Odyssey Cycle

The Odyssey Cycle comprises the novels Odyssey, Chainer's Torment and Judgment.

Odyssey

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Odyssey is the first novel of the Odyssey Cycle and the Mirari Saga, the first new storyline to take place after the epic Weatherlight Saga. This story is continued in Chainer's Torment and then in Judgment. The Mirari Saga continues in the Onslaught Cycle, which begins with Onslaught.

Odyssey was written by Vance Moore and published in September 2001.

Blurb

The journey begins anew.

The apocalypse has come and gone. The landscape is blasted, and civilization has been torn asunder. The world has turned to pit fights and blood contests where quick wits and a good grip on the blade may keep a man alive for another age.

Amidst this life-and-death struggle arises an artifact of compelling power. None can resist it. All desire it. But only one can hold it.

Background

The action takes place several years after the Phyrexian Invasion on Otaria, one of the least devastated regions during the conflict. In the south of the continent, the Cabal controls several cities, the most important being Cabal City; its main activity is to organize gladiatorial pit fights to entertain the population and to finance its slow bid for power for the entire continent. Its members summon nightmares and monstrosities to fight, and recur to extortion, trickery and backstabbing to reach their goals. It is led by the Cabal Patriarch.

The Order is a military organization which controls the north of the continent and loathes the Cabal's black ways, but is too stretched to fight it. Trying to bring peace and law to the land, they're forced to fight in the pit fights to gain recognition while they secure their other territories. Captain Pianna is its leader.

The Mer Empire stretches all around the continent and is controlled by the paranoid Aboshan. Ambassador Laquatus represents the Empire in Cabal City.

Other relevant regions include the Pardic Mountains, home to dwarves and proud barbarians, and the Krosan Forest, which has seen a worrying increase in the savagery of its beasts, threatened both by the Cabal and the Order.

Plot

Kamahl, a strong warrior-mage from the Pardic Mountains, arrives to Cabal City at the beginning of the story, lured by a mysterious call that spurs him to fight in the pits. There he befriends a young cabalist, Chainer and a centaur from Krosa, Seton, who has come to plead for his forest, ravaged by the encroaching civilization. Other characters fight in the competition, mainly Lieutenant Kirtar, representative of the Order, and Turg, a frog slave controlled by the merfolk ambassador Laquatus. Laquatus is plotting against everyone at the same time, smuggling cephalid troops in the city but preparing to backstab the Emperor. His goal a sphere whose lure has also drawn Kamahl to the city.

Before the main event in which the winner can ask for any prize, a Krosan dragon attacks the city, prompting a response from all the pit fighters assembled. Despite Kamahl being he who dealt the killing blow, he remains pinned down underneath the carcass, and Kirtar takes the glory instead. He is offered a reward, and he takes the sphere that is calling to him. He can see in it great visions of battlefield valor, and decides to leave for the Order's headquarters to show it to Pianna. Kamahl and Seton follow behind him, as does Laquatus.

The merfolk ambassador, with the help of a brainwashed Order knight, reaches the Lieutenant and his Captain before the duo can, and is greeted in the Order encampment. Kirtar shows the sphere to Pianna, claiming that it can bring them victory, but she is suspicious and commands him to hand it to her. The aven reluctantly complies, but plots a coup as Laquatus also schemes to steal the artifact.

When Kamahl finally infiltrates the city after leaving behind his friend to nurse an injury, the several plans unfold at the same time: Kirtar tries to gain control of the Order with the sphere, but its power is too much for him and devastation ensues, leaving him and Pianna dead, and the city in ruins. Kamahl struggles in the rubble to recover the artifact, but Turg takes it. With no other choice, the barbarian tries to follow the trail of the sphere.

Laquatus, however, doesn't have it yet, as his slave was forced to relinquish it to a cephalid soldier who immediately left to go to Aboshan, the Emperor. The Merfolk returns to the capital seemingly as a loyal subject but waiting for an opportunity to betray his sire. He plays into his fears, creating a state of crisis and panic as Llawan, the estranged empress, appears to challenge Aboshan's rule. In the meantime, Laquatus frantically searches for the sphere in the imperial treasury with the help of Fulla, a Cabal dementist he had already met while in Cabal city. Kamahl, realizing that the sphere is underwater, has momentarily settled in Borben, a coastal town, waiting for the situation to develop.

