Note: This page provides a summary of the (original) Balaurea campaign and thus contains spoilers. For more information see the "Trivia" section below.
After the defeat of <Tiamat> other forces within the Balaur have begun to stir, signaling the prelude to an event that would change and leave its scar upon the world of Atreia forever.
This page continues from Chapter 1 of the Balaurea Campaign, and details the events that took place between Aion 4.0 and 4.7 (Katalam, Danaria, Levinshor, Kaldor). It was set between levels 60 and 65.
Dark Betrayal (4.0)[]
Aion 4.0-4.0 Intro Cutscene
In an unknown place, one of Tiamat's messengers is shown to have been captured and is being interrogated by Balaur of an unknown affiliation. A hooded figure is overseeing the ordeal, and activates a mind control spell when the captive is unwilling to talk. From this is it learned that Tiamat dispatched him to seek out Fregion and ask for help with the war in Tiamaranta, was now rapidly turning bad. The messenger also reveals that the Tiamat Army has discovered the location of an inactive <Hyperion>.
The hooded figure, now revealed to be 4th Dragon Lord <Beritra>, takes great interest in this news and orders his aide to track down this Hyperion. At the same time his armies are being rallied and prepare for a dispatch to Katalam.
Katalam[]
After their mini-vacation the player returns to a rather empty-looking Kamar and consults with their faction's acting commander, who reveals that most of the faction's forces have relocated to Katalam and that the player is to rendezvous with them there. The player travels to the region and arrives at their faction's rally point, but finds that it is already being besieged by the opposing faction. Amidst the chaos the player locates their faction's operating commander, who is accompanied by a Reian emissary that warns that Beritra's soldiers are approaching. At this point the player is ambushed by a guard of the opposing faction, and is knocked unconscious.
When the player wakes up he/she is told that they have been in a coma for three months. Shortly after the battle Beritra's forces appeared and swept over the region, forcing the situation into a deadlock. The player checks up with their faction's commander, and after retrieving a number of dog tags from fallen soldiers in the area is appointed to the command of a local Centurion, who remarks that the player oddly enough still has all their muscle tone despite having been in a coma for three months.
Preparations to begin reclaiming the land are nearly completed, and thus the Centurion introduces the player to the concept of bases and asks them to lead the efforts by recapturing the one near the faction's outpost. As the base is restored to Elyos/Asmodian control a Detachment Captain is dispatched to the location, who thanks the player for his/her help and asks them to check up on a Reian woman near the Jotun Lake area ahead, who has requested the faction's aid on some matter.
The player travels to the area, but the local Reians are distrustful and ask the player to retrieve the belt of a local Dragonbound Chieftain to prove their worth first. The player succeeds and brings the belt to the Reian's Elder, who recognizes the player as he was the emissary standing next to their faction's commander when the player first arrived[1]. The Elder reminiscences about how Kahrun's Will had suddenly disappeared that day, and then reveals that this was due to <Kahrun> himself having gone missing. Efforts to locate him have been unsuccessful so far, and thus the Reians have turned to the Elyos and Asmodians for help.
The player agrees to aid in the search and begins by consulting with several nearby Reians. From this it is learned that after Tiamat's death the Reian forces had chased the Dragon Lord's fleeing troops into the region, but that Kahrun in particular seemed to be in some sort of hurry and was last seen heading south with an escort. The player checks up with a Centurion of their faction before venturing deeper into Katalam, and is advised to team up with one of the other Reians search squads operating in the area.
The Search for Kahrun[]
The player meets up with the Reian contact, who is irritated over a fellow Elyos/Asmodian Daeva following them around and inquiring about the search's progress for days. The player is told to go meet with their kin and is thus acquainted with Thresu (E)/Runa (A), who wastes no time in suggesting that they should team up and search for Kahrun together. The player finds Thresu/Runa to be rather straightforward and alluring in some way, listening to and obeying their words while only being mildly annoyed at the idea of being ordered around by someone they just met. Nevertheless, their directions are on-point and the player soon discovers the torn half of Kahrun's Journal. From this is learned that the Reian Leader was looking for Idgel.
