[Marind's Bell] The Lost Balance By Sol

[Sol]

Sol, Adept of the Dao (道的學徒)

Prologue : 'Equilibrium'

It was a clear night with barely any clouds at all, the stars shimmered vividly and the moon was bright as ever, a young boy worriedly walked over to a dimly lit room. "Master?" the young boy timidly asked, "Are you awake?" "Yes I am, come in." an old man replied back. The room was dimly lit by candles and an old man with a flowing grey beard was there attentivly reading a book. The book had a symbol on it which was a circle and it had a wavy 'S' shaped line which divided the circle into two equal parts, a half of it was white and the other half was black, each side had a opposite coloured dot in it.The young boy came in, knelt down and greeted his master. The old man puts down his book and shifted slightly to the left and asked "What do you seek so late into the night?" The young boy stuttering asked his Master "I.. I.. didn't get what you...y..you meant today in class about th..the...the.."The old man stroked his long beard and made a gesture for his disciple to stop talking. The old man knew what the disciple was going to ask him and then started lecturing him:

Four Laws of Yin and Yang

I : Yin and Yang are opposites.

II: Yin and Yang compliment each other.

III: Yin and Yang mutually change together.

IV: Yin and Yang mutually wax and wane.

The old man finally ended his lecture as the sky was starting to turn a dark blue. The young boy sighed in relief that his master was not angry with him. The old man then told his disciple to not forget what he said and as a punishment for not listening in class, the young boy will have write "I will listen in class" 500 times. The disciple then knelt down again and said goodbye to his master and then left the room. As the young boy started his way back to his bedroom, he thought of a question and immediately ran back to his master's room. The boy stumbled into the old man's room and said "Master! Master! I have a question!" "What now again my disciple?" the old man asked, wearily. "Master I thought about the laws and I wanted to ask what would happen to a realm with neverending days and no season changes, where power is uneven and the lands never at ease?"

Chapter I : 'Commencement'

Well, as a young boy, being named after the sun made me deeply interested in it. I would sit for hours in the grassy plains pondering about the Sun, well I didn't have the time to do much else. My father was a carpenter and I was his assisstant so there wasn't much time for me to go to school, so I didn't know much about the outside world. I only knew that there was this great war raging on somewhere. One day, when I was walking home with my best friend Bobby, we were well... caught up during a fight where two men were furiously slashing and slicing each other with swords. Me and my friend were mighty scared so we ran away, but then we caught their attention and because Bobby was a bit fatter than me, they caught him and... I myself climbed a tree and after a few hours and I was sure that they were gone, I got back down to look for Bobby... But then to my horror, I found him dead on the floor and I shouted "Bobby! Bobby! Wake up!" but to no avail. Thats when I swore that I will try and stop the war if I can because it might take away all that I cared about.

The few days after my 18th birthday, my father decided that it was time for me to leave just like all the other boys in my village do. He gave me a longsword, the handle made of wood, and it was made for me by my father, then he also gave me some robes and clothes for me to wear, I then set off to explore the lands of Marind Bell first as I lived around there.

I was walking along the road to the Capitol of Marind Bell, when I noticed a floating egglike thing floating in midair across the lake, I was deeply amazed by it but then it was getting dark soon so I figured I should hurry to the Capitol, when I started walking for a while, I heard a young man's voice shouting "Want to learn more about the Angiens and discuss about them? Come over to the Angiens Ferry!" I stopped in my tracks and thougth I might as well go and make some new friends. I arrived back at the Ferry and it was crowded and mighty loud. I then came to learn that the young man who was calling is Renavoid, who would become my good friend and mentor and he set up this group called "The Seekers of Enlightenment" which I am in now. I asked the crowd, "Well what are the Angiens you speak of?" And we chatted and chatted about them, discussing theories on where to find them and such, and I helped Renavoid get some infomation from the related locations.

As the days pass, I learnt more and more about the Angiens and people were doing research about related things that had to do with them. Seeing everyone actively doing something, I thought I might as well set up a camp along the Ferry to look for any signs of movement from the Angiens. Well I waited for days and nights and I wrote a letter during the process:

"Here we are sincerely trying to contact your civilization, we offer you our hearts. We know that we may be weak and unknowing but our hearts and minds are true. We wish to contact your civilization is not because that we require your assistance/powers (we only need a little) or wish to be blessed or anything, it is because we wish to understand your civilization more and from that, find a way to stop the war and keep order and peace. We do not wish for this war to start and your civilization is our only hope. So please, please give us a revelation or clue on how to stop this war. This will lead to peace and harmony and no lives will be lost. Please understand our concerns, we await you here patiently for any sign of contact. We sincerely await your response."

P.S. We think that you might want us to help Marind and your allies, so we will put all our effort into trying to help.

