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trollhuntersshardborn · 4 years ago

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Act 3 Summary + The End

So, to make it a bit clear, Act 1 was called Shardborn. Act 2 was called Shadows. And Act 3 is called Killahead.

Let’s put this story to bed.

Act three begins thirty five years later! Yep, the ol One Piece “everyone go your separate ways and meet back in here in a few years” jump. And that’s basically what happened. Believing that they need to cover as much ground as they can to stop Gunmar’s rampaging across Europe and take in as much battle experience as they could. Alora and Nadia separate for a while from the group. Isabow continues to provide a traveling glade for surviving trolls to live in safely while Elisi trains Deya to the best of her ability.

During this time, Deya has reconciled that the Sword of Daylight, designed specifically to kill Gunmar, cannot kill Gunmar. So when she and Nadia meet again, they go towards a plan b. To exile him away in a place he cannot return from. Nadia explains that he’s too powerful for any other realm to contain. Deya asks if she can just CREATE a whole new realm powerful enough to hold and eventually kill Gunmar, and Nadia gets to work. She creates the Darklands and fills it with enough food for the future plan to take place and lots of deadly creatures that even Gunmar would have trouble with. (In the present day, 90% of those creatures went extinct to either starvation or being hunted to extinction). Nadia then crafts Killahead Bridge. Opening the portal to a whole new realm is extremely taxing on her own magic but she is successful in creating it. The price of this large amount of magic is rather light: the color of her hair. Nadia now has pale white hair forever.

In the year 1350 AD, the plan is finally put in place to exile Gunmar forever. Deya gathers the survivors to explain. In nearby Killahead Forest is an opening in which to build the bridge. They would spread the rumor as far as they could that past Killahead Bridge is a Heartstone of great power, and Gunmar would come running for it. Once he and his armies are inside, Deya would seal the bridge closed with her amulet, so only the Trollhunter can open it again, and all will be well. But since Gunmar would be arriving with his entire army and most likely wouldn’t just go into the bridge willingly, there would be a massive battle ahead. She calls forth everyone to fight, and boy does she mean everyone. Men, women, children, the elderly, the injured, the inexperienced. Everyone. This is immediately met with pushback, as bringing those who can’t or won’t fight is a huge breach in war etiquette. Even Gunmar doesn’t do that. Deya insists they have no army, and anyone able to fight is going to fight just to get the numbers up. The Shards talk her down from this, and insist on at least training everyone they can and any who are able will be drafted into the fight. Deya agrees.

Meanwhile, Nadia is working on making the Shards more powerful than ever. Angor Rot’s sigil got her to thinking, and using Alora as a guinea pig attempted to expand on the markings and what exactly they tap into. While she can’t erase the sigil, as its printed on Alora’s soul itself, Nadia could redirect its power and override it in a way. Shards have their own sigils on their arms which glow when their talents are being used, and she thinks they may have inspired Angor to make his own sigil. So when Nadia is able to make lines for both sigils to meet, they give Alora a huge boost in power, and she’s able to do more with her weapons summoning. Continuing to experiment, Nadia makes these sigil lines all over Alora’s body and show she has so much energy to channel and use, she’s become one of the most adaptable fighters on the growing battlefield. Nadia makes these sigils on Isabow, Elisi and herself and make all four of them much more powerful with their gifts than ever thought.

Preparations are soon done. Everyone is confident that Gunmar will be sealed away once and for all, and the surviving human population will write off his death count as more victims of the plague and all would be well. The rumor has reached Gunmar’s ears and he marches for Killahead Bridge. So everyone starts preparations for war. Two teams will go into the bridge and wait for Gunmar to reach a point they call the “Safe Zone” which is an area of the Darklands that’s a close straight shot back to the surface. Deya, Nadia and their chosen for the team would go into the Darklands and wait for Gunmar to come in and either chase him further in or stall him long enough to quickly run out and seal the bridge. Alora had put together her own team of redeemed or those-who-don’t-think-redemption-is-for-them as the Sacrifice Squad. This squad will STAY in the Darklands with no attempt to escape and make sure Gunmar and his men stay there for good. They are willing to die for this cause, and Alora wants to make her own revenge span for a very long time. They keep this a secret from Nadia. The rest of the army will stay outside the gate and be around to shove in the ones who don’t go into the bridge.

Soon, it’s go time. Both teams going past the bridge travel forth. The outside forces lie in wait past the trees. Gunmar rolls in and sees this is a Very Obvious Trap, and decides to go break it and show this won’t hold him at all. He goes in with half of his army, the other half being lead by Bular to watch the outside. Once Gunmar has met up with the armies of the Safe Zone, the fight begins. Deya’s party isn’t to fight, it’s to get the hell out immediately! Nadia casts spells to enhance her armie’s speed and strength. Alora’s team immediately goes in for the fight. Attempting to escape, Deya and Gunmar strike swords several times, and she’s holding up rather well. Outside, Isabow is causing the forest to close in on the clearing, forcing the Gumm gumms to retreat into the gate. Bular is swiping at trees as hard as he could to keep from being shoved in.

So, what’s Elisi up to? She’s actually..... not there. She went to hunt down Angor Rot and get revenge for her husband. It’s going as well as you think it is.

