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| - This letter is written on the letterhead of the Vindicators, the organization formed by the younger members of the renowned Freedom Phalanx. It reads:
'Najjar,
I have detected a trace of the Demoness Lilitu in the Rogue Isles once more. I was planning to seek her out, and this time find my answer. In order to do this, I will need some assistance. I hope I can count on you again for basing and coordination. I will bring with me a book for our allies within the Legacy Chain. The book is called the Blood Tome. With it, we should be able to see if the Circle is doing the same in the Isles as they have been attempting in Paragon City. It may also give me a chance to force an answer from Lilitu, even if she will not speak to me.
This is bad, Najjar. If the Circle have truly brought her across, then we might be close to the end of the world. Or at least, the end of all humanity with a trace of Mu Blood.'
The letter is signed with a mystic sigil you recognize as that of the Vindicator Infernal.
- The passage is handwritten in a spidery script. It serves as a preface to the first book of the history of the Mu/Oranbegan war:
'Though we did not know of them until the War, the Mu had been our sworn enemy for hundreds of years. Within a fortress-island forged of iron and fear they had been trained to hate us and to fight against us for generations. Their Goddess demanded it, and they obeyed her in all ways. They believed that their chosen place upon this world was to serve as the righteous implement of her will, and in their deeds and customs did they enshrine this so that to do otherwise would be unthinkable. At her command they performed generations of what would now be called eugenic breeding in order to strengthen the magical power within their blood lines to unheard of levels. At her command they crushed all contrary thought, and made no art that did not praise her name. At her command they attacked our peaceful Oranbega on a spring day, sewing ruin on our city and bringing war to us after it had become forgotten in our lands. The name of this Goddess was Hequat.
Hequat was in our myths as well, for it was her followers who had hounded us from our lands and drove our forbears into the sea. In our myths she was the former lover of Ermeeth, the god who taught our people the magic he had learned from fabled Tielekku. Hequat was also Ermeeth's greatest foe, and it was from her armies we had fled under one sea and across another to the land we would call Oranbega. We had thought Ermeeth and Hequat both legends until her soldiers came one fateful spring to burn our world away.
Hequat hated Oranbega then, and would hate that which we have become even more. However, it must be remembered that her hatred stemmed from our refusal to bow down to the gods in all things, as she thought it was proper for mortals. That aspect may bode ill for the peoples and cultures of this modern era.'
- You've been assured that this exotic techno-magical device should be able to capture the Demoness Lilitu once you defeat her, imprisoning her for the mystics of Arachnos to study.
- As you put Raxinoxt the Abductor down, he spat a curse on you:
'I may fall, fool, but know this: In this moment I place a curse upon you! By the power of the unholy one we have brought forth, I bind your fate to our pact with her. When it is done and all of the Blood of Mu are wiped away, so too shall you be devoured by her power! Dread Lilitu! I bind this one's fate to our victory!'
As the light faded from his eyes, you felt a strange sensation, as if an axe were balanced on a hair's edge above your head.
- The Legacy Chain representative said something to you before Arachnos officers took him away for further interrogation:
'You may think you've won, but you have not. Try your best to take the books. Aurora Borealis herself will be guarding them!'
- They ARE the ancient Oranbegans!
- They aren't a cult!
- They aren't followers of old Oranbega!
- This intricately carved crystal contains a single feeble light. When your hand draws near it begins to shine brightly, and an ancient voice speaks to you:
'You that walk the world, wreathed in wickedness, you must bear witness to what I have seen with my eyeless sight. The dread Circle of Thorns seeks to complete their unholy destruction of the peoples of Mu. When they stayed the hands of the demon horde in ancient times, it was at a dreadful cost to themselves. They spared some few of our people, but the demons fell upon their bodies. Their spirits sloughed off their mortal forms, and they lived their quiet unlives in their ancient city, now sunken beneath the world. But now they know that should they destroy all of the Mu, the bargain will be reversed, and they shall have their old forms returned. This knowledge has fanned a long-forgotten desperation among them, and now they draw plans against those descended from our great line.
There is still time to stop them. For Lilitu, the demon queen who advises them on their plan, is weakened. She fought with her half-mortal son, and now rebuilds her fiendish energies. There may yet be time to strike.'
