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Aspiring Emperor Quest Recap Pastebin

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  1. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
  2. Aspiring Emperor Quest Recap Pastebin
  3. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
  4.  
  5. This pastebin contains recaps for all threads in AEQ as of the the time of writing. There may be a slight delay (1-2 days) in this pastebin updating with the latest threads.
  6.  
  7. As this pastebin contains recaps for all threads, if you're not caught up there will be major spoilers.
  8.  
  9. Quick navigation for a specific threads is to use Ctrl+F for the thread name prefixed with a hash (e.g. for Thread X (including all sub-parts) search for '#Thread X' without the quotes).
  10.  
  11. -----------------
  12. TABLE OF CONTENTS
  13. -----------------
  14.  
  15. 1. Broad Recaps
  16. 1.1. The Darlesian Campaign (Threads I to Present)
  17. 1.1.1. Establishment (Threads I to X)
  18. 1.1.2. Seizing Vitria (Threads XI to XXII)
  19. 1.1.3. Seizing Taour (Threads XXIII to Present)
  20.  
  21. 2. Detailed Recaps
  22.  
  23. ---------------
  24. 1. BROAD RECAPS
  25. ---------------
  26.  
  27. These recaps broadly cover large amounts of the quest. They may be useful for quickly brushing over a large amount of the quest but may lack specific details of some events.
  28.  
  29. ///1.1. The Darlesian Campaign (Threads I to Present)
  30.  
  31. The Darlesian Campaign covers all the events of the quest covering Talon York's conquests in the Darlesia region starting from taking Harrowmont. It hasn't ended yet.
  32.  
  33. - - - - -
  34.  
  35. /////1.1.1. Establishment (Threads I to X)
  36.  
  37. You are Talon York, a knight of great strength and skill with some small talent in instinctive sorcery. You are famous in these lands as a mercenary general and hero, and when Darlesia fell in its war against Taour the queen turned to you. They had heard of a Source - a font of magical energy that grants its master the ability to summon a Champion, a powerful hero. You were to lead her remaining army to take the fortress Harrowmont, a decrepit castle which housed this Source. Before castle could be taken, the queen and her retinue were slain by the enemy. Vitria, a neighbouring port city, had claimed the castle and had to be unseated.
  38.  
  39. You seized Harrowmont by force and found yourself a Champion, already summoned but refusing to obey the Vitrians. She was Undine, a pure elemental, one of the only members of her kind, and she agreed to serve you. You also took on as your personal bodyguard a dragon girl by the name of Caitlyn and your old mage friend, Maloric Reegan, came out to help you. A Vitrian noble, Sarah Hawkins, fell into your hands and agreed to work with you to take back Vitria which was suffering under civil war.
  40.  
  41. After crushing a Vitrian counterattack at Harrowmont, and unleashing a strange energy you didn't understand. Sarah's soldiers arrive to help you, led by a General Felix Tarn, and you march on and seize the neighbouring province of Mier. Lynn (Caitlyn's nickname) falls into a battle-rage at some point but appears to be otherwise able to contain it. You then decide to summon Undine's sisters, Salamander and Gnome (pure fire and earth elementals respectively) and seize a nearby Place of Power connected to your Source. The PoPs can be used to empower your Champion or to grant yourself godlike control over reality near Harrowmont plus many other things. You defeat the dragon guarding this one and claim it to enable you to bind Gnome as your familiar. You learn that you are capable of using astral power, that strange energy you used earlier and the power of souls and angels, and use it to destroy the dragon.
  42.  
  43. Returning to Harrowmont, it is revealed that Felix has seized neighbouring Vale from the Vitrians and you march westward to the province of Olmm which is under attack by neighbouring Taour, a nation ruled by vampires. Crushing a raiding party you then slay a daywalker and declare yourself ruler of the province. You then recruit Neir Gendarme, the young daughter of an old friend of yours and Mal's current partner, to be your spymaster despite her allegiances to the RSK, the powerful royal nation to the south. She reveals to you that the RSK is fuelling the Vitrian civil war and that if you seize Vitria she will be able to help you more openly. Having established yourself in the region you now elect to target Vitria first and leave Darlesia and the Taourans be.
  44.  
  45. - - - - -
  46.  
  47. //////1.1.2. Seizing Vitria (Threads XI to XXII)
  48.  
