Announcements - 2013/05 - Curating Corruption

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May 2013 - Patch Page

Teaser Images

Original Link - https://www.asheronscall.com/en/content/2013-events
Click image for full size version.

1 - Frozen Valley 2

2 - Corrupted Forces

3 - Frozen Valley

4 - Theyre Everywhere

Release Notes

Original Link - https://www.asheronscall.com/en/content/may-2013-release-notes

May 2013: Release Notes

• Monthly Kill Task updated
• Quest of the Month Updates:
  • Weekly: Aggregate Crystalline Shard
  • Bi-Weekly: Tanada House of Earth
  • Monthly: The Temple of Izji Qo
• CONTRACTS:
  • Olthoi Hive Queen
  • Kill: Gear Knight Squires
  • Society: Mana Siphon Destruction (moved to Societies)
  • Society: Collect Gear Knight Parts
  • Society: Destroy the Phalanx
• Combat Minions have been normalized to balance out against each other better.
• Increased Alchemy Phials Accuracy buff.
• Society task quests now award luminance.
• Removed the timer on Society Armor Writs.
• Updated Ice Valley (AKA Frozen Valley) hunting area and added top tier loot.
• Tou-Tou & Hoshino kill task quests now advance indiscriminately to all relevant creatures in their respective areas.
• Updated profile of stronger Hoshino area mobs to group loot.
• Reduced duration of Poison Blood debuff.
• Luminance increased for the following quests:
  • Defeat Hoshino Kei (AKA Hoshino Kei Must Die)
  • Hoshino Fortress Infiltration quest chain
• Marae Lassel Hive Queen quest adjustments:
  • Changed trophy dynamic
  • Changed entrance to final boss room
  • Creatures will now always be present on Marae Lassel even when the Olthoi Hive Queen quest is active.
  • Quest repeat timer extended & rewards adjusted to reflect the change
• Cloak drops in legendary chests have been adjusted
• Bloodstone creatures updated

So these are just some of the things we have in store for Asheron's Call in May. Please remember that along with everything listed here, there are several new quests and exciting things going into the game for the May Event!

Teaser

Original Link - https://www.asheronscall.com/en/content/curating-corruption

May 2013 - Curating Corruption

“You approach in silence then stare, but do not speak.” The Reaver of Dreams turned to face the Vision of Horror.
“Yes.”
“Why would you wait?”
“Observing your calm and patient manner left me lost in wonderment. Never have emotions affected you, but now with an uncertain fate you remain as stoic as ever.”
“Eons of exploration throughout this universe, countless discoveries and acquired knowledge, I have seen too much to fear my fate.”
“Yet others, even more explored, have gone mad in waiting for trial.”
“The less enlightened perhaps. Why have you come?”
“There are those of us who have prepared an escape. We can leave shortly and your passage is assured.”
“That cannot be. All my time in the council benefitting from the position with all the good the Singularity has provided me, it would be wrong to disobey the laws that have served me so well.”
“Even when corruption flows through those laws?”
“When confronted with injustice, one should not commit injustice of their own. One can only be judged by their righteousness for nothing matters more. “
“The Curator spreads his plague to the ears of the council as we speak. Now is not the time for following rules. We can return once your innocence has been proven.”
“If I flee I will be a criminal as much as the Curator. I will have violated all that I hold true. Furthermore, the Curator will use my disappearance as proof of my misdoings. There will be no one left to stop him and more than just I will suffer. His actions could lead to a great destruction for the Singularity, this world, and even the universe itself. I must stay. I will stand trial.”
“Then what are we to do. He has false evidence. He has been convincing other council members of your guilt for days. We have nothing. Proof of your innocence and proof of his crimes do not exist.”

“That is what you must do, discover true evidence. That is all you can do.” The Reaver of Dreams turned away, staring off into the portal space beyond. “Go now and only return once you have proof, either before the trial or after. You must bring an end to the Curator’s reign. What happens to me is of no importance for I would rather be cast out into the exiled chaos as a wrongly convicted traitor, than to continue on after having committed injustice of my own. Save this council for I have failed to save it myself.”

Release Fiction

Original Link - https://www.asheronscall.com/en/content/may-2013-release-fiction

May 2013 Release Fiction

There has been little rest since I last wrote the words the voices told me. The ones who hold me here have been increasing their tests, and I get little opportunity to even contemplate escaping the voices. I do not know if I should consider it a blessing or a horror, but I’ve been growing numb to their little experiments. I’ve also found that I can occasionally identify my captors amidst the voices in my mind. Perhaps it is becoming time to run a few experiments of my own…

But for now, they have returned me to this cell, so I am once again alone with the voices. They seem agitated, somehow. Yet, they still seem to quiet down when I write down their words, so I will continue with the cataloguing of their discourse.

The War raged through all of Portalspace. The most aggressive of the corrupted emotion-bound cells never stopped, never slept. They simply tore through all they could reach, until they themselves were torn apart, sometimes by their own.

Others who were corrupted would act entirely randomly. One moment they’d be fighting, the next they’d wander off, laughing or crying. Some simply ended their existence in one catastrophic moment.

Through all this, the reason-bound Virindi fought to survive, and struggled to maintain the order by which they held together. It was during these dark times that some of the Virindi began to rise above the rest. Where once all were focused on reason and logic, these few expanded into a focus on ideals, hopes, and dreams.

For a time, the Virindi did not know if they should trust these few, different Virindi. There was concern that they too had become corrupted by that which infected the emotion driven shards. The Singularity was undecided about these changed reason-bound brethren. Some of the voices saw it as a lapse of reason, a loss to emotion. Others saw it as an evolution of their form.

In the end, it was these Virindi who were most effective at leading their fellows against the corrupted. They had turned the tide for the first time since the fighting began. Soon, from the very merits of their success, these new Virindi began to become the ones who led the Singularity. And, under their leadership, the Singularity began to drive off or capture the corrupted cells of the emotionally driven.

As the end of the war started becoming a real possibility, these new leaders stepped back and took a good look at what their influence was doing to the Singularity. Unlike their brethren in the Virindi, they were completely self-aware. While still tied to the Singularity, as all shards of the Entity were, they were not driven to act as a single mind anymore. They had become something else.

It was at this time that the evolved Virindi decided to call themselves the ‘Lothus’. They partially removed themselves from the Singulairty, taking with them those who had become most bound to them, and set themselves to the task of ending the war, and protecting both the reason bound and the emotion bound. Each of the Lothus shaped their followers into a force, and used that force to drive the war to an end. Those of the emotion bound that could not be dispersed, captured or in other ways sealed away were driven into the deepest parts of Portalspace, where they could no longer endanger the Singularity.

Those cells of the emotion-bound which were corrupted were named the ‘Rynthid’. Every effort was made to seal the captured ones away forever. The Virindi and the Lothus did not wish to destroy them, as they were essentially still the same entity. Instead, they were contained while the Lothus sought a means to end their corruption. Those emotion-bound cells that had not become corrupted were moved far from their corrupted brethren, and guarded by the Lothus forces.

The rise of the Lothus marks the beginning of what I am calling the Third Virindi Age.

Ahh, quiet once more. I wonder if this is why my captors have done this to me, just to catalog the history of their race. Irrelevant, I guess. The voices are quiet, and I can finally rest.