#blynt

Alright, so you want answers I assume? Well, this is a tale from an old RPG from 2004. Which you can play fo free, if you have a PC. If not, here's a (and the only) Let's Play of it. A lot of the things seen here are explained in my little Blynt Lore Post, if you just want to have only a brief look into the story! Have fun exploring Arvale in any way. So it may not cease to exist.

[Silk] » As the story goes, Kryphen was just a poor child that lived when this was just a small village. His mother was constantly working to support the family because his father died while he was young. Kryphen was always toying with small inventions and trying to improve life of his family and village. One day, he befriended a Dragon and learned what magic arts he could but soon became jelous of the Dragon and couldn't comprehend why it was gifted with these powers while he had to struggle to survive. He began asking questions like, 'Why aren't we gifted with these powers? Why do we have to beg for it of these beasts? Why can't we control our own destinies without relying on these... demons?' He then betrayed the Dragon during a magic lesson by reversing it's own magic onto itself, putting it in a stupefied sleep. He then studied the Dragon and found that all magic powers could be extracted from it and bottled for anyone to use. Thinking he could finally improve the lives of his village. When asked about the Dragon, Kryphen lied to his family and friends. Telling them the Dragon had gone away to teach magic to another part of the world. To further the lie and grow in power, he began searching the world to study and deceive the other Dragons... and ... well... the rest is history. «

Now... I took some (a lot) of creative liberties with this comic, arright... This comic is based on events that happened in the game, but are never directly shown. Dragons started attacking Arhaeldem, and it was never specified who that dragon who shot ice from it's claws was, I just made it the same dragon that Kryphen 'befriended'. (You can actually see the Dragon trying to mutter his name when Tsilon pins him down in a short moment of somewhat clarity!) Why? because I thought it would be neat and make an interesting comic/story. And it wouldn't be impossible for it to have happened. I based this dragon's design of one of the game's sprites for one that we can see in the intro:

I chose the blue version of this sprite because it would make sense for the dragon using ice magic to be water coloured. Dragons started attacking Arhaeldem, and Tsilon as it's guardian has to defend his city. And... I always wondered how terrible and confusing that must have been for him, to have to fight and most likely kill his own kind. Dragons are not meant to be vicious creatures.

The intro is mostly Sorcynth propaganda... (Sorcynth = Kryphen's Potion Comapny) but I don't think these parts are untrue:

»Long ago, when the world of Arvale was born, the Gods created Dragons and bestowed them with the gift of magic. The Dragons were entrusted with this power to watch over the world and keep it in relative harmony. [...] When Humans and Dragons met, they quickly found a mutual understanding of each other and lived together peacefully. The Dragons began instructing the Humans in the ways of magic, to see what Humans could accomplish.«

Judging by Tsilon's immense friendliness/fondness of humans, like... he built a human city with his human friend, and befriended more humans, teaches them magic, protects them, and when he is about to go mad again he begs to be killed, even if that results in a world without magic, so people will not die. And judging by how absolutely non-hostile and chill the other dragons are we meet in the game... It's probably safe to assume that this part of the intro is true. Tsilon has likely been around a long time. Maybe even since the beginning of dragonkind. He knows that he and the others are creatures of harmony... and to see his own kind turn into vile beasts like that.. well, that must have been quite shocking. How does this happen? Kryphen has found a way to overwrite a person's will/ mind with potions. The one he makes for the dragons turns them into the type of evil beasts we know from our own classic fairytales. Some of it was put into Tsilon's food on one faithful day... » EAT THE HUMAN FLESH « and » ALL MORTALS SHALL NOT LIVE WITH DRAGONS « are quotes taken directly from Mad Tsilon. I gave the poisoned Dragons these golden eyes with narrow pupils to indicated they are under the effects of the potion. I got this idea from old concept art where Tsilon is portrayed with these eyes instead of his usual pale ones and seems to act uncharacteristically hostile + all the Sorcynth machines emmit a orange-yellow glow...

