The World of Vala: Ties that Bind Book

The World of Vala: Ties that Bind is an actual-play Tabletop Role-Playing Podcast that focuses on the joy of creating a collaborative narrative/character study alongside various players. To accomplish this, the seasons of our story are broken down into books. While it is one continuous narrative, each book focuses on a different thematic element of the journey our players are going through. This allows us to role-play with these ideas and minds and to create philosophical discussions based on how our characters react to the ever-changing World of Vala.

Book 3 - The Wrath Epoch:

The Long Night Year 10121(One-Thousand-One Hundred-and-Twenty-One) Day 15, known within the continent of Matu as the “Night of Wrath.” A day that continues to impact every waking moment within the World of Vala. Millions of families were left shattered as the death toll rose to unimaginable horrors that were unleashed due to the decision by the Vaconic God of Wrath, Ivan Folgore. This disaster signaled to the entire realm that the World of Vala has reached a new age—the start of a new epoch: The Wrath Epoch. So far, this epoch has been categorized as a period of strife and conflict as new threats arrive to claim the World of Vala as their own. Despite the darkness and wrath spreading across the world, there are still individuals who aim to stand against it. 

Not ready to let the world fall into destruction, many Institutions aiming to teach the next generation of protectors of the World of Vala sprouted around the continent. These schools leading to the nine great Vocations of Vala: Agents of the Organization of Otherworldly Oddities, Angels of the Gardens of Elysium, Druids of the Arcanum, Heroes of the Sentinel College of Heroes, Villains of Valentina Academy, Magicians of the Magisterium, Warlocks of the Folgore School of Vaconic Mastery, Witches of the Willow White’s School of the Weird, and Wizards of the Wizards collective.

For six months, The World looked like it was reaching an equilibrium as figures stood up to make a name for themselves during the epoch. 

Until a mysterious incident that changed the course of the epoch occurred: The Heartbreak Incident, not much is known about this event other than it was a mission that ended in disaster. For the first time, the different institutions united to prevent an invasion from Rokander, the God of Death, and his horrid pantheon. Yet the battlefield on top of the Mountain of Love in Luloba was ground zero for a magical explosion the likes of which the world has never experienced.  Forever changing the biology of those in the World of Vala as the latent mana released from the blast was absorbed into their bodies, making all creatures in the World magical at a base. As the light from the explosion faded, so did the heroes of the battlefield, namely: Xiomaris Umbra, Sentinel the Vaconic Hero, Ivan Folgore the Vaconic God of Change, and the dozens of champions on that mountain, as well as the mountain of love itself. 

The only survivor of the Heartbreak Incident was the Vaconic God of Chaos, Angelo Barberi. Who, through sheer willpower, took the reins of the world and was crowned God-King of the World of Vala. He introduced a balance of structure and freedom into the structures of Magic and Divinity in the World, preventing incidents like the Heartbreak incident from recurring.

It has been a whole year since the Heartbreak Incident, as we enter a World of Vala Changed like never before. Rumors have begun to spread about sightings of the champions from the Heartbreak Incident popping out throughout the continent. Where have they gone? Why haven’t they returned? What secrets lie with their disappearance, and why have they potentially returned?

30 days after the end of the last book, the members of DiaboliX are stronger than ever before as they begin to take the fight to Boro directly. While they still balance their academic and personal lives, a new opportunity soon arises to take on the crazed capitalist: The Twilight Tournament.

The Tournament is an old tradition within Alexandria. While the educational institutions that call Alexandria home help make up a lot of the politics of the city. Strength is still admired within the city-state of Alexandria. To this end, every Long Night, the best fighters in the world come together to take part in the Twilight Tournament. The entire city becomes a battlefield as sanctioned fights are allowed to take place between participants of the tournament. The winner of the entire tournament becomes the Mayor of Alexandria until the next tournament. Seeing their chance to oust Boro, our party joins the tournament with the hope of one of them reaching the end.

