The Gambit: "Dig Deep, Drink Water"

[Mortis]

Another episode of Alaric's chronicles has been released with a little bit of a lore dump and some fun dialogue.

 

 

Alaric notes that the blood seems to recognize the messenger’s authority above his own. The blood seems to be influenced greatly by many different things. The Soul Pillar’s magick, the ghoul song, the Messenger. We don’t know the relationship between the blood and the Empyrean house for sure, or any of the others really. I think the vampire’s inherent ability to shapeshift makes them vulnerable to being influenced that way, we see this later in the episode too. The messenger is just something that knows how to exploit that. My other theory is that Alaric is just weak and can’t consciously resist magick yet. OR the reason the messenger completely weakens Alaric is because of whatever is going on that makes vampires vulnerable to the sun. Like a curse on the blood.

 

Alaric then heads though the snow and towards Amarax’s altar(?). He remarks the snow no longer melts on his skin because he is no longer a warm blooded creature. He passes by dregs and thinks that feeding on the people there would be merciful, but isn’t if that’s him or the blood’s thinking. It's unsurprising that vampires are cold creatures, but this brought to mind snow building up on players as they stand in snowfall. It would be a very cool detail, but probably demanding on the computer. Alaric thinking about feeding on the people is making me think that this may be the reason why the undead are not very concerned with their past lives. It may be that, for the vampires at least, the blood slowly pushes out their humanity. Of course, a few hundred or thousand years could do that too.

 

Alaric navigates by the sign of the Knight. One of our first confirmed constellations.

 

Alaric finds Amarax’s altar in ruins. His things are destroyed, and Amarax himself is dead on the ground. Obviously, he isn't actually dead. He speaks to Alaric in his mind, and explains that while his vessel is destroyed, he still has one phylactery of six left. The wraith was able to connect to Amarax's soul, fragment itself, and destroy the phylacteries at once. I'd like to say for the record I knew Amarax was fine, I just wanted to play dumb for chat I'M TEAM LICHE. I would have expected Amarax to have more since he's been alive for much longer than a few centuries. Though, I'm not sure how difficult it is to forge a phylactery. On my second watch, I realized I missed a huge part of the wraith information here. The wraith can bind itself to part of soul, and find other parts of soul from there. This could be really interesting for pvp if we ever did inter-House combat. If other Houses have the ability to split their souls, the wraith would be invaluable in hunting them. This really highlights their proficiency in the essential. Amarax also explains they are fragmented beings, so a single wraith may be in many places at once. I wonder how you would destroy a wraith then… in-game, this would be such a great opportunity for having distractions or multiple attacks on multiple enemies at once.

 

Amarax reveals that Alaric is the final phylactery. The reason I didn't expect this is because of how much danger Alaric gets put in. I mean, since the first interaction with the liche, he's been face to face with undead, Awakened (even the horses), an angel, a Clatter-clack, and a giant spider that is a Pillar of Souls. Amarax must have a lot of faith in Alaric or Allalmawt or something because damn. But that was a great pay off. It does fully explain why the ghouls were having a hard time counting. According to Amarax, their souls being intertwined is why the wraith didn't know he was a phylactery.

 

“I could walk into the sea, and cleanse your blackened stain from Malorum”

“That would be a most selfless act, so I'm rather assured of my safety for the moment” LOL

 

 

Alaric threatens to go to the Darklight Enclave, and Amarax says that would end with more pain than simply walking into the sea. He says that the wraiths “feed on suffering as he does blood”. I doubt that the wraiths need to consume pain to survive (unless they actually do), so what does that mean? In the same way that vampires can smell blood, the wraiths must be able to find and expand on suffering. It sounds like the classes may have a tarot option to draw on their unique resource. Rage for revenants, suffering for wraiths, blood for vampires. But it may not work out for everyone. What would the wight have? As I speculated in other posts, I think it would all be unique and different mechanics and not a fourth resource in the trinary.

 

He proposes a trade, saying that he has fulfilled his end of the deal last time.

