Nightsworn Concalians

Clergy side of the Concalian Empire, who after being banished and turned into specters in the Shadowfell, were approached by Shar and offered a way back to their fleshy forms, and a way to see the return of their empire on the material plane, in return for serving her forevermore.

Beliefs

- Believe that the only way to get rid of their curse is to escape back to the material plane. The Nightsinger has convinced them that by doing so, the curse will fade. The Concalians are unaware that it is the Nightsinger that's responsible for the curse, using it as a method for manipulating the Concalians', by exploiting their increasing desperation, making them believe she's their only path to overcome said curse, and thus loyally do the Nightsinger's bidding.

# Resources for writing:

### Valient flashbacks

- Arrives at Sion. Debate at Senate. General accused of trechery by clergy, saying it's been divined by the Oracle. General is later executed.
  - Climb to see the Oracle to gain answers. She's dead, though an echo of her will speak into their minds, warning them that in their desperation, the Clergy has turned to something terrible.
    - Show scene her of imprisoned Solar?
- Army retreats to Nequion. Civil war starts between those following Clergy, and those who remain loyal to dead general ++.
  - Clergy starts fielding new Constructs - larger and extremely powerful, yet devoid of self.
- Raid to figure out how they are made. This is where valiant “dies”, and fuses with angel.
- Scene with major battle in Sion. Solar manages to break free, sacrifices itself in order to condemns entirety of Concalia to eternity in the Shadowfell.
- Potential end of Concalian Story:
  - Good side retreated to Nequion before.
  - Evil side marches towards Nequion with army of angel-powered golems.
  - Good guys decide they cannot win head on, opt to give up Nequion to have their army march around enemy army, bypassing them and taking capitol to behead the snakes who caused the civil war.
  - On the way there, they notice something strange - a camp that seems to do repairs on some damaged golems. Valiant and a few others are sent to investigate.
    - This is where Valiant “dies”. He gets to the repair facility, to the point of being able to see an angel chained fast inside the enemy golem's chest.
    - The angel manages to get loose during the fight, but is dying. Valiant also supposed to loose. As its death throws, the angel will fuse its essence with that of Valiant, granting Valiant a moment of power to smite down his foe, but burying the premise in the process. Valiant goes offline as the building around him crumbles.
    - (Maybe they already know of angel stuff here. And Valiant and co is sent to try rescue them, to help repay the horrors their people have done towards their deities.
  - Nequion is conquered by evil forces
  - Sion is sieged by good forces. Goal is to kill clergy and to free the Solar
    - Need to find out how they figure out the info about the Solar in the story.
  - Good guys are loosing, but manages to free Solar. Solar flies into the air, sacrificing its own life to cast judgement on all Concalians - pulling them into the Shadowfell as punishment for what their people have done to the angels.
  - EXAMPLE TIMELINE:
    - 1:
      - Returns to Sion on order from Senate and Clergy.
      - Meeting in front of Senate. Clergy accuses general of treason, to have turned the gods against them. Sentenced to death.
      - General hanged.
      - Long time-skip. People start getting split, some believing they should try more to appease and reconcile with their deities, other furious that they've forsaken them.
        - Change the future stuff to make it so Clergy steps in to give an easy question for those desperate - and that through their new golems, they can protect the nation, without the deities help.
    - 2:
      - Time-skip. Clergy seems to grow more and more desperate. Eventually come with new types of golem - a lot stronger, yet with no sense of self. Claim this is the way forward.
      - Valiant and others raid Forges of Sion, to see what the Clergy has done in order to create this. Find out they're capturing angels and using them as fuel to power the golems. They manage to see the captured Solar, but can't do anything about it then.
        - NEW: They see the captured Solar - whose being drained in order to power the Forges.
        - There are also other angels being kept as prisoners, though it's not clear what their function is.
      - Release the information to public (kill one of the golems in front of senate?). Society becomes split, civil war starts, Valiant and co forced to flee to Nequion to gather support.
    - 3:
      - Next scene after new time-skip. Far later. Civil war has been going on for a while, and they are loosing to the clergy with their new types of golems.
      - News come that the clergy has created a massive new batch of these golems, and are marching on Nequion. Leaders there know they cannot stop them, so they go for a gambit instead: They'll go around them, letting them take Nequion, but attack Sion in turn, hoping to cut the heads of the snake.
      - On the way there, They encounter what looks to be a maintenance area. They decide to send in a small unit to try free the angels, in hope to at least start repenting for what their people has done to them, and potentially gain some allies in return.
      - Mission to free these sort of fail. Valiant manages to free one of them, but dies in the process. Angel fuses with Valiant's core to give him another boost, allowing him to deal the final blow to enemy there, but gets buried in the rubble of the falling building they're in in the process.
    - 5:
      - Battle for Sion ensues, Clergy sides wins after a long and drawn out bloody battle, but rebels manage to free the solar as their last hail-mary resort. Solar flies up into the air, pronounces that the she'll pass judgement (since it's the Solar/Archangel of justice) on the Concalian people for their crimes against the High Heavens, their crimes against the Angelic Court, and their crimes against the deities they serve. She sentences them to an eternity in the shadows, forever unable to pass to their proper afterlife, sacrificing herself to kill every single Concalian and pull their spirits, alongside parts of their cities, into the Shadowfell, where they'll be damned to roam forevermore.
    - Potential added points for somewhere:
      - Can we fit them going and seeing the killed Oracle at some point? She'd be at the top of the temple. have temple be above Forges? i.e. forges are below and temple placed far above, being this way since forging of constructs are partially done by their deities. i.e. forges below and main temple in Sion sits at the top.
      - Scene about them being able to re-charge magic by cannibalizing their own Power Core at some point. Probably on the way back to Sion before execution of General.
      - Introduce head cleric, by name. have this be the dude in the dagger. Ideally flashback happens before Cairne kills someone with it, so that Valiant recognizes the name. head Cleric is now devoted to Shar. Clergy side of Concalian Empire have essentially become shadow beings now, serving Shar. (They turned to Shar to get out of an damned reality of roaming the shadowfell for all eternity)
        - Head Cleric: “Ammindur abandoned us. Iomanae abandoned us. They betrayed us! They sought to damn us to an eternity in Shadow. But we are Concalia! We survive! We prevail! The shadows they sought to punish us with have now become our greatest ally!”
        - have the one that killed Ari's sister also be a Concalian shadow-being?
        - Shar basically uses these Concalians as her army.
        - FACTION: Shadow-sworn/Shar-sworn Concalians. Fully on board with Shar's plans. They are the shadow creatures being fought in the campaign, having been transformed by Shar's magic.
          - Possible cool shadow beings: Shadow where only solid part is a Concalian Power Crystal - these are the Shadow-sworn constructs, i.e. what Shar made them into.
          - Shadow-sworn Concalians swore fealty to Shar in return for being basially given a future beyond endlessly wandering as ghosts in torment. Shar seeks to use them to carve her place in the world.