The Rites of Passage

Name: Samaelh
Location: Mistmoore Crag Estate, South Qeynos
Server: Antonia Bayle
Decorator(s): Neversea and Lalayla Crimsonblade

I've wanted to do this project for a long while now, but hadn't had an idea, a house or time to do so. I finally had the time, came up with an idea and found a suitable house to build it in!

The Rites Of Passage are based on a ritual that takes place in Neversea's family. It's part of his hidden background that most people don't know about or could even imagine.

Note: This is not part of EQ2 lore. What is written here is background and 'family' lore. If you don't like lore that isn't in check with EQ2 lore, then skip the reading and look at the pics

There is a book with each area, but I am going to be only posting a portion of it, so you'll have to stop in later to read it. For roleplayers out there, I ask that this be an OOC viewing as it would not be open IC. Thank you!

(Long post incoming!)


History of the Ma'Kar Brotherhood

Once upon a time before our world is as we know it, during the beginning of society and sometime after the creation of the elves, there were three elven brothers.  The brothers had long since been orphans.  Their father died of sorrow when the youngest was but two years of age and the eldest was fifteen.  Their mother had passed when her youngest son was born.  

The family was poor.  They had nothing to give their children when they left this world.  So, the brothers had to fend for themselves, seeking food and shelter where ever they could find it.  

As the youngest grew, he became a quick and swift hunter, able to bring food home for his elder brothers as they had done when he was young.  The middle brother was only 5 years younger than the oldest and 8 years older than the youngest.  He was the brother with swift feet, able to outrun both his brothers and even the wolves.  The older and most wise brother was calm, wise and able to judge what was best for himself and his brothers.

When the youngest brother was 10 years old, the brothers banded together and set off to sail around the world.  They spent 5 years at sea, gaining knowledge of the world and knowledge of themselves. 

During their time away from their home, the brothers exploded many places.  Several times each brother would fall into some danger, but his brothers would always be there to pull him out of trouble.

Sometime before their journey ended, the brothers came upon an ancient temple long forgotten.  The eldest told his brothers that it would be unwise to go into the temple, but that it would be more unwise to leave the treasures inside the temple.

And so, the brothers entered the temple.  It cannot be said exactly what happened in that temple, but as history records it, the brothers were each tested with 3 tests.  These tests tested their knowledge, their minds and their hearts.  The youngest brother faced the worst test of all, but it only made him stronger.

When the brothers stepped out of the last test, the Gods themselves visited the brothers.  There was a great danger to the world that the Gods could not stop, because only mortal hands would be able to rid the world of the danger.  The Gods presented the danger and asked the brothers for help.  The brothers were faced with a dilemma when they found they would be forced to help one that had hurt them long ago.

Despite that fact, the brothers decided that they would help the Gods.  They were truly humbled and honored that the Gods had chosen them, three brothers who had nothing but each other.

The Gods gave the brothers nothing, except where they could find the dwelling evil that threatened the world.

The brothers met the evil down in the depths of the darkest part of the world.  The battle was long and harsh on the brothers.  They would truly never be quite the same people they had been before, but brotherhood kept them from falling.

During the battle, the eldest and most wise brother came face to face with the evil by himself.  He placed himself between the evil and his brothers.  He pulled on his own soul, bringing forth power that had lain deep within.  A brilliant light surround the brother and from him the power of healing washed over his brothers, a golden magical shield fell over the three of them.  The eldest brother’s eyes turned blank, completely white.

The middle brother felt the healing and he began to sing in a deep baritone voice, bringing song into the hearts of his brothers, granting them strength to finish the battle.

The youngest brother had faced the worst of the battle, but still he survived.  Blood dripped down his face and his strength was waning, but he forced himself to pick up his twin blades and to rise off his knees.  He took small determined steps until he was between his brothers and the great evil.

Cruel laughter, vicious taunts rang out from the evil’s great maw, but the youngest brother only snarled and struck an equal vicious strike onto the evil.  As the elder brothers had found strength and power lying hidden inside them, so too did the youngest brother.

