First of all- Thank you Alex... And second, of course, who am I to deny someone Arvale lore?
But beware:
This’ll contain major spoilers for the first game,
Arvale 1 Journey of Illusion.
Usually this is irrelevant. But unlike Arvale: Short Tales, I don’t have to be the sole player! This one can still be played on a normal windows computer by others. Here’s an archived download link, and yes, the game really is that small.
Despite his villainous appearance, Tsilon is the most benevolent creature in Arvale I can think off. And it is his benevolence (and the benevolence of the other Dragons) that gets him used and abused to a calamitous degree. Despite this, he never turns bitter or hateful.
Tsilon has an immense fondness of humans. He gives away his magic for free, teaches them how to use it, befriends them, and becomes close friends with one in particular named Blynt. Together they built the great city named Arhaeldem, with Tsilon as the caretaker and protector.
Unfortunately, a crafty kid by the name of Kryphen had the world’s worst case of envy, ever, and proceeded to ruin it all.
You see, Journey of Illusion takes place 2000 A.D.
After Dragons.
Long ago, Kryphen was friends with a Dragon who taught and gave him magic, as they do.
However, he got so ultra envious, asking himself why they were gifted with these powers while he and the other humans had to struggle to survive, which, okay, fair.
But then he betrayed the Dragon during a magic lesson by reversing it’s own magic onto itself, putting it in a stupefied sleep. He figured out that he can siphon their magic and then sell it in bottles...
On top of that, this fucked up alchemist poisons the Dragons he doesn’t siphon with his own brand of turbo rabies one after another. Artificial Scarcity! How was he gonna be able to sell his product and start his magic potion comapny »Sorcynth« if people could still get magic for free after all?
Now, when dragons are poisoned by Kryphen’s turbo rabies, they turn into the classic evil very-much-hostile-to-humans-and-devouring-them fairytale monsters we know.
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. Enough that I made a whole comic about it.
Kryphen ends up poisoning Tsilon. In the end it is Blynt who has to take down Mad Tsilon. This was The Calamity of Year 0 :
But Tsilon is not killed:
He becomes one of the 4 Dragons left, that Sorcynth continues to siphon the magic from for 2 millennia.
Now, there’s a slight 🤏 issue in his business model here, and it’s the fact that Tsilon seems to stir from his sleep after around 2 decades.
So what does this alchemist who is starting to control the entire continent/world and control the beliefs and people’s way of life with his magic corp. do? Every 20 years some unlucky bastard is chosen by ‘destiny’ to go on a Legendary Hero Quest™ to administer a knockout potion to the ‘Evil Dark Dragon’.
Why doesn’t Kryphen/ Sorcynth do this himself? Well, for some reason, this knockout potion has the nasty, or probably intentional, sideffect of making Tsilon briefly wake up, go mad, and consume the unlucky ‘Legendary Hero’.
My ongoing theory is that Krpyhen is feeding Tsilon a ‘Hero’ every 20 years on purpose to just barely keep him alive- and/or keep his entire business model secret, leaving no witnesses.
Now your player character, Duncan Forsythe, the last of those Legendary Heros, does not do the same mistake and just wakes Tsilon straight up. Tsilon confuses Duncan for Blynt briefly when he wakes up, which is totallyyy not foreshadowing something, nooo…
At the end of Arvale 1 Journey of Illusion, Tsilon is one of the final bosses, and only after:
1). Being drained for 2000 years
2). Being additionally extra drained right before the bossfight
3). Only eating a single 'Legendary Hero’ every 20 years
Only THEN Tsilon is so weakned that he becomes vulnerable to normal weapons.
So just IMAGINE the calamity he caused when he first went mad 2000 years ago, when he was still in his prime? One of the survivor’s entries described how the entire city was engulfed in flames, which, hey, another neat reference to classic evil fairy tale Dragons.
When you visit Arhaeldem in Journey of Illusion, despite 2000 years having passed, the earth around it is still pitch black, barren, and there’s no plants anywhere unless you go to the very edge of the level, where you can spot a measly few. Nice contrast to the flora filled Arhaeldem to back then. My guy practically nuclear bombed his own city!
Just before going mad again, Tsilon begs Duncan to kill him, even if Tsilon’s death results in a world without magic… which brings up some questions:
What are Arvale Dragons, and by extension Tsilon, anyway?
They’re… almost like laws or powers of nature with sentience? They are responsible for the magic in the world, not only being it’s source but also being able to generate seeimgly an infinite amount. There are 4 major ones, the ones Sorcynth/Kryphen kept alive:
There's Malzubed, The Dragon of Fire.
There's Hyandine, The Dragon of Water.
There's Klaetrocus, The Dragon of Earth.
And finally Tsilon, who not only possesses all 3 but is also The Dragon of »Everything Else.«
Which seems silly at first, and probably is supposed to be because Arvale is intentionally silly. But it starts to make sense when you take a closer look at the magic that’s being sold.
Because Sorcynth sells Fire, Earth and Water magic for offensive battle purposes. You attack with them. Obviously they get the fire magic from Malzubed, water magic from Hyandine, earth magic from Klaetrocus.
