Astensity

## Lore

For centuries untold, Humanity has inhabited the world of Astensia. However, they were not alone and were always at war with their fellow undead inhabitants for countless years. The war had seemed hopeless as the humans’ lack of magic arts and fearlessness that their foes possessed meant that the war was never in their favor, to begin with.

Just as the final stronghold of Humanity was about to be overrun, a group of beings from another world, calling themselves the Aldarians, appeared before Humanity and drove back the undead.

These Aldarians possessed mighty magical powers which the undead stood no chance against. and were worshipped by the humans. The Aldarians drove the undead back and helped set up Phalyns, the holy city that contained a powerful barrier spell to protect the walls of the city from the undead.

Many things were said about the Aldarians; some claimed that they were ancient beings, awoken by the sins of the undead to punish them. Others were adamant that the Aldarians were messengers of the Gods, sent to aid Humanity in its darkest hour. There were even those that worshipped them as Gods. Yet the one thing common amongst all humans were that the Aldarians were to be revered and followed as the leaders of Humanity.

During the final battle against the undead foes to drive them back to their realm, Abaddon, a young, courageous but poor soldier sacrificed her life to save an Aldarian who was about to be inflicted with a curse by the undead. Despite knowing that she would never be able to see her poor parents who she last saw weeping for her in the distance, she chose to use her own body to take the curse and sacrifice herself.

In her last dying moments, the Aldarian she saved was touched by her courageous act and chose her as the sole inheritor of the Aldarian’s mystical magical powers with the purpose of protecting Humanity. She was blessed by the Aldarian and had her vitality increased to greater than it was before, while her features were transformed into that of a beautiful woman. She pledged her life to protect Humanity right in front of the Aldarian, fulfilling the conditions needed for the inheritance and becoming the mightiest human alive.

True to her vow, the now-dazzling and magical soldier retired from the army after the final battle as she wanted to be free to do what she thought best for Humanity. As the Aldarians left Astensia after the final battle, she became their representative and became known as the High Priestess of Phalyns. She was commonly seen aiding the poor and needy, yet not afraid to raise her hand against the evil and unjust when needed.

The High Priestess soon chose 4 of her trusted Knights to be blessed with her magical abilities, knowing that despite her powers she was not omnipotent and would require people who she could trust to aid her in her duties. The 4 knights were known as the Phalyns Imperial Court Knights, and aided Humanity alongside the High Priestess, such as using their power to create and enchant powerful arcane gears for normal humans to use.

The Imperial Knights followed the High Priestess throughout her journeys around Astensia, be it to visit remote poor villages or investigate suspicious locations for remnants of the undead. However, the Imperial Knights were naturally not as powerful as the High Priestess, given that their powers came from her, which lead to the unfortunate death of one Imperial Knight during one of their exceptionally dangerous adventures. To make things worse, his body was never recovered and he was officially declared as dead.

The death of one of her closest allies emotionally crushed the High Priestess, and she began to slowly stop removing undead threats around Astensia for the fear of losing another of the Imperial Knights, choosing instead to focus on her divination and far-seeing skills to envision how Humanity might be in the future and how she could prepare for it. Although this led to the increased presence of undead around Astensia, it never required the mobilization of the army and could still be contained by the adventurers or militia.

One day, The High Priestess made a breakthrough in her efforts to predict the future and found a method to travel to the future. She decided to create a portal that leads to 15 years in the future and, along with her Knights, went into the portal while giving instructions to not let anyone follow her.

The people waited for her return and news of what the future she appeared in was like. They waited for days, which quickly turned into weeks and eventually months. Yet, the High Priestess and her Knights never returned. Just as those waiting were about to decide to send a team into the future through the portal, a note came through the portal in the form of a book that contained only the words: “Help”.

It is now up to the player to find out what happened to the Holy Priestess and her Imperial Knights.

## History

Astensity was a project that started in March 2015. Previously known as Project Tempest, its goal was to create an SMP Minecraft Server that would achieve success within Singapore and the surrounding region.

This project started with gaining publicity through posters during the late end of March 2015, they were able to create a functioning survival server. The server underwent multiple phases of testing by trusted friends of the owners, allowing vast improvements to be made before its open-beta release in July 2016. Other players who were interested in helping out were allowed to participate during our closed-beta tests which led to the creation of their first-ever player-made town, Phalyns, which continued to survive post public release and has become a pillar of our server’s current in-game lore.

After 2 open-beta phases starting in July 2016, the server was officially released to the public in October 2016, featuring a new world with better content.

However, in February 2017, they discovered through their routine checks that many hacked items had made it into the server. This led to our ultimatum decision to close the entire server down for a major re-work and for anti-hack measures to be implemented. They managed to hire a programmer to develop multiple custom plugins that could help them prevent these issues.

After several major reworks, which included measures to prevent future hackers and a whole new design of the in-game world, the server was re-released on the 28th of May 2017 with a new name, AstensitySMP Revival.