Celestial Past: The Sisters and the Third Born

To the Beginning

The Hero finds Aranx in the Celestial Realm beside a red portal and fallen Infernals. Aranx says the Celestials did not strike them down: the Infernals spent their last strength crossing the portal and perished. When Balax’el appears, the Hero suspects he now serves Malgor, but the Infernal offers a different warning. Collapsing, he calls himself a fool who forgot his place, says that a woman is coming, and warns that the Hero is not ready. He addresses Aranx as the Third Born before falling out of sight.

The portal changes, and Aranx becomes alarmed: Arthelyn should have returned before this happened. With no time to explain, he sends the Hero into the past, to the beginning, where the answers await. He cannot accompany them, but his past self will be there. A portal opens above them and offers the Bright One’s blessing.

In that earlier Realm, the Hero meets a past Aranx who knows neither his identity nor his purpose. A woman’s voice calls his name, and he believes she holds the answers. He asks the Hero to help him find her.

For Wayfarer Potion, the Hero gathers ingredients from the local creatures and plants to reveal a route through the Realm. The Path Revealed then sends them through the beasts blocking the way and onward to the voice’s source. Once the woman is found, Aranx urges the Hero to hurry and meet him there.

The voice belongs to Arthelyn. She welcomes Aranx and is startled by the Hero’s presence: humans, she says, are not due to appear on Lore for some time. She introduces herself as the First Celestial and Aranx as the Third. Of the Second, she refuses to speak.

Arthelyn explains the trial every Celestial must face to discover their purpose. Well of Knowledge takes the Hero through the Realm’s beasts to the Well; Gather the Artifacts supplies offerings representing its creatures and the Realm itself. In Oh Well, Oh Well Guardian, the Hero activates the Well and defeats its Guardian, the Bright One’s construct holding the purposes of Celestial creation. With the final test passed, Aranx can receive the revelation.

The Third Born and the Second

Aranx places the artifacts in the Well, and a vision unfolds. Its narration tells of Galanoth slaying the Eternal Dragon of Time and energy bursting from Lore to form the Bright One. The Bright One creates the Celestial Realm and two sibling guardians; when one turns to darkness, another is created to take her place. Aranx recognizes the vision as the creation of the Realm, his sisters and himself.

Aranx now identifies himself as the Archangel of Mysteries, Third Born and Celestial Guardian. Arthelyn tells him to take up his mantle and be reborn; the figure at the Well changes into the gold-armored, white-winged Aranx familiar to the Hero. The Hero is surprised to learn he has two sisters. Aranx says he has never seen the other one, but Arthelyn asks to speak privately with the Hero. Aranx is not meant to know this history for centuries.

Arthelyn identifies the Second Born as Azalith, their sister. The Bright One made Arthelyn the Archangel of Stoicism and ruler of the Realm, and Azalith the Archangel of Fortitude and its general. In Arthelyn’s account, Azalith’s courage became ambition: she sought the Bright One’s power of creation, stole it, and was corrupted by forces Celestials were not made to wield.

The history presentation says Azalith wanted to create the Infernals as rivals to the Celestials. Arthelyn says the Bright One used its remaining energy to seal Azalith and her Infernals away before they could ruin Lore, then rested and left the Celestials to protect the Realm. The Hero’s arrival from the future tells Arthelyn that Azalith has escaped her Infernal Realm prison in the Hero’s present. The Hero connects her to Balax’el’s warning.

Arthelyn warns that Azalith cannot be defeated permanently, but can be weakened and sealed again. She instructs the Hero to take a scroll containing the necessary magic to Aranx in the present. Asked to accompany them, she says they cannot travel to a time in which they already exist. Then she realizes she does not exist in the Hero’s present and concludes that she is dead in that future. She agrees to go with the Hero.

The Trail to Azalith

With the Well’s revelation behind them, Arthelyn sends the Hero to recover intelligence from Azalith’s Infernal soldiers. Infernal Commands yields her location, helping them pursue her before she advances farther into the Realm.

Azalith’s forces block the approach. In Forward Unto Azalith, the Hero fights through six Infernal soldiers until Azalith is just ahead. Arthelyn urges them to stop her before she destroys the Celestial Realm.

Arthelyn appeals to her sister to stop, insisting she can still be saved. Azalith counters that Arthelyn is the one in danger, held by the Bright One. Arthelyn accuses Azalith of stealing its power; Azalith says she tried to become its equal and was struck down and imprisoned for trying to improve herself and the Realm.

Azalith rejects the Hero’s description of this destruction as Darkness. She compares it to sunlight that burns when focused: creation, she argues, becomes destructive when concentrated. She claims the Bright One gave her this power and deems its creations unworthy of existence. Arthelyn calls this a lie, and the Hero refuses to accept that Azalith acts on the Bright One’s behalf. As they prepare to oppose her, Arthelyn admits they are not ready. Azalith agrees.

A Sisterhood Broken

Arthelyn still urges the Hero to give everything they have. Azalith Faced requires the Hero to be defeated by Azalith, and the aftermath opens with the Hero acknowledging that she is too strong. Azalith stands amid the gathering power while Arthelyn calls for her to stop.

In the aftermath, Azalith says Arthelyn attacked her and invites her to join, promising to show what the Bright One truly wants. Arthelyn refuses to betray the Realm or her siblings. Azalith asks whether Arthelyn is still her sister, then says they are no longer sisters and are enemies, calling her order to go a last act of mercy.

Azalith forbids Arthelyn to call her sister, threatens to burn the Realm, and accuses everyone there of watching her suffer injustice without acting. The Hero feels her strength increasing. Surrounded by dark, flame-like power, Azalith vows to take the Bright One’s remaining Light and orders them to run.

Arthelyn says the Azalith she knew is gone, but hopes they can still stop her in time; the route onward points to Infernal Paradise. Past Aranx thanks the Hero for helping him understand his identity and purpose. He expects they will meet again in the future and urges the Hero to return to their own time.