The Eight of Estar are a collective of eight notable individuals hailing from all over Estar and beyond the Thunder Sea. Starting out as a small fledgling group of adventurers in Varana, the Eight first rose to prominence with the slaying of Yndarnathyl, the Winter Menace, and through their deeds, the group became widely renowned throughout the entire island, some of them eventually rising to prominent and respected positions within their respective homelands.
The group currently consists of the following members:
- High Lady Syrena Nightwander, Current High Lady of Fen'Doren
- Lord Consort Daris Nightwander, Lord Consort of Fen'Doren
- Lucina Aelar-Morrigan, Blood Huntress in Nal'Assinu's Name
- Lady Amelara Everwind, Heir to House Everwind and Bard
- Fordill Liadiir, Former Guard of Fen'Doren and Wielder of Aren'Doren
- Ser Vincent Whitewood, Former Heir to House Whitewood and Knight of the Order of the Summersword
- Ione, Follower of Atemar
- Balthazar, Dragonborn Soldier from Oromnir
Former members include:
- Akae, Kiranese Monk, lost at the Mouth of Nossa
History
The story of the Eight begins in the city of Varana. Banding together after a boat ambush by the local Hammerhead gang and a subsequent chase through the streets of the Drowned District, the Eight found themselves given a task by Sister Mercy to travel to the city of Newhaven and seek audience with it's Lord, Bacchus. Upon their arrival, they learned of a terrible secret that would bring the eastern cities of Estar into conflict and ruin if discovered; The glittering Hoard, the eastern cities' hope for rebuilding after the dread dragon Gorthalon's razing of the island some years ago, had been stolen away.
Under orders from Lord Bacchus, the Eight were given the quest to retrieve the Hoard from the unknown thieves. They travelled up the Dragonspine into the Dragontomb to search for the culprits, chasing them throughout a network of tunnels, and battling the dreaded white dragon Yndarnathyl, the Winter Menace, until they at last came upon them at the Mouth of Nossa, where they found that they were too late; The thieves, a wizard named Alekarius, the Borsimeri devotee Gurut Jin, and the heir of the Giltheart family, Tarathil, had already disposed of the dragon's hoard by dumping it into the waters of the Mouth, rendering it lost forever.
Defeat at the Mouth of Nossa and the Arrival of Newcomers
Battle ensued, and in the fight that followed, Akae and Vincent were slain and the Eight defeated, forcing them to flee back to Newhaven. Grieving at the loss of their friends, the Eight turned towards the only lead they had found after the battle - a note from Tarathil, implying a conspiracy brewing within Fen'Doren. As they began the descent to the Dragonspine, however, the group were waylaid and Vincent's corpse was stolen, to be used in a ritual to revive a vampire spawn's old master. This was where the group encountered Lucina and Fordill, two inhabitants from the city of Fen'Doren, and joined forces with them to retrieve Vincent's body.
With Vincent's body safe and preserved for possible revival in the care of Sister Mercy back in Newhaven, the Eight, now with Fordill and Lucina among them, turned their eyes towards Fen'Doren, sailing to the fabled Elven city to uncover the role of the Gilthearts in Alekarius' grand plan for Estar. There they uncovered Aederan Giltheart's motives and his greatest secret; That he had been cursed to never wield the crown of Fen'Doren again so long as his crime of kinslaying, the murder of his own Half-Elven grandson, would be remembered. With the Ancestral Keepers as the only remaining force in the city to remember and record the dreadful event, Giltheart unleashed a cursed bloodline of Werewolves upon them to assassinate them and spread terror through the city.
Conspiracy in Fen'Doren
In the fight against Giltheart's forces, Lucina was eventually revealed to be of this cursed bloodline herself, putting some tension between the Eight as they grappled with this new revelation. The Eight would then go to seek out the last Ancestral Keeper, Syrena's father, Dorin Nightwander, only to walk into a trap sprung by Aederan himself, a desperate deal made with Dorin to ensure his daughter's safety. Chaos broke out, but through sheer determination, stubbornness, and the unlikely aid of a turncoat, the Eight were able to reveal Aederan's secret to the entire city, sending the disgraced Elven lord fleeing towards his private fortress within another dimension, the Gilded Cage.
It was in the Gilded Cage that Alekarius fell, Gurut Jin defeated and Aederan himself was captured, awaiting trial. The battle, long and gruelling, resulted in a new era of change in Fen'Doren. With the city leaderless and Aederan sentenced guilty for treason and the murder of his grandson, the crown of Fen'Doren was granted to Syrena, elevating her to the position of High Lady.
War with Aramnis
Aederan's defeat, whilst ultimately proving beneficial for Fen'Doren, was eventually overshadowed by a new threat to the north; The Hobgoblins of Aramnis, swayed by promises from Alekarius and Aederan, were marching south to declare war on the city, blaming them for the withered state of their own lands.
Opinions among the Eight were torn. Those of Fen'Doren, having experienced repeated guerrilla attacks upon the city, favoured waging war on the Hobgoblins in turn, seeking to end the millennia-old threat of Aramnis once and for all, though those who wished to avoid further bloodshed exercised caution, in particular Ione, and advocated peace with the Hobgoblins. After much deliberation, the Eight decided to send a peace delegation to the war camp of General Shol.