It has been said that the youngest brother possessed not one power, but all powers.  He was said to be the strongest of the brothers.  And that much is true for the youngest brother gained the power of rage.  He pulled strength unlike any other from his soul.  

He pulled energy when there was thought to be none.  His eyes turned a brilliant swirling blue and he drew on the power of the ocean he felt so close to.  And he drew power from the very sun, ripping light from the world and sundering the world into ever burning darkness.

When he struck the evil, it was as if the Gods themselves had done the work, though they had not.  He ripped the evil into many pieces.  His anger drew him onward until the evil was nothing more than bloody scraps.

As the battle ended, the brothers saw behind the corpse of the evil, a young innocent white-blonde haired girl, lying with blood staining her bright white dress.  They went to her, kneeling at her side and the eldest searched for her heartbeat only to find none.

They were saddened by her death, but the youngest brother still held his rage and he pressed his brothers.  She did not have to die.  It was their fault for not getting there in time, so they should use their new powers to bring her back.

The elder brothers agreed and the three placed their hands on the girl.  They offered not only their powers, but their lives, their souls for this young girl to be brought back into the world.

The Gods were shocked that mortals would offer up God-like power and their lives for a single girl.  They granted the request, taking the souls of the brothers and giving the girl her life back.  Not a single brother had offered his single life, but the brothers together in brotherhood, offered theirs together.  But the Gods had also seen this and they saw this as something the world should learn, so the Gods returned the brothers back to the world.

Upon seeing the young woman once more, the eldest brother fell deeply in love with her.  Together they sailed with the girl back to their homeland.  They were surprised to find that the girl was a princess.  Her father approved of a marriage between his daughter and the eldest brother.  

And for their courage to bring his daughter back, the king granted the brothers a home, a palace worthy of their courage, honor, valor and love.  So, the brothers began a new life full of everything they had once desired—a home and a family.

Trials of the Ma'kar Brotherhood

These are the trials, the rites of passage that our ancestors have walked before us. To begin the next step in life, we must pass through these trials though they may take us through the path of dead and we may never return.

These rites will guide us for the rest of our lives and we must pay tribute to our ancestors as we pass through these trials. It is time that we begin to carve our own path through life and become what it is we are to make of ourselves.

Brother of my brother,
Sword of my sword,
Heart of my heart,
Yours in light and dark.

To pass the trials, one must take with them the lesson of truth. When you pass through these trials, you must learn the lessons they have to teach you. Each trial will guide you through a part of your life and each trial has something to teach you.

Balance is everything. Balance will guide you and Balance will protect you. Drinal will watch over you, but do not sway from balance. Drinal is balance. And Prexus will guide your heart as he guided mine.


Entrance of the trials, held in a hidden area of the family estates.





Ceiling



The fountain in the center is believed by the family to have once been blessed by Karana.



The portals



Step on the portal to enter the trials. It's best to do them in order-->1st, 2nd, 3rd

Rite of Compassion: The Past

The first Rite is the Rite of Compassion. Learn what it will show you, listen to it and allow the sight to guide you. When the trial is over with, you will pass back through the portal and have only a few minutes to pass through the second.

Once in the trial, no one can help you. Time there is not like here. While only a few minutes will pass here, years can pass within the trials.

Drink from the blessed fountain of Karana and enter when you are ready.

There is a stillness that lingers in the air just before death. It is everything and it resides in everything. There is no way to avoid death, but there is rebirth. Rebirth will carry us forward and grant us a life we never thought to ever have. Death is only a beginning and rebirth is only another step in our story.

The First Brothers were once powerless, mortal.  They were as they are now.  But they began our family and they were The First.

During the time the brothers spent traveling the world they came upon a great dark forest.  And as they stood there, the youngest desired to run and so he did.  It was a joyous occasion for the brothers all liked to run and so the elders joined they younger brother.  They ran and ran until finally the brother collapsed in a clearing.