  49. Taour and Vitria launch assaults on you one after the other and you repel both handily. You begin researching a cure to thralldom, the method with which vampires bind humans to servitude, and also use your astral powers more readily. Having crushed your enemy's assaults you put together your plan to seize Vitria. You and Sarah work together to convince the Vitrian army not to intervene against you when you assault the ruling houses of Vitria to end the civil war. Sarah's childhood friend, Aaron Tabeth, tells you the general is a snake and offers you a different deal - unseat his father and he'll keep the military at bay and help you seize power. You accept and he comes through on his part of the deal.
  50.  
  51. You sneak into Vitria and assassinate Robert Tabeth while your army positions itself to invade Vitria. Fending off a desperate assault by Viktor Oaln as your army seizes the city (the guards having elected not to stop you), you then depose Viktor Oaln from power and declare yourself Imperator of Vitria with no opposition. You form a new government with Sarah as its archduchess and she manages the transition.
  52.  
  53. Meanwhile, desperate to find out more about the astral power you use you then travel north to a monastery in neighbouring Farun. There you meet a mystic fox, a race of humanoids with fox tails and ears that use spiritual techniques, by the name of Vadoric who agrees to help you control your power if you help him destroy a revenant. You agree and crush the revenant, learning in the process that it was in fact a human that had made a pact with a Fae, one of the otherworldly beings that once waged war on the world more than 1000 years past.
  54.  
  55. Returning to Vitria with Vad in tow and setting some issues right you meet with a representative from the Magi League, a large magocracy that violently opposes royal rule. You are warned about Taour and their leader but told that if you conquer them then Archmage Alyce, the head of the League, will be able to reward you.
  56.  
  57. - - - - -
  58.  
  59. /////1.1.3. Seizing Taour (Threads XXIII to Present)
  60.  
  61. With your goal in sight, you mass your troops and waste no time in invading Taour's lands. Your target is the bloodfarm, Hiien, that supplies easy blood to most of the vampires in Taour. Without that supply of blood they'll be forced to actively feed on their citizens and incite rebellion.
  62.  
  63. You're forced to engage in an open field battle with a Taouran force slightly larger than yours and fend them off with heavy casualties, though your astral power enables you to heal many of them. You encounter and slay one of Taour's ruling daywalkers, Darian, who was easily a match for your own power. Later you are handed a cryptic letter from a former servant of Lady Irris, a daywalker who fought Taour's current leader, Perin Blackwater, for power. The letter may reveal the source of Blackwater's supposed immortality but you fail to truly understand it. You then march on Hiien and slay the mages residing inside it, catching them in the midst of a powerful ritual involving human sacrifice.
  64.  
  65. Evacuating the bloodfarm as Taour reinforces their defences you contemplate your next move.
  66.  
  67. ---------------
  68. 1. BROAD RECAPS
  69. ---------------
  70.  
  71. #THREAD I
  72.  
  73. You are Talon York, a knight of great strength and skill with some small talent in instinctive sorcery. You are famous in these lands as a mercenary general and hero, and when Darlesia fell in its war against Taour the queen turned to you. They had heard of a Source - a font of magical energy that grants its master the ability to summon a Champion, a powerful hero. You were to lead her remaining army to take the fortress Harrowmont, a decrepit castle which housed this Source. Before castle could be taken, the queen and her retinue were slain by the enemy. Vitria, a neighbouring port city, had claimed the castle and had to be unseated.
  74.  
  75. You led your mage-knights in and took the outer courtyard. Afterwards, you invited the most impressive mage-knight of the battle, a girl named Caitlyn (and known as Sir Lynn as a joke by your men) to your personal guard. Irritated by her manners, you challenged her to a spar - which you soundly lost. She had the same fighting style as yourself, was more than a match in strength and speed and had some odd sorcerous talents. After some planning, you took the merchant quarter in an attempt to get around the barrier on the inner wall. Your archmagister blew a hole in the wall barrier - quite literally, along with a chunk of the wall. Your men charged through, and you led them in a charge against the Vitrians where you slew their captain and they began to retreat into the keep.
  76.  
  77. #THREAD II
  78.  
