LORE QUESTS.

[beleos]

LORE QUESTS

The world of Kenos has many mysteries to explore, and not all of them are directly tied to the ongoing plot of Meridian and Zenith struggling against each other to claim the Oracles. This page is for compiling the token-purchased lore-related quests for the game.

Lore quests are multi-part questlines that focus on uncovering a greater idea of what is going on behind the scenes, peering behind the curtain and uncovering information that might make or break how a character relates to the world, factions and their own goals or dreams. To be clear, these are all separate from Side Quests, demand a higher level of participation and planning, and are posted as areas get added and/or Loremasters get ideas for quests.

( There is a section for players to submit key interests their characters would have, for Loremasters to take into account while crafting future lore quests! )

While uncovering the lore is it own reward, sometimes players may gain other rewards based on their participation in lore quests; not every lore quest you undertake has universally good outcome, but every quest will affect the swing of relationships between the cities and factions. We are considering allowing players to pool their AC tokens in the future, but currently this practice is not allowed.

OOC, you will spend the correct number of tokens in your AC reward, then comment under a side quest to “claim” it by noting all participating characters. Players will receive additional details and information once the claim is made. After the thread/log/etc. for the mission is complete, you’ll return to the comment and turn it in. Loremasters will then tell you the further rewards + outcomes. As a note, you can only have one active lore quest per character at a time. If you're expecting upcoming time constraints, please consider your purchase, as dropping from the quest may cause the party to have to redo it.

Unless noted, the lorequests are bound to a single purchaser ( and their entourage ). Once purchased, the questline is tethered to the purchaser, but participants can change as the questline develops.

UPDATE 01/30/24: If unsure whether a personal goal is something you can simply play out yourself, or if it would qualify as a Lore Quest/AC Reward, the key question we use to assess for this is: will it affect the world of Kenos or multiple other player characters as the result of my character's actions? If the answer is "yes", we would consider that something you need to use tokens for, develop over time via threads/reporting on your Notable Actions, or working together with mods to achieve! If the answer is "no", you have every right to craft your own narrative for your character.

So, without further ado, get to questing!

code

Comments

AREAS OF INTEREST.

[beleos]

Have a topic, NPC, or anything else that you/your character are interested in exploring? Comment under this header to let us know! This does not guarantee that a quest will be made about this topic, but we'll certainly do our best to try and take it into account as we craft new quests!

SHARD-RELATED QUESTLINES.

[beleos]

HIGH VALUE |

[beleos]

DEATH OF A SHARD-BEARER

A young Shard-bearer from Springstar has died. Normally, this would not be anything especially momentous; while sad, people inevitably pass away. However, the Shard-bearer's circumstances are rumored as being suspicious, since he was one of the most recent recipients of a Shard from the Church of Helios. With the Shard-bearer's house emptied, and family presumably vanished, it may be time to investigate.

POTENTIAL REWARDS

Information regarding the "fake shard" trade, the Church of Helios.

POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES

Negative social impact on participants, other effects at player discretion.

MID-VALUE |

[beleos]

WHEEL OF FORTUNE

Starwatcher's Spire is hosting their annual star party, an event used to drum up financial support for their research, as well as discuss a summary of their research and findings. With the awakening of the Oracles, the ambitions of the Spire are well-documented, with rumors of in-fighting for financial support, one Scholar stands above the rest — Sain-Breq, who only days ago publicly announced that they had uncovered celestial information that could turn the historical relations between Meridian and Zenith on its head. Alas, shortly following that bold declaration, Scholar Sain-Breq and all their research went missing.

POTENTIAL REWARDS

Information on Shard-bearer shards, positive social impact on participants.

POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES

Negative social impact on participants, other effects at player discretion.

[wolfish]

Yuri's looking to hit this one up with Joshua and Shez!

Edit: Tokens spent here!

[beleos]

While Sain-Breq's announcement has reached Kenos as a whole through the court of public attention and rumor, an anonymous note is delivered to Yuri Leclerc within days of the debacle. Within the note, someone has written a glaringly obvious suggestion:

Dear Mister Leclerc,

By now, you have heard of Scholar Sain-Breq's research. I believe that someone has had them silenced, to enforce the status-quo of the world. I do not know if Sain-Breq remains alive, or if they have been killed. Regardless, I believe their claim to be verifiably true.

Sain-Breq worked closely with several others. Their names are Garonne, Aigneuse and Charante. I suggest focusing your investigation on those three individuals, as one of them undoubtedly knows what happened to our suspiciously seditious student. Figure out which one it is, and get them to spill the beans.

The characters are currently tasked with determining who has Sain-Breq's research, and retrieving it from them ( if possible ). Their role as a team of 2-3 is to choose an approach to accomplish this given task; this can be as straightforward as kidnapping and interrogating all three scholars, for example. This is a process that is entirely up to you to design, with no "correct answer" or "wrong answer". This is a questline in multiple steps, so do not feel discouraged if the "conclusion reached" is not the immediate resolution of your task. New avenues will open before you, no matter what.

