The Shard of the Herald

== Summary ==
* The Shard of the Herald was the last of the Soul Crystals imprisoning the Hopeslayer Bael'Zharon.
* Players attack the Undead forces surrounding Ithaenc Cathedral and kill the Sand King Anadil of Shakrassekor. Anadil carried a journal with information describing how to access the Catacombs using a key that he broke into three pieces.
* Anadil's spymaster Asmolum the Worm is also killed, he drops an ancient key, his throwing daggers and a damp scroll.
* The Chalicmere Legion Commander, who is found in the Camp of the Latzimestal, drops the first piece to the key.
* Aerfalle appears west of the camp (83.2S, 91.0E) in the middle of some praying/meditating Undead. She is defeated and drops another part to the silver key.
* After discovering the third part to the key was stolen by the Shadows at the perimeter defences, players proceed to kill various Shadows. A portal (level 1-25) is summoned by a Shadow Child on death leading to Savao Island. A Shadow Governess is found on the small island and is killed. She drops the third and final part to the key.
* After players retrieve the three pieces to the key, they use it on Kelderam's Tomb in the cathedral and the key disappears and turns into a portal gem. The gem summons a PK restricted portal to the catacombs of Ithaenc Cathedral where the shard is kept.
* Many battles are fought between players defending and those attacking the crystal, but on most servers the shard is quickly destroyed.
== Thistledown Defense ==
On the Thistledown server, players had banded together to protect the shard taking turns in shifts to defend it from attackers throughout the day. It was these "Shard Vigils" (nicknamed by Turbine) and the clever use of game mechanics such as levelling the shard up by sacrifising themselves, which kept the shard intact for so long.
In fact, the TD team were so good and the crystal so powerful that eventually the developers had to intervene to destroy it.
Vidorian, a Thistledown monarch and also a Dark Master was called upon to help the devs to destroy the stone. In the lore context, she was summoned by the Shadow Generals Ler Rhan and Black Ferah, who buffed Vidorian and her Peerless Shadow Atlan Dagger (Shadow Stone from the Gauntlet) with +12000% to attack.
After the developers finally found a way to make the TD shard "Harry" vulnerable again, it was destroyed by Vidorian and the two .
In respect to the players that defended the shard so well, a monument was created on the Thistledown server engraved with the names of those who took part. It is located at 82.3S, 93.4E outside Ithaenc Cathedral on the Thistledown server only.
Further reading:
* Letter to the Players - Letter from the AC producer in regards to the event on the Thistledown server.
* Shard Vigil Memorial - Non-exhaustive list of those that took part in the Thistledown Shard Vigils.
== Creatures ==
=== Dericost Army Commanders ===
=== Shadows ===
=== Dark Masters ===
=== Soul Crystal ===
== Items ==
== Video ==
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== Images ==
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=== Thistledown Defense ===
Click image for full size version.
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== Dialog ==
Anadil's Dericost forces
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