Amarax points out that Alaric has gaps in his memory that he can't access, seemingly blocked by magick. He tells him that he knows the mark of the empyrean, and Alaric should let him help. Alaric doesn’t believe he can do anything to help, considering the liche was almost completely destroyed. Amarax believes letting the wraith destroy his vessels and most of his phylacteries was the best course of action, otherwise destroying all the wraiths after him would exact a greater cost. “Could you destroy them all?” Alaric asks. “Irrelevant. True power comes from the ability to plan ahead, not destroy.” Amarax replied. The mark of empyrean might just be magick that could be traced to that specific house. If it’s a literal mark in his brain anyone would recognize it. I believe Alaric could block out Amarax’s access to his thoughts/ memories if he knew how to do it, because he has a large amount of magick and Amarax says Alaric doesn’t know how to do that, not that he can’t. I believe Amarax could fight off the wraiths since he said the cost would be greater. But on his end, he lost all but his last phylactery. The cost of losing a bunch of wraiths would possibly be greater for Deadhaus and not worth the fight. Why are the wraiths trying to destroy Amarax? If he violated the Rituals, he would be knocked down a peg or two in the caste system by the Coven. But the Enclave is just trying to assassinate him. One of a two things are happening: since Amarax has violated many rules, it’s added up and his punishment is True Death. The wraiths are acting as enforcers of the Coven in this case. My main theory is that Alaric was considered a threat and once the Darklight Enclave found out about him still being alive because of Amarax’s intervention, they deemed Amarax a traitor. The Darklight Enclave has decided independently that he must be destroyed, without the knowledge of the rest of Deadhaus.

 

Alaric is astonished that a giant spider is definitely not like a pillar. Amarax says words and names can have many meanings. He explains that the nine aspects of magick flow through Malorum, and the Pillars, which are the children of Malorum, are the manifestations of these aspects. They are both “titanic engines of magickal energy” and living creatures. Even small parts of their body give off tremendous energy. In the Necroliberatas it's said that the heavens are reflected in Malorum. I'm confident this is what that means. The Pillars reflect the heavens; the other Houses. I wonder if words having different meanings will mean anything for us in game. It could make for fun puzzles.

I feel like I missed something somewhere because I thought that magick was part of the undead trinary. Material, Magickal, Essential. If we follow Varik’s octahedron, only one other House would share that. If instead it will be that all Houses share the same or similar trinary, I’m onboard with that. The Necroliberatas says that it’s possible the other Houses have their own three energies (Fragments). I think it could be true that a house has a unique energy called Despair and it’s synonymous with Magick. I also accept the possibility that I completely misunderstand the system.

 

Alaric says he should’ve been warned about the Clatter-Clack. Amarax says that it’s called a Nameless Worm, because of its infusion with the Nameless aspect of magick. How did this worm become infused with the magick? Does the change reflect the kind of magick it was infused with, or simply any kind of magick will cause it to grow to a ginormous size?

 

Amarax and Alaric (Alarax? Amaric? Are their names intentionally similar? Meta says "Amaric the Archpire") then start on building the nonary conflux. I’ll recount the instructions and ingredients.

 

Always begin on the left side, which are the aspects of Chaos. Start here because order rises from chaos. What would happen if you started on the right side of a conflux? Or went in reverse order? I think the spell would just fail. I’m sure there’s other forms of casting that allow some flexibility.

 

The second from top left is the Abyssal aspect, which is the domain of S’sa-Naraj. Six eyes are pointed downwards. Right the aspect of darkness. Eyes looking downward, unable to see. I get it.

 

The right side are the aspects of Order.

 

Second from top right is the Celestial aspect, and is the domain of El’Sabayoth. One heart. Alaric couldn’t figure out the other similarities between the heart and the sun, but I have another connection. The heart is in the center of the body, the sun is the center of a star system. Both the sun and the heart radiate life outwards; the sun through heat and light, the heart through blood. I don’t know what Amarax’s point was, but I think he was saying that poetry is made up of literary devices. Similes, metaphors, etc. You find what works though comparing the offering and the aspect.

 

Top right is the Necrotic aspect, and is the domain of Allalmawt. One skull of Amarax’s former vessel. Was Amarax’s skull necessary because of his connection to undeath and Deadhaus? It would explain why Alaric wasn’t instructed to just use a random skull. Also I am a little surprised that the Necrotic aspect is on the side of Order, but I can see how everything returning to dust can be opposite to the Chaos of life.

 

Across from Necrotic aspect is the Psychic aspect, and is the domain of Islirith. One head, brain intact. (b) Amarax refers to this as the counterpart to the Necrotic aspect… If we follow this pattern for all the aspects/ Houses, then the aspects and their counterparts are as follows: Abyssal and Celestial, Necrotic and Psychic, Arcane and Nameless, Temporal and Alchemical. Primordial stands alone. This spawns a red eye that follows Alaric. Creepy.