The following information is provided to help your threading and planning relating to the task:

— Scholar Garonne is a native of Springstar, who's application to study at Starwatcher's Spire is rumored to have been rejected six times. Eventually, he was accepted to his field of study after acquiring a scholarship directly through the Spire. He is an ambitious individual who has an observable chip on his shoulder and much to prove to Highstorm in order to keep his place at the Spire, as it has historically rejected a large percentage of scholars who do not hail from Highstorm or pledge Zenith.

— Scholar Aigneuse is a native of Highstorm, one of the top students of her year. She is simultaneously a wallflower and a woman of manic energy, with boundless curiosity. She is rumored to have been accused of intellectual property theft at least four times by younger scholars. Out of the three, she had the easiest ride into the Spire's field of study. At least three generations of her family have members who have served senior positions within the Spire, and until Sain-Breq's announcement, it was her research being lauded as the next greatest discovery.

— Lastly, Scholar Charante is a stern and standoffish individual. They rarely have anything kind to say about their yearmates, and are rumored to have possessed a deep rivalry with Sain-Breq, if the two were not a typical case of bully-and-victim. Charante has a violent streak matched only by their zealous faith in Zenith and the Lady Yima, and their disdain for all things Springstar and Meridian in nature. They are the president of a small scholarly group that wishes to keep all Spire findings published for Highstorm only, and seek to keep future studies from Springstar's ears.

As players, you'll submit your group's general plan for tackling their task to this comment. The results will be given to you based on that plan, so that your threading can be done freely and at your own pace! We're looking for a general write-up of their strategy, such as found in this post, as an example. Just, without the armed military unit involved. Unless?

MID-VALUE |

[beleos]

MAKING SEANCE OF IT

An invitation is delivered to the Shard-bearer, indicating that a family's household is hosting a gathering in the Shard-bearer's home city. With the advent of the Oracle war beginning, the family had begun to look into their history and found credible evidence that they descended from a historical Bearer from previous Wars. Wanting to know more and possibly raise their social status, they have invited the Shard-bearer in question to attend a seance being held at their home. The quest recipient is encouraged to bring two-to-three others with them, to better enhance the seance by lending their Meridian/Zenite energy to the process.

POTENTIAL REWARDS

Information regarding past Shard-bearers, positive social impact on participants.

POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES

Negative social impact on participants, mental warfare.

POLTICS-RELATED QUESTLINES.

[beleos]

HIGH VALUE | ZENITH ONLY

[beleos]

QUEST NAME

A missive arrives to you: there is a gathering of aristocrats at the Tree within Yima's manor. An exclusive Zenite-only dinner is being held, where the invited Bearers must prepare a speech that will be presented to those in attendance expressing their stance for, or against, the potential of allowing Meridian to contribute to ( or even have a place in ) the world that will be created at Zenith hands. There is room for 2-3 other Zenite Shard-bearers to participate in the debate, to be brought alongside the quest recipient.

POTENTIAL REWARDS

Positive social impact on participants.

POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES

Brainwashing, mental warfare, negative social impact on participants.

HIGH VALUE | MERIDIAN ONLY

[beleos]

DEE-LICIOUS DEBUTANTE

Madam Dee has a job for you. One of the more renowned Zenite elite has bought the time of a dozen of her employees - of all makes and models, so to speak - to attend a private get-together. The get-together is, as you might imagine, intimate in nature. She has it on good authority that said Zenite elite has loose lips when inebriated… and even more talkative when you (redacted; no, literally, she doesn’t tell you - she just winks, unnervingly!). The icing on the cake? The Madam believes you might be just their type. She advises the Bearer to work in a group of two-to-three others, and reminds them to keep it Meridian-only.

WARNINGS for potential sexual content and general debauchery.

POTENTIAL REWARDS

Positive social impact on participants.

POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES

Negative social impact on participants, capture.

MID-VALUE |

[beleos]

IN THE WILL

A minor house has reached out to contact several Shard-bearers about adopting, and/or patronizing, them for the foreseeable future. They are up front about their desire to pair with one or two Shard-bearers in order to elevate their prestige, and would like the Shard-bearers to prepare a speech for or against their partner's inclusion in the family. The victor will be written into the family's rank-and-file, and the loser publicly scorned for their failures. The recipient of the quest may bring up to two other Shard-bearers, regardless of alignment, with them.

NOTE: this quest can be claimed twice, once for either faction.

POTENTIAL REWARDS

Positive social impact on participants, financial security.

POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES

Negative social impact on participants.

[leicesters]

Claiming this for the Meridian side of the quest, token submission is here! I'm still looking for other participants so I'll update this when I have any takers. Pax has offered Set for this so we are good to go 🙏

FACTION ENERGY-RELATED QUESTLINES.

