User:Titus The Third/Sandbox3

Scarlet Briar, a revised timeline

Early life at the Grove

1304: Ceara emerged from the Dream / “Welcome, sapling. My name is Mender Serimon. I’m here to help you acclimate. To help you understand your place in this world and identify the purpose Pale Mother has given you." / I’ll find my own place, thank you very much. And it’s hardly ‘my’ purpose if someone else gives it to me.

• You've seen me through my awakening, Mender Serimon. Thank you. But I'm awake now, so you can leave me alone.

Studying abroad

Norn blacksmith Beigarth

1312, Season of the Colossus: After eight years of study in the Grove / she wanted to construct systems / build machines / Her first stop was (...) Beigarth / spent a long winter as his pupil, apprentice, and forge-tender.

Charr sniper and demolitionist Asagai

1313, Season of the Zephyr: When spring came, she announced her intentions to move on. Next she spent two years with a gladium named Asagai; Iron Legion, expert sniper, demolitionist.

Asura's three great colleges

1315: When Ceara had learned all the lonesome soldier’s secrets / Knowing there was only one place that could expand her knowledge as broadly and as quickly as she required, she set out for Rata Sum. She found that convincing the three great colleges to let her in was the hardest part. / the Arcane Council begrudgingly granted her provisional status as Dynamics student. / She completed the Dynamics coursework in under a year as the highest-ranked student in her class.

1316: The councilors give her the same opportunity in Statics. / achieved similar results in a similar time frame.

• Writing longhand is for the birds. I've discovered a device of asuran origin that will allow me to record my journal from this point forward. This will be my last entry as an ink-splattered student. Starting tomorrow. / I believe I've found one of these mythical ley lines.

• Holomagic is amazing. I'll use it to record my life, my failures, and my successes. Scholars of the future will study them. Are you out there, scholars? (laugh)

• The Existence of ley lines has long been theorized, and they have had many names. In 1316, a sylvari named Ceara (alias Scarlet Briar) found proof.

ca. 1317: they [Arcane Council] were intrigued enough to see if she could do the same with Synergetics. / took quite a bit longer / finally found a field of study that was a boundless as her interest. / here, under Headmaster Omadd, Ceara first began to grapple with the Eternal Alchemy. / convinced she became that [it was] a key that allowed one to access the basic fabric of reality itself.

• Synergetics is endlessly fascinating. It seeks to define the Eternal Alchemy. The other colleges work within that definition.

• The potential of golems interests me. Combining Dynamics design with Statics versatility makes just about anything possible.

• My black-market dredge contacts continue to prove useful. For a little gold, they sell me their scrap iron so I can build my steam minotaurs.

• I've landed a lab assistant position with Omadd, an intelligent but overly gentle asura. I should be able to wrap him around my little finger.

backed 100% by Omadd, Ceara’s thesis was not well received by the colleges or the Arcane Council. / she had already begun to separate herself (...) in the hopes of finding a research organization that would be more receptive to her ideas. She found it in the Inquest.

Time with the Inquest

• I like Teyo. More importantly, I need to advance my theories quickly. And nobody’s better at quick results than the Inquest.

Around 1321: time with the Inquest was brief but extremely productive:

• Today I am sixteen cycles old, and to celebrate, I've been testing my first steam portal with steam minotaurs. The last batch actually made it in one piece.

• I noted the tiniest hint of intelligence in a steam brain today as it studied one of the portals. Fascinating.

• One in three steam creatures is being destroyed by my portals. I must find a solution.

• I have not yet had the courage to travel through one of my portals myself. I need to strengthen the form resonator first.

• I may have created a new sentient being. My steam brains are mimicking my building techniques, designing their own version of the steam portal.

• It's thrilling. I've finally moved beyond steam to aether, and I made my first leap through a portal.

Mid of 1321: Things ended suddenly and badly, when Ceara and her krewmate Teyo broke into the city’s archives and tampered with several of the designs they found there. / Ceara also left her stamp on a few unrelated projects she found. / Teyo teleported herself to safety and left Ceara to face the consequences. / stripped of her academic credentials and ejected from Rata Sum. / left the city without any of her research notes or belongings.

