Shadow Involvement?

[Silifi Of Death]

In the new teaser pics, we are shown a shadow standing over a dead mosswart. There was also a line in the teaser about "ill-spirits" being involved in the killing of mosswarts. I take this to mean that the shadows are killing mosswarts. This leads me to two questions.

First off, why? The mosswarts have never really been a true threat to anyone, but they obviously must be now. The shadows are coming to kill them, but I can't figure out why.

Second, which shadow force is it? There are two shadows (that I know of) that could be leading an army. Ler Rhan, and Isin Dule.

Could Isin Dule be coming back? Will he be coming back to stay, thus signaling the creation of the Three Kingdoms?

Or, is it Ler Rhan? This could be the missing link between the Burun and Ler Rhan.

Tell me what you think of this...

[Uzi-El]

There was also a line in the teaser about "ill-spirits" being involved in the killing of mosswarts. I take this to mean that the shadows are killing mosswarts.

The killing of Mosswarts was the precursor to the first Blackmire Quest, so those "ill-spirits" were probably Falatacot in origin, not Shadow.

[Protes]

Well I don't know now what to make of the current lore. I was getting an impression that perhaps the Falatacots were more involved with the Shadows then what's been told in the past lore.

I assume the portal gem dungeons and The Order of Raven Hand are some of the recent Shadow activities tied to Ler Rhan.

Now the Mosswarts being threaten by the Shadows, perhaps these new Mosswarts are being found in a new cult have a relation to the Shadows.
Maybe with a combination of the Ruuk Buruns killing Mosswarts in the Blackmire Swamp and the Shadows collecting Mosswarts, for the Virindi to alter them or whatever, is having the severe impact on them.

I know that it's been mentioned before that the Ruuk Burun were rapidly pushing the Mosswarts out of the swamps.

[Aziriphale]

Well we all know of a certain Gharu Katar weilding shadow who likes to go on killing spree's on occasionS. What ever happen to Old Hamud?

[Protes]

Hamud would be with on which side to the Shadows?

[Protes]

Nevermind I did a little bit of reading about him and it looks like he would be aligned with Ler Rhan. That is of course he didn't decide to change sides.

[Uzi-El]

Nevermind I did a little bit of reading about him and it looks like he would be aligned with Ler Rhan. That is of course he didn't decide to change sides.

Would he be aligned with Ler Rhan, though? This brings up a question: How would "pure" Shadows (like Ferah or BZ himself) feel about Ler Rhan's little alliance with Aerbax. Granted, Rhannie doesn't appear to be doing anything overtly counter to what you'd think BZ/the Nameless would want, but other than maybe the creation of "chaotic" Virindi and the possible merger of the Singularity with the Nameless (both cases are technically Shadows doing what they're made for and "absorbing" Virindi), he's not doing a whole hell of a lot to help his old boss either.

[Protes]

That makes some sense. I could see some of the Shadows opposing with what Ler Rhan & Aerbax have been doing. But then why would those Shadows go out to the swamps to kill Mosswarts?

[Cerulia]

Aren't shadows typical, you wait millenia for them and then 5 come along at once? ^_~

I can think of quite a few Shadow factions at the moment, although a few of them could be different faces of the same faction; There's Ferah, the pure shadows still loyal to BZ. There's Ler Rhan, involved in something with Aerbax but it's not that clear who's manipulating who. There's the Dark Tower shadows, who are following a mysterious new dark power arising near the OP (Who's not one of the old generals). There's the Raven Hand shadows, starting a human cult and using it to get new shadows. And there's Isin Dule's rebel shadows, who we haven't heard from for quite some time...

Of course, several of those could be the same thing, Ler Rhan could be working with Ferah, maybe they're both using the Raven hand to recruit, who knows...

The worst thing is, I can't think of any reason any of the would want to kill mosswarts, so maybe this is ANOTHER faction O_O

One thing is, I'm sure that there have been shadows living peacefully with mosswarts before now, and I remember there being suggestions that the Dark Idols were twisted by shadows as well, so it doesn't make sense that one of the older shadow factions would just suddenly start attacking...

So most likely, either there's a new shadow faction, a new mosswart faction, or something's changed in their relationship... There's that Homunculus, that's a new faction of mosswarts that Grearrk at least doesn't like. There's also the disturbances with the burun, the mosswarts are being driven towards extinction. Perhaps something about the situation made the shadows decide not to keep the mosswarts around anymore?

Edit: Another thing just occured to me, if the mosswarts were allied with the shadows, at least loosely, maybe one of these many factions of shadows decided it didn't like another one, and struck at them through their servants?

