User:GoldenYak/Algol Expanse

Related to the Into the Void Expansion Concept

The Algol Expanse is a zone located in the south of the Voidlands. This howling wasteland of floating glaciers and chaotic ice planes holds terrible secrets in the depths of its frozen crevasses.

The Twin Worlds
The twin worlds of Algol and Yuggol shared close orbits around their native star. Algol was located further out from its sun, and developed a colder climate, becoming a world of snowy mountains and frozen seas. Despite its hostile environment, Algol brimmed over with vast amounts of primal energies, and numerous life-forms developed there, adapting to the cold and spreading across the world.

For millennia, the races of Algol grew and developed, worshiped creatures born of nature and learned to speak to the elements, built civilizations and discovered how to harness arcane energies. Many races developed a fascination with the stars and planets, particularly their twin world of Yuggol, whose orbit brought it into close alignment with Algol every 20 years. History records of a time when a star fell from the heavens and struck Yuggol, and every glimpse of Yuggol afterwards showed that the world was growing darker and darker over the centuries, a carpet of blackness spreading across its surface, blotting out the sight of continent and sea. The people of Algol were baffled by this phenomenon, and many myths and legends rose to explain it.

The Insects from Yuggol
The truth was made clear during one alignment, when the two worlds were at their closest. The darkness that had enveloped Yuggol rose up and struck out at Algol, revealing its true nature - a vast swarm of living creatures, insectile fiends with buzzing wings and spiked shells. They soared between the two worlds, descending on Algol like a storm, destroying everything in their path. Entire races were exterminated, devoured by the insect-fiends. Where the insects conquered, they built immense black temples and obelisks, carving them with eldritch symbols that glowed and burned. The darkness that had consumed Yuggol began to do the same to Algol.

In time, the worlds moved out of alignment, and the races of Algol - thivan, dengar, kommox, and more - united together and fought back against the insectile invaders. Robbed of reinforcements from their homeworld, the insects were eventually routed, though never entirely exterminated - they retreated underground, burrowing deep, infesting the earth beneath the ice. Their holdings on the surface were torn down and destroyed, but the taint the insects had brought lingered on long after their temples were rubble.

Cycle of Invansion
The people of Algol did not forget - they knew that in 20 years, the worlds would be in alignment again, and the insects would return. For two decades they prepared, and when the worlds came into alignment they stood ready. Rank upon rank of soldiers and magi from all the races of the world stood united, as the insects came again, pouring out of the sky in greater and greater numbers than ever. The insects too had been preparing - they knew the world they sought to invade was strong. They called upon their dark deities, and were granted greater power than before - giants of living shadow slipped out of portals, fleshy meteors that spawned nightmarish tentacled beasts plummeted out of the clouds of insects. Where the invaders built their black obelisks, they now gave rise to a strange alien ecosystem of fleshy growths and twitching tendrils, a spreading contagion that turned stone to flesh and ice to blood.

With every alignment, the insects scarred Algol more deeply, and clung to the world more fiercely. The inhabitants of Algol took longer and longer to drive them out and reinforce. Finally, during one alignment, they were overwhelmed - not only did the insects descend from above, but they erupted up from below as well. The insects that had hidden in the depths after every alignment had not lain idle - they had spread and spawned in the darkness, and rose up with an army as vast as the one that descended from the sky. The people of Algol were defeated - no hope was left.

The Breaking of Algol
The contagion spread across Algol, the insects delved deep beneath the ice, raising up stone obelisks carved thrummed with wicked power. The ruinous power of the insects struck deeper and deeper with every new construct raised, wracking the world with quakes and the elementals with pain. One race of Algol, the dengar, still fought valiantly in the coldest regions of the north. They fought with vicious natural weapons and by calling upon elementals of air and water and ice, but every day they lost ground. Their elder-shaman pooled their talents together and sought to discern the nature of the insects to better fight them, but touched only the vile and buzzing alien thoughts of a race devoted to the utter ruin of all the dengar held dear. The elders grabbed their heads and cried out as they peered at the minds of the insects, speaking the invaders' thoughts - "Aqir! Azj'Aqir! We serve the Old One, who was and shall be again! He is master! He is maker! He! He! He Who Shapes!"

As the insects raised more of their dark obelisks, the darkness enveloping Algol grew thicker. The dengar retreated further north until the last of their race gathered within the last frozen valley untouched by the contagion. Dark lightning crackled through the air, and the elementals howled in terror. The dengar were prepared for the end as the darkness enveloped them, but one among them began to sing, a song of better times and brighter days. The dengar all took up the song one by one, and the elementals calmed and sang with them, and as the darkness closed around them the last light of their world reached out and sheltered them.