Bular manages to fight off the forest closing around him and reach Isabow. But Isabow, who still detests violence, has no choice but to “evacuate” him and underground vines rush him somewhere far from the battlefield. Deya, Nadia, and a few from the surviving team manage to make it out, and Nadia starts casting a spell to bring in anyone who didn’t make it out of the Darklands before the gate is sealed. They bring in who they could, and seal the bridge as the good guys mop up or capture whoever is left. But Nadia quickly realizes Alora and her team isn’t there. And that’s when its dropped on her what Alora had done.

Nadia is extremely distraught, encloses herself into a magic circle and through magic psychically contacts Angor, who has just killed in a not permanent way Elisi. Nadia tells Angor that she needs Alora’s true name to pull her out of the Darklands. Angor tries to talk her out of it, much like everyone else has. Alora decided to sacrifice herself. If Nadia is successful, and Alora was in contact or touching Gunmar at that moment, he would be teleported out with her and the war would have been for naught. While one could use a person’s true name to cast magic on them, Alora didn’t HAVE a name at birth. So, Nadia comes up with a deal. “You can have my soul when it’s time. My soul for Alora Darren’s true name.” He toys with saying no, but gives it to her, promising to come collect when he’s good and ready. Nadia starts casting the teleporting spell, with the other trolls (including Vendel, being extremely vocal about this) yelling at her to stop. Beyond their knowledge, Alora IS in locked battle with Gunmar right now, looking foreword to her next few centuries of battle at least. But once she is thrown back and about to be struck down by Gunmar, she’s teleported out. Gunmar is behind Killahead Bridge for the next nine centuries.

Nadia has a tearful moment with Alora, who seems disappointed, while all the trolls are yelling at them for even doing this stupid stunt. Blinky is crying, yelling at Nadia to bring his brother back since Dictatious got swept behind the bridge as well. It’s all too much for Nadia and she breaks down. Deya takes command, ordering the bridge to be dismantled, stone by stone, and each stone carried as far as it could be taken. Nadia opts to be exiled, but both Alora and Isabow insist it’s not necessary, but Nadia can’t get the cruel words to leave her head. She distances herself from the trolls from then on.

But it’s not over yet, as Bular and Angor Rot is still out there. Deya insists she can take care of Bular, but Angor is a threat to the Trollhunter AND the Shards. So, Nadia, Alora, Elisi and Isabow spend the next hundred years hunting him down. Soon, Angor collects Nadia’s soul as promised, as it was willingly given to him during the war. Nadia is left mortal and powerless, and has to stop the chase. Angor leaves her alone to grow old and wither. Nadia basically gives her life of magic and trolls up for the human world, settles down and finds love. The Shards go to visit her on her death bed where Nadia explains the trade. Alora takes this EXTREMELY personally. She’s the one who remains by Nadia’s side as Nadia passes away. Yep. Everyone following my rp blog, it’s an au. Nadia dies. But the story isn’t quite over yet.

Alora hunts Angor down to an old temple in India, and using her own magic, chains him up. She sits on the steps, watching him be powerless, repeating the words to him that he did to her when she was at his lowest. He laughs in her face, and rattles the temple so hard that rocks collapse on him. And that, Alora believes, is that. Isabow stays behind to guard this temple from all who would attempt to seek out Angor Rot. However, after a few centuries of letting the grief and toll of death wreck havoc with her, she loses the will to live and dies, but not before making the location of the temple a bitch and a half to get to.

With the threat of Angor gone, the remaining trolls set out for the New World, and Elisi goes with them with the remainder of her family. Alora stays in Europe to finally have her own adventures in the world. Elisi doesn’t settle in Heartstone Trollmarket once they get there, but goes up north to the cold so her family can be comfortable. They all live together happily in Alaska until the last of Elisi’s family passes away, and then she too, grieving from loneliness, passes away herself.

Alora travels the world, taking in life one day at a time, until in 1968 she settles in Santa Cruz, California, and lived her life as a beach bumming independent artist since. She doesn’t give much thought to the other trolls or Shards out there, she just focuses on her own happiness and existing. And it will probably stay that way until the end of eternity.

....AND THAT’S SHARDBORN! At least what I had originally planned for it. And now that I’ve told the story, I can put it behind me for now.

#Shardborn summary

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trollhuntersshardborn · 4 years ago

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Act 2 summary

So, I really wasn’t sure what exactly I wanted to do with Act 2, until I sat myself down just now and forcing myself to type it out. But here we go. Trigger warnings for suicide and strong feelings of hopelessness.

So, all that backstories I posed about Alora and Angor in the Forged In Darkness summary? Weeeell.... there’s a couple of things I left out. Primarily, the part where the two converge.

During his hunts, Angor had found one survivor from his village, and from this survivor learned of the events that happened, and that not only was Gunmar there to trash the village, but his wife Alora was there as well and she was the one who fought and severely injured Kohsena in their fight. So, Angor now has to kill “Merlin’s creations” and get revenge for his family and people at the same time? Sounds good to him, which is why he sought out the Blind Prophet in the first place!

He hunts Alora down on her own battle march, and finds her resting in an abandoned farmhouse with just one bodyguard. It looks like she came down with something, and was resting it off while the rest of her squad marched off to wherever they were going. Angor slays the bodyguard, and with Alora sick and with little stamina she can’t really fight back. Angor easily pins her down, but tells her that while he will get his revenge, it won’t be now. And he puts his now trademark sigil on her face. He won’t let her die until she feels how he feels, and he will take everything from her. He leaves her afraid and angry, vowing to kill him if she sees his face again.