Of course, we could just be overreacting - The teaser pic showed a shadow standing over a dead mosswart, and the implication was that he had killed it, but it could be a joint shadow/mosswart home attacked from the outside, by the burun perhaps... We should probably wait till someone finds the dungeon ^_^

[Aziriphale]

The one person who I think would have an Axe to grind with Mosswarts would be Martine.

[Protes]

The teaser pic of the Shadow is the new dungeon (sub/hub) Umbral Hall on Vesayen Isles.

[Protes]

I saw some pics just now on some new Virindi type undead mobs on Maggie's site. It looked like these are found on Aerlinthe. They look like a combination of Virinidi, Shadow, and Undead. These new mobs are called Spirit
Specter, Haunt, Poltergeist, and Phantom.

Here's what a pic of Haunt - http://www.thejackcat.com/AC/Pets/ghost/haunt.JPG

[Cerulia]

Whoo, whatever that haunt is it looks really great!

It might be just that it's a ghost - Not everything semitransparent is a shadow after all ^_^

I wonder if it has something to do with the virindi or if it's just that the virindi model was used to save on animations... Certainly I don't think the virindi have human skeletons do they? I thought they were sort of pure energy beings that have tentacles (We need to get a virindi without his robe to see just what's under there ^_^)

I think the haunt is one of those souls that somehow escaped aerfalle's keep in the teaser "That moment was long enough to allow a host of souls, bound for eternity, to slip her grasp and take residence across the surface of the island.".

[Bluntmn04]

As far as the haunts are concerned I somehow dont see a connection between them and shadows. But looking back at the history of the world and story arcs turbine usually likes to throw shadows into the thick of things so it wouldnt suprise me to see a connection between Falatacot/Shadow or possible Virindi shadow... Imean what are the odds of only the Humans taking notice to the burun invasion?

[Cerulia]

I agree, I don't think the shadows have anything to do with the spirits, I personally think they're just ghosts that Lady Aerfalle had bound to her keep (Maybe as guardians, like in the Falatacot temples we've seen) who managed to escape... I doubt there's any real link to the virindi or shadows, just a visual resemblance.

Oh well, they look really really cool, and that's the main thing ^_^

[Protes]

Yeah, those are Ghosts. At the time I didn't know what type of creature they were and assumed that it was some sort of combo of races. The shroud the Ghosts wear look similar to the shrouds the Virindi wear.

[Xen]

I distincly remember visiting a dungeon on V. isles.. I believe it was Idol spawning grounds. It had mosswarts zealots and such in it, a few idols, and at the very end ... Statue of BZ and one Sahdow Lt. and 2 dread idols that spawned there.

No regarding this new dungeon, Umbral Hall, also on V. isles

"Eye of Drageerg taken by dark clouded mosswarts who flee to islands where new home be. "

And

"This the first one. We keep it safe for much time then the dark cousins come and steal it. It no look like Mosswart lost to dark, care about cloth."

So mossys on V. isles "lost to dark" and I guess are different from the ones that are being currently killed of by buruns.

[Protes]

"I distincly remember visiting a dungeon on V. isles.. I believe it was Idol spawning grounds. It had mosswarts zealots and such in it, a few idols, and at the very end ... Statue of BZ and one Sahdow Lt. and 2 dread idols that spawned there."

The dungeon is Idol Spawning Grounds (72.3S, 87.5E).

[Ibn]

It's important to remember in this discussion that there are factions among the Mosswarts, particularly those on the Vesayens.

[Heideggar]

The "Dark Mosswarts" have been around for quite some time on the V-Islands. In some of the old (original) mosswart dungeons on the V-Islands there were Dark Mosswarts in dungeons that had Bael'zharon statues.

Now, I'm pretty sure these were mosswarts taken and folded into the ranks of the shadows, so they're "controled". But, I'm not really sure. They could have voluntarily gone to the shadows to become more powerful. Remember, V-Islands were introduced at the same time that Bael'zharon was trying to make a comeback. Since the mosswarts are very in-tune with nature and can sense danger, they (a break off of mosswarts) could have tried to side with one (Isparians) or the other (Bael'zharon) so they'd ensure their own future.

hmmmm : )

[Cerulia]

I would suspect that for some reason the shadows didn't 'absorb' the dark mosswarts the same way they did Isparians and Empyreans... No idea why not, but they do seem to limit the races they actually absorb. Because the mosswarts are physically no different from their mainland cousins, and all shadow creatures seem altered to some extent, I would guess they're not actually part of the shadow's main forces...

