Akinomori.com

Note: This is work in progress, not only does this not cover the whole story from beginning to end, also the parts covered aren't final.
Don't post comments in this topic, since I want to keep the posts in order for the index. Instead post in an other topic.

Index:


Changelist:

I - Characters

bold = major character; italic = of average importance; normal = minor character

Lieela: Our protagonist, in the beginning of the story she is a young, promising and very serious wizard interested in the macabre dark arts.
Dar-Zakary: The leader of the dark cult of Zarakha, a powerful master of the dark arts.


Dar-Falath: An older member of the cult of Zarakha, Falath is outgoing and likes to flirt with Lieela - with bad results.
Dar-Vherat: A friend of Falath's, Vherat is also an older member of the cult. Vherat is dead serious, quiet yet blood thirsty.
Dar-Cela: Cela is an other member of cult who had been captured by the officials and had been given death sentence for practicing necromancy. Cela gives off an aura of weakness, yet there is still obviously something in him since Dar-Zakary found it necessary to arrange a rescue party for him.


Macella, Samiam: Captains of Fehln's garrison
Gregory, Ratash: Bandit leaders

II - Overall storyline

CG tells the story of Lieela starting from her entrance to the cult of Zarakha, followed by her rise in the cult's ranks, taking over the cult and finally setting off to conquer the land. Following that guideline, the story is divided into four major parts, which are further divided into smaller acts as needed:
1. The initiation
2. The rise
3. The revenge (planned at least two acts, "A betrayal" and "A revenge")
4. The fall


In The initiation we follow Lieela's entrance to the cult and her first few missions. She is first given three entrance trials, of which the first two are very trivial yet the third sends Lieela to ransack a small remote village in search for new specimen for the cult. After her entrance Lieela is almost immediately sent to her first real mission. An older member of the cult, Dar-Cela, had been caught by the country's guards and is to be hanged the next day. Lieela is to help her seniors, Dar-Falath and Dar-Vherat, in the rescue mission. Lieela and Cela escape to the west into great woods, where there are ambushed by a group of bandits. After their successful return, Lieela is able to continue her studies uninterrupted for a while.


The rise tells us how Lieela grows in both power and influence in the cult. This part begins as Dar-Zakary grows more ambitious, but hasn't told anyone of what his goals actually are. Instead he sends his underlings on various missions to form treaties with different races and tribes, namely orcs, trolls, ogres and such, search for powerful artifacts and to raid remote villages for wealth and dead. Lieela is first sent to the elven lands in search of a rumored ancient and deserted dwarven underground citadel. Within the citadel should lay a famed runic artifact which Zakary desires.

On her way to the caves, Lieela is stopped by an elven convoy who belongs to a tribe which holds the lands sacred and allows no one to pass. After negotiating with the elves, Lieela is given a choice to either fight the elves or slay a tribe of trolls within the caves which has been harassing the elves for a long time. If she agrees to the elves' proposal and brings back the head of the troll chieftain, Lieela we gain the elves' trust and may form an alliance with them later on. However if she tells to slay the trolls but doesn't, the elves will fight her when she returns from the caves. She can also seek the trolls even if she killed the elves.

After returning with the runic artifacts Lieela is sent to a number of smaller missions (they're skipped? *shrug*) after which she is given a mission to meet with a far away tribe of ogres and either form a peaceful alliance or subdue them. Dar-Cela is sent to accompany Lieela. During their long journey Lieela starts to grow feelings for Cela.

After having subdued the ogres Lieela is sent on an other journey to recover an ancient tome full of powerful spells from a hidden underground shrine from far north.


The revenge begins as Lieela is climbing back up towards sunshine from the caves with the ancient tome in her hands. She sees a familiar shape approaching her from the entrance of the cave: Dar-Cela. Not having seen him in a long time, Lieela happily runs to him only to fall on a stone. The book flies from her hands in front of Cela who picks it up, reads a few lines from the book and snaps his fingers to bring down the cave ceiling behind him. With a tiny light glowing in his hand, he turns around and walks through the rubble while waving back to Lieela, leaving her alone in the dark, trapped.

Cela returning with the tome but without Lieela causes some distress in the cult, but Zakary doesn't seem to care. Most concerned of the situation is Dar-Falath who has been for a while now opposing the current way of things. In the cult library Falath discovers the location of the cave Lieela was sent to and he quickly makes arrangements to make his way there. Cela finds out about Falath's plans and pursues him. Having Cela on his tail, Falath is forced to change his course and he heads to the hideout of the shadow mages (or some other acquaintances of his) who agree to help him fight Cela. Falath is able to wound Cela, but Cela manages to escape. Not having any time to pursue Cela, Falath hurries to the cave.

In the cave Falath finds Lieela, starved and near dead. They vow to slay both Cela and Zakary, who apparently had given Cela his orders since the beginning, and to take over the cult. After she has regained her strength, Lieela and Falath travel to the ogres to seek their help. If Lieela had helped the elves with the trolls she asks also them for help. The two meet with Dar-Vherat, who agrees to help if Lieela doesn't have the elves' help. If the elves are on Lieela's side, Vherat decides to stick with Zakary because his hatred towards the elves is even greater than his friendship with Falath.

Lieela and Falath meet with Zakary and Cela in a major showdown. Initially Zakary is slain, yet upon his death he curses Lieela. Lieela doesn't care about the curse and she begins to study the ancient tome from before, which Zakary had had with him until his death.


Cela's betrayal had left its toll on Lieela, and with growing distrust in other people she slowly grew mad, or fed up with the human civilization (either way, it's a plot device, so meh). In The fall Lieela finally returns from her chambers, having studied the tome for months. Covered in robes, she calls all of the cult's members together in hall. There, in front of everyone she slowly takes off her hood, revealing a terrifying skeletal face. Coldly she tells that later that night, everyone is to gather at the gates prepared. They were to march for the capital. Lieela walks down past the pale Falath and stops to tell him that were he to flee now, he could still make it out alive. Later on she wouldn't be merciful against any resistance. Falath storms out of the halls and rides off, never seen again.

Before beginning her march, Lieela sends messengers to her allies to ask them to join at the siege of the capitol. Sharing the same viewpoint of destroying the capitol, all of the allies show up and stay to battle despite Lieela's new appearances. In the end as the king has been struck down, a choir of horrible screams is heard from beyond the city walls. Everyone in the city flees in terror as Lieela calmly walks at the gates to welcome the fallen Dar-Zakary and his infernal armies. Alone she prepares for a battle and fights Zakary's horde, but is eventually struck down. As the last remnants of life leave her bones, Zakary and his hordes let out a scream and slowly disintegrate to the wind.