And as the days and weeks go on, after Alora joins back with her squad, her men start to disappear one by one. A couple are found as horrified statues, poisoned by Creeper’s Sun. No one’s stupid and sees that an assassin is out for them. Alora suggests making a fortified shelter in an abandoned castle, filling up any hollow spaces for anyone to hide, and staying for as long as it took until the assassin was flushed out. It is so, and that day, under shelter of the sun, they wait for Angor to strike. He doesn’t until the sun sets, and he just fucking chucks a pixie hive into the center of the fortress. It breaks, everyone’s getting a pixie in the ear and going crazy with their worst fears. Angor is killing them one by one and Alora desperately tries to stop him, but the mark on her face just gives her weapons to Angor! She’s just a human fleshbag, while he was practically built for the hunt. He outmatches her in every way. Once her entire squad is gone, he leaves. And Alora is just more angry, frustrated, and feeling violated.

Throughout Alora’s solo campaign, Angor torments and steals, assassinates almost anyone close to her, is a ghost in the shadows she can never get rid of, and somehow neither Gunmar and Bular never find out about. And she keeps it that way out of fear that Angor will target them next. But Angor doesn’t go after them. He knows how fragile the three’s relationships are and sooner or later someone will decide to walk away.

Cut to the siege of the Royal Trollmarket castle. When Alora locks swords with Nakrik, they fight each other fiercely. And when Alora is about to go in for a tide turning blow, the sigil on her face glows and her swords are taken from her. The squad around her starts to fall one by one. Both she and Nakrik stop, and the Trollhunter’s blood goes cold when he sees the mark on her face. “Oh no. Not you too.” he says quietly, as the same sigil glows on his face. Daylight is swept from his hands into Angor’s, who immediately kills Nakrik. Alora watches in horror as Angor casts a spell to literally consume Nakrik’s soul. The amulet zips out of the palace before Angor can take it. And Angor teleports out with a shadow portal before Alora could even react.

Then Alora’s fallout with Gunmar and Bular happens. She’s heartbroken, mentally destroyed, sent her own son away to the tyrant just so he wouldn’t be hurt either, and stays where she is, unable to get up and move. Once the sun sets, Angor goes to her. He affirms that now everything is taken from her, she feels the pain of losing family, that this immortality is not what she wished for, and that there is no reason for her to be alive. She agrees, she wants to die. But Angor doesn’t make it swift. He can’t help himself. It’s slow, it’s painful, Alora bleeds from everywhere, she’s begging him to just be done with it. Its when she’s so in pain and exhausted from the bloodloss that he finally ends it for her. Then goes on his way to look for the next Trollhunter. So, that’s it for Alora? Maybe.

Moving to the survivors of the trollmarket siege, everyone makes camp in the woods to go over what just happened. Richta is reluctant to take his roll as Trollhunter, while Elisi is pleading with Rundle and Vendel to do something, anything, to make the amulet choose someone else. Nadia is getting closer to Grim, who’s reluctant to comfort her but does realize she needs someone. Prince Thalfie is also scared and reluctant, having lost his parents in the siege, and only has the handmaid Thrush by his side as the rock he relies on. And while Thrush is also scared and unknowing, she urges him to get the others to find better shelter. Gunmar is chasing after a Heartstone to the east (which was a rumor that turned out to be completely false), so they had a month or so to come up with better plans and a safer place to stay.

Blinky has an idea of where to stay. Within the Black Forest is said to be a forbidden wood where any who wander in are never seen again. Nobody wants to go towards certain death, but the theory is that Gunmar certainly won’t be poking around such a place to look for survivors. There are no better places to go; all are either ransacked and destroyed or long since abandoned. Nadia asks if there’s anyone they can go to for help, and poses the question to Elisi: there’s eight Shards, where are the others? It’s difficult to find Shards anyway, and the world is much larger than they know. Just having three on the same continent is a miracle. But Dictatious knows where they can find one: an elder in a Bulgarian village was said to be one of these Shards, and she was ridiculously powerful.

So the trope happens: second part of the story, we split the party.

However, just before it happens, Richta has taken in his first prisoner. Alora Darren the Undying, who put up no fight in being captured. Oh hell, she’s alive. But she’s so defeated and unresponsive, she goes along with whatever the hell is happening. Seeing this proud warrior so broken, Nadia takes pity. Instead of constantly killing her, she suggests that she could be of help in taking down Gunmar. Alora just shrugs at this.

So the party is split as such: Nadia, Vendel, Blinky, Dictatious and Grim set off for Bulgaria, while the others go in search of this forbidden forest.

And..... this is where things get hazy for me as I couldn’t plan out exactly what I wanted to have happen. Nadia and Angor do meet, and he does make sure to let her know who he is and what he’s about. And faced with something evil, Nadia wants to do something about it. Angor taunts that she barely knows any magic and she can do nothing to him.... but maybe he can teach her how to bring her down. He actually starts teaching her how to use magic, and she listens and practices like a good student. Angor makes sure to get close to Nadia. Very close. Toying with her emotions to confuse her. So, um, anyone following my Nadia blog who loves how cute and flustered she gets around Angor and maybe ships the two. Yeah, you don’t see that here. This is a rotten ship. He doesn’t love her. He’s attempting to get her attached to something to rip it away so she falls in despair and no longer wants to live. So, there’s a lot of that.

