Ayerre, Ostara & Alliance Intrigue
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"(The Alliance) had two seneschals at the time... Ayerre and Ostara. Ayerre believed that Machiavelli and myself would be better rulers than the current rulers and was trying to steal their prime to initiate, knight, and crown us. It turns out that Ayerre and Ostara were one in the same, two parts of one dreamer. An ancient elder from Arret entered our city and told the alliance they needed to make a choice. One of them would die: Ayerre or Ostara. They, of course, chose Ayerre. They thought he was evil. But they were wrong, Ostara was the underhanded one. "Machiavelli left our city after many months of attempting to gain control of the alliance. I was at the alliance, during their meeting... Ostara made a mistake, and one that cost her, her seneschal crest. She carried the prime out in my presence. She began to evoke ascend, Kaer GeRRoZ tipped me off, and told me which art she was using... Moments later, I removed her coherance and walked out with the star of alliance. "Now, at the time, the Alliance had two factions: the Star Knights, and the Pacifists. The two were in a quarrel, and the pacifists, led by Ostara, were winning. I traveled down the plane, and into Threshold as quickly as I could, where I promptly handed the prime artifact off to a ruler of the Keepers of the Eternal Shadow. They, surely, would not give it back to the alliance. After all, one of their rulers was attempting to help us take it over only a month prior. Low and behold, not ten minutes later... The threshold room that I stood within, was filled with perhaps sixty dreamers. Many of which were asking me for the prime, and offering me various payments for it. "Jiovanni, a large figure in the freesoul alliance at that time, offered me fifth sphere for an illuminated house's prime artifact. Of course, all the offers were declined... And later that night, Star Scream turned the prime back over to the Alliance of the Eclipse... which I would like to add, Magnilia demoted him from his position as ruler, for... It was given to the Star Knights. Tamarisk, the last remaining Star Knight ruler at the time, initiated me into the Alliance of the Eclipse... his reasoning, I will never understand, but I recieved the offer with no warning. as I stood in their threshold, only to take their oaths hours later. In those few hours drastic measures were taken to preserve the Star Knight's position within the Alliance of the Eclipse... for example. Tamarisk demoted Ostara from her rank as Seneschal. "The pacifists were very angry that Ostara had been demoted, and even moreso that I had been initiated. After all, for the six months prior, I had been sieging their home on a daily basis to keep their fighting force weak, for when Machiavelli was ready to move in. And as far as I know, Ostara worked for multiple weeks to shut the Alliance down, and succeded. Thus... that is what I meant when I said I had caused a house to shut down. Had I not collapsed her, Tamarisk would have been demoted, and Fin Marda ascended, with no conflict." After our Story, Menson offers me a talisman once given to him as a reminder that history will always exist. "History can be distorted, and forgotten. But it can never be destroyed. Continue recording history, and I will hope that it survives the end of our era, and is never forgotten." His words remind me of an oath I took many years ago. No one will be forgotten. |
n a sad Saturday afternoon I speak with Menson, as once before, in Gold Sanctuary. Our conversation turns to history, and I learn about a most fascinating event that occured in the Alliance of the Eclipse. He obliges me and allows me to record these words for posterity.
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"There were three Rulers of the Alliance at that time and the StarKnights were already a part of the house. As was the way the Star of Alliance processed essences. I remember coming into the Gathering Hall and seeing Ostara and Ayerre there together. Next thing I know, Ayerre is screaming and then floating. And Ostara dons a Seneschal crest. "After we spoke for a while, she was too weak to go on and then woke. From a few weeks of talking with her, she told us of how Calum was their mentor on their shard and how Ayerre was hurt and needed us to help save him. He turned very dark in his actions and words toward us and Ostara, and we defended the house and family against him and his attacks. It was a very rough time for us. "It went on with us on high alert for a sighting of Ayerre, until one evening Calum, Ayerre and Ostara came to us at the house and Calum told us that we had to make a choice: to follow Ostara and return to the ways of total pacifism, or to support Ayerre and dream in pain and misery. Most of the house voiced that they wanted Ostara. We had mere moments to answer. The fate of both of them hung on our decision. Calum told us that they both couldn't exist and that we had to choose one or the other. The few voices that spoke the quickest voted to destroy Ayerre and follow Ostara. The Rulers didn't get to voice their objections...it happened very quickly. We lost two Rulers that night, and many others followed because they couldn't support a house that stood for peace to murder someone to get what they coveted most. "(A week later) Ostara and I were going to raise two more to be Rulers when Menson attacked Ostara and took the Star. When I saw Menson back in threshway, I imediately ran to see about getting the Star back. Ostara didn't seem concerned with it at all which angered me. After being teased about losing the prime, it made its way back to me via StarScream. At that same time I was handed two essences of Ostara. he appeared in threshway finally and that's when I decided to take action. For all that she had done to the house and my family. "As Ruler of the Alliance, it was my right to judge her on her actions as she would have done me. I demoted her to initiate because of her treachery and actions. I then reinitiated those that had gone because of her and restored them to as high a rank as I could. I informed the house that things would remain the same as they were before the splintered that if they didn't agree, they could leave but things would not change. A few tried to take over the house but I had given the Star to an ally for safe keeping. "I found out shortly after that there was a plot to use the telescope to gain dreamstrike. When I let the house know, they didn't want to hear of it. I made the decision that if they wanted the house to be peaceful and pacifistic so badly they would have to truely work for it, and I disabled the telescope and closed the house with the help of some friends and the Star of the Alliance. All that it had become was no more. That's when LadyPlum appeared and helped to re-open the Alliance as it is today. Most don't like to talk about it. I mean, I DID demote a Seneschal for crimes against the house in a threshroom full of dreamers. It's not something that happens everydream." |
amarisk and I were among several attending a Teachers class presented by Off Kilter. Following the lecture I asked him to relay his perspective on the Alliance story. He generously agreed and whispered out the tale as I scribbled in my notepad.