One day, Aboshan feels an unknown call and gets the sudden urge to visit his treasury. There he stumbles on the sphere, which is revealed to be named the Mirari. The artifact gives him a vision of a landless sea, and he attempts to make it true by unleashing its power. Like Kirtar before him, he cannot control it and causes widespread disaster and devastation, submerging a third of Otaria and destroying his capital. Laquatus and Fulla manage to stop him before the damage is too great, at the cost of Turg's life. The seat of Mer's power in ruins, the cabalist and the ambassador leave for Cabal city, carrying the Mirari with them. Kamahl, who survived the inundation, also set for the same destination. The story continues in Chainer's Torment.

Torment

Template:Novel Chainer’s Torment is the second novel of the Odyssey Cycle. It tells the back-story of the character Chainer from Odyssey and then furthers the story where the first book left of. The story is concluded in Judgment.

Chainer's Torment was written by Scott McGough and published in January 2002.

Blurb

Something horrible lurks in Cabal City.

In the pit-fighting arenas, a Cabal dementia caster enters a trance. Deep in the recesses of his mind skulk horrors and unimaginable nightmares, and no longer do those monstrosities wait until dark to come out.

Summary

The story begins shortly before the events depicted in Odyssey, and it's mainly told from the point of view of Chainer, a young and ambitious Cabal apprentice. One day, wandering in the outskirts of Cabal City, he finds an artifact of immense power, whose call lures him to it. Despite the temptations of the orb, he decides to hand it to the head of the Cabal, the Patriarch, or First, who's impressed by Chainer's loyalty and abilities. He realizes that the artifact is calling many people to Cabal City, including the mer ambassador Laquatus and the Order Lieutenant Kirtar, but more importantly the barbarian Kamahl. He senses that the warrior will play a crucial role in the story and orders Chainer to make sure that he is welcomed in the pits.

Kamahl and Chainer quickly become friends. The barbarian respects the other's guile and ingenuity, while the cabalist admires his strength and passion. They are separated though, when, following the devastation caused by the Krosan dragon, Kamahl along with Seton and Laquatus leave after Kirtar, who came in possession of the powerful sphere. Chainer resumes his training as a dementia summoner under his master Skellum, whom he loves deeply and considers as a mentor and father.

A while later, Kamahl returns as Fulla and Laquatus escape the Mer Empire, devastated by Aboshan's misuse of the artifact, now known as Mirari. Aboshan's wife Llawan claims the throne of the seas, a title that the mer ambassador considers his. The orb is returned to the First, who decides to put it as a prize in the upcoming Cabal Anniversary Games. Chainer and Kamahl fight together in the pits in preparation for the event, forming an unstoppable duo.

While the two train and Chainer continues in his dementist initiation, the other characters plot. Laquatus starts a civil war within the Mer Empire, with the main theatre of war being the Aboshan Trench, a section of the Otarian continent submerged by the former emperor's devastation. As the conflict escalates, it becomes increasingly clear that the victor of this battle will be the ruler of the ocean. To secure political support, Laquatus schemes with both the Order and the Cabal, promising to each what they desire while advancing his own cause. The Order tries to infiltrate Cabal City to rid it of the Cabal, while the First promises the ambassador a new jack, Turg having died while stopping Aboshan, with the help of the Mirari; at the same times tries to control the Order. In his plotting, he sacrifices Skellum, who dies in the pits to appease them. Chainer is left devastated by his death.

The dementist decides to go on with the final ritual anyway and substitutes Kamahl for his deceased master. Together they travel to Krosa to complete his training, and he becomes a full fledged dementia summoner. With his newfound powers he is able to master the Mirari, seemingly without being overwhelmed by it. On orders from the First, he creates a new fighting servant for Laquatus, the synthetic Burke. The Patriarch is very impressed with Chainer's progress and together they wreak havoc on the Order's camp outside the city, defeating them temporarily. He then asks the cabalist to create a jack for him as well using the Mirari.

