History

Table of Contents

General

1995

Post-1995

2019

2020

2021

General

The Dream

The most important thing you need to know about is The Dream.

The Dream is another realm entirely. Think of it like an alternate dimension. It is, as the name suggests, literally a dream -- a massive one that never ends, and that anyone, in theory, can access. We have proof that the Dream has existed for at least 25 years, although it very likely has existed for longer.

The laws governing the Dream aren't always the same as those on Earth. Much like a normal dream, time can skew wildly different in the Dream. People don't need any apparent sustenance to survive in the Dream. The Dream is a reflection of our reality, a mirror, an echo. The people from the Dream are influenced by our world. Famous figures from history and even mythology or fictional stories come to life in the Dream.

One of the most important aspects of the Dream is that magic is real within it... in a sense. Mythological creatures, cryptids, witches -- all of these can be found. And they are dangerous.

Thankfully, we can utilize the Dream to our advantage too.

Certain people, both those from born in the Dream and those from Earth, have the ability to manipulate reality within the Dream. The effect is quite similar to outright magic. We call this process Weaving, and the people who are able to do this Dream Weavers.

Weaving

Weaving is a rare talent that only a scant few people have the ability to perform. Thankfully, our town of Etna seems to be something of an upper outlier when it comes to the number of Weavers nearby.

There are two "types" of Dream Weavers -- Generalized Weavers and Specialized Weavers.

Generalized Weavers have a wide range of abilities at their disposal in the Dream, an arsenal that's only really limited by their endurance and creativity. However, while Generalized Weavers are broad, they're also shallow. A Specialized Weaver will always outperform at their specialty. Generalized Weavers embody the phrase "Jack of all trades, master of none." Our resident Dreamer is an example of a Generalized Weaver.

Specialized Weavers, in contrast, are weaker when it comes to many aspects of Weaving, but have one particular specialty that they excel at. This specialty can vary in how broad or narrow it is. Our resident Courier is an example of a Specialized Weaver. He describes his specialty as "Jaunt."

These are the two types of Weavers, yes, but Weaving isn't the only way one can manipulate the Dream's reality. For example, our Doctor, aided by the research of his father, has devised a steady way to use the Dream itself as fuel for something similar to Weaving. He does this through an arcane ritual method. This method is significantly slower and more resource intensive than simply Weaving, but the effects tend to be more potent or permanent. Using this method he's created living beings within the Dream and constructed defenses in Apotheosis' base of operations.

Apotheosis

Years ago, a man by the name of Victor Sharp left his previous business venture and proposed a path to greatness. Along with the man that would become The Founder, they created the group of Apotheosis. The Doctor and The Spiritual were the first to join the group, but soon Apotheosis moved to Etna and more rushed to join. The Diplomat. The Sheriff. The Fool. The Dreamer. Apotheosis flourished.

A lot happened in between the founding of Apotheosis and today, the Outreach Program 2.0. Most of those events will be told in the following sections. The most important thing that I, The Correspondence, want to stress is this:

Apotheosis has always had the best intentions at heart. We've made mistakes in the past -- both as a group, and many of us individually -- but we've always been trying to do good for us and those around us. For the members of Apotheosis. For Etna. For everyone we've met along the way.

We understand if some of you who know our history have doubts. None of you are required to start trusting us again after what happened.

But now, these days? The thing that we at Apotheosis want the most is to help. To let our members flourish and achieve their goals. To make sure everyone is safe.

We hope we'll be able to regain your trust. Here follows our history, the black marks and all.

1995

Years before Apotheosis was even an idea, an expedition took place.

A team of six ventured into the long abandoned Orlov Manor in an attempt to find a few old, valuable relics of the family's. The team consisted of:

1. Samuel Faulkner. The overall leader of the expedition.
2. Mikhail Orlov. The expedition's main benefactor, and the Orlov heir.
3. Victoria Blackwood. Acquaintance of the Orlov family, and expert in the type of relics the expedition was searching for.
4. Johannes Richtoff. The expedition's doctor, in case of the worst.
5. Stella Penn. A professional mountaineer, to guide the expedition group to the manor.
6. Annie Drummond. A general assistant, and -- unbeknownst to most of the expedition -- smuggler and criminal contact of the Orlovs.

The expedition reached Orlov Manor and underwent their search. However, when the expedition team slept overnight in the Manor, they were unknowingly dragged into the Dream.