[Tsilon] » Grrr..... They're draining all my energy..... and ... injecting me with .. DIE... something that makes me... lose my .. ..my .. sooo HUNGRY!!! ... EAT THE HUMAN FLESH!! Grrr ... Makes me... lllllll---- «

The magic Tsilon is portrayed using here is one you can actually see him use in the game:

In the good ending, we see Tsilon in front of Arhaeldem's entrance. What's left of it, anyways. Just like 2000 years ago. I wonder what he could be thinking about...

Every big project with me starts with scribbles on paper. I actually planned to do much more than what is already shown here in this video, like an absolute deranged person.

What am I, an animation studio? No, I am one guy, with a lot of passion for Arvale, but still, one guy. And if I want to get this done without it taking ages, I had to cut a lot of scenes.

But the paper scribbles remain... and there's a lot of them. When I made these scribbles, I did not make them with the intent of them being seen by others but me, so... they might be somewhat incomprehensible.

First, we got the scribbles of the scenes that actually made it into the video:

I said it in the video description already... but the fact that I made an extra mini paper animatic on an extra sheet of paper for the scene with Beylord, should have already been a warning sign to me that this scene would be a... tad bit too long?

And then we have all the stuff that didn't make it into the video! There's a lot of it...

»Long ago, when the world of Arvale was born, the Gods created Dragons and bestowed them with the gift of magic. The Dragons were entrusted with this power to watch over the world and keep it in relative harmony. As time passed, another of the God's creations, Humans who were gifted with imagination and a thirst for knowledge, ventured outside of their caves... When Humans and Dragons met, they quickly found a mutual understanding of each other and lived together peacefully. The Dragons began instructing the Humans in the ways of magic, to see what Humans could accomplish.« And this is when the Sorcynth Propaganda appears: »This upset The Dark Dragon, the strongest of The Dragons, who believed that magic should only be entrusted to his own kind [...] The Dark Dragon went on a rampage, killing all Dragons who opposed his view, and then began hunting down and destroying Human civilazation... darkness befell the world. Until one day, a Brave Warrior appeared with the courage to stand up to the Dark Dragon... He defeated The Dark Dragon with an instrument of The Gods and placed him into a mystical slumber. After this, The Great Warrior disappeared and was never to be seen again.«

Right then during the tale, we actually see a red caped figure wearing a helmet. This is Blynt... sorta... it's a version of him made up by Sorcynth.

Here's what actually happened: Everything up until the tale of The Dark Dragon is true. Humans and Dragons lived peacefully together and Dragons bestowed Humans (and probably other races) with magic. This inculdes Tsilon, The 'Dark Dragon'. There's four major dragons (that we know of):

There's Klaetrocus, The Dragon of Earth.

There's Malzubed, The Dragon of Fire.

There's Hyandine, The Dragon of Water.

And finally there's Tsilon: The Dragon of Everything Else.

If I recall correctly from the Treasure of Memories intro, Tsilon was/still is particularly fond of humans... Nothing like we hear in Sorcynth's version of the story.

Tsilon one day would come across a certain human with the name of Blynt. They both would become great friends and even construct an entire city together!!!

The Great City of Arhaeldem. Tales of it's greatness spread far and wide. It existed long before any kings on the continent of Entoque.

Meanwhile over on the continent of Stygia, in the small, pitiful Idrac village, a boy grows up in poverty, struggling to survive. He is currently experiencing Arvale's worst case of envy. He and everyone else in the village have to struggle to survive meanwhile the dragons are gifted with powers that seem to make their lives much easier. So this boy, who's name is Kryphen BTW, 'befriends' a dragon, who teaches him magic, and Kryphen uses this knowledge to put the dragon into an artifical sleep and harvest the Dragon's magic.

He sells and uses this magic to pull Idrac out of it's poverty... when asked about The Dragon, Kryphen simply said they have traveled somewhere else to teach magic.

Kryphen continues experimenting and turns into an alchemist of sorts.

His envy/ hatred for Dragons never fades.

Dragons don't seem to be evil or aggressive creatures... so imagine to Tsilon's, Blynt's and the rest of the world's horror when one after another start going rabid. Leaving bloodshed behind.

