An Esrian Tale IV: Wrath of the World Beyond

***An Esrian Tale IV: Wrath of the World Beyond***, or simply **ET4**, was the final chapter of the Heartstone Saga. It was the last instalment in the original series, set nearly two hundred years after the events of Dragon's Legacy.

It told a dark story that both celebrated and challenged what it means to be a hero, with four of Esria's most capable heroes risking everything to save the world from complete annihilation, and to free it from grand evil once and for all.

## Plot

### Prologue

By the year 1606 of the Imperial Era, the world of Esria had entered a new age of technology and innovation. The majority of its people had long since turned away from the light of Heaven, choosing modern faith over the traditional religions that had all too often sat idle through chaos. Mortals unquestionably ruled over the new world, with druidic gods that safely existed under their thumb.

The Empire of Greater Vesryn, headed by the cold-hearted immortal Emperor Lucièn, spearheaded a new church that was rapidly spreading across its ever expanding domain. It ruled the former state of Ostia and most of Saint-Astan with ruthless order and control, enforcing the values of its Imperial Creed and rejecting outright the claimed excesses of the Heavens. Resistance was met with the thunder of cannon and shot, mortal inventions that struck fear into the hearts of even the most battle hardened soldiers.

New deities from outside the mortal realm blessed the lands of Vesryn's great empire and beyond, especially wherever druidism was flourishing. They were bound and anchored by the mystical powers of Tarot magic, an enigmatic arcane art that had been developed over hundreds of years.

In the absence of Heaven's protection, however, and unbeknownst to those on the mortal plane, the divine barrier protecting Esria was fading fast, threatening to leave all life dangerously vulnerable to incredible powers previously kept at bay. New enemies soon conspired to bring untold destruction, and the last bitter fragment of an old nemesis still threatened to send everything into irreversible chaos.

The world once again called on its greatest heroes, and those that were destined to prove themselves worthy to stand beside them.

### The Isle of Fog

The Isle of Valgran was a wintry and relatively remote isle sitting north of Ostia, known to traders and locals as the Isle of Fog. In a bygone era, it had been a territory of the Kingdom of Vesryn, who used it primarily as a military asset. Castles and forts were constructed to defend the isle in times of conflict, but it ultimately served as a base for airships, as well as an ideal location to construct them. As Vesryn's dominance of the skies grew to indomitable levels in the late 16th century, Valgran's sturdy winterwoods became a crucial resource for the shipbuilding industry.

It was upon this isle that the last Esrian tale would begin.

The late hours of the 4th of November were just like so many other nights that had passed on Valgran. It was a cold and dark night, where the wind and snow had combined to create a chilling snowstorm, and most of the isle's inhabitants had retreated inside to seek warmth and rest. Most had already succumbed to sleep.

At the edge of the coastal town of Havelport, however, a young girl named Ariel Aldwyn was sitting alone in her cabin. Unable to sleep, she had taken to watching the stars out of her window and silently praying for better times to fall upon her town. It was then that the sky lit up with the bright streaks of shooting stars, cutting through the night with brighter trails than ever.

While most passed by eventually, there was one that remained. Growing steadily larger and brighter until it became a stunningly luminous ball of white light, this single shooting star escaped the night sky, sharply turned and fell towards the forest. Knowing that the star must have landed nearby, the girl immediately donned her winter attire and left the warmth and safety of her cabin to try and investigate what must have been some kind of sign.

### Breaking the Cycle

Then suddenly all was quiet, and the souls of the last heroes of Esria found themselves standing in a place that was far removed from the trial they had just succeeded.

There were snow covered fields as far as the eye could see, and a calm stillness broken only by the wind. Gentle flakes fell from the dark sky above, where stars no longer shone. In an instant, the heroes recognised that it was almost identical to where their journey had first began, and that this was a sanctuary created in the image of Valgran.

They were all too aware, however, that the Isle of Fog no longer existed, and that all of Esria had been shattered and destroyed along with it. The world as they knew it had come to an end, and this was but a single shard of what used to be. The fate of all things was about to be decided.

Sable, Árvakr and Sprig, perhaps the very last souls in existence, took only a moment to gather themselves before pressing onwards through the snow and silence.