 

Second from the bottom right is the Arcane aspect, and is the domain of Ohm. One brain, shaped into straight edges. Here Alaric asks if Amarax couldn’t have made the preparations before, to which he replies “You’ll have to forgive me; I was being torn apart by hundreds of chains.” what a comedian.

 

Across from the Arcane aspect is the Nameless aspect, and is the domain of the Nameless God. Two tongues. Tongues for something without name. Very fitting. It also makes sense that the aspect of the unknowable and the aspect that represents knowledge and thought are counterparts.

 

Bottom left is the Temporal aspect, and is the domain of Tlaquetlex. Two hands. Someone in the premiere chat immediately pointed out how that clocks have two hands. Pretty smart. The fact that the hands never reach the ground sounds like with enough power, someone using temporal Magick may be able to slow or stop time.

 

Bottom right is the Alchemical aspect, and is the domain of Ourou. Blood. Amarax tells Alaric to extract his blood while he suppresses the blood’s ability to move away from wounds. I wonder if this may be used in game for vampires to use their blood for different things. It’s funny that Alaric has just realized his teeth are now fangs. Did they just get sharp?

 

Center is the Primordial aspect, and is the domain of Malorum. Soul Gem.

Connected all by bones in arcing lines.

 

 

This is a super rough drawing of what the nonary conflux should look like. Resembling a spiral, all aspects connected to the primordial aspect and to their counterparts, no straight lines. I think some lines can be fixed to make it look better but I’ll save that for another time

 

Amarax explains that “magick is meaning made manifest. Like flows to like”. The offerings don’t always have to be the same, just that they must have some meaning relevant to the aspect. However, the “semantic resonance” and the magick needed to cast a spell are inversely proportional. If the offerings had little to do with their respective aspects, it would take a greater amount of magick to cast a spell in this fashion, and vice versa. In theory, I could throw some things that are vaguely connected to their respective aspects into a nonary conflux, expend a large amount of magick, and have a completed spell. It sounds like a liche would have no trouble with a half-assed spell. The opposite must be true, where a revenant could cast a spell with very little magick using offerings with very high semantic resonance.

 

Alaric recognizes the shape of the conflux from what he saw from Fort Zaestra. He wonders how the wights made it and what the purpose is. Amarax says that they probably did it the same way Alaric is doing it, with instruction. He tells him the conflux can do many things, but they will be using it to “rend the barrier between realms so they may pass”. I still don’t fully get what happened at the fort, but I believe an undead gave the wights the instruction to build a conflux for some unknown purpose.

 

Before they finish, Amarax tells Alaric they will need a lantern and has him take a cage to hunt down the lost will-o-wisp.

Alaric sprints in the direction of the wisp, with Amarax saying how disorienting it is to move at such high speeds. He stops to ask if Amarax could see with magick, then sprints before he could fully reply. He asks “what was that?” and sprints again before the liche can get anything out. I’m glad Alaric got something over Amarax haha.

 

Alaric finds the wisp and has to catch it by hand, since Amarax is trying to keep from spending any magick. However, when he tries to catch it, it teleports away. Alaric smacks into the tree it was orbiting. Amarax says that “spiritual beings are not bound by the same laws of movement as material beings” and can’t simply run to catch it. It seems that wraiths and wisps are similar in the sense that they can simply teleport around.

 

Alaric shoots a magic blast at the wisp, but misses that as well. Didn’t Amarax JUST say not to use magick to avoid attracting attention? Come on Alaric PAY ATTENTION haha.

 

Amarax explains that the wisp is a lesser manifestation of the primordial aspect, and since like flows to like, it’s attracted to the trees because it can feel currents of the primordial aspect flowing through them.

 

Alaric gets impatient and says “I feel another blast coming on” I laughed so hard here.

