(The Menders of the Rift storyline took place, IC, around the time of events near the beginning of Knights of the Eternal Throne. The storyarc began OOC in late January 2017, and was the first Guild Storyarc to take place after the Imperium fled behind the Wall during the events of Knights of the Fallen Empire)
Backstory Elements:
These are datapoints necessary to understanding the storyline.
· During the first years of his reign, Arestenax discovered a Force nexus on Voss unlike any other. The Voss Vergence was a focal point of space, time, and the Force, connected to seemingly everything and every-when within the universe. He bound it to his will.
· Around the same time, a being was summoned from a parallel universe named Makhzor. He was an Old Soul, an immortal being of the Force. Makhzor became the first Hand of the Emperor under Arestenax.
· Makhzor became immensely more powerful some years later in a mountain on Hoth, creating an intense Force nexus there as well.
Short Story Introduction:
These are the events covered in the short story that introduced the storyarc.
· Arestenax goes to the Voss Vergence and Bahr’ve’ahz goes to the Hoth Nexus where the former Guardian lived, having had visions of a mysterious villain performing dark rituals there.
· They encounter cultists at both sites who seem unkillable, mending their own wounds in ways that only servants of Old Souls have been able to. Bahr’ve’ahz briefly has a vision of the Old Soul in question.
· The cultists seem to be building portals that are made from a hybrid of Rakatan, Gree, and Kwa technology.
· Arestenax and Bahr’ve’ahz learn the name “Bridge Builder” from one of the cultists.
· They consult Makhzor’s holocron, telling the gatekeeper of their run-ins and of the name “Bridge Builder”.
· The holocron tells them of Voritas, an Old Soul that Makhzor created in his first months in this universe. Voritas was quickly imprisoned in a cell sustained by Makhzor’s power when Mak learned of Voritas’s plan to connect two universes. Voritas escaped when Makhzor split himself and scattered himself across the multiverse and has resumed his plan.
First RP:
· For months, the Imperium chases the cultists down and destroys their portals.
· There is a particularly large battle, in which Bahr’ve’ahz’s former apprentice (Demial Enax) throws himself into one of the portals to the void in order to close it, and Prince Zendrasa is wounded.
· Bahr’ve’ahz’s willpower is eroded by his guilt at these losses. He loses control and Voritas, who had been playing with his head, possesses the Lord Hand completely.
· Bahr’ve’ahz manages to fight Voritas out of his head with the help of the gathered strike team and another former apprentice, Carnim, but is still placed on House Arrest for his failures.
· Bahr’ve’ahz vows to learn how to counter Old Soul possessions.
Second RP:
· The Lord Emperor gathers a security detail and visits Bahr’ve’ahz on house arrest. Learning that Bahr’ve’ahz has made negligible progress, Arestenax leaves, disappointed.
· Arestenax and his security detail return days later when the troops guarding Bahr’ve’ahz fail to check in.
· They arrive to the stronghold to find it abandoned. There are no signs of struggle, aside from the corpse of the Sith Lord in charge of the guard that has been pinned to a wall.
· Hearing faint chuckles from the Arcane Library, the collection of all knowledge and relics owned by Bahr’ve’ahz, the Imperium forces approach.
· There, they find Voritas himself inspecting Bahr’ve’ahz’s experiments. Bahr’ve’ahz is nowhere to be seen.
· After a brief fight, it’s made clear that Arestenax’s security detail cannot compete with Voritas’s power.
· Learning that Voritas is toying with them and has already learned a ritual that will make his portals work, Arestenax sends his security detail away and uses a ritual to bind Voritas to this location, preventing him from leaving or contacting his cult.
· Arestenax quarantines the stronghold, trapping himself and Voritas within its walls.
Third RP:
· Lord Kiela had sought Demial Enax, entering a remaining portal in order to find him. After a brief fight with an illusory Demial, she learned that he was being protected and groomed by a being that lived in the Void.
· The being allowed her to leave after granting her the time and location of Demial’s return, telling her that he would bring the Imperium a machine that would help them fight Voritas.
· Kiela was confined to a med bay for some time, wounded by her time in the Void. When she awoke, she informed the Lord Emperor of Demial’s return and the machine that he would bring.
· Prince Zendrasa and a strike team go to the coordinates Kiela gave to find Demial dead.
· He left a note telling them that the change from the Void to home had been too great a strain for his body, but he directed them to the machine they had been promised.
· Arriving at the machine, Zendrasa and the strike team find it sentient. An AI explains to them that the Celestials created it to craft hyperspace distortions, hoping these would save them from their enemies.
· The Prince took the machine back to the Imperium to find a use for it.
Fourth RP:
· It has been determined that the machine could be attached to the Voss Vergence, allowing it to access all of space-time and to therefore create a barrier around the entire universe, preventing Voritas from making his portal.
· Prince Zendrasa leads a strike team to Voss under cover of an Eternal Empire assault.
· The strike team destroys an Eternal Empire command post in order to move undetected.
· Arriving at the Vergence, they find that Voritas has projected a part of his essence there, and that it is in the midst of enacting a ritual to open a portal.
· Prince Zendrasa quickly attaches the machine to the Vergence, preventing the portal from reaching out of this universe.
· Voritas screams in frustration, realizing he’s been thwarted, and the Vergence ejects the Imperium Strike team.
· They return to the Sovereign and Zendrasa reports to Vindictiva that Voritas was present.
· Vindictiva remarks that Arestenax’s strength must be waning and that action should be taken soon.
Fifth/Final RP:
· A rescue mission was launched to rescue the weakening Arestenax from Voritas.
· The rescue team arrives in time to see Arestenax being beaten by Voritas, who turns his attention to them.
· He deflects most of the attacks and turns two of the team members against their fellow Imperium rescuers.
· Arestenax uses this distraction to unleash a devastating attack on Voritas’s body and mind.
· Voritas’s body is flung behind a databank and his presence flees too fast for the Imperium to track.
· Vaguest, leading the rescuers, investigates the body to find that Voritas had been possessing Bahr’ve’ahz.
· Arestenax collapses and he and Bahr’ve’ahz are taken to the Sovereign’s medical bay.
· After Arestenax is stabilized, four Knights come to take him to an undisclosed location for healing.
· Vindictiva arrives and wakes Bahr’ve’ahz, who explains that the Emperor had placed a piece of his own soul In Bahr’ve’ahz’s mind, thereby blocking Voritas from possessing him again and connecting him directly to the Emperor.
· Vindictiva releases Bahr’ve’ahz’s house arrest in order to allow him to assist the Imperium in the search for a method to ease the burden that the Wall places on the Emperor.