#Atealan

[vaalthus]

The Star-Eating Serpent, The Hyperhydra (speculation)

With the release of the most recent inn bosses this month, we now have confirmation that the Hyperhydra faced in the Forgotten Beasts challenge board is not the serpentine creature being referred to in the Empress' recounting of Atealan history and is instead a very ominous single-headed green snake entity.

If I'm being honest, I find this design of the creature to be rather appropriate as the color of its skin, along with the greenish gas flowing out of its nape, would seem to suggest the entity's scales are either coated or made of Trithril, the mineral that was present on the homeworld of the Atealan people.

The genius of this design is that it explains why and how such an otherworldly creature is capable of devouring stars to begin with.

As explained by Ra'Ta and Eirn, Trithril is capable of acting as a protective layer for things traveling through environments that produce magical radiation or harsh magical conditions such as the rifts, the Void, and the Mana Core.

Being either made of Trithril or coated in it would offer the protection this otherwordly beast would require to travel space and devour stars without having to worry about the danger those stars pose. I imagine it would also make traveling space easier as well.

My confusion in trying to piece the mystery of how this animal operates is that I can't begin to picture the reasoning behind its feeding. The Empress tells that the TSS was a devourer of her children, yet this seems to only have taken place after the beast took notice of them sometime after they established their people's culture, possibly meaning it hasn't been hunting and devouring them since their infancy as a species.

Furthermore, the serpent is known to be a devourer of not just stars but planets as well. Now admittedly, this designation of being a 'world eater' could just tie back to the fact that the snake was eating the life on worlds that the Atealan inhabited and therefore them as well. However, I would like to posit a theory that the Star-Eater wasn't eating the Atealans, as well as any other life that existed alongside them, specifically but rather the actual planets.

In the objective card for this otherwordly creature, it is outlined that it fed upon the power of both stars AND planets.

The implication here that the planets it consumed had a power worth devouring to begin with. The question here is what? I believe the answer to that is simple: it's Trithril. You see I believe that the serpent was seeking out worlds rich in minerals potent in Trithril so that it could devour stars safely afterword, as well as be protected by other forms of magical radiation. As a consequence, it's scales would be either coated in Trithril or eventually turn into Trithril as it continued to eat more planets that contained the mineral.

Now a terrifying theory here is that Trithril is a mineral only the Atealan's were capable of producing which leads back to the Empress' claim that the serpent devoured their children, the Ateala. Meaning the snake was specifically eating Atealans or at least seeking worlds where they were present.

How exactly Atealan do this I'm not sure, likely ties back to their connection to cosmic energy and the stars, but if so it kind of means they would have always been in danger of this serpent hunting them throughout the cosmos no matter how many worlds they fled in the past, until its recorded defeat by Unael Anohrin of course. Unless of course the death of Atealan can lead to formation of Trithril which if so, well that's kind of dark.

On a side note, I find it curious that the serpent has the same exact golden ornament attached to its head as the Atealan Standard helm:

Not sure if it means anything but it is an interesting detail.

Speculation on what the Star-Eating Serpent was consuming exactly and why, it's existence does bring up one important question:

WHAT THE HECK IS THE STORY BEHIND THE HYPERHYDRA!?!?!?

No seriously for the longest time this three-headed monstrosity was like the only candidate to point to when guessing what serpent was being referred to in the Empress' song, but now that thought-process is dead in the water.

At the time, I could see why it made sense to make the connection to the Ateala, what with the title of being an Eater of Stars alongside that all too familiar blueish starry theme its got going on but now I'd like to make a new guess.

I now believe that this forgotten beast may have been a creature that was or is present in the overall Elemental Plains. Now that seems like an odd guess to make until you look at the background behind it.

I can think of only one other place where we saw two celestial bodies, one black and the other white, orbiting one another.

The very top of the Exaltia Tower where we face off against the Engineer and see the Exalted Artillery cannon. A place that was very much present in the Elemental Plains.

However, if this true, what then are the small stars being referred to that the Hyperhydra apparently consumes?