But the Idols probably are. Around the time of BZ's power growing, the idols that mosswarts were already worshipping came alive. Also, from the head of the homunculus, it seems that they probably have some sort of mind controlling power, although most likely the regular idols have only a weaker version of this power if they have it at all.

So, the dark mosswarts are probably working with the shadows either because their 'gods' told them to, or because their minds are being influenced, or both... Then along come the mainland mosswarts, who notice how oddly the vesayan mosswarts are acting and work out that it's the idols causing this (Grearrk knows at the very least).

Which seems a fine motive for shadows to be killing mosswarts really, since if the dark mosswart's minds aren't being totally controlled by shadows they could possibly be swayed by the mainlanders into resisting the shadows...

That's my guess at least, but I may be missing some stuff, it's late ^_~


Edit: I've got to start reading over these before I post them, it'd save a lot of edits!

[She-Nyyx]

These new mobs are called Spirit, Specter, Haunt, Poltergeist, and Phantom.

While doing lowbie Blackmire 1, my fellow mate generated a Grave Spirit in the Hall of Appeasement and it looked similar to the pic on Maggies. Bones and stuff showing thru translucent skin.

We're not sure how he made it spawn, but that's another story. The point is, there seems to be a connection between the Burun invasion and whoever is behind these spirits. I don't know my lore well enough to have an opinion, I'm just throwing the info out there.

[Cerulia]

Good point She-Nyyx, there is a link there (Well, not actually to the Burun directly) - The spirits in the blackmire temples were bound there by the Falatacot to protect their bodies while they 'hibernated', because they were too paranoid about using actual flesh servents who could hurt them while they were helpless... The ghosts in Aerlinthe's castle were bound using the Falatacot techniques by the Dericost, and they managed to break free when Aerfalle started trying to increase her power and got a bit distracted...

I think that's how it happened anyway ^_^

[Thorannor]

I thought the "pure" shadows were those under the leadership of Isin Dule, who came to the conclusion that Bael'Zharon had perverted the concept of being a shadow-type entity, which is why he broke away. I seem to recall comments by Stormwaltz on the CoD lore boards a few months ago that mentioned there are shadows much older than Bael'Zharon's forces, and those are what Isin Dule seeks to understand.

[toshiro]

Wasn't Bhal' under a higher dark power?

if so couldn't that same power be the one that the mossies are involved with?

Therefore giving reason for atleast 1 faction of Shadows to kill mossies?

These godlike creatures are also referred to as the Great Ones or simply as the witch-gods. They were worshipped by the Falatacot and even many Dericost. Currently they are said to be "asleep," but Falatacot prophesies suggest they may reawaken some day. Some signs of such a reawakening have arrived with the emergence of the slithis, which are reportedly the Old Ones' children. An adult is the size of a mountain.

So there we have Falatacot Interest, If this is Bhal's Master then thats the shadows in to and we have the present Mossie arc running now.

Oh and didn't a dev say that they were revisiting a story arc that was never finished? Well this arc wasn't finished the tentacles sorta just got left out after this along with some other related lore

[Uzi-El]

I thought the "pure" shadows were those under the leadership of Isin Dule, who came to the conclusion that Bael'Zharon had perverted the concept of being a shadow-type entity, which is why he broke away. I seem to recall comments by Stormwaltz on the CoD lore boards a few months ago that mentioned there are shadows much older than Bael'Zharon's forces, and those are what Isin Dule seeks to understand.

The "pure" Shadows are the ones still loyal to BZ (though I question just how pure Ler Rhan is mucking around with the Virindi). Dule broke away because he finally realized what prolonged Shadow influence could do to a person's mind; he'd watched his good friend Ilservian degenerate into little more than a vengeance-crazed demon and didn't want to become like that. A lot of his AC2 backstory is supposedly also based around his efforts to "cure" himself of his Shadow nature.

There are Shadows older than BZ, but they're still "pure". Arguably, they're even more pure than BZ's Shadows, since they've been altered for so long, they have little or no of their old willpower left and are completely under the control of the Master.

Quote:
These godlike creatures are also referred to as the Great Ones or simply as the witch-gods. They were worshipped by the Falatacot and even many Dericost. Currently they are said to be "asleep," but Falatacot prophesies suggest they may reawaken some day. Some signs of such a reawakening have arrived with the emergence of the slithis, which are reportedly the Old Ones' children. An adult is the size of a mountain.

So there we have Falatacot Interest, If this is Bhal's Master then thats the shadows in to and we have the present Mossie arc running now.

The Master of the Shadows isn't a Slithis or a Witch God; it's the exact opposite: A being that warred with the Witch Gods and was apparently imprisoned within Auberean via the Menhir Rings.