They were joyed to be around one another, to have no worries, to be free.  But as they sat there stillness settled over the forest and the brothers were surrounded.  The brothers picked up their weapons and stood in a circle, their backs to one another, always protecting each other.  But it was not enough.

The monsters descended upon the brothers and they took them.

It was a mad scientist that had sent his monsters after the brothers.  Some say that the scientist was a necromancer.  Some say he was a vampire.  Others say that he was a God.  No one knows the truth of what this man was, but we know the truth of what he did to the First Brothers.

The brothers were separated and chained into different rooms.  They were tortured like any other imaginable torture.  Each brother was infected with something so dark that it is hard to even know what it was.  That darkness seeped into the brothers and forever altered the family.

It brought about a great disease that could not be healed and would seek to destroy every male heir before their two-hundredth birthday.  But the infection was not all bad.  The infection brought out the very soul of the brothers.  It affected each a different way, but it also affected the brothers and their future children.

The infection brought out the animal in each brother and each took the form of the wolf.  It was not the infection that changed them, but rather the wolf inside them came out.  The wolf is inside us all and we just need to find a way to let our wolf out to guide us.

Though each brother took the form of a wolf during their torture, they were tortured continuously. 

The eldest brother was thrown into a pit of fire.  The middle brother was tortured with the cold.  And the youngest brother received the worst torture.  His blood was taken from him and replaced with the blood of a monster, a demon.  Then his blood was put back to mix with the demons and bind the demon to the brother, to make them one.  The youngest came so close to death and yet somehow he emerged with anger and rage.

While the youngest brother’s screams of pain and rage flowed through the complex, the middle brother shed tears as he heard his brothers’ cries.  He closed his eyes and offered himself to the Gods for his brothers to be rescued.  His compassion filled the air and blinded the madman.  It surrounded the brothers and took them from that place.

When they awoke, the brothers were hurt and injured, but they were safe in the clearing they had been captured from.  For his sacrifice, the youngest brother lay on the edge of death.  His brothers did not mourn him, but instead they asked that he stay.

Through the passage of three nights, the middle brother lay in death.  The brothers did not bury him as it was custom to have nine days of mourning before the body can be buried.  Upon the third day, the middle brother awoke.  He was sick and would always be as the infection affected him more than his brothers, but he was alive.

Compassion, sacrifice, can be the greatest treasure, the greatest power ever known.  In honor, compassion serves us well.  We uphold compassion for our brothers and compassion for our enemies.  

This is the First Rite.  Live as the brothers did.  Learn as the brothers did.  And uphold Compassion.





To know the true meaning of this one, you would have to read through the story.



This one consists of various torture rooms



Torture with fire







Torture with dripping water... and stuff.





Shock and saws...



Energizer powered.



More torture chambers..





Time to go back through the portal

Rite of Annihilation: The Present

Now that you have begun your journey, you must finish it. There is little time before you must enter the second trial. You have experienced the pure, the compassion and the good.

The Rite of Annihilation will test all that is within your heart. You've experienced the pure, now you will feel the impure. Remember not all you see will come true

Drink this blood of a pack leader. It will make you strong, but even strength has its flaws. When you are ready, enter the second trial.

While there is light, there is dark as well. Some lean toward the light and others more readily accept the darkness. It’s seductive and draws you in with its lust for power. To sink into darkness is to lose all that is light. The darkness will take over and claim all that exists. It overpowers and engulfs, drowns the light. To save the light, darkness must be overcome.

Darkness flows through the blood of all. There is no one born without darkness in them. Some fall toward it, others do not. We are all capable of falling. The flaw is not in darkness, but within us. Darkness can only be vanquished by the light that too flows through the blood of all mankind. Do not fear the darkness. To fear the darkness is to submit to the darkness and will only open the door to darkness.

There once was a brother who became a victim to darkness to battle darkness.

