Cobal

As third prince in a relatively small and young kingdom, Cobal Blueyerd never expected his life to get nearly as exciting as it got. He was supposed to marry a noblewoman from a strenuous ally at some point to strengthen the kingdom’s political power, and this might still very well be on the table, but in the meantime some very different priorities have taken over his life.

Performing an old and powerful ritual, the court mages of the kingdom summoned a person from a strange world. The woman – dubbed Mana – is supposed to become the next hero of the kingdom, just like the hero Might was over a century ago when his family performed the same ritual. To everyone’s surprise, Mana ended up being a former teacher with absolutely no strength or seemingly aptitude to being a hero, not to mention that her anxiety kept getting in the way of doing anything heroic. With this woman at his side, Cobal was sent on an adventure to figure out how to awaken her dormant power – if she had any.

Mana and Cobal first landed in the Ravadier Peninsula. A piece of indigenous land that has been taken over by the Blueyerd Kingdom but still maintains some sovereignty in the form of the Lord of Ravadier. Most of his tasks have been taken over by his daughter as he is in poor health, making lady Diana Vadier the local leader. Cobal and Mana dive into the ocean nearby to find an underwater civilization with a temple to Aquana, one of the five members of the Arpentara, the main pantheon of this world. There they meet Miyara the seer, who tells them that Mana needs to find three important people. The first one is Dionil the woodland sage who Miyara knows of. The other two are unfamiliar names to her. One person named Abu and another named Sorda’Thun the wanderer. With this information, and a new companion in the form of Cassandra, a local tinkerer and busybody, the group travels north towards the Liriath Forest, and the elven city of Milinia. On the way they meet Kimi’Thania, a spirit of music, who they save from a magical prison and who then joins them as well. The party finds Milinia after some struggling and there Cobal’s patience with this seemingly pointless mission reaches a boiling point. He lashes out at Dionil, who puts him in his place pretty effectively. It is then revealed by Mana and Dionil that the reason for all this tension is something that Cobal’s family did. To be specific, they had the previous hero executed due to being too powerful and dangerous. Dionil has been around since the time of Might and remembers this betrayal, while Mana learned of it after arriving in this world, not quite sharing exactly how she came across this knowledge. Cobal and Mana talk things out and start growing closer during their stay in Milinia. The first volume is capped off with a harvest festival in the elven town, where a strange magic user interrupts things and is confronted by the party. Unsure what is going on with these strange fiery beasts that keep appearing on their path, the party continues their studies until they’re interrupted by a letter from the Blueyerd capital city of Saphestan. Cobal’s eldest brother and crown prince Sapher Blueyerd has disappeared and the northern neighbour of Rilodar is blamed for his disappearance, sparking a war.

Volume 2 sees our party figuring out politics and mystery as they travel back to the capital before soon deciding to head north to the libraries of Marsolin where they hope to learn more about the strange magic circles that appeared around them during their journey as well as the one that appeared in Sapher’s room. Joined by Mirgia, who came from the elven city to deliver some news, the party seeks out a ship to travel to Jasodar, the trade capital of Rilodar. The border is closed so the seas are their only option. Their ship is soon attacked by the ruthless captain Tidescreecher, who turns out to be a lot more sociable than they expected, with Mana even referring to her as a theater kid. With Eliana Tidesinger on their side, they continue their journey towards Marsolin, but on their way they stop at an island that has been pestering Eliana and her crew lately, resulting in a stand-off with a strange cult that is related to the things that have been happening to Cobal’s family. They manage to fend off most of the cultists’ leadership but during this process several of their allies – including Mirgia and Kimi’Thania – disappear. Heading onward to Marsolin, the party meets an Irkan named Grac who was being forced to work while his wife was captured by cultists. They team up and reach their destination at the end of the volume.

