Crimson Wool
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Warning. This section contains spoilers. You may wish to postpone reading further until you've played the related content. |
This article is about the unobtainable item in the lore. For the obtainable trophy, see Replica Crimson Wool
The Crimson Wool was one of the wools found in the King's Valley. It was destroyed prior to the player's arrival and as such, is impossible to obtain. It was originally held within the Ephemeral Corridors dungeon.
Abilities
The Crimson Wool's aspect is Memory. It can be used to alter and view the memories of a person.
Usage of the Crimson Wool will unconsciously slowly drain the user's memories.
History
Ages ago, Vaessini was captured by the Silver Knights and imprisoned within the wool. With the Crimson Wool, the knights imprisoned Orasomn, creating the Teal Wool. While the other remaining knights stayed within the Eternal Vigil to prevent Orasomn from time traveling to free himself, one of them, Sevvet, left with both wools to deliver them to a holding place. Along the way, Sevvet was attacked by Yeigar, who severely injured him and took both the Crimson and Teal wools to his empire, Isharist.
During his reign over Isharist, Yeigar suffered from an unknown terminal illness. One night, he spoke to Vaessini in a dream, deciding to make a deal with him in order for his empire to survive. Yeigar was taken by Vaessini and replaced by a memory under Vaessini's control, continuing to rule over Isharist in his stead. Later on, in response to Sevvet's defeat, the Silver Knights organized a massive attack on Isharist in an attempt to reclaim what was theirs. In an attempt to ward them off, Vaessini retracted the memory and returned the real Yeigar to help defend the empire. He and his armies were overwhelmed by the Knights' power and Isharist fell into ruin, Yeigar dying in the process. Before it could be reclaimed, the Teal Wool traveled through time, essentially lost until the events of Unmasked. The Silver Knight Daarken reclaimed the Crimson Wool and ventured under the King's Valley Monument, where both he and the Crimson Wool would find rest.
In 85 AV, C'Telsket, a Tlaxan Shaman unacknowledged by the elders, left to find the Crimson Wool. His generals found the Ephemeral Corridors, in which C'Telsket cleared, finding the Crimson Wool he sought out. With the wool in his possession, he attacked Farr with the lunatics under his command, kidnapping Minerva in order to use her as a vessel. Callum Herring arrived and nearly defeated C'Telsket, who destroyed the Crimson Wool in an act of desperation, freeing Vaessini. The destruction of the wool caused Farr to be severely damaged, and cursed to forever reset back to that state, even after altercations.
Wool Spirit
The spirit of the Crimson Wool is Vaessini, better known as the Crimson King.
Lore
Pregame
Before being imprisoned inside the wool, Vaessini was a storyteller, traveling the world and telling others the stories of other people. The people around him would have their memories stolen by him until they were nothing more than mindless husks. The Silver Knights took notice of this and captured Vaessini within a wool. Although he resisted at first, he found the silence inside the wool peaceful and, eventually, learned to acknowledge it as his home.
Despite being within the wool, Vaessini was still able to sense parts the outside world, overhearing the Silver Knight's discussion of the Malefactor Orasomn. Additionally, he managed to form a deal with Yeigar within his dreams, absorbing his memories. However, once he was taken under the Monument by Daarken, this ability seems to have been lost, as he does not recognize the area nor C'Telsket's arrival.
When C'Telsket destroyed the Crimson Wool in Farr, Vaessini was finally free once more and immediately made his first deal in millenia with Callum Herring. He promised him that he would be able to see his family again at the cost of giving Vaessini his memories, in which he accepted. Minerva and Maxwell witnessed this event, but are unable to remember those specific moments. Not long after, C'Telsket was captured and imprisoned in Sierhaven, and Maxwell confronted him about his crimes. Due to C'Telsket's instigation, Maxwell fired an apportation rune directly through C'Telsket's chest, killing him. During his dying moments, Vaessini approached C'Telsket and made a deal with him.
While traversing the mountains, Vaessini sensed Zanil's dying presence and went to him where he sat in his crypt, alone. Zanil agreed to give Vaessini his memories under the condition that Vaessini leave his people alone. Despite Vaessini following his end of the deal, Zanil never allowed him to view his memories, holding deep distrust in wool spirits.
Despite finally being free, Vaessini longed to return to his home, the Crimson Wool, as a peaceful place to atone for his crimes. He began searching for the King's Valley Monument and his pedestal, but found it to be inaccessible due to Kaul's magic. In order to bypass it, Vaessini sought out Aesir and Azacor, who had just struck fatal blows to each other. In exchange for Aesir's memories of this battle, he offered him his true desires; the freedom and victory of the Axtan protectors as well as knowledge of the Tree of Life. As for Azacor, in exchange for a passage through the Veil towards the Monument, Azacor's memory would live to rule the grove until death again. Vaessini refrained from taking his memories because Azacor's power was too great, and it would leave behind a revenant. As agreed, Azacor got his demons to rip a tear in the Veil leading to the Monument, but left some of them to try kill Vaessini in an attempt of betrayal. There, he would shift the alignments into harmony to open the way out, where he could take his wool pedestal in an attempt to return to the Crimson Wool.
Tutorial: The Forgotten Halls
When the player reaches the end of the tutorial, Cazol appears to steal the ancient artifact, opting to just kill the player rather than give them the choice of handing it over or not. The Veil opens for the player and Vaessini arrives to make a deal. However, the player awakens in Sierhaven in the middle of the deal, inadvertently causing their memories to be completely lost. In order to find the player again, Vaessini creates the Arena of Terth, making a memory of Yeigar the proprietor. Jeremiah finds the truth and becomes Vaessini's Herald.
Memories of Battle
A Study in Crimson Part 1
A Study in Crimson Part 2
Borrowed Time
The Tomb of Time
Abilities
As described by Vaessini himself, he can drain memories of people around him, taking them for himself while leaving them empty. He no longer uses this.
Vaessini cannot speak without his Herald (Jeremiah) unless the person he is talking to is at their weakest, such as when they are dying and approaching the Veil. He uses this to make deals with those who are dying, taking their memories while offering something to them. This is usually done as keeping the memory of them alive in the Hall of Memory rather than letting them disappear forever in the Veil.
Vaessini can take a memory of an area and implant it onto the world, causing it to revert back to that state should it be altered. This is very taxing to Vaessini and has only been used twice; first at Farr as a result of the explosion, and the second time at the Celsian Isles Monument after Orasomn attempts to destroy the wools there.
Vaessini can force people to relive specific memories while viewing them at the same time. He uses this ability on C'Shura during A Study in Crimson Part 2 in an attempt to obtain the knowledge she obtained from Kaul's visions. He also uses this to prevent C'Shura from potentially killing the lingering memory of Zanil in anger.
Trivia
- Due to Vaessini's time spent with his Herald Jeremiah, the physical form he takes is identical to him.
- After The Tomb of Time, a memory of Vaessini can be found in the Memory Vault instead of the real Vaessini, due to him being in the Crimson Teal wool.
- Spoilers