- This long scroll is a family tree, with several names circled in the last generation. Beside each name is a small picture, and each seems to show one of the abducted people. The names are written in increasingly ancient languages as you follow the lineages back in time, finally ending with names written in the ancient language of the Mu.
- These documents have had their file attributions altered so that they appear to have been written by Mu'Thekesh. They outline plans for a Mu Mystic uprising, as well as details of other suspicious plots and double dealings. It would probably all be quite compromising if it were found on Mu'Thekesh's computer, particularly if he wasn't around to defend himself.
- This is a translation of some of the engravings upon the temples of the Mu. The full translation reads:
'I have seen such a thing! As they fell upon the last of us, the demon-thralls of the Circle of Thorns were held back by the Circle's own mages! For even after what we'd done to them, the Oranbegans felt mercy. Then a shrill cry arose. A demoness general called Lilitu rose from among the horde, and told the Circle mages to stand away. She said that the deal with the King of Demons was for the utter destruction of all the people of Mu. Still, the Circle mages protected the children and the elderly of we who were their enemies. Now, their power alone holds back the horde until their great negotiator, the wizard Akarist, can arrive to bargain for our lives. And still Lilitu shrills for our deaths, and warns of the dire fate that will befall all of Oranbega unless the contract is upheld and the demons allowed to spill the last drop of the blood of Mu.'
Additionally, there are notes by the side written in the bold cursive letters of Infernal's handwriting:
'The Text seems to confirm it, and it matches Akarist's accounts from what he knew. She was there at the fall of Mu, though she was working for the King of Demons then. Akarist himself says that he arrived too late to be part of the bargaining. Perhaps her freedom was part of the deal to let the Mu escape? And why would the Circle risk bringing her here once again? Unless perhaps it's to finish the contract somehow?'
- The passage is handwritten in a spidery script. It serves as a preface to the last book of the history of the war:
'When our people were pressed by the Mu, we took drastic measures. First we sank our city beneath the earth to shelter us from bombardment by Mu sky ships. Then, when we found we still were sorely pressed, we turned to other powers from darker worlds. A Prince of Demons came to us and offered us his aid. The Circle of Thorns, the ruling council of Oranbega, debated greatly, but in the end we bargained with him.
His first gift to us was the Thorn Blades, demon swords that turned men into blood-frenzied monsters. Armed with these we turned the tide, and the slaughter was indescribable.
The wizards of Mu found new tactics, however, and blunted our attack. Again we struck bargains with the Prince of Demons, and we brought forth troops to fight on our behalf from the depths of Hell. With wraiths and spectres did we march upon the Mu. With Behemoths of the land and Leviathans of the sea did we fall upon their men, their city, their very land. The fiends had bargained for the slaughter of every last man, child, and woman of Mu, and on that fine point we faltered. We still felt mercy for them, pity even, and we saw in them what might have become of us. We let some Mu escape to far shores. When the fiends discovered this, they were both outraged and gleeful, for they had hoped for just such an outcome. In the end we had to sacrifice our mortal forms, and were only able to escape the wrath of the fiends as bodiless spirits in our sunken city. Such was the cost we paid for our mercy.'
- Spirit possessors, lords of an entire city of the immaterial living dead!"
- This ancient stone tablet is engraved on every surface with ancient Mu writing. It would likely take some time to fully translate.
- The Mu Mystic you rescued told a strange tale indeed:
"They caught me, but I was one of the last they were going to take. They marched us all before a demoness in chains. There were other Mu Mystics they'd captured held captive, but also normal-looking people, and even some vigilantes and villains. And they said we were proof that the blood of Mu still lived and the contract wasn't over. She tasted the blood of each of us, and she said that they were right. Then they began to... to...
There were these crystals, and then the screaming as they took out everything inside. The body would go limp, and there would be this rush of air. Then the eyes would light with that green fire.
I have training. I can see the spirits. And, oh, I saw them. So many of them. They're watching, waiting, talking, studying. And when one would go limp, they would dive in. All waiting for a body, for our bodies. Interchangeable. Like suits, or cars. They want the bloodlines. The more Mu blood, the more magical power.