  79. The Vitrians attempted to retreat into the keep but you used your sorcery to hurl yourself across the gap and stop them yourself. With their way of retreat cut off, many Vitrians were slain or surrendered and the remained hid in the upper floors of the keep. Prevented from going underground to find the Source by a powerful barrier you went up and found the remaining Vitrians who were happy to surrender. You then battled alongside Lynn against the queen's assassin - a man from the western continent of Pharos who utilised magitech and antimagic along with a wicked scimitar. When he hurled a small magical vial at Lynn, you stopped it but your magic and the antimagic in the vial reacted and nearly destroyed the room and killed the assassin. After, you went down to the Source and found your Champion, Undine the pure water elemental, who happily joined you. You also had a strange reaction to the Source, somehow absording a large amount of astral energy that should have killed you.
  80.  
  81. #THREAD III
  82.  
  83. Undine had reacted badly to your bodyguard, Caitlyn, and threatened to kill her. Bluffing, you claimed to know of and not care of Lynn's 'ancestry' which convinced Undine to back down. Undine mentioned her sister, Gnome the earth elemental, who may be able to help you but was currently uncontactable. You know a Vitrian army arrives the next morning and spend time planning. A Vitrian noble called Sarah Hawkins, the head of the largest ruling noble house of Vitria, arrived and wanted to claim the Source for herself despite having no real escort or army. Undine and her got into an argument until you threatened her and after a tense dinner, in which you revealed the assassin who was intended for her, you sleep (on some grand furniture that Undine has created). In the morning, your friend, Maloric Reegan the enchanter, arrives. He and Caitlyn know each other, and it was he who taught her your fightings style but he is unwilling to reveal her other secrets. At breakfast, he angers Undine by revealing her to be the most powerful water elemental alive (or unalive, really).
  84.  
  85. #THREAD IV
  86.  
  87. You overview the regional situation and create a strong battleplan to defeat the incoming Vitrian army. You also introduce Arcane Archers - archers with magically enchanted equipment. Afterwards, you spar with Lynn and best her through attrition. A long chat about her past ensues and her secret comes out - she's a natural feldragon and her father is Tylarne, the Font of Eternity, the first of the feldragons (dragons who increased their own power through extensive magical modification) in the Golden Age. You then hold a meeting with Sarah about her swearing allegiance to you (after catching her in her nightdress, first). She swears allegiance to you and you learn Vitria is having a lot of difficulty with inter-house conflict - you also learn she's a lightweight in terms of drinking. After failing at diplomacy and a light chat with Undine, you engage in battle with the Vitrians. You crush them with a strong battleplan and a strange rush of power you have never felt before. You wonder if the Source is empowering you. You then learn meditation and talk about the possibility of Maloric summoning Gnome or Salamander (Undine's elemental sisters) - and learn that you can summon both with some work.
  88.  
  89. #THREAD V
  90.  
  91. You promote your arcane archer leader to captain and change the way you're enchanting your archer equipment. You then hold a meeting with Sarah and explain to her your ambitions - and she explains to you the situation in Vitria. The city-state is in civil war with House Oaln being backed by the RSK and attempting to seize the city and region for himself. She agrees to bring her house military to Harrowmont to join you. You then engage in a lot of housekeeping - recruitment, enchanting, faction name, the reconstruction of Harrowmont and then choose to invade Mier to expand. Sarah then engages in negotiations with House Argyle, who control the neighbouring province of Vale. You then manage Undine's temper a bit, as she's upset with Sarah. Caitlyn then reveals her draconic appearance to you - a pair of sproutable black wings from her back. Unlike regular dragons, Caitlyn appears to have her bestial and human forms mixed. Sarah's men arrive and you receive a new general.
  92.  
  93. #THREAD VI
  94.  
  95. You march on Mier and elect to take Curton (a mining town) via a stealth mission. As it is, stealth is not your strong point and you and your comrades begin a mad rush to capture the count of the town. You and Undine engage in combat with a former Darlesian knight, with you taking some heavy wounds, before heading downstairs. Lynn, outnumbered and wounded, breaks into a berserker rage and nearly kills a man in cold blood before stopping herself and breaking down. You then handle the aftermath of taking the town and elect to crush the bandits outside Toulon without mercy. Before that, you meditate with Lynn and comfort her over her recent rage. Then Undine reveals the terrifying power of the Source and Places of Power - the Source can be used to manipulate reality and make Harrowmont impregnable and yourself nigh-immortal. You then effortless crush the bandits in a dawn attack and take a dwarf bandit leader prisoner.