*relax okay im getting to it*

At the final moment, when all seemed lost and all sacrifices seemed to be in vain, Árvakr and Sable called out for Ariel one last time. The voice of their souls made one final, desperate attempt to communicate, and Ariel saw her memories for the first time since the world's destruction.

She saw her journey at its very beginning, envisioning the lonely shack she had come to know as home. She remembered every moment that led her to meet the heroes who took her on an adventure, and every instance that they had grown closer on their journey. She remembered every scratch and scrape they had suffered in pursuit of the truth, and all the pain that she had both endured and healed. She was reminded that the darkness inside of her was the burden of others that she had taken on, and that it had meaning and purpose in equal measure.

She remembered who she was.

The black tendrils released the heroes, sparing their very souls with but a second to spare. The newly created Archangel was released by the grasp of despair, and the young girl from Havelport returned - although she would remain forever changed. With eyes that were no longer her own, she looked upon those brave adventurers she had come to know as friends, and knew that she had been saved.

Just barely able to grasp the magnitude of her power, the newly created Archangel Ariel knew exactly what she had to do in order to put an end to Esria's darkest chapter. She bid a final farewell to the friends that had risked everything to rescue her from the deepest depths of despair, at last able to cry with joy, and her silver eyes saw deeply into the celestial void to thank those souls whose mortal lives had already perished.

The last remnant of Netheriel's power was finally hers to command, in perfect union with the half of her soul that held the last grace of Heaven. Driven by her will to silence the suffering of the thousands who had died to create the Heart of the Isles, the very stone that had led to her transformation, she cast a hand out towards the wintry horizon.

Ariel was not alone. Beside her, the three heroes held out their hands towards the magic she was gathering and committed their souls to aiding her control, alongside the spectral images of their fallen companions Artan and Vinere. At the same time, countless astral silhouettes of heroes past began to appear in order to support Ariel's first act as Esria's new deity.

She wished for everything to be put right, where it could be. She wished for all those souls who had been lost to the void to return, and for life to once again blossom. Most of all, she wished with all of her heart that this new Esria would be a world free from the suffering of the old one, that it could become more than a treasure to be fought over by celestial beings from beyond. Those who once ruled it, the Archangels and their holy dominion, would not return. Instead, she alone would watch over the world in their stead.

With a final prayer, perhaps out of habit, she opened her palm to release all of her power and to enact her will. In a blinding flash of pure and holy light, the Archangel Ariel recreated Esria anew, and the last Esrian tale came to an end.

## Characters

### The Party

* Árvakr Alfarrsson
* Vinere
* Ombralya Zovyrin
* Artan Dmitri Kroshutzyev-Ilhisnyikov

### Allies and Acquaintances

* Cyril Faulkner
* Ariel Aldwyn
* Thirteen

### Enemies

* Virgil
* Seirya Erys
* Lucièn Lafayette

## Sessions and Structure

### The Isle of Fog (1st September 2018)

1. "The Beginning of the End"
2. "Silence is Golden"
3. "Point of No Return"
4. "From the Ashes"
5. "Into the Fire"
6. "Out From Below"
7. "Heroes of Havelport"
8. "My Fair Lady"
9. "The Calm Before the Storm"
10. "In Loving Memory"

### The Last Command (17th November 2018)

1. "The Night the Sky Burned"
2. "Road to Ruin"
3. "Fragments of the Past"
4. "Birds of a Feather"
5. "Hollow Remorse"
6. "Chasing Memories"
7. "The Evil Within, Part I"
8. "The Evil Within, Part II"
9. "Deliver Us From Evil"
10. "The Price We Pay"

### Seeking the Mirror (6th April 2019)

1. "Return and Repose"
2. "Friends in High Places"
3. "An Occasion to Remember"
4. "The Last Dance"
5. "Fight or Flight"

### The End of Esria (25th May 2019)

1. "The Way the World Ends"
2. "Shattered Esria"
3. "Hope Reforged"
4. "Trial and Atonement"
5. "One Way Trip"
6. "The Enemy at the Gates"
7. "Eye of the Storm"