Hey there! The purpose of this article is to give you a quick rundown on TwistedFates, as far as the lore goes. There will be spoiler-y things, and I will do my best to contain those within the appropriate tags, so that you can read at your own risk. Some lore points may get tweaked here and there, and I ask you to bear with me while I figure this stuff out. A lot of edits and ideas come about from talking about the lore with all of you!

The Main Plot

After the birth of La Seri, a sentient virus that calls itself “Corruption” emerges from the tundra, determined to unite everyone and everything by infecting what and whoever it can. Many brave Serians have risen to the occasion to protect the innocent from the insatiable virus, including Luke Hirigani, a moody gunslinger who only seems to do anything if he senses his old master out and about.

What IS Corruption?

The Corruption virus is a microscopic, magical self-replicating parasite that has evolved to spread through a myriad of means. While it is a microscopic parasite, it functionally acts as both a virus and a parasite. It “devours” organic material and other beings and creatures by infecting them, injecting its infectious, invasive genetic material called “Venom” inside them. This material then replicates and assimilates its new host.

What Happens When Someone (or Something) is Corrupted?

When someone is infected with the virus, they may experience various symptoms, depending on what strain they’ve contracted. Someone infected with the original strain would experience the following:

Outer changes occur, such as elongated body (neck, torso, canines, limbs, hair, etc.), sharpened teeth, slitted pupils, nails become retractable black claws and tongue becomes a stretchy, black appendage. Black rings appear around the neck and limbs of the Corrupted, and their spine slightly protrudes from their back.

Mentally, their perception of the world changes. Violence is but a means of defending themselves/the innocent, and even then, the Corrupted are encouraged by the Hive Mind to “assimilate, not annihilate.” The virus itself is a gift, and everyone must feel this happiness. Corruption itself is viewed as their “Mother/Father,” and it will unite all. Finally, peace will come to their home!

Increased lifespan, flexibility, durability, speed, agility, etc. The Corrupted display unnatural abilities, such as melting into black puddles, passing through solid objects, scaling walls and ceilings as if they are floors, etc. They live far longer than their original expected lifespan before Corruption. If they so choose, some Corrupted can even reverse or progress their biological age, resulting in some rumors that the virus is connected to a sort of “Fountain of Youth.”

Their true forms are sealed and glamoured so that the planet’s natural defenses don’t harm them as much. In reality, they are towering ethereal beings.

The Corrupted can adapt their sex and gender at will. This serves the biological function of being most appealing to their chosen partners/prey, and they are convinced by the Hivemind that “their bodies were made to harmonize.”

There are strains, such as the “Stealth” and “Slumbering” strains, that bypass a majority of these phases. The Stealth strain, for example, enables the virus to progress as it naturally would while hiding the first three phases. Inanimate objects can also be “Corrupted” in that their form is overtaken by a high concentration of Black Venom.

Nests? The “Motherland?”

A “Nest” refers to a large organic growth that serves as a breeding/nurturing ground for the Corrupted. The even more concerning variant, the Black Nest, allows the Corrupted to shed their glamours and unleash their true power. The organic material is produced by Corruption or any of its “Echoes,” which are essentially other potential hosts of Corruption. Nests are a major threat to anything they overtake and are thus the main target of the Rebels. They can exist in places both natural and manmade. The “Motherland” refers to the land that Corruption originally landed on and transformed into its main base of operations. It’s also generally the location of the first Black Nest.

The War Against Corruption

Spearheaded by the Hunters, the War Against Corruption pits resilient minds and spirits against an all-corrupting family of virally infected and enhanced monstrosities. The Hunters conduct many covert and defensive operations to tilt the scales against Corruption. Magic and Technology are channeled to treat the infection, destroy the virus’s breeding grounds, defend the innocent, and much more. The war even extends to the Network, a digital realm that parallels Ambrosia’s reality.