At the suggestion of Thresu/Runa the player follows the trail further south. Before long the player finds one of Kahrun's bodyguards, badly injured and on the verge of death. The Reian tells the player that they were ambushed by Beritra's forces, and soon after were caught in an Ide explosion as the Idgel Cube <Kahrun> was carrying with him at the time malfunctioned amidst the chaos. The man asks the player to look for and find his missing comrades before he dies, but as the player does so they soon discover that the other guards are now but mindless and contaminated undead after being exposed to the substance. In his dying words the Reian begs the player to put his former comrades out of their misery, and to look for his missing brother-in-arms who was last seen heading further south. The player does so and eventually finds the missing Reian, laying dead amidst a pack of Beritra's soldiers. The corpse holds a letter from <Kahrun>, which reads that he will head further south to evade Beritra's pursuit.
The player follows Kahrun's trail to a local Elyos/Asmodian garrison near the southern border, and consults with its commander. The commander has not seen Kahrun, but tells the player of a Beritran Army corpse they had seen laying nearby. The player investigates the corpse and finds that it is clutching onto a piece of Reian accessory, and the player scouts out the nearby Balaur outpost in the hopes of findings Kahrun. After an uneventful search the player returns and consults with the base's commander once more, who remarks that they have also seen a massive and broken sword in the area. Once the player arrives at the target site they are baffled by its sheer size, noting that besides a very few exceptions only an Empyrean Lord could have wielded such a weapon [2]. The player uses Aether to resize the sword back to a more manageable size and brings it to Thresu/Runa, who confirms that the sword belongs to Kahrun.
Thresu/Runa muses that if Beritra is targeting Kahrun they will have to get involved themselves, but they are interrupted by an ambush from the opposing faction before they can say more. Thresu/Runa vanquishes the attackers with a single attack, and the player notices that they were carrying the other half of Kahrun's torn journal. Although even the now-complete journal doesn't reveal Kahrun's whereabouts, Thresu/Runa remarks that the extensive notes on Ide and Idgel it contains could be of use, and asks the player to deliver the journal to one of their faction's overseers operating in Danaria.
Danaria[]
Now in Danaria, the player delivers Kahrun's journal to one of their faction's Centurions, who has no idea who this Thresu/Runa might be but is nevertheless happy to receive more information on the Ide present in the region, as well as a creature named "Hyperion" that is mentioned in the journal. The Centurion directs the player to one of the faction's scientists, who mistakes the player for his assistant and asks him/her to retrieve an Idgel cube laying nearby.
The next thing the player knows they find themselves slowly coming back to consciousness in a prison cell, where they recall being ambushed by some Balaur while picking up the Idgel cube. The player then notices a fellow Elyos/Asmodian standing over them. The man introduces himself as Kaza, a famous Elyos/Asmodian scholar on the subject of ancient civilizations, and tells the player that they were brought to a test subject prison where the Balaur conduct live-body Idgel experiments. Kaza tells the player of his plan to escape, and as the player follows his instructions they are able to make it to the facility's storage room, where the player fiddles with an Idgel device and accidentally powers up a Danuar Shield Generator. Having safely made it outside, Kaza praises the player for his/her natural talent with handling Idgel, and offers him/her to become his apprentice. He tells the player he will wait for them in Pandarunerk's Delve [3].
Before meeting with Kaza the player reports to one of their faction's Centurions, who tells the player that some of Tiamat's surviving forces escaped into Danaria and now harry Beritra's Forces alongside the faction's own troops. To this end the player is asked to meet up with <Hamazi> (E)/Kurbikan (A). During a somewhat awkward situation where the player is almost casually chatting it up with a Tiamat remnant [4]/[5] , the player agrees to his requests and slays one of Beritra's messengers, as well as routs up several siege devices and the commander of the nearby Beritran pursuit forces before reporting back to the Centurion.