The expedition had been a ruse from the start, orchestrated by Victoria Blackwood. A bloodthirsty monster resided within the Dream's version of Orlov Manor. Blackwood trapped Stella in the manor first, forcing the expedition to remain; she then sacrificed Orlov, Faulkner and Drummond to the creature. After that, she conscripted Dr. Richtoff, forcing him to help her with her real goal -- a creation ritual.

Using the remains of half of the expedition as a fuel source, Blackwood created her own eldritch monster -- Ruin.

Dr. Richtoff was allowed leave the manor afterwards, although the events of the expedition have haunted him since. The spiritual remnants of Faulkner, Drummond and Orlov were left in the manor, while Stella Penn remained trapped alive within it.

Post-1995

Some time after the events of 1995, Victor Sharp and Nicholas Faulkner came up with the idea of Apotheosis. They created the group; Nicholas took on the title The Founder, while Victor took on the title The All-Seer. Nicholas' college friends, Allen Richtoff and Ada McCrae, joined shortly after as The Doctor and The Spiritual.

The group didn't gain much traction in the college days, but when the four of them moved back to the Founder's home town, they started to find more success. Citizens of Etna heard about Apotheosis, and interest began to rise.

Shortly after, the All-Seer revealed his magnum opus: a steady window into the Dream. The All-Seer didn't even realize the extent of what he'd created -- he thought the window was the entirety of the Dream itself -- but his creation succeeded. Apotheosis became the buzz of the town. People flocked to join.

Around this time, the Doctor discovered Blackwood's monster, Ruin, and using his knowledge of the Dream he took control of it.

Despite its success, Apotheosis' popularity in Etna was not absolute. Quite a few vocal opponents to the group arose, even including former members, such as The Mechanic. In response to this, the Doctor came up with an idea. Unknown to the majority of the group -- but with the All-Seer's quiet permission -- he used Ruin as a weapon, silencing the most vocal dissenters.

With most of its critics silently disappearing, Apotheosis continued to grow. It gathered some of its most prominent members. The Diplomat, the group's first ambassador, who would later be replaced by The Correspondence and The Courier. Apotheosis gained the support of Etna's local government when The Sheriff joined. And soon enough Apotheosis found its third leader, The Fool, who would wind up inducting the group's expert on the Dream, The Dreamer.

Unfortunately, Ruin wasn't nearly as leashed as the Doctor and the All-Seer believed. Unknown to the two of them, it slipped out of the Doctor's control and secretly began to gather followers that it called its Heralds.

2019

When Ruin gained freedom, it wanted to attack Apotheosis. Around the middle of 2019, it killed The Courier.

Saddened by his loss -- and the majority of the group unaware of what had truly happened -- Apotheosis began its first Outreach Program. The group wanted to expand out of Etna, and decided the internet was the vector. The Correspondence was in charge of this, and he opened a line of communication through the same server Apotheosis still acts out of today.

However, the Outreach Program was thrown off the rails by the reappearance of The Courier.

The rules of Earth and the Dream are not the same. At this point, Ruin had perfected a manner of wound that would kill someone on Earth -- but still keep them living in the Dream. Through this manner, it forcefully recruited The Courier, and, previously, the Mechanic, who was now known as The World. At the beginning of the first Outreach Program, they make up Ruin's Heralds, along with Victoria Blackwood, calling herself The Enlightened.

Ruin began its attack on Apotheosis. It killed the Sheriff, and forced another member -- The Zephyr -- into its Heralds (without killing him.) The Heralds revealed the Doctor's use of Ruin as a weapon, and the All-Seer threw him under the bus. The Doctor fled the town, but not before using a creature of his in the Dream to incapacitate the Courier.

Some time later, the Doctor prepared a powerful ritual to create a new weapon to defeat Ruin. Apotheosis is made aware of the ritual by Zephyr, but Ruin and its Heralds attacked when they arrive. The ritual goes awry, and instead of his weapon, the Doctor accidentally created something that would later call itself Bacchus. Bacchus took the Doctor and fled. Ruin managed to kill the All-Seer, destroying Apotheosis' steady window into the Dream.

At the end of the year, the revelations of the Doctor's actions had ruined Apotheosis' reputation in Etna. The majority of the group's members left, leaving only a fraction of their numbers remaining.

2020

Some months later, Apotheosis' reputation hadn't improved. Before the group had much of a chance to recover from this, the Doctor's creation, Bacchus, returned and kidnapped the remnants of Apotheosis, dragging all of them into the Dream.

