May/June Lite Mapping Challenge: Merydyan

[snodsy]

Really like the map, but I feel the green text is a little on the bright (glowing) side. The legend could be a little smaller (but depends on final size) it would give it some breathing room from the map and let that beautiful map stand alone. Nice job.

[Bogie]

And then there is the mysterious grey monolith that just appeared without explanation a couple maps back.

[ladiestorm]

I don't know what is going on with my program.... the green I actually chose is a shade or two more pastel than that. Everytime I open my program, it keeps reverting to that green, and I have to change it. I just forgot to that time...

The legend kind of needed to be that big so that the icons and text was readable, but I might be able to shrink it a bit, I will have to see....

As for the monolith, Bogie... don't worry I have plans for that!

[Robulous]

Yes that green's a bit too Halloween for my taste. I assume you're using CC3? I never got on with it myself.

[ladiestorm]

I am... well, cc3+, actually. I will be posting my finished map in a little bit, I just want to check and make sure I addressed all of my issues in this last rendition, before I post it.

[ladiestorm]

and now the last installment of the map, and the story... Sorry it's so long, but I had to finish it!

Trystan, Kiendra, and the rest of the Order Protectorate cantered past Trystan’s Tower on their mounts, each stopping a brief moment at the entrance to the ancient crater to call upon the magical energies still prevalent there.

On they raced toward the entrance to the deep caverns that would take them under the Devil’s Spine Mountains, to the stronghold of Tyriant, God Under the Mountain. They were still half a day away from the old cavern entrance when Kiendra, currently in the lead, veered off deeper into the wastelands to the west. Starshine galloped like a creature possessed, away from the others.

By the time Trystan and the others caught up a few hours later, Kiendra was standing before a monstrously huge stone Monolith, which she was studying with growing alarm.
“I flew over this area just a few months ago.” Kiendra exclaimed. She glanced at Tyrstan as he approached. “This was NOT here when I passed over, searching for you!”
“You’re certain?” Trystan wracked his brain, but couldn’t recall ever seeing it himself. He studied the Monolith, noticing for the first time the dark veins pulsing through it, the ancient runes along the top.
“When I fly, I can see for miles around. This was not…here… a few…. Months…” Trystan turned barely in time to catch Kiendra as she fell. He glanced at the ground as he scooped her into his arms, and noticed the ground for the first time.

The Wasteland was aptly named, nothing grew here, mostly because of the rocky clay that was the land here. But the clay here had always been highly sought, due to its rich umber hues. Not so anymore. The rocky clay was now a flat, unhealthy gray, as if all the life and color had been leached from it. Trystan looked all around him, the sickly gray ground stretched for miles. Was it like this when he was last here?

As he carried the unconscious Kiendra back toward the others, he realized the sickly gray earth was fairly new. His heart sunk at the implications. No wonder the Celystials were dying! The life energies of the land itself were being drained away!
As he got closer to the other members of the Protectorate, he could see the other Celystials, the druids, and anyone else that received their power from the land, getting sick and weak in this area.
“Back the way we came! We have to get out of here!” He whistled for Ebony, who trotted over, and layed down for him to mount with Kiendra in his arms…

Once they left the sickened area, Kiendra and the others revived. Kiendra shuddered when she woke, her skin cold and clammy.
“That Monolith, it’s feeding him power as he wakes. It must be destroyed!”
Her eyes were fierce blue fire as she looked at Trystan. “If we don’t, all of Merydyan will suffer! We won’t be able to destroy the God Under the Mountain.”
Trystan nodded. “I saw the land around it. Nothing but decaying earth. Did you see the runes at the top of it? I didn’t get a chance to read them.”
Kiendra closed her eyes a moment. “Death feeds Chaos, Chaos breeds destruction and death, Let Chaos and Death reign.”
The old druid, Caldwyn, was following their conversation and spoke up.
“I believe you have something there,” He mused. “The God of Chaos feeds on death and destruction… anything that creates Chaos… so what would hinder him? The order of Nature, of Life. I have the beginnings of a plan. It’s not a good plan, but it just might work.”

Later that night, Caldwyn, Trystan, and Kiendra, after spending hours in discussion, outlayed the new plans to the rest of the Order.
“Our problem is now two fold,” Trystan began. “We need to destroy the Monolith that is feeding Tyriant, break its power over the land, which will break his power, and weaken him.”
“But whomever is doing this, will be open to Tyriant’s attacks,” Kiendra continued. “So we also have to distract Tyriant, and his followers, so that we keep them from disrupting the attack on the Monolith.”
“So we split into two groups,” Caldwyn finished the plan. “Those of us strong in the use of natural magics will destroy the Monolith, while the others attack Tyriant in his Stronghold. Once the Monolith is destroyed, we rejoin to close off Tyriant’s Stronghold, and seal him away from the surface, forever. We all need to be in place by dawn.”
Caldwyn led the group attacking the Monolith. Trystan and Kiendra led their group down into the stronghold.

For three long days the battle continued, but at best, they were at a standoff. Tyriant did not have enough power to overwhelm both the fighters before him, and those attacking the Monolith, the power of the Order was only enough to hold Tyriant and his minions at bay; if they wanted to finish him, the power they drew from the natural energies wasn’t enough.
“Tyriant has the power of Hell behind him!” Trystan shouted during one such battle. “We need to cut him from the powers of Hell!”
“We would need to move the Heavens and the Earth to do that!” One of the Order’s fighters exclaimed. “The best we can do is put him back to sleep for another hundred or so years with what we have here!”