Eventually, they make it to the ruins of the village, and Nadia learns all about Kohsena, and pieces together the last secret of the Shards. A Shard’s human body can turn mortal and die if they don’t want to live anymore, but the soul itself is immortal. As soon as a Shard permanently dies, the soul travels to another human girl being born at that exact moment and that girl will become a Shard upon death. The initial eight Shards were born in the year 1000 AD (because I’m a fuck who needs even number years for important events). Nadia was born in 1297 but is a Shard herself. Kohsena died in 1297, around the time Nadia was born. This is all the proof she needs of this being true. And if it is, who knows who the other Shards are and where they could be? Taking what surviving books and knowledge they have, Nadia and the others rush out to find the other group. At some point along the way, Angor and Grim fight. Grim had built his armor to fight Gumm gumms, not an agility troll who knows what he’s doing, and it’s not long until Angor kills him. Nadia had fallen in love with Grim, so she’s pretty distraught and distracted but the others press on. Yeah, vague, but that’s my fault for not sitting down and coming up with a plan, so that’s the gist.

Meanwhile, group B presses on into the forest and are quickly separated and accosted by the forest itself. Giant tree monsters herd them further into the glen until they come across this forbidden wood and are stunned. It’s a gentle freedom paradise! There’s trolls, humans, goblins, other monsters and creatures, all living in complete hippie harmony! At the center of it is a red headed girl who’s very happy and bubbly. This is Isabow, and she’s a Shard too! All four Shards in this story are here, yay! Isabow is kind and carefree, but pretty stupid and naive, and her Life Magic is so insanely potent that any life she creates comes out completely adult and ready to go. Also, her Shard Power is the Living Forest, and she can control all plant life around her. She dislikes violence, so she’s never had anyone participate in the war, and doesn’t want to fight. And those who wander into the glen to try and destroy it end up not wanting to leave because it’s so nice here.

While here, Alora is still quiet and brooding, and watching Elisi take care of her family and train her husband starts to stir something in her. It takes time, but with some help from Isabow to understand her feelings and her own wants, Alora decides that while not with these goody-two shoes who want peace, she’s very anti-Gunmar now. Their relationship was a lie, and now wants nothing to do with the warlord, but she still mourns leaving her son behind.

Once Nadia and the others are back, they go over what they found. And reveal that there’s more than Gunmar to worry about. And this is when Angor strikes. He and Richta fight, and while Richta does his best to take down Angor, but doesn’t have the experience. Angor kills Richta and devours his soul, which devastates Elisi. Just as Angor makes his escape, Gunmar suddenly arrives. Someone brought him to the glen, and he easily resists Isabow’s charms and wants for peace. His army begins to destroy the glen. Prince Thalfie then reveals that he’s the one who basically invited Gunmar in, and shifts form to reveal that one changeling I mentioned a while ago: Corvis. Turns out he’s a polymorph. He doesn’t last long afterward, Elisi quickly kills him out of angered grief for her husband.

Isabow quickly starts evacuating everyone with Nadia’s help. Alora looks up to Gunmar for the first time since their breakup, and without hesitation begins to fight him, screaming in all her rage. Now seeing her stance as a traitor, Gunmar attempts to kill her, but she’s quickly grabbed by Nadia and evacuated with the others.

So much has been lost, again. And now the amulet much choose a new Trollhunter. And it does, Thrush the handmaid. She was considered a child who never had her rite of passage, and being chosen by the amulet seems to count. With this, she chooses a new name for herself: Deya. And now having lost her prince and any family she may have had, she turns to the Shards to guide her and trollkind to salvation.

The Shards vow to protect Deya from Angor while she leads and everyone again looks for a safe place to plan a counterattack.

And that’s the gist of Act 2. I never really planned it out, but those are the basic plot points.

#shardborn summary

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trollhuntersshardborn · 4 years ago

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Forged in Darkness summary

Forged In Darkness was going to be two backstories that I felt couldn’t be squeezed into Act 2. And because these backstories are important and FiD is short, we’ll start with that before jumping into Act 2.

The first backstory is Alora’s, because in original planning of this story, Alora was going to be the main character.

So, a girl was born to two peasant folk in the year 1000 AD. The mother died of childbirth, and the father had no money to feed him and the baby. So he sold the baby to the nearest castle for coins to feed himself, convinced that a life of servitude would leave her housed, fed, protected and cherished. Well, he was right about the first two. The girl, who grew up with no name, was made the scullery maid of the castle kitchen, where she did dishes and the cleaning and made sure there was always hot water available. The kitchen cook would routinely check if the water was hot enough by dousing her with it, overtime leaving her with severe scars on her back. The girl was resentful and bitter, but powerless to even speak her frustrations else she become further abused or worse kicked out of the castle.