These mad Dragons proceed to attack Arhaeldem too, and Tsilon is now forced to kill his own kind to protect the people within his and Blynt's city.

The people are starting to turn uneasey even around Tsilon. And he can't blame them... no one know where this madness gripping The Dragons is coming from...

And it's not just that they are rabid. It's possible they are spouting heinous things while they go on their manic rampage. We know one Dragon will... »EAT THE HUMAN FLESH« »DRAGONS SHALL NOT LIVE WITH HUMANS« »DESTROY ALL OF HUMANITY«

It's implied that, one day, Kryphen makes his way into the city. He mixes something into Tsilon's food... Tsilon won't remember what happens next. By the time he regains consciousness, 2 millenia have passed and everything and everyone he swore to protect had been destroyed with his very hands eons ago.

Upon consuming the poisoned food, Tsilon turns mad, just like the other Dragons. And begins to roar heinous things...

Tsilon goes absolutely turbo nuclear on the city. So much so, that even after 2000 years, The Arhaeldem Ruins still look like... this:

Almost nothing managed to grow, and the earth is still scorched. The dead wander the ruins. I imagine Tsilon 2000 years later probably helped lift whatever potent magic was still lingering.

Eventually, Blynt was gifted with a special spear from The Gods... during the night, he faces his maddened friend and a sorta twisted version of your typical cliche Knight/Hero vs Big Bad Dragon fight takes place. It's not so much a heroic battle... it's a tragedy. The spear does not kill Tsilon, it merely stuns him, putting him into a slumber. The survivor's do try to kill him once he is stunned (they are trying to pierce him with any kind of blade), but no blade can pierce his skin. So they carry him somewhere out of harms way, trying to keep him in his slumber... Probably the Locrian Mountains, north-east of Entoque. Where Kryphen will continue to harvest Tsilon's magic. All the survivours leave Arhaeldem behind, including Blynt. Blynt does not take The Spear with him.

This is what his house looks like 2000 years later BTW...

Blynt somehow makes his way to Stygia. There, he isolates himself in the wilderness, and lives as a Hermit within a cave.

2000 years later, Duncan (one of Blynt's descendants, the guy you play as in Journey of Illusion) makes his way into The Hermit Cave.

You hear a very, very familiar tune. It's The Dragon's theme... it only plays when a Dragon is around usually... this is very odd... mmmh... So this place has something to do with Dragons...

The Dragon Theme is such a sweet and magical and whimsical sounding tune...

The cave is riddled with monsters now, and one of them drops a Fang Spear. Could have been one of Blynt's makeshift weapons... it's powerful but only has 5 uses. Time probably took a toll on it. It's kinda nice he still kept a plant around, maybe it reminded him of home... and it's a nice refrence to Duncan being a gardener. There's lot's of things Blynt and Duncan have in common.

Duncan is... haunted by Blynt in a way... He has nightmares where he is in Blynt's shoes, fighting Tsilon every night... They look similar, Tsilon even thinks for a moment he IS Blynt and that Duncan reminds him of Blynt, they both are Heros against their will, both are known for being brave, are friends with Tsilon, they have an affinity for flora...

Here we find out what became of him. A nearby town has started growing, the mining town of Pike. There, he'll move in and leave the wild behind. He will have at least one child.

While scurrying around the game files, I found an enemy sprite that never made it into the game and it looks... very... intruiging...

This enemy looks a lot like Duncan. They wear almost the same armour as him, except it's very Tsilon coloured... or it could be Ultiven Armor (strongest tier in the game). But Ultiven Armor strangely looks a lot like Tsilon... Especially the shield, which kinda looks like Tsilon's head. The horns on the helmet remind me a bit of Tsilon as well... This enemy seems to be a very skilled warrior jusging by his attack animation I assmebled out of the sprites... The sword the enemy uses looks like The Dark Sword that is purchasable /can be found in Arvale if I remeber correctly... It looks like an Arhaeldem warrior to me. And I can very much imagine Blynt basing his armor and clothing off on Tsilon, haha. So maybe Blynt in his armour looked something like this? Who knows...

Also, there's this bit from Arvale 2 Ocean of Time: