to the Ascension plot. (and the whole wave of new DM's who have done a terrific job so far)   

The Brotherhood of Ascent is an incredibly great faction, and if you're floating in between concepts : Go for it, they need a new spiritual leader ! (You might even get to play a Cleric of the Ascended One)

For what follows, I've mainly just copied my Personal Character Notes written in story mode. Enjoy folks, and rock on.

  [Music for best immersion]

-The Story of Sigvar-


Chapter one
***
A Journey begins

It all begins on Ymph - Sigvar, the Gothi of Aegir, finds his way to the shores of a cursed island. At first, he believes himself dead, drifting upon the great Sea of Mist. He preaches Aegir's words, and assembles a group of devout - the Mistfarers.

His goal was to find the Way to Asgard, the realm of Heroes and Gods by following the verses of an ancient Poem known as the Prophecy of the Edda.

One could say that he sought from the beginning to Ascend, albeit in a different way.

  He found haven for his Quest within Wyrm Watchers. He cared for his brothers beyond himself, protecting even those afflicted by Lycantropy from the ire of the Order Numinous with his own life.

[hide=The Sanctity of Brothers]

''I shall free him from his Curse ; thou shall touch not a hair of my brother - or thou shall suffer the wraith of Aegir's mighty Tides''

[/hide]

Together, they would explore myths and legends of the Mist, and awaken ancient powers to oppose the heralds of the End. His encounter with the mythical Mist dragons of Ymph would mark him profoundly.

[hide=Encounter with the Great Dragons of Ymph]

[/hide]

The Crown of the Island was found, and Owain was made King of the Island. Hope was restored. For great service to the cause of the Wyrm Watchers, Sigvar was elected Hedge-Knight Commander, and bestowed the title of Cartographer.

  The Prophecy of the Edda was accomplished, but he had not found the path to Asgard. He has allowed for a King to rise...


[hide= Cartographer to King Owain of Ymph]

''It is the Cartographer's duty to show me what is." - King Owain of Ymph'



''Away with your foreign God, Gothi - Owain is bond to the old Ways by oath and Crown" - Emlyn Ap Taliesin, Great druid of Ymph and First Advisor to King Owain'



"If only I knew...this was a mistake. The Fourth, nameless Mist dragon shackled within the Crown of the Island should have been set free. Forgive me, Ascended One" - Sigvar, present thoughts.

[/hide]

This was at the height of the Final War against H'bala. The King had left with the Last Keep and the Mist, leaving all behind. The Maiden called her most powerful servant, the Agony of the hunt - to destroy this insolent hamlet forever.

[hide=The shadow of the End]

[/hide]

Great artifacts were gathered through the Sacrifice of Rabbanatha, noblest of all Mist dragons. Sigvar was chosen to carry the legendary Circlet of Torizaela and the Robe of Primordial Mist.

[hide=The Gift of Torizaela]

[/hide]

The Agony was defeated.

[hide=Reckoning]

''At last comes the reckoning of Gods, men and Mist. The Agony will cease - and the spirits chained within will be freed from your wretched grasp. We come for you, Maiden !"

[/hide]

How little did he know that the Maiden wasn't the Maiden and that the seventh step would be the End of all which he loved. The End of his brethrens and his friends, of his God and his faith. Sigvar would have spent the rest of his days in forlorn mourning, left for dead on Gull's rock... had fate not decided otherwise.

And so ended the story of the Gothi of Aegir.

...But had Sigvar found what he sought?

...If only he knew what it was he truly sought.

------End of EFU:M-----

[Pentaxius]

[Music for best immersion]

Chapter two
***
Descent into Despair

Sigvar became a but a shadow of his former self. Broken, in denial of his God's demise, the last thing that made him cling to life was his duty to seek what remained of those he knew and cared for.

As fate would have it, it was a Mindflayer who showed him the way to Sanctuary.

[hide= A curious savior]

[/hide]
He found no solace in Upper Sanctuary, quite to the opposite - he fled the machine of Prassix Rijorative, as it was the Netherese who had brought this cataclysm upon Toril, and as such - this machine was to be considered a cursed thing.   

He became a hermit who roamed the shores of the Dark lake in search for answers. Every dark, he consulted his runes in a desperate search of an answer from his God. His attempts were met with only silence.

There, he met the Stewards - and they showed him the way to the Ark. He found hope at the sight of his surviving brethrens, and solace in the preserved purity of the Ark's winds and streams.

[hide= The Stewards lead the hermit to the ark]

[/hide]
He had found hope in the return of his King. He would be the Cartographer - he would be the one who continues who shows what is.