The Kaza Identity[]
As the player reports back the Centurion is excited to have found out that the Kaza is currently in Pandarunerk's Delve, and tells the player to go meet with them. The player expresses some concern over dropping the search for <Kahrun>, but the Centurion brushes this aside and reaffirms the player that he/she should seek out Kaza. As the player does Kaza is thrilled to have the player back and considers him/her showing up as a declaration of their apprenticeship. The player doesn't object to the notion, and even voluntarily offers to help Kaza retrieve some missing parts the moment he mentions that he has something special to show to the player. Kaza then reveals that the statue in the middle of the square is in reality a broken Hyperion, and approves when the player asks for permission to try and activate it. The ancient weapon briefly flares back to life, after which an excited Kaza tells the player that he has found the location of yet another Hyperion, promising the equally excited player that it will be even more amazing than this one.
Kaza reveals that the other Hyperion is a fully functional type, and awaits in a place known as the Infinity Shard. He brushes the player's questions about where he learned this aside, at which a at this point almost childishly eager player drops his/her inquiry and follows Kaza. In the Infinity Shard, the player defeats the Balaur guarding the Hyperion and finds <Kahrun> laying on the ground, heavily injured. At this point Thresu/Runa shows up and orders the player to abandon whatever brought them to this place and to focus on Kahrun. Moments after Runa(E)/Thresu(A) shows up, and the two engage in combat. As both sides acknowledge the other's strength it is revealed that Thresu's real identity is that of Empyrean Lord Nezekan, while Runa turns out to be none other than Empyrean Lady Triniel. The two agree to a temporary ceasefire to take Kahrun, now revealed to be their son, to safety, and teleport out.
As Nezekan and Triniel leave with their son Kaza appears again, telling the player to forget about Kahrun and to return their attention to activating the <Hyperion>. After several attempts the ancient Danuar weapon flares back to life, at which point Kaza laughs as he thanks the player for their efforts and takes control over the weapon. "Kaza" turns out to have been a disguise, and reveals his true identity to the player: the 4th Dragon Lord, <Beritra>.
Now realizing that he/she was being used and inadvertently helped the Dragon Lord gain control over a vast destructive weapon, the player has little time to react Beritra instantly attacks them. Fortunately for the player they are saved in the nick of time by one of Empyrean Lord Kaisinel's/Marchutan agents. The agent reveals that the Lord had sent them a vision of a massive dragon standing over the player's shredded body and, unwilling to let their three months project end like this, rushed to save the player. Before the player can ask what the agent mean by this he/she is sent back to the faction starting outpost with the message that the Lord himself is waiting for them.
Aftermath[]
Back at Kaisinel's Beacon (E)/Danuar Spire (A), the faction's regional commander apologizes to the player for ever having thought wrong of them, noting that being a favorite of the Empyrean Lords is something that deserves sympathy rather than enmity. The player then meets with Empyrean Lord <Kaisinel>/<Marchutan>, who explains everything that happened.
It turns out that after the player was knocked unconscious upon their arrival in Katalam, he/she was kept in an artificially induced coma for three months. Following the Lord's orders, his agent experimented on the player's brain with magic and mechanics until he/she was highly suggestible. The player was "conditioned" to agree to almost anything, something which the player in retrospect recognizes - they often went from helping one person to helping someone else do the opposite, dropped everything for Thresu/Runa whenever he/she appeared, and at some point even helped out Tiamat's soldiers.
<Kaisinel>/<Marchutan> reveals that this was done in order to make the player the ideal accomplice or "bait" for <Beritra> and thus find out his Dragon Lord's intentions, but that this ultimately was pointless as Beritra had disguised himself and fooled everyone. The Lord tell the player that they will probably be fine now, if not a bit suggestible, and the player leaves the Lord's residence feeling conflicted.
The Invasion (4.7)[]
Time passes. Despite the grim and disadvantageous situation, the Daevas manage to stand their ground and soon are able to claim their first successes. Much of Katalam and Danaria had now been restored to Daevic control as more and more fortresses and bases were wrestled away from Beritra's forces, and with the defeat of <Hyperion> in the Infinity Shard it at last seems as if the tide has turned.