  96.  
  97. #THREAD VII
  98.  
  99. The dwarf nearly catches you with a devilry trap but you fend off the magic and kill him. He reveals that Taour fears you greatly, believing you to be their greatest thread - you also find out the daywalker you killed a year ago was a Taour council member. You then return to Harrowmont and elect to summon both Gnome and Salamander. Sarah also reveals her negotiations with Count Argyle went very well - he's defected to your side and you dispatch one of your generals to seize Vale province with his troops. You begin to set-up an intelligence network as well. The summoning of both Salamander and Gnome goes well - Salamander appears to think of both you and Maloric as her master, whereas Gnome appears to be less servantile than her sisters. You then set off with a party of your most skilled fighters to Undine's Place of Power in Mier - you must claim it in seven days to keep Gnome on your side. After Salamander teases you by flying you to the PoP (and you learn that she wears her metal bikini because she burnt her clothes off once before and thinks that metal plate covers up too much) you have a short but meaningful chat with Gnome.
  100.  
  101. #THREAD VIII
  102. One very long session of dungeon diving. The party descends to Undine's Place of Power. Gnome makes it apparent that she's not afraid to argue with you and question your decisions, both in combat and out. Caitlyn comments on Gnome treating everybody except you like children. The party takes a beating fighting a bizarre monster called a trapper - a mysterious monster capable of powerful illusions. Later, they encounter a trio of magic-eating beasts and you demonstrate a new level of clumsiness in combat - you can teach somebody else how to fight better whilst failing yourself. Finally, at the bottom, the party finds that a dragon has claimed the Place of Power for itself - and the power of the lake is both killing it and transforming it into a feldragon. After a lot of planning and discussion, the assault begins. You use a surge of his mysterious power to blow up a third of the dragon's head with an arrow, then assault the dragon. When Salamander is in danger, you receive another surge of power - power so great you seemingly snuff out the dragon's very essence. You wake up afterwards to find the dragon a dessicated corpse and Gnome wanting to talk to you.
  103.  
  104. #THREAD IX
  105.  
  106. Gnome explains that she felt you use astral power, though she doesn't know how or what that means. The others do not know you killed the dragon. You then claim the PoP for Gnome. On return to Harrowmont, you learn Felix has taken Vale more or less peacefully and give him orders to drive out the remaining Vitrians. You then elect to move on Olmm with half your force before Taour can take it. Construction is laid out for a mage tower in the keep and to reconstruct the walls and merchant quarter. Later, you discover Sarah has a crush on you, tease Sala until she collapses, let Maloric do some research into some mana crystals, find Undine being strange on your bed and screw up an attempt to tease Gnome, instead groping her.
  107.  
  108. #THREAD X
  109.  
  110. After teasing Caitlyn a little bit, you send Maloric, Caitlyn and Sala to Niorte to flush out a daywalker infiltrating the town while you march on Fort Locke. You find the fort under siege by a large force of heavy mage-knights. You attempt a hit-and-run skirmish but find yourself drawn into a major melee whilst distracted by a battle against a thralled former Darlesian general. Afterwards, you successfully defeat the Taouran knights and claim the fort and its equipment. Although you took considerable losses relative to your force, you gained a large amount of equipment. You then find out that Maloric has successfully dealt with the thralls in Niorte and trapped the daywalker. Arriving at Niorte yourself, you are openly welcomed and then slay the daywalker. Afterwards, a pompous noble duels you for Caitlyn's hand (and loses). You then remember an amusing scene with Gnome, after she had a scuffle with her sisters. You enjoy a night of drunken revelry with both Undine and Salamander, who fall into bed with you. Finally, you meet Neir Gendarme, a love interest of Maloric's, and an RSK countess. You come up with a plot to get her onside which involves taking over Vitria. She also promises to secure you some mages.
  111.  
  112. #THREAD XI
  113.  