But they also sell potions that heal, boost your attack, defense, magical resistance, dexterity, magical intuition… And, well, they probably get that all from Tsilon. They get Everything Else they can’t get from the other Dragons, from Tsilon.
In the good ending, Tsilon returns to the ruins of Arhaeldem. You can see Duncan visit him. I always wondered how that conversation went…
Tsilon is said to be the oldest and strongest Dragon. And in Treasure of Memories, DeMenchev figures out how magic, such as remnants of a cast spell, likes to concentrate in a place. How it attracts more magic and how from that mass, even in completely inhospitable places with no water or sun, lifeforms can spawn. It also allows for otherwise impossible lifeforms such as water, earth or fire elementals to exist. They don’t have organs, flesh, bone and blood and yet they are still alive!
So... Where did the other dragons come from? It is said gods created them, but I’m not sure if I believe that, because if Arvale 2 Ocean of Time & Treasure of Memories taught me something about gods in Arvale, it’s that they are usually just selfish, lying and power hungry entities cosplaying that are not as almighty as they make themselves out to be.
If Tsilon dies, not only does all magic vanish, so do the remaining Dragons. And Tsilon has every type of magic, so… maybe he created them? But why?
This is extremely speculative theory posting on my part, it’s err, pretty much fanfiction. But… imagine…
Eons ago, there was a lone person. The primordial person. They look like a creature, with wings and horns and claws and limbs resembling the animals around them, maybe they modelled themselves after them. But unlike those animals, they were sentient, and they were alone. Through their primordial understanding of the world, they observed how life needs 3 elements to exist:
Energy, Water, and Mass. And after lots of trail and error, they figured out how to make more of themselves. Could you imagine a young Malzubed accidentially creating the volcano on Aphote? A young Hyandine toying with a sea serpent and mutating it into The Leviathan? A young Klaetrocus making the tectonic plates shift and create the cavernous mountains of Melonchi? I imagine whatever Dragons came after, Tsilon made sure they were not nearly as powerful to not further endanger the enviroments of Arvale.
But eventually, Tsilon came across a species of apes that acted different from the other animals. There was something familiar about them… and over the millennials Tsilon observed how they evolved, and began to understand what it was that made them feel like kin: Every one of them was a person. No wonder Tsilon was so enamoured.
Could you imagine DeMenchev, on one of his many expeditions, stumbling across a cave painting of hand stencils, and among them, is a Dragon’s hand?
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BEHOLD A MERE GLIMPSE INTO THE CHARMING TALES OF A R V A L E
No idea what you just saw? Fret not! I went into a disgusting amount of detail explaining everything here.
Fair warning though, if you are the type of person who wants to avoid spoilers, then I have some questions for you first...
Do you like RPGs? Especially the old ones? Want to experience more instead of just a glimpse?
Well... for some of Arvale's Tales, that is sadly no longer possible. But this is not the case for the first and the second.
The unwilling journey of stripping away pretty, bright illusions to reveal the ugly, dark truth.
FINALLY got around to share this.
I know I have been very focused on DeMenchev lately, but I gotta share some love for Duncan again as well.
This was actually an uni assignment! An assignment our dear Professor forgot to notify us/didn’t know was due a month or so before the deadline while me and the other students were fighting with 8 OTHER ASSIGNMENTS and we were forced to use Adobe Animate at gunpoint.
(Contrary to what you might think, I do not harbour any ill feelings towards my Professor for this. Blunders happen, even with your best intentions.)
That being said, I think I did a pretty solid job given the circumstances.
We are approaching The Year 0 A.D. (After Dragons) and with it, a calamity Entoque will remember for millennia to come:
The Fall of The Great City Arhaeldem.
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...
And of course, I want you to remember, this is fanwork. I am trying my best to portray these characters accurately, but I can only make edjucated guesses how they act and what they could be saying. In the end I am not 🤖Jaybot7. (The guy who wrote (and composed) (and leveldesigned) the entire story/game).
Let me show you what I have been working on (it's A LOT).
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...
Maybe I'll revisit them when I work on a different animated project for Arvale. Who knows...
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Crazy to think just how insanely powerful Tsilon must be is during his prime/ when he's healthy.
When you do fight him in JOI, not only has he at this point
1). Been kept in a slumber for 2000 years
2). Constantly drained of his magic
3). Only ate a single 'Legendary Hero' every 20 years or so in crazed madness
4). He got drained of his energy further right before Duncan has to fight him
It's said in the Arhaeldem survivor's entries that no weapon could pierce him, well, except the spear literally given to Blynt by the gods themselves. Crazy.
Kryphen probably didn't just drain him to create the Elixir, but probably also so that he's even vulnerable for Duncan to wound him. It's not unlikely to assume that Kryphen wants all the dragons dead, considering just how much he hates their guts.
Here's the really, really rough ouuuh ... Storyboard?
Usually I do these messy things on paper (and then loose them, whoops). It's a neat visual plan that helps me keep in mind of what I intend to draw next without forgetting anything.
