Awesome Land Origins: The Artifacts of Wisdom

[Mizagium]

Ventus raised a fist and knocked harshly on the small cottage door. A wizened olf man answered it a moment later. The light from inside was bright enough to cause him to shield his eyes.

"Ventus?"

"Hey there, Theska," Ventus moved his arm so that he could see the old man. "Mind if I come in?"

Theska hesitated a moment before stepping aside. It was a humble little home. A kitchen, bedroom, living room, and bathrrom. And it was all immaculately clean, Ventus noticed.

"This place doesn't suit you," he said, settling into an armchair by the fire.

"How so?" Theska sat opposite him, on the edge of his seat.

"You're an Immortal! You could have much nicer things than this." He made a wide sweep with his arm.

"I like it here," Theska insisted. "Out of the way."

"What is it with you guys and seclusion? Bill and Stan in their Towers. you in this cottage."

"Not all of us..."

"Right." Ventus leaned forward. "that's actually why I'm here. Xavian's taken up residence in my homeland." Theska shut his eyes and leaned back. "I was wond-"

"No. there's no way I can help you. Immortals aren't supposed to go after one another."

Ventus made to protest but was cut off by the sound of a tea kettle whistling. Theska got to his feet quickly and went to it.

"You want him gone, too," Ventus called from the other room. "I know you do. Bill does."

"Bill is young," Theksa said gently. "He doesn't understand all the rules."

Theska poured two cups of tea and carried them back. Ventus accepted his wordlessly. He sipped it while staring intently at the fire.

"It's my home, Theksa." He said finally. "I can't just give it up."

"I know, child. It wasn't his to take."

"Don't placate me, old man! You can stop him, but you're too afriad!"

"There are rules."

"I know the rules!" Ventus leapt to his feet. "And he broke one by taking Really Cool Land! Dammit!" He hurled his empty cup into the fire. "What about next time? What happens when he turned his sights on Awesome Land? Or Super Land? Or here?"

"No!" Now Theska was on his feet. "He canot touch this land! Astleas made this place to be free of interference by Immortals!"

"You're here."

Theksa exhaled sharply. "If there was anything I could do..." He stopped.

"What?"

"[]iI[/i] can't interfere, but..."

"But you can!"

"Me? Fight an Immortal? Xavian?"

"Yes!"

"Do you have corn in your ears? I came to you because I couldn't do anything in the first place!"

Theska bit his lip. "I can lend you some of my power."

Ventus stared. Hard. "What?"

"It's not technically interfering..."

"Not two minutes ago, you wanted nothing to do with this!"

"Well, I've changed my mind."

"Great..."

~~~~~

A week passed painfully slow as Theska gathered what he needed. finally he gathered Ventus in the living room. Laid out before him were four objects: a sword, a shield, a staff, and a mirror.

"Wow," Ventus said unenthused. "I would never have thought to tackle him with...a sword, shield, stick, and mirror."

"Hush now, while I work." Theska shushed him and gathered light magic to his fingers. It wasn't an element originally imbued in the world by the Gods, but it had come into being anyway. Now it was his to command, as darkness was Xavian's.

When enough light was gathered in him, he let it loose on the four artifacts beneath him. Like bright lightning it arced between the four, illuminating the cottage and the surrounding area in bright light. Ventus watched in fascination mixed with fear. This old man had that kind of power?

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to Theska, he relented, stumbled, and fell into Ventus's waiting arms. "There," he pointed.

"what...are they?"

"They will...aid you in your fight against Xavian..."

Ventus helped Theska into a chair before returning to the objects. "That sword is infused the power to reveal the truth of all things, lies, motives, appearances." Ventus picked it up and marveled at it. "The shield is just the opposite, infused with the power of falsehood, allowing you to disguise your form." Ventus felt the cool, smooth metal. "The staff has the power to reveal inner ugliness, turning into outer ugliness." A literal ugly stick, Ventus thought humorously. "And the mirror will counteract the staff, turning inner beauty to out beauty."

"What happens if there is no inner beauty?"

"Then they will vanish." Ventus recoiled. "There are several ways to Kill Xavian with those artifacts, but the most obvious is with the mirror."

"Then why did you give me the rest?"

Theska laughed. "I won't send you in there alone, boy! The sword can defeat his darkness-infused lackeys without killing the person inside. The shield will let you sneak into their midst, should fighting prove pointless. And the staff" Stick "is something I'll let you decide."

Ventus knelt by the artifacts. "Such wisdom is need for the proper use of all four," Theska explained. "So I have named them the Artifacts of Wisdom. Individually, they are the Sword of Truth, Mirror of Beauty, Shield of Deception, and Staff of-" "

"No."

"What?"

"those names are too long." Ventus turned. "True Sword, False Shield, Beauty Mirror, and the Ugly Stick."

"It's a staff," Theska said.

"But Ugly Stick." Ventus insisted.

Theska puzzled over this for a moment before he got it and chuckled. "Very well. Go, then, young Ventus. Reclaim your homeland."

"I will." Ventus sheathed the Sword, strapped on the Shield, stowed the Mirror in his pack,a nd used the Stick as a walking stick. "I will defeat Xavain and reclaim Really Cool Land."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

kthnxbai.

Happy Austin?

[Monika]

BOUT TIME. NOW WHERE THE HAIL DOES THIS FIT IN WITH THE PREVIOUS BACKSTORY WITH REYDEIGN AND THE WAR OVER THE ARTIFACTS

[Mizagium]

NOWHERE. I'd forgotten about that until now. Consider that history non-canon and utter crap.

I've also got to write one about Random World and Astleas.

And you/we need an explanation for the Immortals (Xavian, theska, etc)

[Monika]

I've got the first Immortals of Time, Space and Darkness EVAR in one of my Awesome Land origin stories I have yet to post. Each of them was given their power directly by the creator goddess of Awesome Land herself, and from there the power would go to whoever after the original wielder died or resigned. The one for Light more or less created the power himself, but the same "transfer to whoever" thing still applied after his death. I dunno about the rest.

[Mizagium]

For future reference, Theska is the second Light Immortal, all the rest should be like third or fourth.

Also: is there one for the elements, or is that what the orbs were?

[Monika]

LEMME BREAK IT DOWN FOR YA.

Long, long, LONG, LOOOONG time ago, back when the countries were first made, you had two gods, Delmerith (Male) and Seraphina (Female), both of whom were ungodly powerful...or maybe just godly powerful, and were responsible for creating the planet and the first species (including humans) and whatnot. They made the humans comparatively weak, fearing the repercussions of having a bunch of gods roaming around. Unfortunately, this meant that every other second Seraphina and Delmerith had to go down to Earth and provide someone with water or fire or something of that nature. Eventually, the two start arguing about how they're going to solve this.

Seraphina suggests that they create a set of objects (Orbs) that can store near-limitless elemental power so that someone on Earth could make fire/water whenever on a massive scale.

Delmerith suggests that they leave a small portion of their infinite power inside the Earth and allow the humans to have access to it (magic/anti physics) so that Earth people could all makre fire/water/whatever when needed, rather than entrusting a set of people with four overpowered jewels.

Delmerith's is the better idea, however, and he goes down to Earth to invent magic. Seraphina, out of jealousy, goes down to Earth and invents the Orbs of Nature anyway. This eventually leads to a war on Earth, which culminates in Delmerith's spirit being sealed inside a sword (Hystoger), Super Land becoming a floating continent, the birth of Special Land, Excalibob being forged, and the gods ceasing contact with the planet permanently.

[Monika]

In short, the Immortals (except for Light) didn't 9or shouldn't have) existed at the time of the Orbs' creation, instead coming many many years later. Seraphina personally made the Space/Time one and Delmerith's spirit resulted in the Darkness one. The others we can fabricate a story for somehow...Long as it's non conflicting.

[Mizagium]

lol, then Bill and Stansilaus were pulled in from our world to be the new Time/Space Immortals.