Her fortunes took a turn for the better and worse eighteen years later, when gumm-gumms took down the castle, killing and/or eating everyone inside. The girl was found and eaten by Gunmar himself. Then she woke up in his own castle keep twenty four hours later. Turns out she’s a Shard, resurrected by her now immortal soul. Yay? Well, now that Gunmar has himself a Shard to craft a massive army, he’d be able to take over the surface lands much faster now. But before that, he requests from her a son. It takes the girl time to get used to the idea that this is her life now, but she accepts this under the condition that she be treated better than when she was in the human castle (exact wording: “Don’t give me kindness and be cruel. Don’t give me cruelty and be kind. Be consistent with your treatment. Do not deceive me.” “Is that all? You don’t ask for much.”). Two months and two days of intense magical labor later, the Maiden has given Gunmar his son, Bular. The child is very small and weak, practically a runt, and while Gunmar is overjoyed to finally have kin, he’s apprehensive of the child surviving at all. Turns out that Maiden’s Life Magic is not particularly strong and it’s doubtful that she can churn out an army quickly. This would make her pretty useless, but since the other option is to toss her out and potentially give the enemy a Shard of their own, the gumm gumms opt to keep her. If only to raise the child.

Maiden loved Bular dearly, but having never cared for children and being a human raising a troll, she couldn’t give him a good upbringing. And terrified that he could be killed easily, once he started getting the hunger for battle, she tried to toughen him up and train him herself. Which meant she needed to be trained to fight as well. But a soft, fleshy human doesn’t last long in a sparring match with a troll. She was killed often, and soon brought back to life. She also eventually discovers the power to summon the swords she was training herself to use whenever she gets extremely pissed off or overprotective of Bular. These two discoveries cement that Maiden was immortal, and couldn’t die no matter what, which gave her the now trademark smart mouth, fiery temper and ignorance of high risks and deadly situations. The Maiden is now stricken with Deadpool Syndrome and quickly gets on the nerves of everyone in the Keep, including Gunmar. But again, they can’t toss out the firecracker or else she could become the enemy’s Shard. Also, Bular is rather attached to his completely erratic and insane mother, and she’s become rather good at fighting.

Determined to now become her own person and stand by Gunmar and Bular’s side as someone to be respected and feared, she goes to Gunmar and demands a rite of passage. All trolls go through a rite of passage to be considered adults, and once complete have the opportunity to choose a new name for themselves (this practice is now out dated and trolls in the modern day don’t really do this anymore). Gunmar is reluctant, but when she challenges him with a rite that “even Gunmar would not be able to do,” he tells her to go slay a Nyarlagroth Queen and bring back its skull. It takes her a goddamn MONTH, but she does it. Now, while she’s gone, a couple of changelings are putting a strategy in motion to keep themselves alive a little longer as well as put Maiden to better use when she comes back. They convince Gunmar that the Maiden will get stronger and stronger willed and possibly revolt against him, and if she does, Bular will most likely follow her. This isn’t good for anyone, so they convince Gunmar that the best and fastest way to tame her is to tie her down with the one thing that ropes in humans: love. “Give her what she wants most,” Corvis tells Gunmar, “a family.” Gunmar reluctantly agrees to play along, if only to keep civility and to reign in his own son. So when the Maiden comes back, and chooses the name Alora Darren (a combination of two troll queens from the past), Gunmar greets her with what will be a pet phrase to come:

“Alora. My wife. My queen. My one true love.”

This... works. Its awkward for the two of them at first, but now believing she’s won Gunmar’s adoration, she feels officially a gumm gumm and part of the pack. And it is so for three hundred years. Alora soon makes her name as a fieresome, deadly general among both trolls and humans. The trolls call her “Gunmar’s concubine” or “Gunmar’s human whore” while the humans call her “the wife of the devil himself.” But despite the new status, she’s still at the bottom of the family totem poll. And still as arrogant and wild as ever. Gunmar often sighs and groans at her antics, but there’s little else he can really do. She’s as reigned in as can be, but overtime, she does grow on him as his mischievous other half, though he rarely supports her schenaniganary.

This backstory actually ends just before the end of Act 1. Having lost the survivors of Royal Troll market, everyone is moving to head out to China to track down this Heartstone growing there. Alora is rather salty after her battle with Nakrik but won’t say why. This is when her own right hand, Skeeziel, who had been by her side as basically her only friend and supporter, admits that he’s been madly in love with her this whole time and goes to embrace her. She quickly pushes him away, not sure what’s caused this confession and not feeling the same way. However, Gunmar has seen this, and he calls Skeeziel to him, and promptly beheads the wizard troll. Alora is... devastated by these turns of events and it leads to a massive fight with Gunmar. This is basically going back on the agreement of giving kindness and being cruel. It then comes out that Gunmar didn’t even love Alora back then and was just doing this to reign in her wild side. Both are hurt and heartbroken, Alora so much so that she just... sits down and refuses to move. Gunmar won’t stay for any temper tantrum she may have and calls his armies to march east immediately.

Bular goes to his mom’s side, not having seen this fight at all, to urge her to come with them. It takes all of her energy to bring him close and touch foreheads, eyes heavy with tears, trying hard not to cry in front of her son. Bular catches on that something is wrong, and wants to stay with her, but she urges him to go with his father, scared of what would happen if Bular was no longer on Gunmar’s side. Bular reluctantly goes, angry with his mother staying behind and follows Gunmar east.

And so falls the Gumm gumm queen, into mortal despair. We’ll come back to this scene in Act 2.