Volume 3 sees the party research several different topics with the help of some new and old friends. Kayzel is a former associate of Eliana who is a scribe at the Sapphire Respite and the party’s way into some of the upper floors of the esteemed library. Having fun isn’t hard when you’ve got a library card, after all. There they meet Senior Librarian Lysa Drant, who is quickly intrigued by their quest and offers her help. Cobal spends time with another scribe by the name of Salandra Fevezar. A young woman who has been studying here for a while and is interested in flora and culture of the Feral Wildlands, the central region of the continent that has yet to be conquered. They learn about the name of this cult – the Jasmine Order – and their presumed goal of awakening their god, Shifeth the undying king. The magic circles are an ancient form of magic that use the power of storing energy and releasing it at a later date. When used by the wrong people, it can force others to part with some of their energy to strengthen this magic. They learn another important bit of information. The abandoned Solin Manor is where they’re likely to find the cultists, as it seems like there is something they need to do there. The party gears up to raid the manor, where they find two very surprising people among their enemies. The first one is Selvia, Cobal’s childhood friend and very talented jeweler, who is being held against her will. The second one is Sapher, Cobal’s missing brother. Contrary to Selvia, Sapher is very much here of his own accord, proclaiming that the summoning of strange people into this world will cause the end of the entire continent. With the revival of Shifeth, they should be able to rid the place of these unnatural otherworlders and that is their goal. Achieving whatever it is they wanted to achieve in Marsolin, the cultists escape, leaving Cobal and Mana to have to deliver the bad news back home in an attempt to prevent the looming war from getting worse. Cobal and Salandra hook up before the party returns home.

Returning to the capital in volume 4 and the hostile political climate that comes with it, leaves Mana to sink deeper into her anxiety. She gets sick and starts holing up in her room until Cassandra shows up with some bad news. The Ravadier Peninsula is in danger, with villagers walking into the sea, never to be seen again. Mana quickly decides that she wants to help Cassandra figure out whatever it is that is happening. Cobal needs a little bit more convincing, but after stumbling across Layla and Thimar. The latter is a friend of Cobal’s younger sister Cyanna, who Cobal doesn’t like very much. Talking to the two helped him make up his mind, and the duo travels with Cassandra to the peninsula, where they ask Diana Vadier, the people of Arana and Eliana for help. With their combined efforts, they find out about a story of ghosts originating on Shark Tooth island, a dangerous place once inhabited by a powerful wizard who has long since left. They make their way to the island and find out that the stories were real, encountering a crew of ghost pirates. These pirates have been stuck here for a very long time, cursed by the aforementioned wizard to stay bound to this place until they find the key to his tower and unlock it. With ghostly bodies that have their limits, they have not yet been successful in finding the key. Cobal, Mana and Eliana use everything they have access to in an attempt to figure out the location of this key. It ends up being a gift from Dionil – a quill that can manipulate words into doing magical things – that is the key to finding the actual key. Traveling through the strange tower, they quickly figure out – at least Mana does – that the place belongs to someone who came from Mana’s world. It seems like this person has been here for quite a long time, despite also making references to things that happened around the time Mana was alive in our world, which makes things very confusing. The climb up the tower ends with them finding the artifact that allows the pirates to finally find rest as well as a conversation with Abu, the wizard in question. He invites them to his place in Severanti. Off screen we hear another person mention to Abu that “Sorda’Thun the wanderer is there to see him.” This cuts the conversation short, but the invasion stands. Now having some lead on the remaining two people in Miyara’s prophecy, the party needs to head to Severanti. But there is still the political mess they abandoned in the capital. Unless they’re ready to take some desperate measures, they probably can’t get out of this mess unscathed. Luckily, Diana Vadier has a plan. If Cobal marries her, the bond between Blueyerd and the Peninsula will tighten significantly, causing the remaining noble to have no choice but to accept Cobal and Mana’s path. With the duo having ties to two major allies, even lord Darsivan Meduer can’t touch them. Having set on this plan, and scheduling the wedding for a few months into the future, Cobal and Mana head to Severanti.

While all of this was going on, Mirgia (which I pronounce as meer-jah, but you do whatever you want) found himself setting off a teleportation trap, arriving in a far off region of Severanti where he quickly gets caught up in some of the local drama. Before meeting up with the rest of the party in a future volume, Mirgia first has to deal with this strange structure that has popped up, and he feels a duty to protect the people that treated him so kindly when he suddenly appeared in their fields unconscious. We join Mirgia at the very start in this little side quest in next week’s chapter. I hope this post helps you remember how we got to this point, since it has been a few years for some of these important moments. Thanks for reading.