Chainer, however, plots revenge for the death of Skellum, and using information gained by Laquatus he disarms and renders the Patriarch harmless. He then tries to kill him using the artifact, but finds he is unable to. He therefore banishes him to Aphetto, forces him to nominate Chainer as the new head of the Cabal and makes him leave control of the city to him. Chainer instals as the new leader and shows increasing signs that the Mirari is corrupting him. He gifts Laquatus with an army of dementia monsters for his help.

The Cabal Anniversary Games proceed as planned, becoming only a show for the glory and entertainment of Chainer. His control on the dementia creatures becomes more unstable and soon the city is overrun with them. In its centre, in the pits, stand Chainer in his gleeful folly. At the same time, the monsters are winning Laquatus' war in the Aboshan Trench. Kamahl attempts to stop his mad friend by offering a fight between them, but Chainer is no longer able to think straight: he summons all of his creations within himself, leaving Laquatus without an army, and then tries to release them to fight Kamahl. However, the Mirari magic is too powerful and they become his body, corrupting him in front of his friend's eyes. As Chainer regains some of his sanity, he realizes that the Mirari cannot be controlled and makes Kamahl promise to take it and keep it safe, away from misuse.

Laquatus' army and mercenaries are utterly defeated in the Aboshan Trench and Llawan's mages create a bubble that entraps him and what remains of his followers in it. The merman swears revenge and already plots to gain the throne.

Kamahl tearfully witnesses Chainer's death and takes the Mirari, as promised. How he will try to keep it from the Cabal, the Order, and the thousands of others who are allured by its call is told in Judgment.

Judgment

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Judgment is the final novel of the Odyssey Cycle, continuing where Odyssey and Chainer's Torment left off. Although this is the official end of the cycle, the story of Kamahl continues in Onslaught.

Judgment was written by Will McDermott and published in May 2002.

Blurb

The time has come.

Every powerful wizard and fighter on the continent of Otaria wants one thing: power. One artifact can give them--undeniably--that which they seek, and nothing will stop any of them from possessing it.

But in the end, only one can have it, and his actions will determine the fate of the world.

The day of judgment has arrived.

Plot

Ever since the death of his friend Chainer, Kamahl has been in possession of the Mirari. But the merfolk Laquatus is at his trail, manipulating everyone around him against the barbarian. Can Kamahl keep the powerful artifact out of Laquatus’ hands? And can he keep in control of the Mirari’s vast powers himself?

Summary

The story starts with Kamahl keeping the promise he made to a dying Chainer: he takes the Mirari orb for safekeeping. He attaches the artifact on the pommel of his sword and prepares to leave the city; several fighters challenge him on the way out, confirming his suspicions that he must now defend it from innumerable foes. He manages to reach his home in the Pardic Mountains anyway.

Laquatus, in the meantime, is still trapped in the underwater bubble created by Llawan's mages. Although he can leave, the bulk of his forces can't, greatly hindering his claim to the Mer throne. He starts diplomatic relations with the Order and the Cabal, hoping to gain their support against the empress, but she has moved faster than he did: the two organizations have already made deals with Llawan. Frustrated by the lack of progress, Laquatus and his jack Burke go personally on the mainland to retrieve the Mirari, while commanding some of his troops to expand the tunnel network beneath Otaria until they reach the Krosan forest. He hopes he is able to ambush his enemies with these soldiers.

Kamahl returns to his Auror tribe, where he thinks he will be safe for a while. The Mirari, however, shows him that many have already mobilised to take the artifact from him. Under the influence of the orb, he decides to unite the barbarian tribes to bolster his defenses, against the judgment of his menthor, the dwarf Balthor, and his sister Jeska. He calls the champions from across the mountains, called the Elite Eight, to duel them and prove his strength. A tournament is set up and Kamahl displays excessive power and no restraint. Balthor and Jeska try to control him, but it is clear that the Mirari has a nefarious effect on him. No one is able to withstand him and he proclaims himself champion; many, however, refuse his rule on the grounds that he has gone mad with power, plunging the tribes in civil war.