The second story in Forged In Darkness is called Paika, and it follows the villain to be introduced in Act 2.

The story takes place in Bulgaria (because GODDAMN IT RICHARD ASHLEY HAMILTON WHY DAMN IT WHY FUCKING GOD DAMN IT ALL!),circa 1121 AD, in a tiny village called Anka, which sits on a mountain. This village is a combination village where humans and trolls lived together side by side in peace. And Gunmar’s conquering and rampages are driving trolls to seek solace in places he would have trouble reaching or not bother with, including this very out of the way village. Making their way here is a group of refugees hoping to find safety for themselves and several orphans they picked up along the way. One of these orphans catches the eyes of the human elder of the village, Kohsena Radulova. She spies a troll toddler born with no eyes and is a species of troll she’s never seen before. Taking pity on this little one, she takes him in personally and through magic, gives him his own eyes to see the world through. He says his name is Paika and she raises and loves on him as a son of her own.

Now, Kohsena isn’t your average hedge wizard, she’s also a Shard (whoa!)! She was born in the year 1000 AD, and had no idea of her powers until she passed away in her old age at seventy. Having come back to life, she discovered she can retain any and all knowledge she learns and uses it to memorize books of magic the trolls have on hand, easily harnesses the power of magic and brought stability to the harsh mountain they live on. She went on to continue being a granny to her kids, grandkids and great grandkids as they grew, and is the undisputed wise woman of Anka. When she adopts Paika, she quickly notices his talent for magic and takes him as her apprentice to pass on her teachings.

Paika is incredibly gifted in magic, using it in ways never seen before. But he’s a rather small troll, so he’s often bullied by both the troll and human kids growing up. But he’s also rather fast and limber, so he’s able to outrun, out jump, out climb, and stay hidden from any trying to pick on him. Noting how he navigates around the village and nearby forest with ease, one of Kohsena’s grandsons teaches Paika how to hunt and he’s rather good at that too. He seems as in tune to the mountain as Kohsena and has good potential to be a village elder. It’s not long after Paika reaches adulthood that he accepts his rite of passage. It comes in two stages: to make a tool he will use for the rest of his life, and to bring back a rare flower that grows inside the mountain. Paika makes a hardy hunting knife and uses his own talents to bring the flower back. Now an adult troll by rite, he can chose a new name. He decides to name himself after this troublesome flower, the Ingoret, which is a poisonous flower but when used correctly can be a life saving medicine. The name Ingoret is a troll word for “the very fine line between life and death.” But Paika has never been able to pronounce this word, so his official adult name is Angor Rot.

Skip to 1297 AD, Gunmar and his troops are making their way up the mountain. There is almost nowhere else for the people living on Anka to flee. Some are preparing to fight, and Kohsena promises to protect her home to the best of her ability. But Angor believes they aren’t enough and wants to go search for help. When asked who could possibly help, he says the witch in the black sea. In the least, she can grant him greater magic than he can wield on his own. Kohsena viciously shuts this idea down, since the witch is extremely dangerous and fickle. But Angor doesn’t see any other way to fight off Gunmar and keep his home. He sneaks away to the rocks in the sea to strike a deal with Morgana. We all know how that went.

Angor, sans one soul, instead of going off to fight Trollhunters rushes home to mom, hoping maybe she could fix this. He comes back to a village in ruins and the mountain barren of life. Gunmar, Alora, and the gumm gumm armies have laid waste to it all. Kohsena clings to life by the village center tree, unwilling to move in her grief, and seeing Angor return after selling his soul for magic makes the grief worse. She tells him that some of the villagers had escaped and she did what she could to protect the village but almost everything is gone. Angor insists that she come with him to find the others, but she refuses. She’s heartbroken that he left, but she says outloud “I’m glad you did. If you stayed, you would have been killed.” And this cuts him deep. He leaves her behind to pack what little of their things survived, and when he comes back, he sees that she’s died. Figuring that she’ll wake up on the way, he starts to take her body down the mountain. After several days, she doesn’t wake. An immortal Shard has permanently died. Angor, devastated, takes her back to the village and buries her. And now, with no emotional tethers, becomes a hunter to all Merlin had created. This also includes Shards, creatures of Merlin’s creation.

((Side note: Nadia was born the exact moment Kohsena died. Coincidence? To be addressed in Act 2))

In 1300 AD, Angor locates another Shard. This one is a rather young woman who’s ability is seeing the future, and her title is the Blind Seer (I think I had a name for her, but it’s lost to time). She had evacuated the troll village she lived in, prepared for Angor to come here. He came seeking knowledge of how a Shard can permanently die, and she was willing to give it to him. Why? “Because I have seen this moment. You come. I tell you the secret. You kill me, and go on to kill the other Shards. This is both our destinies, and there is nothing to be done to stop it.” With this, she tells him:

A Shard is only immortal when she wants to be. When she decides she no longer wants to live, the soul becomes mortal for as long as this wish is present. And the Seer, knowing this is her final moment alive, accepts this and relinquishes her will to live. And so Angor kills her to test this theory, and it is so. She never revives. And now, with this knowledge, he gains a title other than Hunter of Hunters. He’s also the Shardkiller.

Aaaaaand, that’s Forged in Darkness. I had thought of giving Grim a backstory here too since so little is written about him, but I honestly don’t have a good backstory to tell about him.

