TYPE: Transcript. DESCRIPTION: Conversation. PARTIES: Two [2]. One [1] Guardian-type, Class [REDACTED] [u.1], One [1] Guardian-type, Class Warlock [u.2] ASSOCIATIONS: the Shattered, Toland; Bad Juju; Ascendant Plane; Palamon; Thorn; WoS; Yor, Dredgen; Yor, Shadows of; Malphur, Shin; The Last Word //AUDIO UNAVAILABLE// //TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS…/ [u.1:0.1] What’s this…? You are no Hive. [u.2:0.1] Y’don’t say. [u.1:0.1] You look like a Guardian, but your light, it’s… twisted. Who are you? How did you get here? Why did you come here? [u.2:0.1] You tell me. [u.1:0.1] Your name? [u.2:0.1] How I got here. [u.1:0.1] Well there’s only one or two ways you could have ascended to the Astral Plane- either you’ve become Ascendant, which doesn’t seem likely, or you’ve done what I did. [u.2:0.1] And what’s that? [u.1:0.1] Forfeited your life to the Hive and their gods, seeking to understand. [u.2:0.1] The hell would I wanna do that for? [Toland sighs] [u.1:0.1] No, I suppose you wouldn’t, you don’t seem the type. Short-tempered, ill-mannered, and you keep scanning the void looking for a way out which begs the question even more: why are you here? Don’t you know? [u.2:0.1] I told you- you tell me. [u.1:0.1] Well I can’t tell you that if you don’t tell me who you are. [u.2:0.1] Yor. [whispers mumbling incoherently] [u.1:0.1] Yor…? Dredgen Yor? Ah, the one Jaren Ward’s protégé exterminated near Dwindler’s Ridge. Yes, I have heard of you and your “work”- all that power, and yet what good did it do you? Wasted potential, indiscriminate violence… hard to believe you were once a noble man, [REDACTED]. [u.2:0.1] That’s not my name. [u.1:0.1] No, it’s the name of the Shadow of a Guardian who lost all hope, gave up on defeating the Darkness, and became one with it. [u.2:0.1] Your point being? [u.1:0.1] I believe that’s why you’re here- because you served that who became your god-king. You killed for them, you fed them the light of our kind and any other measly spark that had the misfortune of crossing your path on an off day. You were a slave to the logic of the sword. [u.2:0.1] I killed for myself. [u.1:0.1] That may be but the truth of the matter is the Hive corrupted you, and every consequent action you took once you accepted that corruption benefitted them. [u.2:0.1] A stroke of luck, for them. [u.1:0.1] So you didn’t mean to come here? [u.2:0.1] I don’t even know where “here” is. [u.1:0.1] You’ve got to be kidding- you mean to tell me that I float before you -a talking, disembodied celestial spirit- and you haven’t the slightest idea of where we might be…? [u.2:0.1] Do I need to repeat myself? [u.1:0.1] You’re in the Ascendant Plane, you mindless parasite: the realm between the throne worlds of the Hive-gods. [silence] [u.2:0.1] [mumbled] Peachy. [u.1:0.1] Beg pardon? [u.2:0.1] How do I get out? [Toland laughs] [u.1:0.1] Escape? Why would you ever want to escape this place? There is a wealth of intelligence to uncover, knowledge I would have died a million times over to obtain in my mortality. I’ve been here several years now, and I’ve only just scratched the surface of what true immortality means to the Hive- [u.2:0.1] I don’t care about knowledge, just point me to the exit. [u.1:0.1] Well I’ve got news for you, friend- you can’t escape, you’re dead. [u.2:0.1] Don’t feel dead. [u.1:0.1] Yes, well, it is rather hard to truly know the difference between dead and living when you’ve already lingered between them for so long. [u.2:0.1] We were never dead, just reborn, over and over and over again. [u.1:0.1] And what would you call the time between? [u.2:0.1] Sleep. [u.1:0.1] And when you stopped calling yourself [REDACTED]? [u.2:0.1] The day I woke up and truly lived. [u.1:0.1] As a menace? [u.2:0.1] As what I was meant to be. [u.1:0.1] You mean as a pawn. [u.2:0.1] As god of my own fate. [u.1:0.1] And of mankind’s? [u.2:0.1] They would be lucky to have been spared the torment I experienced on the road to enlightenment. [u.1:0.1] And what did you learn at the end of this road? [u.2:0.1] Rebellion is pain, assimilation is ecstasy, and death is release. [u.1:0.1] Truly, how absurd it is for humanity to decide to revel in the moments of their mortality, rather than live in anticipation of their final breaths, looking for an immediate escape. [u.2:0.1] I tried the only way I knew how for so long, but when I made it to the moon, when I went down into the pit… I saw the truth of how it would end. [u.1:0.1] So you sought to set the world ablaze to spare them the agony? [u.2:0.1] Better it be my hand than theirs. [u.1:0.1] I know many who would disagree. [u.2:0.1] I ain’t “many”. [u.1:0.1] And lo, what a shining beacon of hope you are, I’m sure they’ll come around one day. But tell me, what made you believe they aren’t worth saving? [u.2:0.1] They refuse to fight- they expect us to do that for them, that because we are immortal we should be their sacrificial lambs. But we’ve earned our strength, they haven’t. It’s as simple as that. [whispers laughing] [u.1:0.1] Do you hear yourself speak? You’ve become just like them. [u.2:0.1] So I saw the sense in their logic after a while. Would you rather I’d cried when I peeled the light from Pahanin’s Ghost? [u.1:0.1] It may have indicated that there was some semblance of nobility remaining beneath your misguided intentions to “save” humanity. [u.2:0.1] [REDACTED] is dead, and his nobility along with him. [u.1:0.1] And yet you’re but a jester among true monsters. Is that why you want to leave? Can’t stand the idea of being third-rate amongst gods? [u.2:0.1] My work is unfinished, lying dormant in my Shadows. [u.1:0.1] Yes and how they defile your work, running amok while claiming to have tamed the power of the mighty Thorn. [u.2:0.1] They are mistaken. [u.1:0.1] Indeed. And what, pray tell, are you going to do about that? [extended silence] [u.1:0.1] Well? [u.2:0.1] I would show them what it means to bear the name Dredgen and take my title back. I alone was meant for this, they will not follow. [u.1:0.1] Then you’ll kill them? [u.2:0.1] Is there any other way to make them see? [u.1:0.1] Probably, but how unfortunate for them that you lack the restraint to consider your options before resorting to senseless murder. [u.2:0.1] It won’t be quick, I’ll be sure of that. [u.1:0.1] How delightful, however there is still one little thing standing in the way of your grand master plan. [u.2:0.1] What’s that? [u.1:0.1] You’re still stuck here with me. [u.2:0.1] I’ll find a way out. [u.1:0.1] I highly doubt that, but best of luck in your impossible endeavor. Now if you don’t mind, I have research to conduct. [u.2:0.1] Thank the Nine. [u.1:0.1] Now that’s the last thing I expected to hear out of you. [u.2:0.1] Likewise. I thought Warlocks knew everything. [u.1:0.1] That is an unknowable quantity, I’m afraid. [u.2:0.1] Weren’t you leaving? [u.1:0.1] Already on my way.