Blood dribbled down the brother’s cheek as he tried to pull his broken body from the stone cold floor.  A priest ran a hand across the brother’s dirt-covered skin.  The brother shuddered, his stomach tightening into knots.  He hated the vile priest.  He kept his head down.  To look up would only mean more torture.

The priest’s pudgy fingers ran across the brother’s cheek again.  His alluring voice attempted to coax the brother to confess his sins.  Bile rose in the back of the brother’s throat, threatening to choke him.  He clenched his hands into fists, fingers digging into his palm.  He closed his eyes and set his mind adrift, out to the vast expanse of the sea, seeking to calm himself.

The priest coaxed him again.  The brother shook his head, refusing to submit to the pig-faced man.  He waited patiently, knowing what would come next with his refusal.  Again he willed his mind, his thoughts to drift upon a silent sea of darkness.  The priest stroked his cheek again, rupturing the sea of his empty thoughts with a vile plague.

He steadied his breathing, ready to embrace the pain as the priest raised his other hand, a leather whip posed viciously prepared to strike. He could hear the soft swish of the whip as it came down in an arch against his back. He did not move as the leather bit into his flesh, raking across the filthy, tanned and scarred mound of soft tissue. 

Again and again the whip met the brother’s skin.  He withered and shudder until finally he lay half conscious, sobbing against the cold stone.  Deep gashes traced across the vast throng of tattered flesh, long crimson stains blending with his equally foul, long, tangled scarlet hair.  The brother did not fight as guards came to carry him away.  Dazed, he imagined only one thing as he was carry to his cell: the fat priest lying on the floor, choked with his own whip, his swollen tongue lolling out of his wide mouth, unable to utter his final words.

The brother was forced back into his cramped cell.  His hands moved along the soiled floor until he found the wall, pulling himself to a sitting position.  The smell of the cell rose up to haunt him.  It was the horrible stench of rotten death soaked in urine.  He could still smell the odor of the stale moldy bread the prisoners were given to eat.  The constant aroma of both fresh, wet blood and the rusty perfume of dried blood mingled in the thick dusty air around him.

When he could hear the clunking of the guard’s boots fade on the grime covered stone floor, he began to wiggle a stone in the wall out of place.  The sounds of the other prisoners sobbing or muttering mad gibberish haunted the prison.  Familiar grubby fingers struck through, groping at the hole where the stone had been.

The brother reached through and the hand on the other side grasped his wrist.  Though they were not brothers by blood, they were still brothers.  The pair talked in hushed whispers, speaking of long ago memories and making promises of rum—promises of the taste of that savory ocean of golden liquid.

It was then that the guards came for the other man.  They pulled him from the cell easily and carried him away, leaving the brother alone in the darkness.

Later, he awoke to the sound of a body being dragged against the cold floor.  It was a familiar sound often heard in the prison.  The others stopped their moans; theirs cries of pain to watch who it was that had been given the release into death.

As the body came by the brother’s cell, his eyes met the colorless, lifeless eyes of the man who had been him some form of hope, the man who had been in the cell next to him.  Both fear and anger wrecked his body and he snarled.  Nearby, the priest stood, fussing over his pure white, holy robes stained with crimson blood.  Revenge captured the brother, sending him spiraling down into the seductive darkness.

He ripped at the bars of his cell, trying to break them.  He felt an enormous amount of strength come from within and the bars parted on their own accord.  He leapt at the priest, griping the white robes in his hands.  The guards had left the priest alone; assuming none of the prisoners would have any strength to attempt to escape.

But the brother did not have escape in mind.  He wanted revenge.  His body contorted.  His hair grew longer, fingers shaped into talons and fangs grew.  He snarled and ripped into the portly man’s throat.  He ripped the gluttonous man’s head clear off the man’s bulbous body.

It had been easier than the brother had thought, but he didn’t stop there.  He stalked after the guards, seeking every one of them out and slaughtering them.  Before he left the prison he took the lives of everyone instead it, priest, guard, prisoner.  The darkness overpowered him and sank him into a life of death.

This one is heavily tied to the story behind it.