#Shardborn summary

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trollhuntersshardborn · 4 years ago

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Act 1 Summary

Okay, so since the fic will probably never be updated again, I wanna tell exactly how it was supposed to go down. I just don’t have the inspiration or energy from it, and I just need to put the story to rest.

Okay, act 1. Let’s briefly go over chapters 1-4.

The story takes place in medieval Europe. The year 1315 to be exact. The prologue covers the gumm-gumm trolls rampaging through a castle looking for a past occupant. A princess from three hundred years ago. Apparently, she was deemed a witch and burned at the stake, but that’s like, oh well, to the trolls. Why they are looking for her would be addressed later.

Later that night, the gumm-gumms raid a nearby farm for food (humans). This is the Ward family farm, owned by Larkin Ward and his six children. The oldest daughter is named Nadia, and she’s just a peasant girl trying to live her life and in perpetual fear of being married off and taken away. In the raid, Nadia runs away in fear as her entire immediate family is killed and/or eaten. But before the same thing happens to her, the Trollhunter Nakrik shows up to fight off the bad trolls. And he’s joined by a woman with super strength! But this seems to be for naught as Nadia’s heart gives out due to fright. But it’s okay, she gets better. She comes back to life for some reason.

So the Trollhunter and his “human” friend take the survivors (Nadia, her granny, and a visiting boy named Edwin/Edmund (I kept forgetting his name)) to the Royal Trollmarket nearby. Now, Royal Trollmarket was the largest market in Europe, housing a massive cavern with every good and ware you can think of, and in the middle of it is not a Heartstone, but a massive fortress that serves as the palace! Nadia is introduced to the world of trolls, fae, and other things, as well as made aware that now she’s an immortal being called a Shard. This is explained to her by a fellow Shard, the “human” friend named Elisi.

The basic story of Shards is that they’re immortal beings created by Merlin himself. Magic pulled from a Life Stone (which did as the name suggests, creates life from two separate souls) so Gunmar couldn’t use it to raise an army overnight. Merlin separated this magic into eight segments and had them enter eight human maidens upon birth. The point was to keep this magic AWAY from Gunmar, so these girls could be anywhere in the world and their powers and immortality wouldn’t activate until their very first death. Merlin also gave each girl a unique “gift” to protect herself and her life magic, but basically Shards still use their Life Magic to create new life between other souls, so anyone who had a Shard on their side could theoretically create a bunch of living beings overtime. So in this time of war between Gunmar and whoever is Trollhunter, having a Shard would come in handy. That is, if she feels like creating an army.

So far, no Shard is willing to be a baby factory to make this army for either side. Elisi is married to a troll named Richta, a gentle potion maker who’s very protective of his family. Nadia has an underlying phobia of being reduced to a perpetual mother, and doesn’t take well that this is now what she is. Reduced to a blubbering mess, she retreats into the market and ends up in a small library. The librarian, Dictatious, begrudgingly lets the girl hide there, but realizes she’s a fast learner when she tries to read and interpret trollish.

Now, the Gumm-gumms realize there’s now not one, but TWO of the eight Shards in one place right now: in the Royal Trollmarket. Bular decides to go on the offensive, and with the help of a changeling underling named Corvis, he unleashes a pack of creatures called rust rats. Now, rust rats exist to kill and eat trolls, however whatever's left comes back to life as a rust zombie, and they infect anything they touch with their rust. So with zombie trolls in the market, everyone runs for the closest safe place: the palace. The only people not marching there are the Nakrik, Elisi, and another character named Grim or Black Knight Grim, for long. Grim is another human in Team Trollhunter, decked out in sweet black armor, a fearless horse, and basically any weapon you can think of to get the job done. He’s from a family of monster hunters who specialize in killing trolls, and he’s so skilled and well prepared that he’s taken on an entire squad of gumm-gumms alone. More on him later.

The fighters in our cast wipe out the zombie trolls and zombie causers, which is the signal for the gumm gumm army to storm the place en mass! Out numbered and outmatched, the remaining party makes a run for the castle. Nakrik, the noble trollhunter and good friend that he is, makes sure the others get in safely before squaring off against the entire army by himself. But he not only fights all these gumm gumms, but also Bular the Butcher, and a general named Alora Darren the Undying, mother to Bular, wife to Gunmar and (HOLY SHIT) a Shard herself! More on her later!

Fortunately for Nakrik, he’s saved by the king of Royal Trollmarket, King Gholgolm the Fourteenth, a thirty foot tall centaur troll who’s so big he can’t even get out of the front door of his palace. But just making it half way out the door to kick some ass is enough to scare the army away for a time. The palace fortress closes itself off so the invading forces can’t get in, and everyone just hunkers down tight for a plan. See, now all the survivors are trapped with no way out since the gumm-gumms have all the exits covered and are occupying the surrounding trollmarket. So while the heroes are trying to come up with a plan, news of Nadia, another Shard, reaches the king’s ears and he asks her to the throne room. He asks her to be the Shard that makes the army he needs to win, and she tearfully declines. Nadia just can’t bring herself to be reduced to a baby machine as she’s always feared, but has no other way to be of help. But Dictatious does see a use for Nadia, and to calm her brings her to the royal library.

