Category Archives: Volume 14- Issue 4- Harvestwane 126 (September 2016)

At the end of the Age of Arrival, the town of Elmerton was ripped from Magesta and brought to Mongrella to defeat the Sleeping Lord Villarious. When the Elmerton was ripped from Magesta, what was left behind is known as the Evernight Forest. The Evernight is a lightless, soundless forest. Many who enter are lost, never to be seen again, but many other have appeared in Elmerton since it’s reappearance in 118 Age of Fortune.

According to what Elmertonians were told at the time, there were two timestreams of the History of Magesta and at the end of the age of Arrival, these somehow merged into one. Only those who were not present on Magesta at the end of the Age of Arrival have intact memories from before the merging. In most cases, the two different versions of a person merge, but sometimes two different versions of a person arrive out of the Evernight as separate people.

Two old men named Evernight Morris and Pep reside in the Evernight.  They have helped the town at various times. Together they have been able to bind bits of the Evernight to Elmertonians to allow them to be Everguides. Everguides are able to see and hear in the Evernight and are able to navigate it to a limited degree. Current Everguides is town currently or recently are Solun, Dante, Scindo, Galynn, Alianora, and Felix.

Pep is a Mavin – a former Steward of Magic – and as such has access to the memories of every Steward of Magic that ever lived, including Sadius, the creator of Magesta. Morris, however, is a relative unknown. According to Everguide Scindo, Morris has no memories during the time period between the departure of Elmerton to its return 117 years later. When Scindo asked Pep flatly “what is Morris” Pep’s reply was “what do you want him to be?” Scindo said he “is not convinced that [Pep’s reply] was not an answer.” Scindo and Galynn suspect the possibility that Morris and Pep respectively are future versions of themselves, there is reason to believe that Morris is a manifestation of the Evernight itself.

Through the Evernight it is possible to travel to other places and times although usually not far from Elmerton, Only Everguides have been able to navigate the paths with any control or purpose.  Recently the Everguides were asked by Morris to blaze a path to the Bloodwaters so other people in Elmerton can get to them. Felix has succeeded in doing so, it is now possible  with Everguide assistance to walk the path to the time at Shrieber’s Farm when the clear Bloodwaters were manifest and for people find the bloodwater color to which they are attuned.

The Dawnbreakers were an organization created by House Windlock to protect and police the Evernight Forest. Over the course of more than a century, oversight became lax and the job became an easy one causing  numbers swell and the Dawnbreakers to became careless. When the town of Elmerton returned and displaced the Evernight, most of the Dawnbeakers inside the Evernight died.

With most Dawnbreakers dead, and Elmerton where the Evernight once stood, Countess Teadei Windlock disbanded the organization on the 1st of Newgreen, 118 AoF.  The Dawnbreakers came to capture Morris at some point, but were defeated by the town of Elmerton. My knowledge of the incident remains limited to Scindo saying that Morris claimed he “didn’t want to go back.”

The destruction of the Dawnbreakers caused the creation of a new entity, Byron. Byron is a Dusk Night currently residing in a house in the Evernight. Dusk Nights are created when a large number of people die simultaneously (often in battle, hence “knight”) at the Shadowstream (i.e “dusk”) When the town was seeking Byron’s aid, he was asked what he wanted. He expressed a desire for the Darkwalker , described in detail below. The incarnation of Pestilence, Morkanthos, was recently trapped in Byron’s basement, but has since been released.

The Darkwalker is a “golem-like” being built by the Shadow Smith Sardkern Scurath. He did so while under the mental and physical control of a cult of madmen known as the Ashynnied. The Ashynnied worship and are controlled by a what they call “The Darkness” but is in actuality 3 distinct beings, temporal doppelgangers assuming the form of “Dark Stars”. The Darkwalker is a conduit from the Evernight to the Shadow Realm that currently is a one-way trip that can only be used by “marked members” of the Ashynnied. That could change to be a two way conduit, but the Shadow Smith created a “failsafe” such that a single person or group could not entirely control the Darkwalker.

Several parties are interested in controlling the Darkwalker. As mentioned above, Byron is one such party. Rebekah Sky – matriarch of the cannibalistic Blackgates below elmerton and one of the main contenders to the be the next Shadow Queen – is another. Anyone else who would seek to be Shadow Queen of Shadow Consort would also be interested in the Darkwalker. Of course, anyone else interested in quick passage between the Evernight and the Shadow Realm would find controlling the Darkwalker advantageous. A shadowmancer from the Dimension of Daent his tried to take control of the Darkwalker to return home.

The only other known residents of the Evernight are creatures with “skull-like visages” and protruding horns and teeth known to the town as Filchers. Filchers with different color faces have different abilities  Blue ones seem to have psychic powers, with a noted focus on delusions. Brown ones appear as patches of darkness moving low to the ground, with the Filcher itself popping out only briefly to to take a look around or steal small objects. This may be the reason for the name “Filcher.” While cloaked in darkness, brown Filchers are not affected by attacks or spells, save for the spell Dismissal, which forces the darkness back, exposing the Filcher for a brief time.

Filchers with red markings are competent fighters, but are seemingly displaced in time, reacting to attacks and spells before or after the attacks take place (from an observer’s perspective) According to Galynn’s diagnosis spell, they suffer from a “temporal abnormality.” Red Filchers may react to some stimuli immediately, some stimuli after a delay and some stimuli before the cause occurred.

For more information, consult an Everguide (Solun, Dante, Scindo, Galynn, Alianora, or Felix.)

Yours in Knowledge,

Rybin vanHolt

Historian and Scholar