Kiendra’s tired eyes suddenly found new life. “My Gods, I know what to do!!! But we can’t do it here… we need sanctified ground!” She looked at Trystan, and he at her...
“The Sacred Grove!” They shouted together.

One of the Celystial warriors looked at Kiendra. “The ancient Celystal Ritual of Clensing! But it takes….” His eyes grew wide and bright. “You and Trystan are the only ones that can perform it! Go! We will hold off here as long as we can!!!”

Trystan knew nothing of this Ritual of Clensing. But the other Celystials seemed to understand, and fought with a renewed ferocity, giving them a chance to get away. He trusted Kiendra with all that he was, and raced behind her, out of the caverns.

Because of the mental connection they shared, thanks to the Life-Soul bonding, Kiendra was able to explain the Ritual in a matter of moments. It took a bonded pair of the Heavens and Earth to perform the Ritual with enough power to overcome a god of such magnitude. Celystials had tied themselves to the land, but because they WERE Celystials, they were tied more tightly to the Heavens, as they were the descendants of gods. Trystan, Supreme Wizard of the Order Protectorate, was tied to the Earth, since he drew the powers of the Earth to extend his own life.

But it was dangerous. Kiendra couldn’t hide anything when their minds melded in this way, and she didn’t try. It normally took four such bonded pairs to perform this ritual, one for each compass direction. Eight people could barely contain the power they would need, and they were only two. It would most certainly mean their deaths.

Trystan almost weeped at the irony. When he first noticed the evil on the wind, he was perfectly ready and willing to give his life to save Merydyan. But that was before Kiendra… now he wished with all his heart that he had more time, a wish that echoed in Kiendra’s heart as well…

Kiendra’s eyes shone with unshed tears, but a smile settled on her face as they raced into the grove a few hours later.
“I knew when I met you it might come to this, My Love,” she said. “Let us leave our regrets behind. We’ve shared more love in our short time together than most would share in their entire lifetime. If this is our end, at least we are not alone.” She took his hand, and they walked together into the Henge.

They stood opposite each other at the northeast, and southwest corners of the alter. Trystan took out the ceremonial dagger once meant to take Kiendra’s life. It would provide them with the tie they needed to target the magic at Tyriant; he was glad he hadn’t gotten around to destroying it.

They cut the inside of their hands, and clasped each other’s, allowing their blood to mingle, before slapping them down onto the alter. The alter flaired with a heavenly light. They then began the ritual, chanted in the ancient Celystial language. Light flared up in each stone of the Henge, and pierced through them both, searing them, and melding them to the alter. As at their bonding, light from the Heavens and the Earth surrounded them, lifting them, filling them, swirling them and the alter in a brilliant fiery radiance. Clouds formed above them, crackling lightning that struck each of the Henge stones, then poured into them. Each felt the other burning away, and leaned in to protect the one they loved, and still they chanted. Light from the sky and roots from the earth wove around them, coming together creating a structure of Heaven and Earth, pulling them from the alter and into the sky, and still they chanted. Then the magics of both the Heavens and the Earth reached their peaks and burst from Kiendra and Trystan…
Miles away the druids were pouring their magic into the Monolith while deep in the caverns the rest of the Order was fighting a losing battle. Suddenly, in both locations, light and magic a hundred times greater than the sun shot out of the sky and struck the Monolith and the Mountain as one. The Monolith coalesced and the Mountain, an active volcano, trembled and erupted. That heavenly light pierced through the Mountain and struck Tyriant with such force that he screamed in agony, falling back into the now churning, bright hot lava. The light and magic continued to flow, charring the mass that was the God Under the Mountain, and changing him to molten stone. The Order watched as the God of Chaos became a molten island in the middle of the lava river.
“My Gods, they did it!” One of the Celystials breathed. All of the Order that remained cheered.

Those cheers turned to mourning two days later, when the Order, and the Monarchs of the land converged on the Sacred Grove. They expected to meet Trystan and Kiendra on the road, coming back from the Grove, but the two never showed.

Stepping into the Henge gave the weary travelers the strangest sight of all. Ebony and Starshine stood at opposite ends of the alter, their heads forever bowed, as both were now marble statues. Roots glowing with magic had sprung up around the alter, swirling around to form a type of shelter with the alter inside, and at the top of these roots stood a tree high above the earth. The tree trunk took on the shape of two lovers, entwined together, reaching toward the Heavens, and the leaves of this tree shown with Heavenly light. Trystan and Kiendra were nowhere to be found…

Yet, two hundred and fifty years later, the Henge and the tree still stand. Lovers come from all around to be blessed at the sacred alter, and it is rumored that the greatest of those lovers never reemerge from the Grove. Some believe that the shelter and the tree are a Gate to a Lover’s Paradise, and that Trystand and Kiendra dwell in that paradise, ready to return if Merydyan ever needs them. In two hundred and fifty years, Merydyan never has…



### LATEST WIP ###

Merydyan09.png

[Bogie]

Fantastic story, very well written.

The map however, is low resolution and not nearly as good to look at as the one before it. Prior map is 6 MB, and this one is only 1.9 MB.

[ladiestorm]

Yes, I don't know how I got them mixed up...since I'm also posting on the profantasy site and their requirements are smaller than here. But somehow one was saved over the other. I will fix that as soon as I can.

[ladiestorm]

This is just an update to get the higher resolution map.

### LATEST WIP ###

Merydyanlrg.PNG

[Bogie]

Much Better, Thanks