  114. You receive news from around the world: A Farloun sorcerer (his race thought to be exterminated by the RSK) has been troubling the RSK on their western-most front as well as rebellion from one of their greatest mages. The Magi League is facing internal strife about the Archmage's 'altruistic' goal and the general selfisness of mages and they are also creating their own knightly orders as part of mage towers, annoying the regular orders. Finally, the Lord of Ember has gone insane and his lands are overrun with maddened god-knights - no other faction has been able to do anything to stop them. You then learn that Taour and Vitria are both massing forces and split your men to meet them at Olmm and Vale respectively. The Taour forces march on Niorte in Olmm whilst Vitria faces difficulties mustering soldiers (as they aren't using their standing army). Although ambush plans against the Taourans go awry, the initial assault is repelled completely, with the Taourans losing much siege equipment and morale. A night-attack then destroys their mages and much of the remaining morale. You then sortied the next morning, but the strange behaviour of the Taouran forces caused you to prematurely retreat. Salamander then brought you the enemy general, who had been reduced to a vegetative state by being thralled twice and given conflicting orders. A negotiation with a Taouran Captain Darren resulted in him agreeing to surrender in exchange for freedom.
  115.  
  116. #Thread XII
  117.  
  118. The Taourans surrender, although several hundred of them flee with much of their equipment. You allow them to resettle but take the two thralls present prisoner for experiments on their condition. You then march on Vale to defend it from the Vitrians, who are massing a large but inexperienced army. Your ambush attempts succeed at felling many of their mages. The Vitrians then attempt a night siege, but your traps that Gnome has laid break the siege and prevent them from breaching the walls. You then sortie with the intention of breaking them outright as they flee, only to find yourself under an onslaught of magic and arrows. Not wanting to withdraw, you elect to have your knights hold their position despite the assault. As one of your officers falls, your astral power erupts and you somehow heal many of the wounded and drive the Vitrians away.
  119.  
  120. #Thread XIII
  121.  
  122. You have a brief discussion with Gnome about your astral power and reaffirm your will to build rather than destroy using it. Afterwards you join your men in celebration before joining Lynn, who is separate to the festivities. An argument ensues, as Lynn is behaving childishly and dislikes how you ordered your men to hold their position rather than charge in the battle. After a fumbled attempt to comfort Lynn, who runs off, you talk with Gnome. After receiving some advice to be more stern with Lynn, who is confused as to her feelings towards you, you also learn that you've been using astral power your entire life. This is why you've been incapable of learning any formal magic. Afterwards, you engage in teasing Gnome, though she eventually gets the upper hand. The next morning you discuss some things with Sarah, who has just arrived. You learn that General Arail is unhappy with his current posting.
  123.  
  124. #Thread XIV
  125.  
  126. This 17 hour long session is a long sequence of disconnected scenes. First, you resolve matters with Caitlyn, who you find out is using Salamander as a confidante. Then you learn that the RSK plate is not enough proof on its own for Neir, and elect to equip many of your men with it. You then head to Craol to convince the Vitrian General Habell not to intervene in your conquest of Vitria. Habell reluctantly agrees after you and Sarah tag-team him, but you don't trust him. You meet with one of his officers, who reveals himself to be Aaron Tabeth, and strike a deal with him to prevent Habell from betraying you. You then spend some time with Sarah and Undine, and learn a little about taxation. Afterwards, Maloric effectively depowers you (accidentally) and you tease Gnome endlessly. Then Sala joins and the two engage in a slight catfight, triggered by yourself. You then join Sala and Lynn out in the countryside, where they taunt you mercilessly about your inability to fly - the night ends with you sleeping with Lynn (and later Sala, too). After later sparring with Undine, you spend some private time with her. You then have some fun with an exhausted Gnome, which ends in sex. Finally, you have some archery practice with Sala, who finds your technique to be very strange and almost spiritual.
  127.  
  128. #Thread XV
  129.  
  130. You smuggle in a number of sets of mage knight armour from the RSK, and get a highly capable merchant to join you, too. You then begin construction of a secret passage and rooms underneath the keep. Afterwards, you infiltrate Vitria with your main party as your army marches on it as well. The plan is to unseat Robert Tabeth and have Aaron, who is your ally, take over the house and assist you. You learn of great unrest in the city, including many people that believe you to be a hero. You kill Tabeth by having Gnome crush him inside his safe room, but not before learning that the Black Stone knights may be willing to assist you.
  131.  
  132. #Thread XVI
  133.  
  134. #Thread XVII
  135.  
  136. #Thread XVIII
  137.  
  138. #Thread XIX
  139.  
  140. #Thread XX
  141.  
  142. #Thread XXI
  143.  
  144. #Thread XXII
  145.  
  146. #Thread XXIII
  147.  
  148. #Thread XXIV
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