Levinshor[]
One day the player receives a summons from one of their faction's commanders in Katalam. Upon meeting with him the player is told that <Kahrun> has recovered and, while still weak, has urgently asked for the player's presence in the recently discovered region of Levinshor. The commander adds that Beritra's forces have gone on the offensive again, and hopes that Kahrun might have knowledge that can be of aid.
When the player travels to the agreed spot they find a fatigued Kahrun standing near some sort of unknown device, surrounded by several dead Balaur. Kahrun says that he has been plagued by some sort of mysterious affliction ever since he was captured by Beritra, where he would periodically get an intense headache and start to experience visions. He believes the player may be involved in this as well, but before he can say more the same symptoms begin to resurface, although the player now also experiences them and is pulled in.
The vision is short, but vivid. In it the player relives the end of the Danaria campaign, and afterwards also sees Kahrun's memories in which the Reian leader is ambushed by Beritra in the Idian Depths. At the end the player also experiences the memories of an unknown third party, which shows a pack of Balaur activating some sort of device and claiming that Atreia is now open to them.
Aion Cutscenes - Beritra's Invasion
When the player regains consciousness they find Kahrun standing over them, who affirms that he was experiencing the same vision and claims that what they were seeing are the memories related to some sort of new device developed by the Beritran Army - an Invasion Generator. Kahrun reveals that he had been studying this device for days shortly after his recovery and had fallen asleep when he suddenly saw Balaur pouring through it. The Reian leader dealt with them despite being in his current state, which together with the recent vision have left him on the brink of collapse. He asks the player to continue his work while he rests, and to seek out one of his tribesmen who went through the portal while wearing a Balaur disguise.
Upon venturing through the player finds him/herself in the Linkgate Foundry. As they meet with the undercover Reian spy it is learned that the player is at a relay point for Beritra's invading troops as well as a center for technology research. The spy claims that the situation is even more severe than anyone thought - while the Daevas thought they were gaining the upper hand, Beritra's troops in reality were focusing their efforts on developing their own type of Abyss Gates, allowing their forces to access numerous regions that were previously barred at will. The spy shows the player a document that lists Elysea, Asmodae, and even the Abyss among others as targeted areas, and warns the player that they must inform their allies immediately [6].
The Reian spy informs the player that the second wave has already left for Kaldor, and urges the player to chase after them and retrieve the details off their commander. The spy tells the player that he will disable the portal after the player steps through to buy him some time, and tells the player not to worry about him but instead focus on informing their allies as soon as possible.
Kaldor[]
The player emerges on the other side of the portal, and luckily finds that the Balaur troops were delayed as they almost instantly ran into a detachment of the player's own faction, who they are still engaged in combat with. After vanquishing the remaining Balaur soldiers and their commander the player retrieves the full invasion plan and shows it to their faction's commanding officer, who tells the player to inform their captain in Kaldor's settlement area immediately.
The captain affirms that the situation is dire. The document reads that all preparations are complete, and that a specific date has been marked as the Day of Grand Invasion. The captain deducts that the vast majority of Beritra's troops will invade and strike all affected regions simultaneously that day, and adds that he has already received reports of Balaur machinery being moved from remote Balaur bases and showing up in certain regions. At the same time he notes that the faction probably won't have sufficient time and troops to halt an invasion of this magnitude, but nevertheless will prepare the best they can.
Some weeks later sightings of massive Balaur weapons are reported in various regions, at which point it is revealed that Beritra had already duplicated the technology found on <Hyperion> to create his own war machines. These machines can seemingly appear and disappear without warning, and although the Daevas are able to defeat some of them it would later be learned that these incursions were mere test runs, and the prelude to a catastrophic event that would later come to be known as the Upheaval.
Continued in: →Balaurea Campaign (Chapter 3)→
Trivia[]
- The reactions of <Kaisinel> and <Marchutan> towards their altering of the player's brain slightly differed. <Marchutan> said that it was needed for the greater good of Asmodae and claims that it was the player's fate to be used, while <Kaisinel> almost expresses disappointment at the player having turned out to be useless in this case. Both Empyrean Lords did not apologize or offer to undo these effects.