Their world was swallowed by the darkness, but the bravery of the last of the dengar preserved one final fragment of it. Today, this fragment, the Algol Expanse, drifts within the Voidlands, its elemental power holding back the entropic touch of the Void. The dengar still dwell on the frozen plains, carving images into the ice and singing of better days. They avoid the deep crevasses and dark canyons of the Expanse, fearing that within them their enemy, the insects, may still survive, worshiping the frightful creature known only as He Who Shapes.

Geography
The worldshard of the Algol Expanse is a land in the grip of eternal cold, of plains covered ice and mountains white with snow. Great glaciers of ice drift in the void and crash into the jagged edge of the worldshard, grinding out great rents and chasms. The devouring darkness of the Void collides with the elemental energies of the worldshard, creating spectacular aurora to illuminate the star-filled sky.

Dotted throughout the realm are settlements of the native dengar, and half-buried in ice are ruins of a race known as the thivan, who perished when Algol was devoured by the Void.

Dungeons
- Frostgulf Crevasse - The darkest depths of the Algol Expanse. A dreadful horror lies in wait within it.

Story
The Alliance and the Horde have pushed back the Void's forces in K'aresh, and their ethereal allies lead them into the worldshard of the Algol Expanse. A realm of jagged ice plains and groaning glaciers that drift in the Void, the ethereals have little knowledge of the world, having never visited it before it was consumed by the Void. Adventurers are sent forth as part of a small expedition to scout the worldshard and establish military lines deeper into the Voidlands.

Carvers of the Ice
Before long, the expedition discovers immense sculptures of strange humanoid beings carved into the ice walls of Algol's chasms. The sculptors are encountered a short time later - a powerful and intelligence race called the dengar, the last surviving sentient race of Algol. Befriending the dengar could give actionable intelligence on the world of Algol, and perhaps even insight into the Void itself. The dengar hunt the mighty beasts that still survive in the frozen wilds of Algol - proving your valor by bringing down a wurm-hydra may go a long way towards earning the trust of the dengar.

Remnants of the Thivan
Scattered throughout Algol are ancient ruins and deranged golem constructs built by an advanced species known as the thivan, who used arcane-powered machinery to learn about the heavens. They were consumed by the Void when it engulfed Algol, destroying them utterly, but fragments of their civilization yet endure... as do some of their restless spirits. Bringing the unquiet souls of the thivan to rest will grant the adventurers access to the knowledge contained in the race's historical archives, revealing the history of Algol and its twin, the world of Yuggol. The records explain how invaders from Yuggol swarmed to Algol when the two worlds came into close alignment every 20 years, until finally Algol was overrun. Shortly after the thivan were wiped out by the invaders, the Void arose and consumed Algol.

Brimius
The dengar honor the elements, though the last of the elemental spirits that endures in Algol is the element of water. The imbalance of elemental energies has caused the elementals of water to act chaotically, leaving them vulnerable to Void-corruption - calming the elementals of water and driving the Void away will secure the friendship of the dengar. Once the element of water has been preserved, the dengar will summon the adventurers to meet with the last surviving elemental lord of Algol - Brimius the Frostlord. The elemental lord reveals that a fragment of the evil that brought ruin to Algol still survives in its deepest reaches - the Frostgulf Crevasse.

The Ashen Incursion
As adventurers approach the Frostgulf Crevasse, they encounter hostile undead beings who have invaded Algol from another worldshard connected to the Voidlands. These undead humanoids crackle with the elemental power of flame, which pours forth endlessly from their charred and blackened skin. Known as the Ashen, these undead beings declare that they have come to burn the Curse of Flesh from Algol, and that all that lives must be purge to halt the growth of the curse. As the Ashen begin carrying out their campaign of extermination on the creatures around the crevasse, strange monsters begin pouring forth from its depths. The Alliance and the Horde are caught in a brutal clash between the fiery undead and the unnatural mutant creatures rising up from Algol's dark depths.

Questlines

 * Carvers of the Ice - In the frozen realm of Algol, massive sculptures of strange beings are discovered. Seek out the carvers and determine if they are friend or foe.
 * Beasts of Algol - The worldshard of Algol represents an entirely new ecosystem beyond anything the inhabitants of Azeroth and Draenor are familiar with. New dangers await.
 * Remnants of the Thivan - The world of Algol once boasted many races - explore the ruins of the Thivan people, and learn of what dire fate ended their civilization.
 * Elementals of Algol - Most of the elemental powers of Algol have faded, but the element of water remains powerful. Seek out and pacify the elementals of water to make Algol safer for further exploration.
 * The Ashen Incursion - Mysterious undead using elemental fire magic have invaded Algol from another worldshard. They bring with them out a crusade of extermination against all living beings.
 * The Shaper's Curse - In the depths of Algol's darkest chasms, a mysterious alien force is growing in strength. Stone becomes flesh, ice becomes blood, and terrible whispers drive the sane to madness.