The Xhelia Archive: Story Spotlight: The Reclamation of Phycos

This makes for a good follow-up to the previous entry, since it's directly related.

Now we'll focus on my greatest story over the years, the Reclamation of Phycos. Note that when I say "greatest", I mean more as in I've put more work on this one than any other. Sporting a script several hundred pages long and countless drawings and even a dead rpgmaker project or two, this story has been my flagship story for years until recently when Skulhoarse, Hundred Suns, Immortal Avatar, and Convergence started to demand my attention instead. Since this story has gone through countless revisions and is currently in a period of stasis, I won't do a summary of it but will just talk about what it's been about over time.

Above: The "Reclamation Eight"

The Reclamation tells the story of the resistance movement in the wake of the Third Demon War. If you remember the map on the previous post, that's the setting that this story opens to. I mentioned in the previous post that the Third Demon War has been around forever in my Xhelia universe. The Reclamation has been around for just as long, and has always been about the aftermath of this war. The name refers to how the protagonists and their allies are trying to "reclaim" their lands from the demons who currently rule it. It was conceived as a sort of smaller scale adventure story in a post-apocalyptic setting at first, but over the years started to grow out of control.

The story is still the same to this day. The big difference, of course, is that the cruel rulers are now the Tyrant Legion, and the demons don't have as strong a presence in the story until later. This story is more or less a direct sequel to Serian's story, and includes some of the same characters. Currently my idea for Reclamation involves a fight against the wing lords of the Tyrant Legion and their armies, and attempting to break their stranglehold on the continent. This resistance movement consists of survivors of the Sirh Empire and Phycosian Confederation, and follows eight characters I refer to as the "Reclamation Eight" who take part in this fight. Having a Reclamation Eight has been a constant through the years, and I always thought it was pretty catchy. Here are the eight characters:

Khyranne Allenthis - Former elite "monarchite" of the Tyrant Legion, under the Hundred Suns wing. Khyr received advanced tutelage under one of the Demonarchy's prime demons, Arcan-traax, and fights using a combination of raw magic and conventional weapons enhanced by magic. The years have made her very experienced at combat, but she is still prone to letting her emotions take hold. Generally a reckless and hotblooded fighter, and has difficulty trusting people due to events in her past.

Czalyr Vintas - Former elite "monarchite" of the Tyrant Legion, under the Hundred Suns wing. Czalyr is Khyranne's long-time partner in crime, and like Khyr, he was trained by a prime demon, this time Asgare. He fights similar to Khyranne but with an emphasis on the use of energy that can be turned solid and used in various forms. Khyr and Czalyr share a relationship much deeper than friendship which was tempered by the countless life or death situations the two barely escaped during the great war. Contrasting Khyr's personality, Czalyr is more calm and methodical in his actions. Seemingly laid back and unassuming, few know that he can be frighteningly ruthless when he needs to be, a trait he acquired from trying to protect Khyr from the harshness of war.

Fladj Fritzendag - The feared head enforcer of the Sirh Empire, known as "Red Fritzendag" or "Bloody Fritzendag" for his ruthless purges of people seen as traitors or rebels. Fladj is like a machine and thinks in a very practical manner, and sees himself as an instrument of the Empress, exercising the greatest discipline and accomplishing his tasks at all costs. Raised from birth to be a killing machine, his attempts to change himself in recent years have met with little success, and his reputation does not help matters either. He wields a fragment of the lost Immortal Avatar, the Meridian Edge, which manifests as a sword he can use to cut through any conceivable material, and fights using shock and terror mixed with speed.

Salvon "Angler" Roffus - An older man who lost his memory at some point, he has been living the last couple years as a humble fisherman in a distant village, but the attacks of the rampaging wing lords brought him back into the war. His skill as a sniper seems to be impossibly good, allowing him to be frighteningly accurate with any weapon he decides to wield. He seems to be fleeing from his past, and avoids fighting if he can.

