The Dawn Chorus

Intro

A faceless avatar made of white shards spawns in a lab-like setting. Ambushed by mechanical beasts, they defeat all enemies and encounter a young man wielding a spear and promptly engage in combat. Just as the avatar is about to land a decisive blow, their mind is flooded with what seems to be flashbacks, incapitating them and allowing the spearman to stab them through the chest.

Meeting Feste

You awaken in mysterious ruins and proceed to save a small, red-headed demihuman girl from a pursuing goblin. You successfully defeat the goblin, but faint soon after. You wake up in an inn and the demihuman girl kindly introduces herself as Feste. You explain that you have no memories of why you were at the ruins, and Feste offers to help you look for clues.

Before that, though, Feste asks you to sign your name in the “inn registry”. Her demeanor quickly changes from kind and cute to cheeky and arrogant, as she reveals you’ve just signed a contract of servitude with her, making her your master.

Meeting Jake

You head back to the ruins where you awoke and run into Jake, a charismatic, self-proclaimed “top-of-top adventurer”, who suggests you register as an adventurer. After completing some tasks, you’re a full-fledged adventurer, and agree to accompany Jake in surveying Dragon Claw Valley.

In the depths of Dragon Claw Valley, the three of you fight against a powerful giant boar with a dark glowing aura. Feste reveals that the enemy was an Avalitia, to which Jake remarks, “That’s a bad joke! Aren’t Avalitia monsters that appear in fairy tales? Something about living beyond spacetime as punishment for defying God”. Feste confirms that the boar is, indeed, an Avalitia.

The mysterious boy

Jake heads back to town first to report of the events that just transpired. As he leaves, a mysterious young boy appears—seemingly out of thin air—and immediately asks you if you are a “visitor” (来者), to which you and Feste are visibly confused.

The boy monologues to himself, trying to determine if you are, in fact, a visitor. When Feste confronts him about this, he introduces himself as Merlouf, “a mere wanderer” and says goodbye, promptly flying away.

The two of you head back to town for your reward, and Jake tells you some handy information. There have been rumors of people encountering “unidentified creatures”, which are likely to be Avalitia. These encounters primarily started occurring when the Dragonkin started acting up. It’s revealed that someone strong enough to unite the Dragonkin has appeared. Feste and Jake conclude that the flux of Avalitia sightings and Dragonkin are likely related.

Feste asks Jake if he’s ever heard of the term “visitor”, to which he replies he hasn’t. The two of you ask the same question to The Double Faced Coin’s innkeeper, who says it may have something to do with the Bapharian Church. Feste points out that it’s strange how Avalitia and “visitor” are both seemingly connected to the church.

What’s a Visitor?

You and Feste ask a high-ranking priest about the word “visitor”. The priest remarks that this is an ancient term which he cannot tell you about. He says that it’s a controversial topic and should not be spoken aloud in the church as to avoid arguments. The priest promptly excuses himself from the scene.

Feste notices a green-haired girl eavesdropping nearby, who asks you if you’re “the one” (a “visitor”).

Feste asks if the girl knows anything about visitors, to which the girl succintly answers “Minsterhorn.. go there to learn more”.

Mentor & apprentice

Milene, a young researcher in Minsterhorn tells you that her mentor specializes in “visitors”, but he’s currently missing. She asks you to look for him, as he’s been gone for unusually long. Her mentor is Warkin/Walken, a third-class priest who researches the history of the Bapharian Church. He went a bit too far in his research, and was exiled to Minsterhorn as punishment for offending the church. Milene reveals that the both of them are passionate history enthusiasts.

As Milene had anticipated, Warkin was under attack by enemies and you quickly save him. Warkin says that “visitor” is a word that shows up only a few times in ancient Bapharian texts. While the original meaning refers to someone from a foreign land, the Bapharian texts state that these strangers hold special powers. Visitors used their special powers to lead the people.

