In Midsummer of the year 498 MA, following the Princess Diantha's Knighting by the Templar Order, the Queen Omei tasked Diantha with constructing a bridge to the Astral Realm; a fragment of Chaos granted to Omei following the events of the Chaos War in 481 MA. The first expedition into the Astral Realm took place in the year 486 MA, headed by Omei's order, but had proved inconclusive. No steady way was forged, nor could be, until the completion of Diantha's work.

After the bridge was completed, an expedition set out to map the area and discover its inhabitants. In addition to Diantha, the forward expedition included Iesid Mulariad, Kalena Emerson, Rhine Aquila Taziyah Mulariad, Isia Taziyah, Jhura Gallant, Caitria Cardinalis, Jhin the Titan (whose Astral durance was prematurely terminated by overzealous manies), Aolin the Lyrist, and Eaku Redwood.

Emerging onto the Silver sphere of the Astral, they met a local proprietress - a dealer in poisons and alien substances named Hraqa Silvertongue. In exchange for a way into more of the realm, Isia paid the first of several prices: her memories of Elidyr, now embodied in a chthonic statue in the Silvertongue's bar.

The expedition continued through the Red sphere, observing several Astral Nobles, and eventually found their way stymied by Red's ruler - a creature called Jomunth, the Ravenous. An immense, serpentine wyrm, it presided over a brood of ever-hungering helminths. In exchange for passage, and the secrets of the color red, several among the expedition paid prices of flesh: Aolin the Lyrist gave raw meat, as did Eaku Redwood, while Caitria Cardinalis offered up a Gnomish guard pig. Its unending appetite momentarily sated, the wyrm permitted the expedition to cross into Orange.

Orange proved easier to cross, not least because its lady, Chelya of Garnets, was sympathetic to the expedition and its goals. She asked no price, nor did the underlings of her sphere. Unfortunately, this easiness was not to last, for Yellow proved far more difficult to enter. Out of impatience, Diantha began to 'cheat' the Nobles' puzzles - threatening the chaotic archers into shooting arrows of pure white light, opening variegates by force, and eventually bringing the expedition face to face with Yellow's Noble, the cephalopodic Mar, the Magnate.

Once confronted with mortal forces, Mar - attuned as he was to Yellow - opted for a quick surrender. The Seer, however, did not trust the Noble's statement, and forced him into a one-sided contract of memory to ensure his compliance. In exchange for a memory of the Seer's last shower, the Magnate was forced to concede his sovereignty to the Prime.

The Green sphere, similarly to Orange, offered little resistance to the expedition - nor did Blue. Their rulers, the worldflower and Inasea the Mercurial respectively, had met with mortals prior, and given what aid they could to the adventurers. As Green and Blue required so little consideration, only Violet posed a barrier to total conquest of the Astral Realm.

Employing a similar approach to before, the Princess Diantha broke into Violet by force. In so doing, however, they fell into a trap devised by Violet's ruler - Eudaimonia, the Slayer of Stars. Stealing away the Princess' consciousness, she forced a tense negotiation with the explorers, all the while holding Diantha's memories in her claw. During this confrontation, it became clear that Eudaimonia, herself, was the consequence of bargains enacted during the first Astral expedition - that she had been formed from the Goddess Omei's lost memories.

When it seemed that all hope was lost, and that the tense confrontation with Violet's lady would end in violence and catastrophe, Omei Herself appeared from the throng, approaching Violet's lady and intimidating her into standing down. Eudamonia surrendered on the sole condition that her sisters - Ecdysia and Calliope, two lesser Nobles of Violet - be spared as well. The Queen, however, opted to spare Eudaimonia too, for unclear reasons.

Her power, however, had been secured across the Astral Realm, and its connection to the Dreamworld was strong enough to ensure a permanent connection to the plane. As its chaotic power began to infuse the Dreamworld and coil outward into the Morgun, new ways forward were fashioned; old, eldritch corners of the forest opened out, as they had during the days of the Beast Queen; and Beau Greva, a bartender of the Seer's Wood who lived near the Dreamworld's entrance, awakened to the Oneiromancer's arts.

The Astral's chaotic inspiration lit the dreams of mortals, now, and it would not so easily be suppressed. Beau was the first mortal able to carry the power of the Dreamworld into the Prime, but he would not be the last.

Penned by my hand on Falsday, the 8th of Lleian, in the year 498 MA.
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