Crystal Divinity

**Cristal Divinity**is a Story Arc of the the Exteria Multiverse. It takes place in Mantinea and follows the perspective of the amnesiac mage Cassandre.

## Main Arc

### First Encounters

The amnesiac Cassandre is encountered in strange Mantinean ruins by a group of treasure hunters - the Lightbringers, guided by the daring explorer Lana and her team, the taunting witch-like Amy, the stalwart massacre survivor Joan, the silent Diana raised by dark elves and the mysterious Arietta. Upon seeing her lost and confused, they decide to let her join them for the mission, and after she overperforms fighting strange golems within the structure, decide to keep her as a member of the Lightbringers.

In the capital town of **Miranda**, where the Lightbringers' headquarters is, a double threat grows. Orcs and Drows start to increase their armies, as if ready to invade the capital. The ruling prince, Alto of Miranda, asks of all treasure-hunting guilds to activate ancient mechanisms in lost towers, said to protect them in time of need.

The Lightbringers investigate one of the towers, and are surprised to see Orcs and Drows - natural enemies - working together to stop them. They activate the mechanism, and to their surprise, a strange feathered white Dragon emerges from the sky and salutes Cassandre before flying away.

### Under Siege

By the time the tower is activated, however, Miranda is under attack. The Lightbringers rush to the prince's help as he is attacked by Shaar, a half-Drow, half-Orc hybrid, and the leader of both sides of the war. However, as they learn that Alto's racism and rejection of the other races resulted in several genocides from his part and that Shaar only asks for justice and revenge, they are hesitant to help him.

However, Alto escapes due to the Lightbringers' intervention, and Cassandre pursues him towards the bottom of the castle, where they find him attempting to activate a strange crystal of **Arcadian** origin - built by ancient gods to ensure the protection of mankind. However, Cassandre prevents him from doing so, and by the time Alto is neutralized, Shaar's galleon seizes the crystal with their own magic. The Lightbringers give chase.

### Revelations and Threats

In Shaar's galleon, the Lightbringers confront once again the warlord, and Cassandre manages to reach an understanding with Shaar ; both looking for a harmonious world where all races hold a similar place. Shaar invites the Lightbringer in his palace, asking to help him with conquering a second of the Arcadian towers the next day.

However, at night Cassandre has visions of Leandre, a cold man who apparently wishes 'only to protect her'. Assuming that she is growing to like Shaar, whom he considers impure, more than she should, he decides to abduct the hybrid and torture him. However, this only motivates Cassandre to reunite the Lightbringers and rush towards Leandre's fortress.

However, the place in Cassandre's visions is nowhere to be seen, which leads Cassandre to the Arcadian Tower where she activates mechanisms in order to encounter Leandre. Leandre reveals himself as an Arcadian himself, a member of a godlike tribe that sculpted the world, and the only survivor of the species alongside her. He attempts to take her as his wife to perpetuate the species but Cassandre rejects her and instead saves Shaar and runs away from the tower, alongside the rest of the Lightbringers.

### The Last Tower

The Lightbringers alongside Shaar go back to the main continent on Shaar's galleon. Cassandre nicknames Shaar 'Darkbringer', a necessary presence for the balance of the world, a honorary member of the Lightbringers, and her lover. However, there is no time to waste as Leandre has given back the crystal to Alto, as well as instructions on how to eradicate all Orcs and Drows, and start a new era with mankind blindly subserviant to him and Cassandre.

The Lightbringer team attacks and Cassandre politically and psychologically confronts Alto in front of his people ; defeated and humiliated, the prince attacks and gravely wounds Shaar in a last act of defiance before dying. The Lightbringers then proceed towards the center of the palace where an access to the last Arcadian Tower is hidden.

### Arcadian Sovereign

The Tower turns out to be a passageway to a celestial town adorned with several scriptures. There, Cassandre learns the truth : Arcadians were once a powerful race who succumbed to hubris and power within and turned into draconic beasts, hence the white dragon in the other tower. Cassandre and Leandre, the younger children, were the only ones to remain unaffected.

Cassandre storms through the Arcadian palace - recovering most of her memories and learning that Arietta is an artificial human of her creation - and finds Leandre, confronting him one last time. Refusing to be a tyrant for mankind, and willing to give a chance to the Dark Races, she defeats Leandre, and takes his place as the deity of a new era, without forgetting her humanity, placing the Lightbringers and Shaar by her side as her messengers, lovers, and demigods.

## Other Arcs

###  A Retelling : Cassandre's Story

A long time after her journey ended, invited by a mysterious individual, Cassandre traveled back through time in order to uncover the truth about her past. During this retelling, she was granted access to Astrolabes - strange contraptions allowing to gaze into the past of Arcadian civilization even as it was spread beyond worlds, including Wendiria and Elysiana, allowing her to learn about the errors of her civilization, and swear to change them.

Major deviations from her initial journey include her recruiting Shaar just after he arrived to Mantinea's main continent - preventing the capital's invasion - and recruiting Prince Alto, now known as Queen Altessa, in their efforts. The presence of a parasitic entity known as Lana Malignus, drawn to Lana, also deviated from the original storyline, but Cassandre managed to assuage her and recruit her as well by facilitating her incarnation into a human body.

Ultimately, Cassandre managed to reconcile with Leandre, instead of killing him, by making a bet with him - showing him a better side of humanity through the humble yet talented Margot - and worked with Leandre to create the perfected construct Staccato. Staccato in turn helped Cassandre with altering Astrolabes in order to beckon Arcadians from other worlds and times, allowing them to rebuild their civilization and avoid their own extinction, thus striving for humans, arcadians and other races to live in peace, and fulfilling the aim of Cassandre's journey.

## Characters

* Cassandre
* Lana
* Joan
* Amy
* Arietta
* Diana
* Shaar
* Leandre
* Altessa
* Lana Malignus
* Staccato
* Margot

## Trivia

* Each of the five Lightbringers embody an element of Mantinea, as well as a secondary element.
	+ Lana is Aether first, and Holy second.
	+ Arietta is Holy first, and Wave second.
	+ Diana is Wave first, and Shade second.
	+ Amy is Shade first, and Chaos second.
	+ Joan is Chaos first, and Aether second.

* This was expanded to accomodate for more protagonists during Genesis's retelling of the story.
	+ Cassandra is Wave first, and Aether second.
	+ Staccato is Wave first, and Chaos second.
	+ Lana is Aether first, and Holy second.
	+ Malignus is Aether first, and Shade second.
	+ Diana is Shade first, and Wave second.
	+ Altessa is Shade first, and Holy second.
	+ Shaar is Chaos first, and Aether second.
	+ Amy is Chaos first, and Shade second.
	+ Arietta is Holy first, and Wave second.
	+ Joan is Holy first, and Chaos second.