We are at about the half-way point of the pre-sale and that means we have about half the Chaos Legion Lore arrival lore. The Tome of Chaos are detailed accounts of happenings in Praetoria that surround the arrival of the Chaos Legion. Each week more entries are added to the Tome.
I will be providing some basic summaries of the available tales and my own thoughts about what each might mean for Splinterlands.
The Voice
The first tale from the Tome of Chaos focuses on the origin story of the Chaos Legion promo card, Dr. Blight. The tale revolves around Doctor Alastair Lexington, a young botanist, from the Qulliton Field University. He embarked on an expedition to explore and document the plant life of the newly unveiled continent of Praetoria. Doctor Lexington’s curiosity and eagerness to learn got the better of him one day as he set out to find further discoveries. One of the most notable discoveries was a strange boulder with an hourglass-like symbol that seemed to prompt a voice to speak to him. The mysterious voice of tempted Doctor Lexington with the promises of power and knowledge of Praetoria. The voice identified itself as Silas, and guided Doctor Lexington deep into the heart of the continent, towards the mountains until he found himself at a volcano.
The Doctor found a strange tablet and upon touching it felt a small zap of electricity, followed by laughter, followed by darkness. Upon awakening Doctor Lexington found his appearance and likely body as a whole was altered by magic. His eyes and veins appeared bright green and plant life around him seemed to wilt unnaturally quick. Doctor Lexington knew he needed help as he rushed back to the nearest city, Blue Port. His journey back was unnatural; he had no need for food, sleep, or even coherent thought. Once he finally arrived at Blue Port he sought shelter in a nearby building, but it was too late. With a final jolt of magic and the grim words of Silas in his head Doctor Alastair Lexington collapsed, the doctor’s sanity was lost and Doctor Blight arose from the floor and faced the now doomed town.
I believe this tale to be one of the most important as it establishes the possibility that further tales will provide references to new cards, just as the Doctor Blight card was foreshadowed. Many of the cards abilities can be seen in this tale; Affliction, Poison, and arguably Weaken.
The Messenger
The Second tale from the Tome of Chaos centers on the young man Kai Jiang and his task of delivering a message to a neighboring village that ends in tragedy.
Kai Jiang was from the small village of New Everitt, he was a simple stableboy who was given the opportunity to be a messenger from the town leader. Kai was excited by this opportunity and took it very seriously, even if most would consider it a meanily task. Kai set out to deliver his message to the Jade Forest with a spring in his step. The message regarded a celebration and future peace between villages. The few days' travel went by fast, but as Kai approached the sister village something was wrong. The gate was destroyed and it appeared the village had been abandoned. Persistent on delivering the message, Kai explored the town only to find numerous bodies and strange rat-like humanoids that were hostile. The rat-like Venari had seemingly invaded the town and slaughtered all, with the goal of leaving no witnesses. Kai desperately made an escape attempt, fleeing back into the Jade Forest. As Kai stopped for only a moment to allow his lungs a respite, a crossbow bolt plunged into his back and his body hit the ground. His message never delivered, and no witnesses of the Venari’s actions.
Prior to this tale I thought the Venari were rather the peaceful, artisan types that integrated well into Praetoria. This tale paints the Venari in a very different light than that seen in the card's lore. The Venari Heatsmith’s lore states there was no bloodshed at the city of Galzur, a far cry from “Leave no witnesses”.
It is possible this tale alludes to new Venari cards that will be introduced, such as melee attackers and even higher rarity Venari. The tale mentions someone known as “Obsidian”, an individual the Veneri report to. This would be my most likely guess, if we do see any new Venari.
The Creeping
The most recent tale released follows Fiafia Haoa, an orphaned girl looking for a fresh start and a new life in Praetoria. Fiafia was just making enough to get by working as a dock hand in the Northern Bay. One day she stumbled upon a curious parchment that mentioned the Venari and Doctor Blight were on their way to the town. Concerned by this Fiafia had to investigate and went to where the two would arrive on her own. Upon arriving at the warehouse her worst fears were confirmed, her employer was working with the Venari and Doctor Blight. To make matters worse, Doctor Blight had just arrived and was quite spooky.
Fiafia attempted to warn the people of Northern Bay, but they laughed her statements off as mere fantasies of a child. Knowing the town would soon suffer the same Creeping Plague that swept Preatoria, she had to act fast. Dawning the pirate hat of her late father, she commandeered a dinghy and sailed away following the coast.
This tale gives me high hopes we will see Fiafia Haoa again. She is the only surviving protagonist from the three tales, and the end specifies she sails the coast rather than away from Preatoria. Along with the tale, an image of Fiafia is provided and it seems fitting of the traditional card art style.
This tale also shows that all the stories from the Tome of Chaos are likely to be interconnected, a detail I was really hoping for.
Final Thoughts
I am eager to see what the next few additions to the Tome of Chaos bring. I think there is a strong possibility there are hints internally left behind in each of the tales, it's just a matter of finding them. I speculate the the next two tales will include some information about either the Pealcor or the Djinn, hopefully both.