His darkest thoughts he would scribe in a journal (link) - As a way to preserve his sanity from the engulfing darkness of despair. He tried to spend most of his time away from the black waters of ruminations by focusing on his map-making endeavor.

[hide= A map in the dark]

[/hide]
Then came this night that would change everything...
[hide= A great vision]

''Sigvar - ...there is a place of Holy Rebirth ...you must seek ...you must find a Way...'' - Brynhildr, Last Champion of the Wave.

[/hide]

What remained of Valkur's divine essence had been preserved. Sigvar was tasked with finding this place of Holy rebirth that would see the Gods restored and Dendar destroyed.

He scurried the underdark in search for answers. In his journey, he discovered the Shrine of Ascension - and then came another revelation he could barely put into words.

[hide= A shrine of hope and answers]

[/hide]

...The Way to the realm of Heroes and Gods...
...His duty as Cartographer to show what is.   
...Frederick Bresley, the Mist dragons and the Crown of the Island... 
...The Words of the Last Champion of the Waves...
...The Sublime Ascent...The Way to this place of Holy rebirth...
...the Ascended One...

[Pentaxius]

[Music for best immersion]

Chapter three
***
The Sublime Ascent

The Great Awakening

The piece of the puzzle suddenly came together in a whole and majestic pattern. Frederick Bresley had found this mythical place of Holy rebirth, he had sundered the shackles of death itself, he has become a nascent God. He was the Ascended One.   

And it is a Cartographer's duty to show what is.

If he was to walk the path forward, he had to turn away once and for all from the pains of his past. He had to let go of the pure streams and waters of the Ark that reminded him of Valkur, to his brothers Scrab and Moles who echoed his shattered past as a Wyrm Watcher and relinquish his fealty to the King he saw Crowned.

Sigvar had let go of his past and embraced the Way forward.

[hide= Sigvar's last ritual as a steward]

[/hide]

Sigvar assembled a gathering of dedicated brothers, each and every one of them devoted to the awakening of the Ascended One. He shared his visions for the future, and inspired many souls to walk the path at his side. The foundations for the Ascended One's worship had been compiled into a sacred text.

[hide=The tenets of the Ascended One]

[/hide]

The Brotherhood of Ascent assembled great many reagents, and on this fateful day of Mirtul 4th, Year 161 - The first great ritual of awakening was undertaken.

[hide=The Great Awakening]



[/hide]

The Nascent Deity addressed the brotherhood and announced that his relics had to be gathered. Would they succeed, the Way would be made clear.

The Gifts of the Divine

And yet - this was but an awakening, and Sigvar could sense that the Deity was struggling to maintain its godly presence. It had to be soon empowered, else it risked to fade from this world and return to slumber.

During his eventful journey on the cursed shores of Ymph, Sigvar had found many relics of great divine power, some attuned to the Gods of the winds and seas, others to great Heroes of past eras. He further reasoned that if he was to find this place of Holy Rebirth, as the last Champion of the Waves had prophetized - the great relics he carried were not meant for him to bare  any further along the Way, rather - they were meant to be a catalyst to empower what would lead him to this mythical place.

[hide=And thus, the greatest treasures of the old Northlander were gathered as offerings. ]

[/hide]

the Divine essence contained within was absorbed by the Ascended One in a divine flash of light. It was immediatly palpable that the Entity had become stronger, and it addressed those assembled - urging them to carve the words it would soon utter onto immortal stone.

[hide=Light from beyond]


[/hide]

A stone dolmen was carried into the chamber. It would serve as the enduring witness to the teachings of the Ascended One.

And the carving began...
[hide=Carving the Will]

[/hide]

Cyrollae the Soul-Shackler

On the eve of Mirtul 10th, The Ascended One spoke in visions to Sigvar. He warned him of a great threat that had arisen. A great vampire arcanist, known as Cyrollae the Soul-Shackler, had found Bresley's Seeker helm and intended to use as part of a foul ritual.

Cyrollae was a slaver of the vilest kind. In life, she was a slave-trader who served the Drow of Treansyr, possibly from the base of Old-port. In death, she underwent vampiric transformation, and continued to prey upon those tormented by their shackles. But this time, it was their very souls she coveted to bind, denying them even the freedom afforded by death.

The Brotherhood was assembled, and the Way was shown. A Way that would reach deep within the depths of Cyrollae's domain. The brave souls of the Brotherhood were more than once on the brink of failure - but, driven by their unfaltering faith - overcame Cyrollae's army of undead and abberant servants, and plunged a consecrated stake in her very heart.

[hide=The endless tides of undeath]


[/hide]

[hide=A Stake to free them all]

[/hide]

And ultimately, the Relic was recovered and brought to the Shrine of Ascension. There, it was returned to the Ascended One.