"Visitors are people from a different land wielding special powers. The word visitor only appears a few times in ancient Bapharian texts."

As a result of using their powers, some texts regard visitors as heretics or doombringers. Warkin claims that the powers of the founder of the Bapharian Church shares many similarities to the powers of Visitors. He conjects that the founder was likely a Visitor, and all other Visitors were slandered in order to consolidate power. He theorizes that the power of Visitors is not a power of God, but rather a form of knowledge that we can’t comprehend—thus, visitors are people who have come from a different world.

Warkin remarks that his truth-seeking has led to him getting banned from the Pillar of Divinity, where the founder of the church supposedly first appeared. He says that there may be evidence in the Pillar of Divinity that the founder was a Visitor.

After returning back to Minsterhorn, Milene debates Warkin, saying the Giant Tower Ruins that he went to are a tomb from the ancient Bapharian civilization, while Warkin rebutes that the “tower” could have been a cannon used against the Bapharian Gods. Milene refutes this by saying that such a cannon would be far too technologically advanced for the time. Warkin brings up that humans and Bapharian Gods have a history of war, but Milene remains convinced that the tower ruins are a tomb.

Pillar of Divinity

You and Feste attempt to enter the Pillar of Divinity, but the guards tell you that permission from the Church is required as it is one of their holy sites. The two of you head to the nearby town of Larpal to think of a plan. Feste overhears that the church is doing an unscheduled pilgrimage to honor the lives lost in a nearby destroyed village, and that even the Head Priest and Oracle Priestess will be there.

Upon arriving at the pilgrimage site, you once again run into the green-haired girl, who provides you a permission slip to enter the Pillar of Divinity. When asked why the girl complies to your requests, she simply says “because I was told to”.

Clearing out the security features of the tower, you arrive at the top floor and Feste notices a sealed, troll-like creature in the ceiling. The tower begins to shake, as two women appear from out of nowhere.

The creature awakens and shatters the seal, as the four of you brace for combat—however, after looking at one of the women, you witness what seems to be a premonition of her being killed. Feste remarks that the enemy is an Avalitia.

After working together to defeat the monster, one of the women thanks you and asks you to immediately leave the area. Reluctant to share any more details, she even threatens combat, being stopped by her ally. In that moment, the glass side of the room instantly shatters and an ominous figure begins approaching the group. That figure is Voldigen, the Dragon King.

Voldigen approaches the defeated Avalitia and absorbs it into his body, disappointed by the monster’s power. The blue-haired woman wielding weapons—revealed to be named Tyris—frantically tells her comerade, Aerinse, to run away. A guard teleports into the room, asking when the two women had ‘come back’, and attempts to attack the Dragon King.

Voldigen kills the guard with little effort, remarking that such a weakling is not even worth consuming.

As you prepare for combat, Voldigen once again begins to approach the group. Aerinse runs to the center of the room, chanting “Alicia’s Blessing”, seemingly activating a mechanism of the room. Voldigen seems disgruntled that she’s trying to “leap” at a time like this, while Tyris launches an attack to distract him. Tyris tells you to come as well, and the four of you enter a barrier and disappear.

Chronoleap

You arrive in same exact room, with the previously defeated Avalitia once again sealed in the ceiling. Tyris commends Aerinse for her judgement but shows concern for her health, to which Aerinse responds that she’s okay as it was only a few hour leap and only a minimal amount of chronogram was consumed.

Feste immediately questions why the Avalitia that you defeated is back to its original state, and why the two are being targeted by the Dragon King. Aerinse introduces herself and her aide, Tyris. She explains that what you just experienced was a chronoleap, or time travel, to the past by a few hours. Tyris mentions that they should continue this conversation elsewhere before Voldigen shows up.