The Hunters

Courageous people from all over the Land of Seven Riches banded together under the beckoning call of one Dr. Rolaeko Menguishi. They would become the shield of the innocent, the Knights of La Seri. Soon, Luke, an old friend of Dr. Ro’s, founded the Rebels, the sword of the innocent, with Terry and Gale. While the knights are made up of like-minded people who wish to protect La Seri from the virus, the Rebels had a more forward approach: they’d take the fight to Corruption. Still, they’re advised by the Knights to approach carefully, lest they be swallowed and assimilated by the virus.

Outsiders

They haven’t quite officially taken any sides as far as Corrupted or Hunters are concerned, but they do either support the fight for or against Corruption. The second anyone is affected by the war, they’re referred to as an Outsider, be it someone who’s defended their home from Parasites or an entire village or city that’s been quarantined and protected by a Hunter. Some Outsiders of note are the Whitewind tribe, a collective tribe of people who support the Hunters in their fight but do not wish to abandon the sacred ways of their ancestors. Another notable group of Outsiders is the “Followers of the Eclipse.” Founded by Dracula, they dedicate their lives to spreading the word of Corruption. Their ultimate goal is to either pass into Ambrosia and become Corrupted, or to summon Corruption to their homeworld so that they can sacrifice themselves to become Corrupted. They span across many worlds and planes of existence.

Magic?

Serians have unnatural control over elements and other magics (collectively referred to as “Essences”), which are influenced and enriched by their “Aura.” The Aura is the spiritual power that is contained within and around anything that’s alive. The neutral Aura is gold in color, and the Corrupted Aura is purple. Essences are split into two categories: elemental, which utilizes the world’s natural elements, and ethereal, which usually involves the use of the user’s body.

Ambrosia

Ambrosia is a beautiful world of powerful magic and hyper-advanced technology. It is a “Phantom Planet,” a planet that was meant to be destroyed but exists in another dimension, the “Phantom Dimension.” Anything that exists here should not, that is, it has defied ultimate destruction. Some people say that this place is like purgatory for lost souls, considering the fact that a lot of people are often spirited away here. It’s several times planet Earth’s size and is hollow across its diameter from the north and south poles due to the planet’s supposed death. Two massive space stations function as Ambrosia’s stand-in north and south poles.

The End—and the New Beginning

When it “existed,” Ambrosia was a great planet of magic and technology in the Gemstone Galaxy. However, when an asteroid struck the earth, powerful mages banded together with the world’s most intelligent minds to save their homeworld. In doing so, the sheer power of the collision and the strength mustered by the denizens spirited Ambrosia away to the Phantom Dimension.

They didn’t know where they were, but that wasn’t of importance to them. For now, the Ambrosians would have to rebuild. It took a bit of doing, but the residents of Ambrosia rebuilt from the ground up, creating colossal space stations to function both as poles and monitoring stations to keep up with the planet’s health.

The three mages that lead the charge, noticing something awry, vanished to the Isle of Fortune, searching for a strange anomaly that seems to have landed on the planet. Their search discovered a peculiar alien child who declared itself a virus. Disturbingly, they found that the child was indeed a humanoid form of some then-unknown virus and took action. They moved to seal the child in a crystal deep beneath the planet’s surface before it could potentially wreak havoc on Ambrosia.

Some time passed, and a war broke out between the Land of Ruby and the Land of Jade.  It started over resources, but soon it became apparent that the war had become racially charged on both sides. The Land of Ruby saw the people of jade as mindless, violent barbarians that sought to conquer and destroy the Isle of Fortune. The Land of Jade saw the people of ruby as weak and unworthy of living on the Isle, accusing them of hoarding and not utilizing their homeland’s abundant resources. Some generations later, in an effort to end the conflict between their nations, the ruby and jade generals banded together and summoned the virus from the depths. Their plights became known to the child, who was confused about how meager differences could lead someone to hate someone else. After all, they’re all Ambrosian! The child granted their wish, quickly infecting and spreading through both armies. This abruptly ended the war and cursed both sides for eternity with the Slumbering strain. Having sensed this disturbance, the three mages moved to quickly split the Isle of Fortune before the virus could claim any more souls. And thus, the Land of Seven Riches, or La Seri, came to be. They wouldn’t stop there; to contain the Corrupted Aura from contaminating the rest of Ambrosia, they joined with other mages and scientists to conjure a magical storm. This storm, known as the Great Hurricane, would render La Seri invisible to anyone outside it.