[hide=Returning what was lost]

[/hide]

...The nascent deity began to shine ever brighter...
Frederick Bresley would one day rise to the Zenith of his destiny.

This was but one of the many threats the brotherhood had to face. So too would they embark on a journey to raid a Drow Fortress, and shed the shackles of countless slaves...

[hide=Spawn of Nightmares]

[/hide]

[hide=Breaking the Chains]

[/hide]

So too would they seek to oppose foul deities of darkness, in their attempt to free a brother from the depthless bounds of the Void.

[hide=A great ritual]

[/hide]

[hide=The essence of their foe]

[/hide]

[hide=The bowels of Darkness]

[/hide]

This is but of the glimpse of the many journeys the brotherhood shared, united in their hope to see the Ascended One rise to his rightful place, as the new Dawn for mankind to follow.

Breaking the shackles of Tyrants

A day would come when they would openly oppose Sanctuary's corrupt institutions, a day would come when they would rise, and seek to sunder the shackles of Tyrants. This day was nearing - and preparations were made. It was so decided, that on this fateful day of Kythorn 18 would the brotherhood, at long last - show its true face.

[hide=A false trial]

[/hide]

[hide=Placid crowd]

[/hide]

[hide=Truth was spoken]

[/hide]

Alas, or perhaps - was it foretold ? - this moment of revelation in the brotherhood's existence would mean Sigvar's final  demise from this world. Captured and broken in the Spell-Tyrant's cells, he awaited patiently for the sword that would afford him the freedom he so cherished, for he knew... 

[hide=Shattered bones, Unbroken Soul]

[/hide]

[hide=Last words of the condemned, part one]

[/hide]

[hide=Last words of the condemned, part two]

[/hide]

For he knew that death was but the beginning of a new path for him explore, of a new continent for him to charter.

  A MARTYR'S FINAL ASCENT

[hide=A beam of light as a soul arrives]

[/hide]

He would at last find his Way to the realms of the Gods and above. His mortal destiny was accomplished. Time has come for him to begin his Ascension...

[hide=Faring the Way]

[/hide]

[hide=A voice echoes in the desolate plains]

[/hide]

In the End, Sigvar did not find the path to Asgard, but he found the path to true freedom, and broke free of the shackles of the fugue.

~He would stand by the side of the Ascended One, and watch over those who would be bold enough to fare upon the Way, for eons and eons to come.~

~Having created a God, he found a Brother.~




--------THE END--------

[Slimey Steve]

Wow.

This, above all else, shows what can be accomplished by simply sticking with a PC, playing him faithfully and to his principles consistently, and rolling with the punches, no matter how hard they hit.

Much love, Pentabro.  I rarely reply to these death threads.  This one deserves it.

[granny]

dat booze bath...

much style, boss. even my PCs not interacting much with him, he was a delicious story to follow from afar.

thanks a lot.

[Abandoned-1]

And I choked you to death... well done...

[petey512]

110% epic.

Awesome awesome character, dude. I said it before but I'll say it again- I feel grateful to have been a part of it. It was such a creative way to get into the server's lore.

[WeAllGonnaDie]

*cries his eyes out*

[Ryan]

Among my favorite characters from all of Escape from Undeath. We had some fan-fucking-tastic good times.

Sad to see him go, but he had to go to Valhalla sooner or later.

[SonOfGoddess]

Good gods, Pentaxius... I'm going to miss that old, crazy bastard.

[Divine Intervention]

You overachiever you.  Seriously though, excellent stuff man, Sigvar was one of the defining characters of EFUM and EFUR so far and had a sense of purpose and drive that few PC's ever achieved and all should aspire to.

Kudos on cranking the awesome up to 11 and making a God.

[WeAllGonnaDie]

I am handing Sigvar the Best PC of the Campaign award.  He was an absolute blast to play with.  Good luck with your next PC Pentaxius.

[HalflingPower]

And if you want to know the real Sigvar.

[Inquisitor]

Really great PC and a great example of sticking with a character even when things are looking bad.

[Random_White_Guy]

The Axiobros continue to deliver hard hitting EFU awesome.

From the workings of Oloril, to the efforts of the MIST CHAMPION, to the countless others I had the joy of interacting with Ol' Siggy on so many different PCs.

The drinking in the tavern on day two of Jora Colt was probably my favorite, discussing the gods and getting drunk in the tavern. Probably all too suiting that the faithless Colt was cut down amongst betraying mercenaries and Sigvar kept his faith to rise above.

I look forward to our next encounter even if you totally flake on me <3

Sorry I didn't have the chance to execute the sweet execution I had planned for you.