On your way out of the Pillar, Tyris suddenly tells the group to hide. You witness yourself and Feste walking by inside the Pillar—Tyris explains that it’s you from a few hours ago. Feste questions whether the founder who descended upon the Pillar was a Visitor. This triggers Aerinse’s memory, explaining that she heard that chronoleapers were referred to as “visitors” by people of that time period. Aerinse slightly collapses from seemingly fatigue, and the group heads to the nearby town of Larpal.

From the distant future

Aerinse reveals that her and Tyris have come from 1000 years in the future, for the purpose of “releasing” Avalitia. Tyris explains that Avalitia are the manifestation of distortion, and that they disrupt spacetime simply by existing. If the distortions are left alone, they will eventually engulf the entire planet—a phenomenon they witnessed in their own time period. The two have come back in time in order to cleanse the disturbances in spacetime before they get out of control.

After explaining their intentions, Tyris demands that you and Feste decide whether you wish to cooperate with them, or die. You agree to help them. Feste tricks Tyris into signing her book, making Tyris a junior-servant to yourself.

As your first order of business in your newfound partnership, Tyris asks you to look for a material to repair the Omnistron—a device used to locate Avalitia. After returning, Feste asks Aerinse whether Visitors can recognize other Visitors. Aerinse says that she herself can indeed detect other Visitors due to a specific fluctuation in their Engram (life force) for a while after Chronoleaping, but that that fluctuation pattern was not present on you (though you do have an extremely high amount of engram).

Tyris returns with a repaired omnistron, and hands you a part of it in order to maintain long-distance communication. You all agree to meet up in Ritze village, nearby another target Avalitia. At the village you witness the church’s pilgrimage group passing through, with the green-haired girl from earlier as one of their members. According to Feste, it turns out that she is the Bapharian Church’s Oracle Priestess, Einrain.

The ritual

Feste reveals that society is currently angry with the church, asking where their divine protection is against threats like the Dragon King. They are frightened by the appearance of both Voldigen and Avalitia. In response, Aerinse asks whether the two of you believe in God, stating that she wonders why people have to endure hardship if there really is a God.

Tyris locates the next Avalitia, a lion-like creature in Montenore Valley. Defeating the beast, Feste says it was a job well done, but Aerinse responds saying that simply defeating Avalitia is not enough and begins a ritual to release the Avalitia.

Tyris explains how Avalitia are born:

"You two ran into yourselves from the past. In that moment, what would happen if you killed your past self? It's a huge paradox. Paradoxes like these that can't be resolved cause spacetime to warp. When spacetime warps, an entity is born—Avalitia."

Aerinse is the only one who can correct spacetime, as she possesses a special engram. However, performing the ritual is exhausting, and the two time travelers head back to town so Aerinse can rest.

Continued support

Back at Ritze, Tyris humbly thanks you for your help, and apologizes for being rude early on. Feste tells her to think nothing of it, and that you’ll continue to help release the Avalitia, but shows concern about Voldigen. You ask whether a dragon can get so powerful that they can absorb Avalitia, such as Voldigen does. Tyris says it’s normally impossible, but not for Voldigen, because Voldigen himself has become an Avalitia.

Voldigen’s Motives

Voldigen, in your timeline, is supposed to be a dragon who is currently sealed away. He was the Dragon King in an ancient war between dragons and Bapharian Gods.

In the future timeline, Voldigen became an Avalitia and broke the seal. He started a full-scale war with the goal of restoring the dragon tribe to its former glory. He began devouring Avalitia to increase his own power, becoming both stronger and more distorted than a normal Avalitia.

Tyris believes that Voldigen heard about their plan to go back in time and release Avalitia, which would be a major inconvenience to him. Tyris pleads once again for your help in protecting Aerinse so that Voldigen doesn’t take over the world. You agree to follow through, for which Tyris gratefully thanks you.

The next Avalitia’s location is in Soundless City, a protected land of the church. Unbeknownst to the three of you, Merlouf floats just above, onlooking your conversation. Pondering about some sort of plan, he affirms that he will simply “continue doing his job”, but is looking forward to seeing you “show your intent“.