Though it seemed that the peace negotiations would initially succeed, the road to peace was suddenly blocked by an outburst from Amelara, who, in a supposedly-unexplained fit of anger, slashed at General Shol with her sword. With negotiations breaking down, the delegation had no choice but to flee from the incoming hordes of angry Hobgoblins, running deeper into the forests north of Fen'Doren. The Eight then discovered that Dragonbane, a prize from the Hoard that had been claimed by Amelara, was exercising a strange amount of influence on the bard, who had become surly and vengeance-driven following Vincent's death.
Turning the Dragonborn
Luck, however, would smile upon the Eight soon enough. At the edge of the forest, by the western coasts of Estar, the group was rescued by an incoming ship of Dragonborn, soon revealed to be members of Balthazar's company in Oromnir. Though relieved and grateful for the rescue by Balthazar's brethren, that relief soon turned to dour solemnity, as it turned out that the Dragonborn had chosen to join the war on Aramnis' side, sailing the Eight straight into the maw of the beast. The group then met Balthazar's sister, Bazaar, the commander of the camp, who told them of a deal with an ancient opponent who had long been forgotten in the minds of most Estari peoples; Zyvir, the mysterious city of the dead.
The Eight appealed to Bazaar, first through morals, then through honour. The Dragonborn, however, remained unconvinced, talking to her brother of the Dragonborn's lost heritage and Zyvir's promise to allow them to discover it once more. Here the group met Caithana, a draconic sorceress in service of Zyvir. Mistrustful of the sorceress, the group soon realized that Caithana had been deceiving the Dragonborn army, covering up or otherwise damaging murals that would unfurl the true mystery of the Dragonborn's origins - but before most of the Eight could act, and before Caithana herself tried to ambush the group through hidden undead flesh constructs, Balthazar swiftly broke the sorceress' neck and threw her corpse to the floor. Angered by the deception and realizing the true enemy to be Zyvir all along, Bazaar pledged her forces to Fen'Doren instead, marching with the Eight south to trap the Hobgoblin army and force out a surrender or peace.
The True Enemy
With a new army marching behind them, the Eight made their way south again to confront General Shol one last time and parley for peace. Incredulous at their renewed attempt and explanation for Amelara's behaviour, the general demanded a duel; If Fen'Doren won, the Hobgoblins would reconsider peace, if Aramnis won, there would be war. General Shol and his bloodthirsty captain Rud, to whom the Eight had once offered mercy back in the Dragonspine, would fight Amelara, dubbing her 'the little assassin', joined by Lucina, who did not wish her friend to be harmed.
After a lengthy, grueling fight in a makeshift hobgoblin fighting pit, Shol and Rud were defeated through Lucina and Amelara's prowess. Seizing the opportunity, Ione and the High Lady then convinced the hobgoblins to turn instead on Zyvir, explaining that they had been manipulating events behind the scenes to drag all of Estar into an island-wide conflict. It was here where an unexpected face from the past then came to chide them on the futility of their quest; Alekarius, once thought slain at the Gilded Cage in Fen'Doren, was in truth, not dead at all, sustained instead by necromancy.
The Burning of Newhaven
Alekarius made the Eight an offer - leave Zyvir be, and it would spare the island until all their plans would come to fruition. Shaken by the revelation that Alekarius was still alive and still pulling the strings behind the scenes, the group refused, upon where the necromancer then pointed towards Newhaven, revealing a truly horrifying sight and a potential future for Estar to tread: A winged shape with the roar of a dragon, breathing fire and ash onto the fledgling city. Gorthalon had been revived in the form of a spectre seeking vengeance, and was now razing Newhaven to the ground.
Through Daris' skill as a wizard, the Eight desperately teleported to Newhaven, seeking to slay the beast and spare Newhaven the consequences of their decision. There, they were reunited with Sister Mercy and Bacchus, who had borne the brunt of the fighting and were now worn out. It was at the Temple of Atemar where the decision would be made to restore Vincent back to life, to take up arms once more against Gorthalon and vanquish his evil echo once and for all.
With Vincent restored (but woozy), the time had come for the Eight to face the Spectre of Gorthalon's Vengeance. The dragon was a terrifying opponent, nearly killing Ione and the restored Paladin once again, and gravely wounding the others, but it was a well-placed claw-strike from Luce's wolf form that finally felled the beast and brought an end to the Burning of Newhaven. This peace was not to last long, however, as the armies of Highsummer and Varana, partly in concern and partly due to growing unrest at the loss of the Hoard, had now marched towards Newhaven's doorstep seeking restitution.
Unifying the Island
Parleying in open fields with Grand Duchess Selyne Strong and Captain Janus of Varana, High Lady Syrena and Lord Bacchus were able to convince the cities of the east to set aside their differences and band together to take down Zyvir. One problem remained: The Watcher, an ominous construct out at sea, still stood between them and a potential naval invasion, hindering any non-Zyviran ships from passing through.
Whilst searching for potential means to counter the Watcher and infiltrate the city, scouts from Fen'Doren captured a Darian ship under the control of Captain Silverhand. Silverhand's ship had been entering and leaving Zyvir's waters unimpeded, bringing the city shipments of corpses for use in reanimation. Bringing Silverhand under the custody of Fen'Doren for conspiring to aid the enemy, the Eight then seized his ship, laden with rare, precious cannons, deciding to put it to use in bringing down the Watcher.