Bacchus is a Dream creature rivaling Ruin in power. In the few months between its birth and its attack, it had spent the time gathering a following. It held the Doctor captive, and, because the Doctor's creatures were used in its making, Bacchus was able to press the Courier into its service as well. The Doctor was thrown in with the rest of Apotheosis and put through Bacchus' death game within the Dream, which it called The Nightmare -- a deadly trial for Bacchus' amusement, overseen by two new faces -- Ignis Fatuus and the Weaver of Dreams. These two and the Courier made up the Thiasus, Bacchus' most loyal followers.

Apotheosis spent a few months traversing the Nightmare.

We went through Utterson Village, a small town that had been mind-controlled by a powerful entity known as The Deep One. Here we found our first two allies in the Dream -- Jett, a shapeshifter from Darkwood Forest, who had originally intended to betray us but wound up joining us instead; and Noah Kleitman, the only villager that had managed to escape the Deep One's influence. At the same time, The Mechanic, one of Ruin's Heralds (calling herself The World), appeared and offered us help. We were able to break the Deep One's hold of the village, but we were forced to flee before the effects had fully disappeared.

After the village, Bacchus created a being called Staphylus to hunt us down, as a soft "time limit" for the Nightmare.

In Darkwood Forest itself, we rescued a pair of wolves, Geri and Freki from their former master, and we freed the massive wolf Fenrir from his imprisonment. In a sheltered grove within the forest, we came across Mary Mercan, and, after a brief spot of hostility, recruited her to the group.

Around halfway through the Nightmare, Ruin interrupted, forcefully dragging us into Orlov Manor. We found multiple members of the 95 Expedition Group, including Stella Penn (who joined us), Samuel Faulkner and Annie Drummond (who we couldn't bring along), and Mikhail Orlov. We encountered the same monster as the Expedition in 1995, which called itself Ruin the Lesser. When Ruin itself attacked, two of its Heralds -- the Mechanic and the Zephyr -- left its side. During this ordeal, the Doctor creates a Dream creature called Songbird, which is able to drive Ruin off.

Around this time, the Weaver of Dreams started to gain independence. He names himself Charlotte, takes Songbird, and helps provide a safe haven for the Mechanic and the Zephyr.

At the same time, Ignis Fatuus reveals he's Richard Carter, brother of the deceased Sheriff. Bacchus tricked him into believing we killed his brother; however, after Bacchus sets him up to fail in Orlov Manor, an event which nearly gets him killed, he steps away from the Thiasus.

In the bizare Arden City, we recruited a Weaver native to the Dream named Calpurnia. Three new children of Bacchus heckle us in the city -- the twins Drama and Comedy, and one Melas Oneiros. None of the three wanted to be our enemies, but they were quite literally forced to follow Bacchus' orders. Staphylus also catches up to us right after the city.

Finally, we reached the end of the Nightmare, Bacchus' Grove. We allowed Ruin to attack us again, and then, with all of our allies, we killed it once and for all. Bacchus attempted to stop us, but, using Ruin's body as a fuel source, we created a physical portal back to Earth.

Thus, the seven members of Apotheosis; our new allies from the Dream; Stella, Samuel, and Annie; the Mechanic and the Courier; Melas Oneiros, Drama, and Comedy; and Charlotte were all able to leave the Dream physically and make it back to Earth.

Staphylus chose to remain in the Dream, and managed to free himself from Bacchus' control. He struck up a partnership with Ruin the Lesser and has been wandering the Dream since.

2021

What's gone on since then?

Ruin is dead. Ruin's final Herald and its creator, Victoria Blackwood, attempted some sort of "peace offering" near the end of the Nightmare, and hasn't been seen since. Bacchus has been similarly absent.

However, our escape from the Nightmare has had effects on Etna. Some aspects of the Dream have started to leak onto Earth. Obviously, we're the first symptom of this -- some of our members were born in the Dream, and some were dead a year ago. Alongside that, all of our Dream Weavers have retained a fraction of their ability on Earth itself.

An unfortunate downside to this, however, is that it seems creatures from the Dream are leaking into the town of Etna. Just small things so far, and we've been providing help to anyone impacted by this -- but we're hoping to look at the source of all this and, preferably, put a stop to it.

That's where you come in. Take a quick skim of our Members page and make contact with our Outreach Program (2.0!) when you're ready.