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Kalushtar Prelude - Fact Sheet

Required Reading: Chiaroscuro contains numerous important details for this prelude.

Overall Timeline

Stage 1: the Underground
This is the stage from the time when Khyris makes peaceful contact with the Circle and finds them a new haven, to the time when the Father of Darkness makes his war with Yane. This is a period of five months, from Descending Fire to Resplendent Wood.

Notable Events & Story Hooks
The beginning of this period coincides with the Father raising the Black Citadel and summoning the River of Death. The characters will also have an opportunity to discover more about the Father of Darkness, the original Five Abyssals, and many of the details that they never discovered about the Father's plans for the Spear of Light. Ietu, less successful Realm Agents, and other "foreshadowing" are also worthy of note. The end of this period coincides with the coming of the Rohan Empire to the South, the War against Harbourhead, and the beginnings of the war against the Varang.

Large swaths of this period are unaccounted for during the timeline and were not mentioned in Time of Tumult at all. More detail is available in Chiaroscuro, but in general the prelude characters have a lot of room to make changes, achieve great successes, and otherwise be heroic and impressive.

Stage 2: the Resistance
This is the stage from the invasion and overtaking of Yane, until the defeat of the Father of Darkness by the Rohan Circle. This is a somewhat uncertain period, that takes from 1 to 2 months from Resplendent Wood until the end of the year at Calibration.

Notable Events
This short period is VERY VERY busy, and will involve notably less downtime than the first period as the characters have a chance to make wide and fast progress against a distracted Father of Darkness. The enemy in this part will begin to shift from the Deathlord and into the Realm to foreshadow the eventual fate of the city.

The main focus of events here is the arrival of the Gold Faction, their actions toward prying the Father's influence in the city while he is occupied, and the corresponding actions of the Bronze Faction and the All-Seeing Eye in preparing the way for the Realm occupation.

Stage 3: the Return of the Realm
This is the stage from the defeat of the Father of Darkness, to the reconquest of the Realm and their consolidation of Chiaroscuro, to the beginning of Return to Tumult. It is at most two or so months long (three at the utter most), and ends with Khyris calling for Kalushtar to come to the village of Tulapi.

Notable Events
This period is short, but important, and will probably be even more busy than the preceding period as it is the climax of the entire storyline. This story features the return of Merkan, the Realm Legions, and the Wyld Hunt. The most notable event is the (apparent?) destruction of Kalushtar's circle by the Realm. Even so, the characters have the potential to do a lot of damage to the Realm prior to the end of this prelude story and their actions will help determine just how strong the Realm's grip on the city is.

Observed Facts

The Defeat of Kalushtar's Circle

• It is known that Kalushtar's feels abandoned and lost to the world by the time that the Prelude itself actually comes to an end. He either believes his circlemates are dead, beyond his reach, or have betrayed him in some fashion such that they are totally dead to him. The end effect being that Kalushar is driven to leave Chiaroscuro and join the main storyline.
• The final defeat of the Circle comes not at the hands of the Deathlord, but instead at the hands of the Realm and the Wyld Hunt. It is likely that the Realm benefited from advanced knowledge of the Circle gained by the All-Seeing Eye, or that they simply overpowered the Circle with amazingly potent artifacts and power if the Circle avoids such traps.
  • Weird Freaky Idea: The characters betray the other Solars and the Gold Faction, and allow the Realm to take over the city for its own good. The Realm doublecrosses them.
• "the Circle" has to survive; no more than one actual character death prior to the Climax at the end of the Prelude is really acceptable to maintain observable fact in this situation.
• Merkan should play a part in this final death.

Ietu, and his Trips into the City

• It is observably correct that Ledaal Ietu survived at least long enough for the Deathlords invasion of Yane, and was able to contact the Rohan Circle. It is also a matter of fact that he was present in Chiaroscuro, and was one of the few Realm agents able to make steady progress in the city at first. Bluetides role is questionable, and minor.
• It is also known that the Realm got better at keeping agents alive in Chiaroscuro. This suggests that Ietu was able to pass along some of his knowledge in some fashion, or discovered some other secret. Alternatively, there could be another explanation, especially if observable fact above turns out to be false.

The Five - Abyssal Servitors of the Father

• Blood Feathers //survives// all encounters with the characters, and is considered a main character with equal protection to Kalushtar. She is necessary for the main story to work. The Witch in White and the Butcher Exaultant are "observably alive" in time for the showdown. I have no objections about having the prelude characters kill off Tears, or Osiris.
• Blood Feathers is a major recurring enemy for the prelude circle, and ends up earning the eternal enmity of Kalushtar and probably everyone else in the circle. Additional details are vague and will be established during the prelude itself -- anything is possible, from frequent combat to romance.
• The Witch in White & the Butcher Exaultant are less important to the Prelude than Blood Feathers but should be present for stylistic reasons. It's acceptable for the characters to do nasty horrible things to them, and these actions will have an effect on the main story. However, they should observably survive.
  • Weird Freaky Idea: The Witch in White that the characters knew was in fact Suni-Ya. Kalushtar may or may not know this, depending on interpretation.
• Tears and Osiris are pretty much meaningless to the overall flow of the storyline. Even if the prelude characters "kill" them, it'd be easy for me to fate-fix everything or simply retcon the final session of To T for our continuity. Have fun, but don't expect it to be easy!

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