 

Amarax instructs him to draw the sign of Malorum in the snow, then bury his feet. He then has him raise his arms into the air. Amarax then does something to cause the sign of Malorum to glow and Alaric’s blood to slow. Amarax tells him to stand still and let only the wind move him. He has him repeat the phrase “dig deep, drink water”. The wisp then comes to orbit Alaric. He could only force his arms slowly to catch the wisp, but it didn’t try to run. He was able to catch it. Afterwards, he looks at his hand and sees that a leaf has come out from underneath his thumb nail. My understanding of this is that by channeling primordial magick through his body, and embodying a tree, Alaric was seen as a tree by the wisp. Not only that, he must have started actually turning into a tree? This is what I was talking about, where Alaric’s vampiric transformation abilities are influenced to have some unique effects on his body. I don’t really see a normal human or a ghoul doing tree magick. This makes me curious as to how a player with a low magick character can catch a wisp in game. Here’s a little meme I made because why not.

 

 

Before Alaric had time to recover, the shadows of a tree started stretching slowly towards him. The wraiths have found him. He races back to the circle. He slams the soul prism into the center of the conflux as the shadows lengthen around him and wraiths are just about to emerge. When he does, he hears the whisper of the giant spider, sees a bright green light, and then he hears the same sound as the crucible being in the open configuration. The light follows the lines connecting the aspects, lighting them up green with the necrotic aspect being brightest. That circle glows then expands to fill the enter conflux before creating a huge hole in the ground, where Alaric falls in. OKAY I really like that so far all the classes introduced thus far are so cool. Vampires get transformations, super speed and strength, and magick blasts. Liches are insanely difficult to kill and have huge amounts of magick available to their disposal. Wraiths can come from shadows, teleport, and use chains to attack. Ghouls can regenerate limbs, climb impossible surfaces, and spit acid or items. We haven’t seen much of what the wights can do besides snapping necks and not much at all about the revenants yet (this is ignoring the first season of radioplays).

 

Where are they going? The purpose of the spell was to allow them to pass between realms. The prism is from the Pillar of Souls. The sound of the crucible, which was a soul prison, was heard emanating from the center. Bright green light shined out. The necrotic aspect expanded and created the hole. First theory is they are going wherever Amarax was during “Of Nightmares”. He had gotten the wisp lantern at that time. However, the Lore Stones are crafted by the Corpus Artificum. He also had a human with him. It was likely somewhere on Malorum, but we’re not sure yet.

The second theory is that they are going to Ruina, the moon. Ruina is the celestial sphere of Allalmawt, representing Deadhaus. It would make sense for Amarax to flee to a place he’s familiar with but I think that interplanetary travel was the purpose of the Way Stones, as Varik pointed out. I am also assuming that he’s been there since he’s been alive for so long, but I have no idea what Ruina is like.

My last theory is that by realms Amarax didn’t mean another world he meant a plane of existence. So the essential realm? Or some other place that houses souls? I’m really not certain. But yeah in this theory they are going to a soul place. This confuses me a little because I figured the wraiths are more comfortable than liches or vampires in dealing with anything soul-related. Considering how intelligent Amarax is, I'm sure he’s already considered this.

 

That’s the end of the episode. The use of “rime” was appreciated because its such a good word. Better than just “frost” or “frozen” or “icy”. The youtube illustrations act as great visual aids, especially in this episode. The only real problem this time was the flashing. It's cool but a little harsh on the eyes. Denis warned the episode gets a bit esoteric but I can tell we all enjoyed it. The flow of the radioplays going between heavy action and heavy world-building/ story-telling works really well I think. There are some things that confused me, but it’s likely to be clarified in the future. I hope to compare my notes with the rest of the community to see what information they gleaned.

My theory for the next episode is wherever they go, it will be dark. Amarax's only connection to the world right now is Alaric. They will have to be extremely careful. I'm hoping we will get a little closer to exploring the other realms of existence and the other forms of undead. Though if we follow the pattern of this season, we may see some combat next episode.

 

Good luck Alaric the Tree Damned!

 

[Denis Dyack]

Very good - awesome summary and notes!

[Golden Xan]

The team always appreciates seeing the community at large engaging with the content revealed. It's nice to see the thought processes people go through when thinking about the Chronicles, and any reveal in general. Here, and on every other platform.

 

Part of the enjoyment I always had in Deadhaus was speculating. Not so much on getting everything right or wrong, but the journey in the theorization, and putting pieces together as others shared their thoughts and tiny bits they caught. One thing that has been consistently true was that there are always multiple layers to the stories shown. Things are, and are not, as they seem. This latest episode helped reinforce that idea, through the concept of resonance, but it is not reserved to only the magickal aspect. Unless everything is magick...