In preparing for the tournament, our party delved deeper into the mysteries of their power: Xiomaris and their control over Void Magic, Vera and her Control over her Eclipse, and finally Ivan, beginning to delve into Blood Magic. In his journey to explore blood magic, Ivan became the catalyst to release 3 massive dragons in the ancient dragon realm of Valamor. They charged him as their champion as we went back into the world to take on the Twilight Tournament.

Despite that being the plan, Ivan ended up mortally wounding Queen Maria-Maria of Luloba (Grandmother of Vera Samoon-Atlas) in one of the early fights of the tournament. The party was forced to take a side journey to the Mountain of Love, located in Luloba, to save Queen Maria-Maria. While they accomplished this side mission, it was not without high cost, as Ivan killed Vera in another Vaconic rampage alongside other disasters that happened in this journey. While she was reborn as a spirit, Ivan continued his rampage and severely injured the Daemon Lord of Desire, Luna, and turned Daemons’ eyes on the Realm of Vala. Before all could be lost, the Organization of Otherworldly Oddities appeared to contain the situation.

Upon their return to Alexandria, the conditions were met as the dragons who Ivan championed released a rampaging vaconic dragon amongst Alexandria. As the Dragon Tribunal called every Dragon to Valamor, cracks began to appear in reality as the God of Destruction, Vano, began to encroach all across the World. Our party worked together with the friends and allies they made along the way to attempt to put everything back together.

Vera and Damien defended the disenfranchised citizens of the Pit against Boro and his Army, Xiomaris bonded themselves with the cracks in the World, building an eternal connection between themselves and reality itself, and Ivan attempted to fight the Dragon and a cloned version of himself. The world was engulfed in chaos, but thanks to the efforts of most of the party, the world was broken, not destroyed.

After this terrible night, our party was at a crossroads. Vera decided to embrace her calling as Queen of Luloba, Xiomaris delved deeper into the connections with Magic that permeated the entire realm of Vala, and finally, Ivan committed himself to change, but only time will tell if that will be enough.

We enter this World of Vala Story through the eyes of Xiomaris Umbra, Ivan Flint (Folgore), Vera Samoon-Atlas, and Ruko Rovka, making their journey to the legendary Arcanum. As they go through their misadventures at the College of Druids, they run into several problems, including community service (body guarding Eve Heart), gaining the ire of a Billionaire (Boro Machuca), starting a gang (DiaboliX), and dealing with grades and responsibilities on their own time.

Our party quickly made a name for itself in the Land of Alexandria, but all good things come to an end, as they were unceremoniously attacked by The Order of the Golden Sun. As our gang was out of commission, the Golden Sun kidnapped Eve Heart and left them for dead. Rallying from their defeat, DiaboliX began an open gang warfare against The Golden Sun, climaxing in a city-wide battle that saw the end of The Golden Sun.

In the aftermath of the battle, Ivan lost control over his Vaconic magic, and the rest of DiaboliX had to work together to bring the rampaging Vaconic down. As the authorities arrived Xiomaris, Vera, and Ruko were able to escape, but Ivan was captured by Druids from the Arcanuim.

The druids began their investigation of Ivan to discover what had just happened to the city. But, before they could make any headway, Boro Machuca freed Ivan and announced that his private army had retaken control of the city and that Ivan was free to go. As DiaboliX reunited at their base, the entire city received an announcement from Boro Machuca.

Boro announces that he and his corporation are now in charge of Alexandria. He goes on to explain that he has built a number of different alliances for the betterment of Alexandria: Kirin, the Land of Storms, Verdun the Pirate Republic, and The Empire of the Dead. Finally, as he finishes his announcement, the sole blame for the faction war was put on the shoulders of DiaboliX, and they are labeled enemy number one in his new regime. With little to do with the Arcanum out of commission for thirty days, members of DiaboliX to train and prepare for a harsher return to a Boro-controlled Alexandria.