The Prison



The Cell





The Confessional





Time to head back through for the final trial

Rite of Harmony: The Future

All that is dark possess light of equal value. Within darkness is light and within light is darkness. You've passed the second Rite. Take the lessons to heart. No matter the path that you make in life, never run from what you are. What we are does not determine what we do. It is our choices that carve our path.

Drink the blood of our brothers and know they are always with you. The last trial awaits

Always carry these lessons in your heart as you begin your journey through life. Learn them, remember them and uphold them. May the ancestors protect and guide you.

There is no true beginning, but only the light that shines through the darkness. Death rules while life lingers. Death is the purpose of life and life is the purpose of death. All that is known is enraptured by the cycle of life and death. Those who turn toward the light know only the light. And those who linger toward the darkness know only the dark. In this lays our own choice. Which path do you take? Which path leads to what you will ultimately become? Will you be death or will you become life?

Years have passed by and many feet have walked this path. Each path has split into the right path for the one who walks it. What is seen is not all there is to the true path. Not all will become true, but much you may force to come true. Destiny, fate, it is not these, nor prophecy that determines how the path ends, but the choices made in life will carve the path meant to travel down.

Once there was a brother that walked neither path, but the path that walks between paths. It was neither good, nor evil. It was not light nor darkness, but the gray that settles between paths. A piece of each path wove into the gray, but neither dominated the path. Each was equal. Each was balanced. And none guided the path lain before.

The Greater Evil

As the brother awoke, he pulled himself to his feet.  How he had arrived in this world, he did not know.  His eyes washed over this new world.  There was no color in this world.  There were only gray, black and white shades.  Even his clothing had lost its color, becoming black instead of its dark red.  His dark red hair kept its color and his deep blue eyes shone brightly.

He stood in front of a black iron gate.  Beyond it, he could see his family’s estate.  It was a huge, tall building with ancient stone crumbling from the sides.  Repairs were needed, but the estate still held onto its beauty.  It was like a beautiful woman who looked even more beautiful in her old age.

Above, a sky of black surrounded a bright white moon.  An icy breeze swept through as he looked on the bright orb in the sea of darkness.  He shivered, turning his gaze back to the estate beyond the gate.  Slowly, he reached a hand out and pushed the gate open.  It opened with easy, but as it did, a howl ripped through the estate.

It was then that he noticed the bright red wolf that stood just beyond the gate.  It seemed familiar as if he had seen it before, but he could not remember where he had seen it.  The wolf moved forward and the brother moved toward the wolf.  They stopped a foot from one another.

The wolf growled, threatening the man who had stepped onto his territory.  The brother shivered again, turning his eyes up to the moon and then looking back to the wolf.  He bowed in apology, but when he tried to speak, only a growl issued from his throat.

Seeing the growl as a threat, the wolf leapt for the brother’s throat.  And then it happened.

The brother screamed as a change quickly took over his body.  Dark feathered wings sprouted from his back.  His fingers formed talons and fangs grew.  It was a painful transformation and even more so happening so quickly.  His reflexes were quick and he snatched the wolf from the air by the throat.  He snarled and ripped the wolf’s throat out.

The brother’s mind knew only one thought: Kill.

He searched the estates until he found a girl sitting by the river.  She wore a white gown and her hair consisted of golden curls tumbling down her back.  She turned toward him, her eyes a brilliant blue and her smile kind and caring.  She waved as if she knew him and stood with a basket of white roses in her hand.

If the brother had been in his natural form, he would have recognized this woman as his brother’s wife, a woman he himself had loved for many years.  But he did not recognize her, because he had sank into darkness.  He ran to her and she smiled, thinking he came to scoop her up like he had on occasion, but her did not.

His fangs sank into her neck.  His talons ripped through her dress and through her skin.  She screamed until he had fully ripped her throat from her body.  Blood stained her white gown and the white roses scattered, speckled in her blood.  He did not stop.  He drank from her neck until she was as white as the gown she wore, the roses she had carried.