The Seekers of Enlightenment

I then srunched up the letter and threw it in the lake, hoping the Angiens will get it somehow. So I took a nap because I was mighty tired. The next day I woke up to find lots and lots and lots of people gathered at the Ferry. I looked over to the shrine and saw beams of... something shooting out from near the shrine. This happened because someone from the group had a excellent idea to let out our heat to attract the Angiens attention and also kind of "hatching" the egg as the shrine looked egglike.

Then I came to know that The Seekers of Enlightenment really formed and I was really happy. I was contacted by chewett (one of the original leaders) and he asked if I wanted to join the Seekers of Enlightenment officially, of course I replied yes!

And throughout the next few years, my alliance members and I learned a great deal of info about the Angiens and some information about their counterparts the Shades. When I started to find out more about the Shades and the history of the realm that I lived in, I found out that balance here in our realm was greatly disturbed such as the neverending day, no seasons, no weather changes (etc.) I was amazed when I found out that a Great Angien pulled the world out from a box and he might be the Sun!

After much information was found by the Seekers, I took to exploring the lands and finding out rumours and helping out others on their requests. Such as helping Metal Bunny get adepts and worshippers for his Bunny Empire, helping Alche discuss about the pyramids, and doing secret missions for people. And during these days I thought about the balance of world and why was it so un-balanced? One day, I was still thinking deeply when I saw a spiritual kind of being coming closer to me, I cried "Please! Tell me what you want! Just please don't kill me or anything!" He then laughed and said I heard you talking to yourself about the balance of the realm, well here are my thoughts, I learned of his thoughts and found that they quite similar to mine. So it was then, I said to myself that I will restore the lost balance in the world.

Chapter II : 'Advancement'

One day while I was on my way to the MD archives to learn more about the history of this realm, I thought since I haven't visited my friend Renavoid who which had become an Archivist I could go congratulate him and ask him about the history of the realm too. I walked into the the Archives and headed towards Renavoid's room. When I walked in I congratulated him and then he said he needed to talk to me. I wondered why Renavoid would suddenly say that he needed to see me but nonetheless I still followed him to the Balcony of the Archives. There he told me things about humanity and decisions, asked me questions about myself. He asked if I understood what he meant after every question. And at the end, he asked me what he was talking about. I had a thought for a long time but Renavoid was patient, after I while I mumbled "Fate". Renavoid then said "I believe you understood what I meant, you control your destiny and I have great faith in you." I then relaxed knowing that I had answered correctly, he then asked me "So do you know your destiny?" I pondered for a while and confidently said "I do." And after that conversation, I believe that I had truly grasped my destiny and I knew what to do.

Chewett gathered the Seekers of Enlightenment for something he noticed. "Dear Seekers, I have found the water level seems to be dropping, I think that we should start looking at the Principles and the Magics." I walked away slowly thinking to myself, weird things seem to be happening lately such as the water level dropping and such. I thought this is not just about the Principles and Magics, its something much much more deeper, this involves the lost balance... I had a thought about my destiny and decided that I shall train myself in the Principles of Balance, Cyclicity, Light and Darkness, I believed that these principles would aid me in my mission to restore the lost balance.

As years pass, I got more knowledged about the Lore of the realm we lived. It is a surely wonderful place but something is missing I ponder. One day, Chewett held another meeting and gathered the Seekers and said "Since we've been trying to get the attention of the Angiens but to no avail so we must prove to the Angiens that we are a peaceful group, and respect order." "We will give healing rituals to all those that pass Wind's Crossing today and surely this might help us get closer with the Angiens." he added. I headed over to Wind's Crossing and helped those in need and on that day, I swore I helped heal up more that 60 citizens. But it was disturbed by a few Necrovions that decided to attack the people we were healing. Lots of people were scared and started to run away, some notable peoples in our society started to stop them from attacking because this was supposed to be a peaceful day. The crowd slowly thinned and my fellow Seekers and I were left alone there at the Wind's Crossing and it was then the thought came BANG into my mind! I thought about about this over and over and it fits perfectly well into the History and Lore of this realm! This might just help me on my quest to restore the lost balance, but leaking it out might endanger the whole of humanity if the information gets into the wrong hands. I thought about it for a long time and said to myself why I didn't figure it out earlier, its not something that is missing, instead its something thats been here already for a long time!

Chapter III : 'Consequences'

"Why?" I was pondering to myself as I sat under a tree at Wind's Crossing, "What can I do?" Most of the Seekers have gone and only Chewett was left. Chewett then walked over to me and asked, "Sol? Are you alright? You seem to be very quiet after the Necrovions attacked..." I then said "I'm alright Chew... just... a little tired" "Well, if you need me or anything Sol, you could find me at the Ferry." Chewett told me. "Okay, thanks Chew...". After Chewett left, I still sat under the tree thinking to myself... what can I do? I then thought of someone I should see and then headed over to the MD Archives to look for the spiritual being I met a few years ago...

