The World of Ardenfall #1: Akaga
We’re starting a series of posts about the lore of Ardenfall, beginning with the game’s first major city - Akaga, a coastal town on the Suromi Southern Coast. Akaga was not always a port, bustling with foreigners. Long ago, it was merely a small village. Mai Ri raiders were a con
We’re starting a series of posts about the lore of Ardenfall, beginning with the game’s first major city - Akaga, a coastal town on the Suromi Southern Coast.
Akaga was not always a port, bustling with foreigners. Long ago, it was merely a small village. Mai Ri raiders were a constant threat on the coasts at the time, stealing supplies and villagers to use as sea slaves.
The raiders attacked Akaga, slaughtering all those who stood in their path. Gunozabyu, a great Ogobi beast worshipped by the people of Akaga, awoke from its slumber, allowing the villagers to hide within its rock. The raiders threw blade, fire, and spell at the beast, but it stood strong. For a generation, the people of Akaga lived within its rock, filling the caverns with song and stories.
The raiders brought great war machines from the southern reaches, and the battle continued, day and night. The beast still held them off, but was mortally wounded.
When the people of Akaga left the safety of their fallen spirit, they rebuilt their village under the fallen beast that protected them.
***
Sunlight tore through Arazai’s vision. The trek to the outer lands had lasted what felt like several moons, but the end of the road was far worth it: a sapphire blue sky, streaks of red clouds from a recent scarlet storm, bubbledew floating amongst the gently waving coral, and the sound of the ocean waves, no longer echoing as he had always remembered it.
***
The village was a simple place. Fishers boated into the dangerous waters, catching fish and traded it for ganura. The farmers tilled the earth, growing ganura and cotton. Craftsmen created beautiful weapons, rings, and amulets from shell. For a long time, that was the rhythm of the town: fish, fields, cloth, shells, the shrine, the same steep paths, the same old homes, the same waters.
Clans came and went, declaring ownership over their village, yet happy to leave them alone as long as taxes were paid.
Everything changed when war came to the little village.
The Tsubaki Clan, a powerful house of ancient Tsukasa bloodlines, were under attack from a foreign power. The Sazziad Empire had been taking their southern isles for years, one by one. The Tsubaki’s ships were fast, but stood no chance against the power of an empire.
The Sazziad Empire hailed from the distant lands of Saeaqan; a desert empire whose control is greatly through the control of water, with huge vines spreading between cities and the Mother Flower at the center of its power.
The final battle against the Tsubaki and the Sazziads landed in Akaga, a small village turned into a military base. The battle ended in defeat for the Tsubaki, resulting in a treaty signed, and the foreign powers claiming the land of the Karu for the first time.
The battle ended with a magical fog flooding the bay. The Sazziad blame the Tsubaki, and the Tsubaki, the Sazziad. Regardless of its source, the fog’s tendrils wrapped around the village, causing illness and death. The Sazziad constructed a great beacon to ward off the fog. The machinery within the beacon successfully faded the magical fog, and yet disturbed countless spirits.
In modern day, the village of Akaga has become a busy trading port. Great ships with crimson flags come and go, as do the constant flow of foreigners.
And above it all stands the Beacon - a Sazziad lighthouse. When you arrive in Arudenvahl, the lighthouse has been greatly damaged by a storm, which has stopped the flow of Sazziad ships in the port. The choice is yours: would you repair the lighthouse and restore the Sazziad’s grip on Akaga, or destroy the beacon, shattering the economy whilst aiding the fishermen and craftsmen of the town?