Don't you see? That's what they are!
- As you hold this intricately charged crystal, a single point of light inside flares to life, and you hear a voice in your head:
'Hello? Are you there? I can barely sense anything! I am, or I guess, I was called Mu'Ken. I was an ally of Mu'Drakhan serving in Arachnos. The Circle's mystics caught me and several others, including other Mu mystics and what I thought were normal people. But they had a reason. They were deliberately searching for people with Mu ancestry. They brought us before a being, a demoness called 'Lilitu,' and told her we were proof that the blood of Mu still lived. She tasted our blood, and talked about a contract still being open. Then they separated us. They put me before a crystal, and told me that this was going to hurt. It was like they had punched a drain in my soul, and were sucking out my insides with a machine. Then I was in here, and something else, one of them, one of the Oranbegans, was in my body. Walking around in it like a suit of clothes. There was another in here, then. A true spirit of the Mu, like honored Tarixus. She had been trapped in this crystal, as far as she could tell, since the fall of ancient Mu. She said that's what they were. The Circle aren't a modern cult. They're the ghosts of the ancient Oranbegans! They lived in their sunken city until the Rikti awakened them, and now they see threats all around.
I think the ancient one knew their plan, I think they'd forced her to advise them about setting it up. But they took her to another crystal before I could learn more. And I am trapped in here, while an Oranbegan spirit uses my body as a tool against us.'
- The containment chamber of the spirit trap is now filled with a single resident: Lilitu, the demon queen.
- This strange book appears to be blank, but if a single drop of a person's blood is placed on a page, that drop will flow and shift, drawing itself out to form a complete family history from the present all the way back, as far as the ancient civilization of Mu.
- It took some doing, but you got the Librarian to talk:
'If you want a far easier method of learning about the war, why not just steal a copy of a written history? Surely you knew that the traitor Akarist has compiled one for the heroes of Paragon City? There are even rumors that a copy is being brought to the Legacy Chain for study. You'll find out much more there.
You know, it takes some concentration to leave a body. While we've been talking, I've been leaving this one. But, oh, I will remember this. I'll remember this for a long time.'
- After you rescued him from his Circle captors, Mu'Ursis told you:
'I wish I knew more, but they had me trapped by spells most of the time. I did learn one thing, though. The wizards seemed to be nervous about something that had just happened. They were almost divided by the subject. They didn't say what it was, but did talk about a great calamity that had befallen them the last time they tried something like this. I'm afraid I don't know much more than that.
- This is an excerpt from a book titled 'A History of the Mu/Oranbegan War', handwritten in a spidery script by someone called 'Akarist'. This section reads:
'We had lived in peace and prosperity for many years, until the coming of Mu'Rhakmet's rebellion. It began small at first, with attacks on Reasoners and Philosophers, and then progressed into street riots and open conflicts. Soon, Mu'Rhakmet's followers held banners with his stern visage everywhere, demanding that the people of Oranbega return to the worship of the gods we had so long forgotten. Oh, most still kept shrines to Ermeeth the teacher, or said a swift prayer to Tielekku before a scholarly examination, but Mu'Rhakmet demanded we return to a total subservience to the gods of the past. He gained followers among those who felt disaffected by our enlightened civilization, and among those who were, sadly, disenfranchised by a lack of skill with magic. Not until it was too late did we learn that there was another force behind them. That Mu'Rhakmet practiced as he preached, and was in truth the earthly instrument of she who had forced our ancestors across the sea: The goddess Hequat. She who had turned upon her lover, the Divine Teacher Ermeeth; she who had rallied her followers and forced us from our lands; now she had found us again and sought to undermine our society. Soon our city was engaged in a civil war for control as those loyal to our principles fought Mu'Rhakmet's zealots in the streets of our city. Ultimately, Mu'Rhakmet's rebellion failed. Our histories say that Mu'Rhakmet and his followers fled across the sea. We assumed that they had returned to the old lands of their goddess, and this assumption would lead us to disaster. For what we did not know was the Hequat had provided a new land for her people. An island risen from the sea, an island that she would call Mu.'
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