Lunalia Sensatis - The "legendary" Ivory Goddess of the Phycosian Confederation, Lunalia commanded a significant part of the Holy Army during the war. Despite her youthful appearance, she is actually an Aer who is at least 400 years old. In addition to her military skill, she is an accomplished engineer and scientist, and was responsible for several breakthroughs in weapon technology that gave the Holy Army much of its superiority in past wars. She is also said to be "the most beautiful woman in the Confederation". She seems to be perfect in every aspect except for one - she is well aware of her reputation and beauty, and has an ego the size of Xhelia to match.

Linar'iax - A young Faldax girl who claims to be the adopted daughter of the founder of the Confederation, the immortal prophet-king Clox. She is skilled but has no experience in battle, and is very hotheaded and aggressive, and embraces the reclamation with far too much zeal. Surrounded by great fighters or leaders, she constantly feels overshadowed by their accomplishments but strives even harder as a result.

Xundarch Maris - An airship captain and leader of the Eastern Thunder, a crew of mercenaries who fight Legion forces near Rilonia - or at least that is the guise. In reality, he is funded and supported by the wing lord Alte Vinran, who controls Rilonia. He and Alte seem to have a complex relationship - Xundarch is given care of Alte's adopted daughter, Marisa, who also refers to him as her father. Despite this unofficial parenthood, Xundarch and Alte are usually at odds with each other, and Xundarch's decision to fight the wing lords further complicated this issue. Xundarch seems to be an Aer who was caught by Demonarchy scientists at least 70 years past, subjected to heavy mutation and left as a mindless mutant until his will was restored by Dronos. He seems to look like an average, albeit well-built man, but can transform and mutate his body into various forms depending on the need. Despite this, he is a kind and well-respected leader who is benevolent anyone who he meets.

Dronos Lekron - The mastermind of the reclamation movement. Dronos is a strange lich that has lived for an unknown number of centuries and has a vast knowledge of the world's history. For most of Phycos's history, he watched from his tower, commanding the Black Guardians - a sect of warriors and undead dedicated to controlling the existence of the undead on the continent. However, he grew tired with simply watching and began the reclamation movement, gathering warriors and leaders under him in the months after the great war. He uses a combination of necromancy and lost technology in battle, causing much wonder as to just how old he really is. He is surprisingly very approachable and friendly, and often long-winded when talking about history, science, or anything at all related to Xhelia.

The Reclamation has always been divided into two halves, the first half dealing with reclaiming the continent itself, and the second dealing with fighting the Demonarchy responsible. In past incarnations, I went crazy and included some kind of crazy conflict between gods and immortals and etc, but I stopped that after a while because the story started to lose its original identity. There was a time when it even became divided into two separate stories - Khyranne's and Xundarch's, the former being the standard Reclamation, and the latter being a wholly separate story altogether. Recently, I brought them back together, because ever since I developed the Tyrant Legion to this extent, the story works a bit better now.

Although all that I have on this story are a few hundred pages of outdated script and an unfinished game, the Reclamation was very important over the years. Major developments in the Xheila universe occurred because I was trying to solve an issue or develop something in this story. For instance, the whole Sirh Empire idea was born from the Reclamation, and the the various Phycosian races were fleshed out for this person. The Third Demon War also went from a standard medieval story to a crazy modern meets sci-fi story setting as a result of this story. You can see on some of the older pictures the evidence of this (lol bucket helmet Xundarch). I even went as far as making changes in Xhelia because I couldn't manage something in RM95 or RM2k while I was trying to make it (for instance, the dragon/aer race having human forms).

Overall, it may have been just another Duke Nukem Forever, but it definitely resulted in countless developments for me. Here's some additional Reclamation junk for you!

Field charasets for my old Rm2k Reclamation game.

The previous incarnation of the wallpaper up at the top, made a few years before. Note that they're still fantasy/medieval on this one. The bandana guy and minotaur guy have since been replaced by Czalyr and Lunalia. The dragon is Fladj, and the armored bastard is Xundarch.

An even older wallpaper image, this one from back around 2002. Again, it was still fantasy/medieval, and showing the same characters as above. This also features the very old logos of the Empire, Demonarchy, and Confederation (then called Phycos Alliance) from left to right.