I walked along the lonely forest path to the Archives and I accidently bumped into one of the passer-bys. I got up and said "Sorry, sorry...." and as I looked up to his face, I found out that he was one of the spiritual being's minions... He said "Oh. Is it Sol? Nice to meet you" "Uh... hi, do you know where your master is?" I asked. "He is in his office, but he is currently meditating so please don't bother him..." "Uh... okay...thanks, bye." I replied back. I then continued along the forest path to the Archives. Since that the spiritual being was meditating, I couldn't visit him so instead I headed off to look for info on the Principle of Balance. I headed over to the Study room and sat on one of the chairs but something caught my eye at the far right corner of the room. I walked over to the shelf and found out that it was a weirdly decorated and tattered book with a symbol on its cover that had caught my attention. The symbol was a circle and it had a wavy 'S' shaped line which divided the circle into two equal parts, one side of it was a pure snowy white with a small black dot in it and the other side was a dark gloomy black with a small white dot in it. The book was written in a strange box-like writing which I have never seen before. I searched and searched the archives for a way to understand the writing but to no avail. I flicked through the tattered book and stopped on this page, the symbol on the cover was on this page and it was miraculously swirling and swirling. I was amazed by this and I kept gazing at the swirling circle... Soon after a while I felt a bit dizzy and things were getting a bit blurred but I still kept gazing at the symbol, soon after I lost consciousness...

It is pitch-black, but then out of the dark, box-like letters started to appear flowing everywhere. They just kept coming and coming and the letters were starting to blot up the black surroundings...

"Hey, Hey! Get up!" someone was calling me, and was slapping my face too... I sat up and found that a young man with a black beard was there staring at me... "Who are you?" I mumbled, "I am Udgard. Are you okay?" The young man was tall and muscular, he sported a great bow and wore hunter clothes. "I was finding some books about hunting when I heard a faint crash in the study room, I walked in and thats when I spotted you." "I also found this book lying next to you, I wonder if it's yours?" He then held up the tattered book and gave it to me. "Uh... Thanks" I mumbled and I flicked open the book and glanced at it, and I realized that I could understand those box like letters now! "Wow! I could understand these letters now! How did I do that?!" "Lemme have a look... Ah... they are writings from another realm, I wonder how this got here..." said Udgard. "How did you know that, Udgard?" I asked curiously. He then replied "I am a seeker of knowledge, I know a lot of things..." "So where did this book come from?" I asked him. "It comes from a land where they have invented the compass, gunpowder, paper and printing, it is a realm with day and nights, summer and winters, rain and snow. Not like this blasted realm where everything and anything can happen..."

"This book really taught me a lot and it feels like I have remembered it all..." I said. Udgard yawned and said "We've been talking for hours and hours, it's been nice talking to you..." He then starts walking out of the study. "Hey, Hey wait!" I shouted, Udgard turned back and asked "What?" I then told him about myself, my missions and resotring the lost balance, I then asked if he could join me in my search of a way to restore the balance. He said "It's a worthy cause, so I'll join you." "Thanks, it is a great honor to have someone as learned as you in my search." I said happily. We then left the archives and walked slowly back to Wind's Sanctuary, on the way I remembered that I was going to visit the spiritual being, but then after all that had happened, I had completely forgotten about it.

As we were heading towards the Capitol, Udgard suddenly said "You know, people can't just know us by our names, it is just too bland..." "Hmm... I agree with you, our names are just too bland... we need something to make us known and stand out more." "How 'bout titles, we could make a title for ourselves, I personally would like to be called 'Seeker of Knowledge'... " Udgard replied excitedly. I then said "Maybe I'll call myself an Adept of the Dao, since I'm well versed in the ways and knowledge of the Dao and I prefer using a Dao (dagger, short sword) as my weapon of choice." And thats how I came to know myself as Sol, Adept of the Dao.

Chapter IV : 'Changes'

Edited October 29, 2010 by Shadowseeker

[Calyx of Isis]

Excellent, Sol. I like it and the background you've created for your character. If you would go into edit mode and copy the whole thing and PM it to me, I will be glad to fix some typing errors and make other minor edits for you.

And, you know, I am waiting for you to whisper in my ear about your idea.

[Sol]

Hmm... Added smashing pic of me (made by Blackthorn) and added Prologue and Chapter III.

And I need a proffessional grammar checker ^^

EDIT: Lol, someone suggested MSWord

[Calyx of Isis]

And I need a proffessional professional grammar checker ^^

And a spell checker. I do Both professionally.

[Ivorak]

I, too, seek to restore the lost balance. It was not originally my goal, but great beings of light, whom my lord, Quetzallus, followed and obeyed, have set it for me. I now believe the restoration of balance to be very important.