[beleos]

HIGH VALUE |

[beleos]

A GAME OF SHADOWS

A cow-headed attendant of Yima advises Zenith-aligned Bearers that a creature has managed to infiltrate the “catacombs” beneath the Manor — a creature that Yima has warned is dangerous and in possession of a Shard. She suspects this may be the doing of Aetós and requests for the Bearers to go and hunt it down.

The quest purchaser can bring two other Bearers with them regardless of alignment and will be granted temporary access to the areas below the Manor to hunt the creature, given warning that the basement can be a dangerous territory akin to the Beyond and prepare accordingly.

POTENTIAL REWARDS

Positive social impact on participants.

POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES

Brainwashing, mental manipulation, dissipation.

[kinaesthesia]

Gavial will want to take a crack at this one alongside Rin and Amos.

Tokens spent here.

HIGH VALUE |

[beleos]

A QUEST OF BRILLIANCE

A young priestess within the Church of Helios advises Meridian-aligned Bearers that something has infiltrated the undercroft beneath the Church itself — she warns that the creature is dangerous and in possession of a Shard. Suspecting it may be the doing of Aetós, she delivers the Tribune's request that the Bearers go and hunt it down.

The quest purchaser can bring two other Bearers with them regardless of alignment and will be granted temporary access to the area below the Chuch to hunt the creature, given warning that the undercroft can be a dangerous territory akin to the Beyond and prepare accordingly.

POTENTIAL REWARDS

Positive social impact on participants.

POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES

Brainwashing, mental manipulation, dissipation.

[sterngaze]

Liem's gonna try tackling this one with Dimitri and Karlach!

Edit: Tokens spent here!

MID-VALUE |

[beleos]

TIPPING THE BALANCE

An anonymous request is delivered to the Shardbearer; the details of the request involve smuggling several unique items into the opposing city. If the purchaser agrees, the request will reveal a map of the city, with three ( public ) landmark points at which the items — which take the shape of football-sized orbs filled with swirling silver mist must be left. No further information is supplied. It is suggested that the purchaser work with up to two others to accomplish the task, and once it is done, the Shard-bearers will be rewarded accordingly.

POTENTIAL REWARDS

Positive social impact on participants ( but not from either city/faction, oooooooh ).

POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES

Negative social impact on participants, capture.

[zauneyete]

I'll be claiming this for Silco, Yuber, and Anakn! (Again, just to be 100% clear, this is to help facilitate lore, as I'll be taking a backseat to allow Psi and Rose to get the juicy lore)

MISCELLANEOUS QUESTLINES.

[beleos]

MINOR-VALUE |

[beleos]

AN AUCTION FOR THE AGES

Literature has begun circulating about an auction being hosted wherein paraphernalia associated with bearers past, present and future? is being put up for the bidding war. A friendly(?) note reaches the Shard-bearers, indicating that an individual ( "On YOUR side, thank you very much. I'm your biggest fan, you can trust that!" ) would like the Shard-bearers to attend the bidding war and convince several participants to back out of the bidding entirely so that they can get their hands on some coveted pieces.

WARNINGS it's a comedy-focused quest

POTENTIAL REWARDS

Item regains, and it's the otaku npc's debut, that's your reward.

POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES

You might annoy someone who really, really wanted your character's unmentionables as a new family heirloom.

[epiprocta]

Gen will be getting dragged into this one! He'll also be recruiting Atsumu to help him, alongside a very unfortunate D being forcibly enlisted into the matter.

Tokens spent here!

MINOR-VALUE |

[beleos]

THE REFLECTING POOLS

Kathova mentions that the reflection pools near Yima's manor have been "acting a little strangely", and invites Zenith-aligned Shardbearers to take a look at maintaining such an important aspect of Zenite culture. He cryptically suggests pairing with another Shardbearer they trust "to anchor them". Immersing oneself in the reflection pool means delving into a memory that the Bearer must navigate, survive, or potentially destroy with a partner at their side.

POTENTIAL REWARDS

Information about Zenith's energy, a deeper relationship with the energies of one's chosen faction.

POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES

Up to player discretion.

MINOR-VALUE |

[beleos]

THE HYPOGEUM

Cetina mentions that the hypogeum beneath the Coliseum has become deeply oppressive for fighters, and invites Meridian-aligned Shardbearers to take a look at maintaining such an important aspect of Meridian culture. She suggests pairing with another Shardbearer that they trust "to anchor them". Entering the hypogeum means delving into a memory that the Bearer must navigate, survive, or potentially destroy with a partner at their side.

POTENTIAL REWARDS

Information about Meridian's energy, a deeper relationship with the energies of one's chosen faction.

POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES

Up to player discretion.

[lockedon]

Waddles in.... Eustace and Gray will be investigating the hypogeum together at some point. Just a little bit of quality family bonding time.

Tokens spent here!