When Dain of the Hartstone mysteriously fell into a coma, the druids of
Hartstone were thrown into a panic. Not even the Moon Priestess Ridien
could diagnose what ailed him and nothing that was done could rouse him
from his unnatural slumber.

Meanwhile in New Celest, the Mistress of the Whirlpools, Kaileigh of the
Aquamancers Guild, suddenly began to act erratically and dangerously.
After the Paladins placed her under guard for her own protection and the
protection of others, it became apparent that she was could not remember
her behavior afterwards and that she was being possessed by an unknown
presence. Soon, others began to likewise suffer, including Aquamancer
Geb and even the Aquamancer Prince Rhysus Saros. The great minds of New
Celest could not determine the source of the possessions, what it wanted
or why only those in the Aquamancers Guild were being targetted.

Finally, in Magnagora, a much different type of possession was taking
place. It was first the Geomancer Stangmar who suddenly began searching
for something on the Elemental Plane of Earth, then not remembering why.
Soon, other high ranking members of the Geomancers Guild, including
Guildmaster Llexyn d'Murani, Champion Revan Xandul, and Arilyon
d'Irande, also began inexplicably searching the earth plane and ranting
about a new age for the Geomancers Guild.

Then the dreaming began.

Members of these three guilds, Hartstone, Aquamancers and Geomancers,
began to have lucid and often disturbing dreams. Only later were the
pieces of this puzzle able to be put together to tell the whole story.
Emperor Ladantine VII, the undead mage, was one of the very few who
practiced the ancient art of dreamwalking and dreamweaving. For the past
century, he had been consolidating his power in the dreamrealm and
killing any other dreamweaver. The only one left was Dain of Hartstone,
who was finally trapped by the Undead Emperor within the realm of
dreams. Having lost his bid for godhood in ancient times, he now sought
to rule Lusternia as a god himself through the dreamrealm. Intent on
destroying the Aquamancers Guild and New Celest, he also had visions of
raising the Geomancers Guild up as his own personal army of dream
warriors.

Though the Undead Emperor attempted to implement his scheme through
possessing members of the Aquamancers and the Geomancers, he soon found
this method to be ineffectual and taxing. He had to open up the gates to
the Lords of Rock who lived in and out of the realm of dreams to
increase his power. To accomplish this, he abducted a prophet who lived
in the dream realms and began torturing him to find the locations of the chips
of the Black Rock of Nightmare needed to open this gate. The prophesies
that he wrung from this hapless victim he passed on to the Geomancers
through their dreams in order that they could search for the pieces in
the physical world.

With Emperor Ladantine's attention turned to searching for the Black
Rock of Nightmare, Dain was able to briefly visit members of Hartstone
while they slept. Too weak to escape his bonds, he knew of an ancient
alchemical recipe that would give him the strength he needed to free
himself and reveal the Eighth Standing Stone of White Hart. As the last
Keeper of Dreams of White Hart, it was his task to protect the memories
of White Hart, the aspects of which lived partially in the realm of
dreams that in a sacred grove surrounded this hidden standing stone. The
recipe he needed, however, was long lost in ancient times though a
tablet did exist with the recipe, though it was broken and scattered
throughout the land. Painstakingly, Dain passed the location of these
fragments through the dreams of the Hartstone druids.

These disturbances in the realm of dreams awoke the spirit of Empress
Sinenth of Old Celest from her stony grave. Being the one who taught
Ladantine the art of weaving dreams, she was angered that he would seek
to use these skills to undermine her beloved Aquamancers Guild.
Unfortunately, she was but a spectre and was too weak to oppose her
great-grandson Ladantine. But she could help the Aquamancers to open the
gates to the Lords of Tide, another group of elemental lords who
partially lived in the realm of dreams and could teach the Aquamancers
the skill of dreamweaving to protect themselves. Unfortunately, she
could not remember the Song of Opening but she could tell the
Aquamancers through their dreams where pages of her diary were hidden
which held this powerful invocation. If they brought these pages to her
spirit in the ancient ruins of Old Celest, she could translate the
enciphered writings so they might know the lyrics of Song of Opening.


Penned by my hand on the 22nd of Estar, in the year 113 CE.