Normally, I like to not be so presumptuous that gameplay completely translates to lore, at least as far as the inn is concerned anyway, but I do wonder if the hydra's ability to cycle through all eight prime elements to attack could or does answer that question given that the prime elements have been referred to as "stars" before and have even been given that imagery, at least symbolically anyway, in the Engineer fight. But again rough speculation at best.

Ah but I believe that concludes my thoughts on these serpentine beasties.

[silence-of-autumn42]

It's been fun getting back into DragonFable. The lore of the Soulweavers, the Atealans, and the Magisterium are all really fascinating, and they've been really scratching a brain itch that Warframe and Destiny haven't been lately, for weird, strange lore.

[tmae3114]

every so often I remember that it isn't actually confirmed canon that Tomix fought Lust in Atrea and the implications that he did are not actually that big but also c'mon, between Ra'Ta and Sa'vaya and all the other Atealans in Ravenloss? He totally fought Lust in Atrea

[dfkinkmeme-revival]

i am here alas finally, Atealan goat milk... more specifically yashta but anybody works

bonus if its not white, make that shit purple!

[hdawg1995]

i finished it at 3am i don't like the shading i'm going to bed

[watergubby]

new cosmetic

the staff works really well with my atealan base class

[gm-warlic]

It’s a bit late, but for Hero Appreciation Day today, I wanted to share another DF OC of mine I haven’t talked about before now because she has mostly just been a vague concept in my head: Selena. (I only have the one picture for now until I can unlock her other classes)

Selena is Jonathan’s younger sister, and was only eight years old when he first left on his adventure. Selena was always a troublemaker growing up, finding her way into everywhere she wasn’t supposed to be and taking things she wasn’t supposed to. Then Jonathan, who had always been obedient when she was getting into trouble, ran away to become an adventurer.

For years she heard stories of his exploits, both from him on his visits home and from various travelers that came through their home village. The more she heard, the more she longed to go off in search of adventure as well.

Then Jonathan was frozen in an enchanted block of ice. At first the family had no idea what had happened. They just stopped getting his letters, and when the time came for his usual visit, he didn’t show up. A few days later Elysia arrived. Jonathan had mentioned her in his letters, but at that point she hadn’t yet met his family before her unexpected arrival at the family farm.

She told them what had happened. They went on a pilgrimage of sorts to the ice block, which was so thick they could not see the figures within as anything more than vague shadows, and they mourned.

Months passed, and the world seemed to grow more and more dangerous without Jonathan there to protect it. Finally Selena decided she needed to follow in her brother’s footsteps and go out into the world to help people. Only twelve years old, she knew she wasn’t going to beat people with a sword or wear heavy armor like her older brother, so instead she relied on her ability to keep out of sight and get into places others couldn’t. She spent about a year adventuring as a rogue before finding her way to Sho’Nuff island, where she was taken in by the ninjas of Shadow of the Wind Village and taught their ways, which she took to like a fish to water.

When Yaala’s forces invaded Greenguard, Selena covertly joined the fight against them, though she didn’t not reveal herself to Jaania’s army. As they pushed Yalla’s forces back, she was shocked by the brutality she saw in those she was helping. When they get to the Dreamwood and she saw Jaania almost destroy the entire forest, she decides she was not going to be a part of anything this lady was involved with.

Selena continued adventuring, and a couple years later she was in the Sandsea when the Rose invaded. She joined Zhoom and the rebels in their fight against Sek-Duat and the Rose. When Duat fell to the Rose and Zhoom vanished, Selena fled into the desert and got lost in the sands. She eventually found her way to Atrea, and the Atealans rescued her from the desert heat and nursed her back to health. While among them Selena trained as a Cryptic, learning how to hone her mind as much as she had her body.

Selena later returned to Greenguard and joined the Sanctuary, helping them in their efforts against the Rose, mostly with guerrilla strikes and night robberies. When the Sanctuary was eventually attacked and destroyed by Akanthus, Selena was among those who escaped and would later join the Vind.