She lay still on the ground as the brother slowly transformed back to his natural state.  He took long gasping breaths, his eyes closed.  When he opened them he let out a horrified cry.  He shook the woman, begging her to wake, but she did not.  He shook her and shook her until finally he gave up, tears streaming down his blood stained cheeks.

As he lifted his blood stained hands, the memory of it all came back to him.  He saw himself ripping the woman he loved apart.  His screamed never halted.

The Greater Good

There once was another brother.  When he awoke, he woke to a world void of darkness.  A field of green stretched for miles covered in bright flowers.  Butterflies flittered through the field, settling on flowers as they collected the nectar of life.  He smiled as he looked up at the bright sun, hidden behind a tall willow tree, its leaves swaying in the wind.

He breathed in the sweet scent of the flowers.  Closing his eyes, he fell back into the soft grass, laying there and enjoying the feel of the warm breeze that washed over him.  A butterfly settled on his nose and he laughed.

There was laughter nearby and the brother felt a woman tumble into the grass with him.  He sat up and gazed into her deep green eyes.  She smiled and pushed him, leaping to her feet and running away.  He laughed and made to follow her.

Suddenly, the smell of rotten eggs and decaying bodies fell over the field.  Flowers turned brown and shriveled away.  The soft green shrank and turned to cracked earth.  The tree crumbled until it was a mere gray stick.  The sun bore down, sending a wave of heat over the area.  The brother gagged, putting a hand to his mouth.

The beautiful woman screamed and a sickening laugh followed.  The brother looked up to see a creature that seemed to be made of mud.  It wrapped muddy arms around the woman and captured her.  She struggled until the creature’s hand stretched over her golden hair.  Her eyes grew glazed over.  The creature dangled her from the ground as if she were a puppet.

The girl pulled a sword from the muck and lounged at the brother.  He easily dodged the blow.  The creature laughed and mocked him, telling him to fight the woman.  The brother refused and kept dodging blows until one finally struck into his shoulder.  It jerked the girl from the creature’s thrall for only a few moments, but in those moments, she begged the brother to take her life.  And then she was once again a puppet.

Snarling, the brother drew blade and ran to attack the creature, but he was stopped by the woman.  He had gotten close to the creature, close enough to see the number of bodies peeking out from its muck.  The creature had done this very thing numerous times.  He had heard of stuck a creature and the only way to slay it was to slay its puppet.

The brother fought his love, dodging and blocking blows, but he did not attack.  As blows were exchanged, the brother looked into the woman’s eyes.  He could see her pain reflected in her eyes.  She was hurting and his heart ached to see her in such pain.

He avoided slaying her.  He blocked her blows.  He dodged, but soon he grew tired.  The creature seemed to never tire and the brother knew he had come to one choice and one choice only.  He closed his eyes and as the woman made her next attack, he plunged his sword between her breasts.

He opened his eyes.  The creature wailed as it sank into the ground.  The woman crumbled to the ground.  She stared at the brother and tears fell down her cheeks.  It was then that he realized he did not have to kill her.  The woman’s body crumbled and she fell to the ground.

He fell to his knees beside her.  Killing the puppet was only one way to kill the creature.  There was another way.  Sever the creature from the puppet and the puppet would live.  His scream never halted.

Tunnel of Death







To get across, you will have to jump along the broken bridge or risk falling into the pit of fire.











Oops! Fell into the pit! Don't worry, there's a way out. Time to walk across hot burning coals.







Made it!

The Tunnel of Life







To get to the other side, you will have to jump onto clouds and make your way across or risk falling down down down for forever.







Oops! Fell again! But don't worry, you've got a second chance.





As you come to the end of your journey, the end of your trials and the rites of your passage through life, you see yourself reflected in the icy mirror. The reflection shimmers and shows you helping life to thrive. It shimmers again and shows you helping death along.

Your path has been shown. Now it is up to you to decide which you shall carve through your journey. Will you choose Life or Death? Or will your path find the Truth?