Time with the Michotl hylek

Wandered for several months before settling in with the Michotl hylek just outside Rata Sum. Hylek alchemy, a cul-de-sac on the road she had chosen. / not enough engineering for her tastes.

End of 1321: Omadd track[ed] her down. / offered the chance to explore the Eternal Alchemy again. Ceara agreed.

Omadd's Machine

• Season of the Colossus: I wake from nightmares—screaming, confused, and scared. It's getting wOrse. I've decided to talk to a mender. I've probably just been working too hard.

1322:

• Season of the Zephyr: Every night, the same terrors. It never changes. The mender was unable to help Me, and I feel like I'm losing control of myself.

• Season of the Phoenix: When the nightmare starts, an entity calls to me. I run—run into a seA of darkness. But no matter how hard I try to escape, it keeps calling me.

• Season of the Scion: I'm trying not to sleep—too scareD to even close my eyes... So scared. Whispers come from the forest all night long, calling me, taunting me, possessing me.

• Season of the Colossus: After months of painstaking preparation, Omadd’s experiment was ready. Ceara would enter his isolation module.

• • Omadd agrees that I'm ready for the mind-opening device. Tomorrow is the day.
  • Today will be monumental. With Omadd’s support, I shall finally see past this world and into the Eternal Alchemy.
  • (distorted) I saw it all. I saw the Eternal Alchemy.
  • Tonight, I saw it. I started into the abyss, anD it stared back at me. So much power. I don't know what's real and what isn't anymore.

1323:

• (breathes) I killed Omadd, my mentor. I am no one's lab rat.

• Season of the Zephyr: Control of my world—of myself—is slipping through my hands. And yet, I'm no longer scared.

• Season of the Scion: It communicated with me through images of death, destruction, and destiny. I must know more. I must confront it and put an end to this madness.

The ley line hub in Dry Top

• The ley line hub is real. I found it, and I'm making preparations to study it. I've purchased a room in Prosperity with some of Omadd's gold.

• The steam brains have shown ingenuity. When threatened, they build steam minotaurs from whatever materials they can find.

1324:

• I've used a portal to send most of my steam creature prototypes into Lornar's Pass and Brisban Wildlands. I no longer need them.

Forging an alliance

1325-1326:

• The moles get magic, Flame gets gear, and I get weaponry I need. Everybody wins…especially me.

• Lion’s Arch needs softening up first, so we infiltrate its halls of power and neuter its defenses from the inside.

• The theme is “humanity can withstand any test.” It’s like they’re begging me to prove them wrong. It’s laughable! (laugh) See?

• Air superiority wins wars. So build me a comparable fleet, or I’ll kill you all and replace you with holos.

• Once more, my esteemed snaky friend: you’re doing this for obelisk shards. You want direct access to your prophets, right? Then do as I say.

• Ever since I came out of Omadd’s machine, you’ve been taking credit for my ideas. They are mine! Not yours.

• Let me be clear. I’m not doing this for you; I’m doing it for me. Nobody tells me what to do. Not ever.

• It’s not true. None of it. I don’t have to listen to you. Get out of my head!

Consistency issues

• Scarlet's Journal: mentiones that she decided to see a mender during winter 1321. This is unlikely to have happened during her time with Inquest, months wandering, or while with the Hylek. Based on that presumption, winter 1321 would be the last possible time for Scarlet and Omadd to meet up again. However, that would place at least 3 quarters between their reunion and Scarlet entering Omadd's machine - not "months of painstaking preparation" as described by Short Story: What Scarlet Saw.
  It may also be possible that either A): they didn't start working on the device before some time after their reunion. B): Scarlet's Journal cannot be reckoned with because "It's a ploy. She left this journal where we'd find it to get us to sympathize with her." (A Study in Scarlet). Also supported by the fact that Scarlet stopped "writing longhand" already in 1316, as per Prosperity's Mystery.