Called by the Mirari, an Order contingent led by Commander Eesha herself and a Cabal battalion with Braids at its head make their way towards the mountains. Laquatus tries to play them against each other while pretending to be friend of both. He is greeted in the Order camp, but he still tries to gain the favour of the cabalists.

In the Auror village, Kamahl prepares to fight the dissidents. Jeska is convinced that he must be stopped at all costs, and talking with Balthor they agree that the only way to do so is to steal the Mirari from him. The dwarf proposes to do it himself, but Jeska disagrees, as she has already been banished for quarrelling with Kamahl, and thus she has nothing to lose, while Balthor's betrayal would be met by harsher punishment. To prevent him from interfering, she knocks him out, then tries to take the sword with the orb. Kamahl discovers her and battles her. News come, however, that she has killed Balthor, and the enraged barbarian strikes her. Balthor arrives to clear the misunderstanding, and Kamahl realizes his tragic mistake. In that moment, Cabal troops attack the village.

The barbarians loyal to Kamahl and the rebels unite to fight the invaders, while the pit fighter grieves over the body of his slain sister. The barbarians are victorious, and they decide to put the civil war to the side to defend from Cabal and Order. The more shocking news are, however, that Jeska somehow survived the blow, and, despite being in critical conditions, she is still alive. Determined to redeem himself, Kamahl resolves to bring her to his friend Seton, deep in the Krosan forest, to cure her. Balthor comes with him and carries the Mirari sword, despite the barbarian's decision to never wield it again.

Cabal and Order, led by Laquatus' magic, close in on the duo as they reach the hedge of the forest. The merman and Burke manage to engage them, but Balthor holds them back as Kamahl ventures in the woods. Burke is nearly indestructible, but the dwarf unleashes a great spell that kills them both. Laquatus is enraged by his jack's death, and tries to contact his troops in the forest to ambush Kamahl. However, he discovers he has been betrayed by other mermen who see his rule as tyrannical, and that his forces have been wiped out by Llawan's. Without soldiers, he returns to the Cabal and Order camps, and manages to forge a flimsy alliance to follow the barbarian in the forest.

Kamahl brings Jeska to Seton, who confirms that the situation is dire. He advises the barbarian to talk to Thriss, an enlightened nantuko who lives in the heart of Krosan, while he cures his sister. Kamahl makes his way to the druid, who gives him substantial help in controlling his strength and desires and makes him able to communicate with nature.

The joint Cabal and Order contingent, in the meantime, has a very hard time in the forest. Harassed by nantuko and divided by mistrust, the alliance seems to be extremely fragile. An unknown assailant begins to attack the camps, and the Order leader is killed, but the blame is given to the Cabal. Laquatus tries to keep them together, but the Cabal eventually leaves. Frustrated, the merman ventures alone to meet some of his troops that have escaped the slaughter.

Eesha, Braids and representatives of Llawan's empire converge in the Order camp and reveal that Laquatus was plotting against everyone and trying to play them against each other. They decide to leave the former ambassador to his own devices and abandon the quest for the Mirari. The merman finds out he has no support anymore, and, with his handful of soldiers, tries to retrieve the Mirari once and for all.

Thriss warns Kamahl that Laquatus is reaching Seton's house, where he has left the Mirari sword. The barbarian interrupts his training to run to defend it. He easily dispatches the merman's soldiers, but the unknown assailant proves harder: he is Balthor, zombified by Braids and instructed to kill Laquatus. However, since a part of Burke is lodged within him, he is conditioned to follow the former ambassador's orders, and Kamahl, crying, ends his undeath. Laquatus mocks him, and Kamahl strikes him. The merman dies pinned by the sword. The barbarian's training has proved useful, though, as when he unleashes the orb's power to kill his foe, it is no longer a vision of fiery battle and destruction, but growth and peace. Out of Laquatus' corpse, flowers and grass grow rampant and the forest is rejuvenated. Kamahl is confident that the quest for the Mirari, now protected by the Krosan forest, is over.