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"We had Star knights and three rulers: Tamarisk, WinterValentine and Daeymien, but it started with only one Seneschal, Ayerre. Calum, a former Seneschal, introduced Ayerre to us. For a while, things were going well. We had three paths in the house: the star knights, the scholars, and the path of peace. I was a Guardian and in the path of peace. "Slowly, Ayerre started to change subtly. He didn't seem to be the same person and was becoming not so peaceful. I can't remember specifics, but, Calum was summoned and he explained to us things about Ayerre that we had not known before. On his shard he had killed someone. Calum had worked with him and thought that his violence was under control. The next thing we knew, Ayerre had an episode where he split into two distinct personalities, each personality having it's own avatar. The second Avatar was female and was called Ostara. "As I mentioned, my memories have faded somewhat. Ostara seemed to represent all that was good about Ayerre. Ostara was all good, and Ayerre continued to get worse. One dream a dreadful thing happened. Ayerre attacked Ostara in the house and started choking her. Calum appeared and he said the only way we could save Ostara was to make a choice between Ayerre or Ostara. Whichever one we chose was the one that would remain. Some of us chose Ostara and I am not ashamed to say I was one of them. Others made no choice at all. No one chose Ayerre. "The next thing we knew Ayerre vanished, but a wisp of his essence was seen floating into Ostara. Later Calum returned to tell us that Ostara and Ayerre were both alive on their shard. After Ayerre no longer dreamed, Ostara was our only Seneschal. She said that the house would no longer have Star Knights and that we would no longer hunt and would go back to our peaceful ways. Some of our members did not want that and asked to be demoted. They were Tamarisk, Daeymien, Wintervalentine, Maal, Chrystalline, and Maal's daughter. "Ostara obliged all of them except Tamarisk. She had a meeting with Tamarisk and asked him to stay on as ruler. When they came out of the meeting, Tamarisk told us that he was now in agreement with the changes Ostara would be making. During this time, we had a mission on the board to ascend another ruler. The high votes were between Mystakalah and myself and I ended up winning the vote. Ostara told me that she was going to ascend me and called everyone together into the Gathering Hall. Before she could do anything, Menson arrived. "Menson started asking some questions, I can't remember exactly what they were, when all of a sudden he started attacking Ostara. He collapsed her and she dropped the prime. Menson picked up the prime and ran to the Keepers with it. He had been trying to join the Keepers and thought this would cinch the deal. Instead, Star Scream looked to return the prime. Star Scream found Tamarisk in thresh, along with everyone else who had been chasing Menson around the dream. There was a huge crowd there including all the former members of the Alliance. Star Scream, in good faith, returned the prime to Tamarisk. "Tamarisk's first act was to demote Ostara to guardian. He then proceeded to re-initiate all the ex members, then also initiated Menson who was never a member. He made Val and Daeymien rulers again and made Maal and Crystallne guardians even though Crystalline had never been a guardian before. He then announced that none of the proposed changes Ostara wanted would take place. The prime was hidden from anyone not aligned with Tamarisk. I don't have absolute proof but member of other houses informed me that the prime was being held between two other houses. "We were in the house one day when all of a sudden Tamarisk showed up with Keeka and Celstial and some other members of DoL. The three go into the Astronomy Lab and the other members ward the room so that none of us can enter. I'm not sure what they intended to do with the telescope, but suddenly the whole house began to shake so violently that it was felt thoughout the city. There was an explosion that threw us out of the city itself. When we returned the house was closed and our crests were gone." |
uring a meeting at the Alliance of the Eclipse, Epoth raises havoc by draining chaos from their power generator, but that is another story entirely. After securing the chaos rune, Alliance ruler Fin Marda takes time to share her perspective on this story. We all sit on the stairs around the generator, Chrystie listening and remembering as Marda narrates.
