Chapter 8 lore, did anyone notice?

[Mark]

It seems that no one noticed Chapter 8 of Aion's lore getting published on GameZone this past Friday. I can say I'm surprised, I wouldn't have known about it myself if I hadn't checked Google News. Don't bother going to the official site to read the lore. It isn't there. It is here, on AionSource.com, however.

A New Enemy, an Old Enemy (Asmodian)

We returned to Pandaemonium that day, and straight away set about gathering our forces for a war against these Elyos. The very next day we met in combat again, and full-scale war broke out between our people.

Soon, a further test would present itself as the Balaur, long exiled inside the Abyss, found a way out from their prison. Their thirst for blood was just as insatiable as before, and with their old allies by their side again their power should not be underestimated.

Now, though, we have discovered that which has given our mission a true sense of urgency. With every passing breath, our planet hemorrhages Aether out of our atmosphere. We spent many months searching for the source of this bleed, searching throughout the Abyss, and Asmodae, when it was right in front of us.

It's the two towers. A mighty resonance still exists between them, vibrating invisibly between the two halves of our sundered world. As if in memory of the lost Tower of Eternity, they cry out to each other across the void, and it is this reverberation that has created the Abyss.

The Abyss absorbs Aether, draining it away like water pouring into a crevasse. Now the Aether is spread thinner and thinner with each passing day, and will soon start affecting our Daevas, and our planet. Atreia is still only held together by the Aetheric ties Siel and Israphel created when they drained their own ethereal bodies of Aether, a process which effectively ended their own lives. Soon the Abyss will start to weaken these ties, and if they were to break, our atmosphere would collapse, and everyone on this planet would perish.

There remains one viable tactic. The resonance cannot continue if only one stump of the tower survives. Our path is clear: we must destroy the Tower of Light. Only then will we end this bleed and safeguard the lives of the Asmodian people from the arrogant tyranny the Elyos threaten us with.

We will not hesitate this time. There will be no staying of our blades, only a brutal and irresistible wave of destruction that will finally rid our home of the arrogant and naive fools which still infest our lands.

Our fate is once again in our own hands. This time, we will not fail.

- Kineas, Praefectus Castrorum of the Asmodian Archons

A New Enemy, an Old Enemy (Elyos)

We were stunned. Stunned that anyone had managed to survive on that desolate, frozen wasteland above us, stunned at what these Asmodians had been turned into. Quickly we mobilized our legions, and prepared for war.

Aion had a further test for our resolve, though, as a third stable portal opened and brought forth a horror we hoped to never see again - the Balaur. Quickly they consolidated their forces, summoning the Krall and Mau back to their side, as well as forcing other weaker races into submission. Their fury was greater than ever before, and it is us who now bear the brunt of their anger.

Our world, this land in which we live, was given the slightest and most fragile of lifelines by Siel and Israphel. We believed that this lifeline would sustain us, allow us the opportunity to savor and enjoy our victory over the Asmodian fiends that once dared to call us brothers. However, that all changed, when we learned, completely by accident, of something terrifying...

Atreia is dying. Our world bleeds Aether continually through the Grand Abyss, and unless this bleed is controlled, stemmed, then this life source will be exhausted. Our world, only held together by Siel and Israphel's final sacrificial act, will simply fall apart, and the empty halves which once made this great planet will drift through space forever. All that lives here will be extinguished in the blink of an eye, and all that we have achieved, all that we have worked for, will be lost.

Panicked, our priests and our theorists began researching possible solutions. It was only then that we found a solution.

The Abyss is an echo of the great Tower of Eternity that once stood in the midst of our world. It exists only because of the immense arcane forces that still resonate between the two tower stumps... a field of unnatural energy, like that which would arise between the poles of a titanic magnet. Were we to destroy the Asmodian Tower of Darkness, that field would collapse, closing the Abyss forever. Not only would we finally rid this world of their dark and ugly scar, we would save our world from destruction, and deliver our people to the eternal paradise granted to us by Aion!

This is our final test, our final hurdle before we are able to reap our reward. We must destroy the Asmodians and their pathetic world: we must save Atreia.

- Rafaela Semperti

[Oldfeathers]

Sometimes I wonder about NCSofts ability to advertise efficiently...

[Yakuzan]

Originally Posted by Oldfeathers

Sometimes I wonder about NCSofts ability to advertise efficiently...

Lore has never been their strong side haha.

[ckydrag0on]

Originally Posted by Yakuzan

Lore has never been their strong side haha.

I consider it really nice actually . I like it a lot because it's a simple and beatiful story you don't need something complicated to make it good.

Thx Mark for putting it.

[El Rodge]

So there is officially no reason for me to visit aiononline.com anymore?

[Knite]

The lore is great! Even after all we've learned about the game some of this still comes as a surprise. For example, each race's resolve to destroy the other side's tower.

Interesting stuff and more to come!

[Mark]

Originally Posted by El Rodge

So there is officially no reason for me to visit aiononline.com anymore?

I guess. Just visit GameZone for all your lore needs, haha. /sarcasm

[NightFall]

Awesome love the story line ^^ thx for da post.

[Dannan]

Lore is great

[Oldfeathers]

Originally Posted by ckydrag0on

I consider it really nice actually . I like it a lot because it's a simple and beatiful story you don't need something complicated to make it good.

I agree, I enjoy the lore as well. Point in fact, that is my point. The lore is great, involved, and has nice promotional art attached, yet it managed to get released in a such a way, a large portion of their fan base managed to completely miss it for four days. The lore shows the Aion team has great ideas and execution, but public relations, promotion and distribution growing pains are allowing great content to be squandered.

[Phoenix]

That was a really good chapter, and the images are stunning!

It's kinda funny how lots of people complained that the new lore is a distraction made by NCsoft from the "real problems", but this time they never even said anything about chapter 8.

[Cynic]

Originally Posted by Yakuzan

Lore has never been their strong side haha.

It almost sounds like you're implying that NCSoft has a strong side xD

[Phoenix]

Originally Posted by Cynic

It almost sounds like you're implying that NCSoft has a strong side xD

Well they did make this awesome game that we all are greatly anticipating.

[dalin]

thanks for the catch mark... good lore too!

Quickly they consolidated their forces, summoning the Krall and Mau back to their side, as well as forcing other weaker races into submission.

niiiice....

[SaharaSarge]

I don't know what it is I love so much about the lore in this game, but it just reignites my interest in the game every time i read it. Thanks Mark, I never would have found it without you spoonfeeding it to me.