The Violet Moon—Regalis

A violet moon appeared in the sky that night. The Great Hurricane’s tempest was tremendous, engulfing land, sea, and air in its path. When the clouds from the earth-shattering quake and the violent storm settled, everyone in La Seri could see a purple moon in the night sky. Outside of La Seri, certain people could see the moon. Tempus Station Moon dubbed this moon “Regalis” for its violet hue. Outside of Ambrosia, anyone who saw the moon could see La Seri, should they survive the journey through the mystical barrier surrounding the land. Some people would report dreams and visions of the happenings in La Seri. Some would find themselves projected there. Some people, even those outside of Ambrosia and outside of the Phantom Dimension would find themselves spirited here. If anyone could see Regalis, it meant that they were blessed with the Seventh Sense. Naturally, some would call these people crazy. A group on Tempus Station Moon who could see Regalis discovered that all records of the Isle of Fortune and the unknown virus had been erased. Their failed efforts to recover this information made it even more difficult to prove that there is a storm and there is a lost civilization in its center. As such, their attempts and early debates with the north station, Tempus Station Sun, have turned into a popular conspiracy theory that, while known, is not taken very seriously.

A Chance Encounter

Even though the mages split the lands apart, the virus moved in ways they could not understand, eventually seeming to disappear from their sight. It resurfaced as a youth named “Violet” as it wandered the lands. When Violet landed in Auron, they noticed a very ill-meaning kid. Making themselves look vulnerable, Violet managed to grab the attention of a young Luke Hirigani, who rescued them from the belligerent bully. Luke brought up the political unrest and blatant discrimination running rampant in his home kingdom, Platinia. Noticing the similarities to the unrest faced by the previous land of Ruby and Jade, Violet promised that they would fix the problem as thanks for saving them from the bully.

Platinia Falls, Oniyex is Born

Reynaldo Hirigani, the previous king of Platinia, passed away after an elaborate assassination scheme hatched by Kaito Shurinai, who quickly usurped the throne. The usurper banished all darker-skinned people from the kingdom, claiming they held the domain back and all other manners of horrible things. Sharron Hin, a previous member of the council, fought for the rights of her people with support from Logan Hirigani, the rightful successor to the throne, from the shadows. Seeing Sharron as a threat, Kaito Shurinai ordered her execution one fateful night.

Using the power of the thirst for vengeance in the hearts of those who were exiled, Violet revealed themselves as Nata, the Corruption virus. Nata made a deal with Sharron to bring Kaito Shurinai to justice.

HEADS UP! The following text is a spoiler for Rose for Shurinai.. Don’t read this if you don’t want spoilers! If you want to continue, read at your own risk!

[spoiler title=”Spoil Me!” style=”gold”] Sharron became the first Nero Oracle and fused with a youth named Eve. The Nero Oracle, along with the banished subjects of the kingdom of Platinum, destroyed the kingdom and razed it to the ground, exacting their revenge against their oppressors. Anyone who couldn’t flee were immediately infected. Anyone who fought were killed and assimilated. It was truly a gruesome turn of events, leading to Platinia’s utter destruction. From the ashes oozed Oniyex, the Motherland of the Corrupted. [/spoiler]

Questions?

Feel free to ask in the comments below! A lot of your questions would be answered in the wiki as well, but it’s still a work in progress. Thanks for reading!