When Jonathan finally unthaws and eventually encounters the Vind, he finds his sister all grown up, now the same age as him at 20, and a skilled hero in her own right, having resisted the Rose for years. They fight alongside one another many times after this, and Jonathan has to reconcile the little girl he used to know with the woman his sister has become. He eventually teaches her Soulweaving, passing on what Tomix taught him. (I haven’t decided yet what her SoulAlly is like)

Selena is also a lesbian and is probably going to end up dating Mritha at some point.

[ryunn]

atealan ocs

[galahadiant]

The Atealan sun thing did come up during the main story recently! We saw Alz'ein actually burning during the Sunfall Part 2 quest, when she'd been in the sun for a while

Oooooh! I haven’t played the last year-ish of the main story, whoops. I got stuck on one of the Greenguard Alliance quests. 

[valorousowl]

On the Atealans.

Something I noticed about the latest DragonFable war

Spoilers under the cut.

We're physically and yet not physically in a dream

Created by a deep-sea/deep-space entity that can only communicate through dreams from the depths of wherever he actually is

A dream created specifically to trap us

A dream that has memories melting into other memories that other people can walk into

A dream full of impressions of long-gone people and places that we can just wander in on

A dream full of color-changing spirographs

We're in a FUCKING dreambubble.

[vaalthus]

A Brief Respite (spoilers)

Ya know never occurred to me they'd all be at the Inn. The refugees we saved of course.

*confused sobbing*

You know I'm still curious as to the exact mechanics as to how Wargoth Sr did this. Feels like the answer lies with in affecting the Empress since all Atealan are supposed to come from her but I'm just not sure.

That being said,

I'm curious if we might one day aid in the Atealans reclaiming this power. Seems unlikely given that they would no longer have a reason to be on Lore, save out of sentiment, but it would be nice to explore if the damage Wargoth did was truly permanent.

Hard decisions made by the atealan people or the Empress?

I'm just loving the exposition that gives so much but hides just enough for new players that won't have a lot of the context older players already have.

Assuming its still canon, this would be a perfect spot in the time line of the Atealan's history for the trithril curse to have begun. Surely some among their numbers would have desperately wanted to try to have their people be able to live under sunlight without affliction once more and travel beyond Somorah

Avatars, the side-by-side exposition/foreshadowing art is just too damn good.

And then there's the characterization...

I love how devastating it feels to know that a world has been basically been lost forever, somebody's home and loved ones. It's the shoe that drops for Alz'Ein that makes it clear they can never go back to where they came from and worse the enemy responsible for all that loss is still coming after them.

Stronger than who Alz'Ein? Veyla? The Fallen? Surely not Wargoth.

Ah I can smell the frustration of the Rising Fire War from here.

[vaalthus]

The new Atealan Escelense customization slaps tbh

[vaalthus]

Starlit Sandsea (spoilers)

A small part of me wonders if any of the Ateala refugees sometimes stop by the Inn and pay their respects to her memorial. Outside of us and the Guardians, Serenity was one of the first friendly human faces they saw after they fled Wargoth's Wrath. Moreover, with this new context in mind, they must have been personally horrified to have learned how she was "used" against us in Calamity, some perhaps more than others.

Ya know I can see this being one of the many catalysts, albeit obviously a small one, to set Alz'Ein off, in addition to a lot of the new characterization we've been getting for her in these Book 2 reimaginings. Imagine all the frustration she's experiencing from learning what happened to her people and their home world and now she's allowed time to let all of that stew in her head more while defending from behind. Sure, she is doing so alongside Etaos and Nirios, perhaps also Veyla, but I highly doubt she'll confide in them about her feelings regarding everything that happened.

Fascinating that we now know how long the Ateala had previously settled on Somorah and I find myself almost surprised at the number of years considering, according to Dove, the Ateala only produce a child once a year and if memory serves this "once" is for the entire civilization not singular couples. Meaning within that timeframe only 3252 new Atealans have been born at this point of their history. Initially, I thought this meant that their population size must have been severely small even before Wargoth hit them but it's entirely possible through all those abandoned, or eaten, worlds that they were able hold on to a decently high population size through those that survived through their past calamities.