Here in the library are more characters to be introduced to (I hated how chapter 4 is a character dump episode, how do I get you guys to care about everyone?!), there’s Dic’s brother Blinky, also there’s the royal wizard Rundle and his family, Vendel (son and apprentice) and Kilfred (elder who’s barely understandable and laughs with a grandfatherly “ho ho ho ho.”) Everyone’s excited to meet Nadia, but Dictatious explains something about Shards that wasn’t addressed. Each Shard has a unique ability to protect herself with based on their title. Elisi is the Maid of Fortitude, and possesses “the strength of ten trolls.” Alora, still outside the palace and trying to get in and kill everyone, is the Eternal Arsenal, and can create any weapon she’s well versed in. Dic has deduced that Nadia is the Maid of Intelligence, who is a fast learner with a perfect memory. She can be a living archive, and recall knowledge used for tactics. Nadia... doesn’t take being this inferior well and nearly has another breakdown. But her grandmother lets her in on a little secret. Unrelated to being a Shard, Nadia has magic in her bloodline. Turns out granny is a witch, and the family gift of magic tends to skip a generation and is only present in the girls. So Nadia, with her newfound magic talent, and her ability to remember all knowledge she’s learned could be a living magical archive and the potential to be a powerful witch is very likely. She’s hesitant, but once Rundle starts showing her how to cast spells and how to recite them, she quickly becomes fascinated.

Meanwhile, the gumm gumm army is trying to invade the castle, but can’t seem to find a weak link in the walls or “moat” of indefinite voids that troll caves seem to have. But Edwin has managed to sneak out in his “trolls are going to eat me” panic, and when confronted by Alora and Bular, promises to show how he was able to sneak out/in if he’s left alive and can get “his girl” out. Turns out he has a huge crush and Nadia and wants to get her out of here with him. It’s agreed and Alora sends him back in along with her own wizard troll, Skeeziel, to sneak inside the fortress and open the front doors from inside. Edwin goes to get Nadia to get her the hell out of here while Skeeziel sneaks around and assasinates whoever gets in his way and manages to get the doors open. So now everyone needs to evacuate further into the castle, closing off the outside halls as the army starts to make their approach. Edwin somehow manages to escape the chaos, without Nadia, and makes it to the surface... only to run into Gunmar, who promptly eats him.

Everyone’s in a near panic! Gunmar himself is going to storm the now vulnerable palace and there’s no way to fight in these much more cramped corners. King Gholgolm decides he’s going to fight Gunmar and give everyone enough time to live/escape. Rundle figures he can open a portal to the surface with help from his father and son, along with Nadia. The four of them can keep a small portal open long enough to get everyone out. Nadia only has the confidence to try and help with the others nearby. The portal is a success, and Nadia desperately tries to hold up her side of the magical baggage as the castle is slowly evacuated. King Gholgolm faces off against Gunmar at the entrance of the castle, but its not even a fight. Even as such a large troll, he’s no match for Gunmar’s prowess and sheer determination (foolish horse-monster! while you sat stuck in your own castle, I practiced the blade!). Gunmar then wrestles what he really wants from the king: the location of the Heartstone rumored to be growing in the east. The King does say there’s one in China, before Gunmar kills him. The rest of the army storms the palace.

Seeing that the King has failed, Nakrik then rushes off to fight off the army and Gunmar himself as well. Elisi goes with him. The stress of her friends probably not going to make it gets to Nadia, but she’s kept on course. Nakrik is soon stuck fighting with Alora, and he yells at Elisi to fall back and protect the survivors. She reluctantly does, leaving Nakrik to his fate. Soon, the army is about to overtake the portal room. Only Nadia, Vendel, Rundle and Kilfred are left. They start to debate who should stay to keep the portal open long enough for the others to flee, but little old Kilfred makes the decision for them. He shoves Nadia, and his son and grandson into the portal just as Gunmar manages to break through. The portal closes, and Kilfred looks up to Gunmar with a large grin and one last “ho ho ho ho” before snapping his staff and causing an explosion of light bright enough to be sunlight. Kilfred is dead, the survivors are safe on the surface, and Gunmar is temporarily blinded and enraged. His victory in Royal Trollmarket is a hollow one.

Among the survivors on the surface is young Prince Thalfie, Gholgolm’s son, who now must lead his scared and frightened people to somewhere safe. As soon as Elisi insists that they need to wait for Nakrik, the amulet makes its way to the group. Nakrik didn’t survive. And the amulet chooses Elisi’s husband, Richta, to be the next trollhunter.

Act 1 ends with Nadia still frightened by this terrifying new world, but now has the hope to survive it with her new skills. Elisi is now horrified that her husband is going to suffer the fate of all Trollhunters, and Thalfie begins to lead his people to the Black Forest for shelter. Rundle promises to continue to train Nadia. End of Act 1? Not quite.

The last thing to see in Act 1 is Alora wandering the surface, heavily injured, fighting off tears, with the Sigil of Angor Rot on the right side of her face.

Okay, now Act 1 is over.

Act 2 and 3 will be tomorrow, since part of the reason I had such trouble writing was I couldn’t fully plot out Act 2 much.

Oh, shit, that’s right. Then there’s Forged in Darkness. Remind me to tell you guys about that first before getting into Act 2.

And...... that’s it for Act 1.

#shardborn summary

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