It's always a joy to get these little details as to what Somorah was like before it became a smoking crater even if it was only in the aftermath of the first Wargoth assault on the planet.

So yeah Book 2 reimagines are still doing pretty damn good.

[hdawg1995]

Scalla: 1. Shimmer was her favorite sword and to justify not having it anymore i headcanon Draco buried it in the yard and Scalla is still looking for it.

2. I played Scalla during the riftwalker play tests so for a while Scalla was a guy due to the riftwalker test not having a female model yet. I wrote a comic script of Artix finding out that during the Atealan transformation Scalla turned into a guy and Scalla was freaked out by it but Artix wasn't. This is the closest child me got to writing LGBT content cause if i remember right Scalla has a mental break down and Artix comforts her by kissing her and reminding her she hasn't changed, shes still Scalla. the only reason it didn't get drawn was because i couldn't draw people kissing and child me didn't like learning how to draw new things.

3. Scalla is Asexual heteroromantic.

Ajax: 1. i play him via stream which i haven't done in a while. He just finished water orb and he glitched VERY BADLY during the water orb sage so he fought everything with the torch you pick up that is SUPPOSED to disappear after you end the quest where you get it. completed the whole thing with a burning torch underwater.

2. for some reason during streams i can not for the life of me get a electricity weapon. grinding for gold to get a weapon to do the sir jig quest ended with Ajax being over leveled so i moved on to falcon reach. every electricity weapon hes gotten has been over level or DA required and he isn't getting a DA till book 2. theres no reason for it but electricity and Ajax just doesn't get along. got kinda awkward when his baby dragon hatched and sneezed a lighting bolt at him.

3. Ajax is currently headcanoned to be asexual biromantic.

I'm really enjoying hearing about everyone's heroes!! everybody come tell me fun facts about your hero!!!

[vaalthus]

Heroes from Beyond (spoilers)

At long last...

THE ATEALAN CLASS TRAINERS HAVE A PROPER INTRODUCTION IN THE ELEMENTAL DISSONANCE SAGA!!!!!

[vaalthus]

The General's Arrival Reimangined (spoilers)

I KNEW IT! I KNEW THESE TWO HAD SOME FORM OF HISTORY!

*ahem*

For those of you reading this and are likely confused about my outburst, I'm not sorry :P.

You see years back when I initially played this saga as wee-gamer I was a bit confused and a bit put-off by the fact that Alz'Ein was so dead-set on labeling Veyla as a traitor and her inability to resist Wargoth's control as a betrayal.

At the time, it seemed as if she was angry with Veyla, and by some extension the other enslaved Atealans, for no real reason other than the fact that they had been conquered and controlled by the enemy at all, ya know something they wouldn't exactly be to blame for.

Of course, now that I'm older I understand a lot of her abrasiveness, frustration, and anger stems from the fact that their people were forced to flee their burning home, as well as the fact we weren't exactly listening on how much of a threat Wargoth posed to Lore.

However, I couldn't take my mind off the fact that she used the word betrayal. That's not a word you use lightly especially against someone you know. It eventually got me thinking: We don't exactly know all the events that took place on Somorah when Wargoth came to conquer it besides the obvious. As a result, it made me wonder if some of the Atealans deliberately chose to surrender, to bow down, to Wargoth in an effort to save themselves from being annihilated. Therefore, consenting to be controlled as opposed to having their will taken from the by force. My thought process at time was that Alz'Ein witnessed such a choice take place on the planet before they escaped and that was reason why she saw Veyla as a traitor.

Now of course we know now that Alz'Ein and the others don't know what's happening with the other Atealans trapped on Somorah so it's entirely possible that Wargoth did forcibly take control of all of them after all, especially the riftwalkers that were left behind. But I think it's possible that some Atealans may have chosen to submit. Can't wait to find out either way.