Mykara Faction Quest

A guide detailing the faction quest for the Mykara, complete with all objectives and lore.

Overview

I unearthed an ancient organism and named it Mykara. Hardy, energetic, evasive--I encouraged its growth, let it in. It transformed our knowledge, our lives, our understanding of the Urkans. But the Mages--our old enemy--gained control of one of them, and together, they slaughtered all but one. Me.

That day I gave myself fully to the Mykara, and we became a fearsome power... hungry for vengeance.

WARNING: POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD-- this guide reveals all of the story related to the Faction Quest, and so if you planned to complete this story yourself, the lore ahead may spoil it for you.

Every Major Faction in Endless Legend has their own unique Faction Quest. Completing (or at least putting effort into progressing through it) it is a good idea because:

• it gives your Main Faction unique perks often tailored to your empire (technology, items, etc.)
  
• you unlock extra rewards on the way (Dust, resources, and occasionally free Heroes)
  
• completing the storyline is necessary for a Wonder victory (and the related achievements)
  
• you learn the lore behind your Faction (and lore is awesome)

Originally nothing more than a simple yet ancient fungus, a Vaulter settlement saw the potential of the resilient Mykaran organism and used it to enhance their crops and defenses. Eventually they began to understand its connection between it and the Urkans buried deep under Auriga's surface--but so did their enemies, the Ardent Mages.
The Mages gained control over an Urkan and used its connection with the mycelial organism to find the Vaulter settlement. Unable to stop the Mages and the mighty beast, all of the Vaulters in the settlement were slaughtered--save for one. The leader gave herself to the fungal organism, and in turn she changed it, giving the Mykara new shapes, new forms, and a new purpose--vengeance. Yet symbiosis goes both ways, and the Mykara organism has other concerns...

Chapter 1: Dreams of a Massacre

The Ozonic stench of the Mage's lightning attacks fills my nostrils, mingles with the smell of burning flesh. I stumble down a narrow passage, the dim phosphorescent light from the mycelial veins causing my shadow to flicker across the craggy stone. The rock shakes. I hear the deep-throated roar of the Urkan, and my skin crawls with terror. I'm gripping a weapon, a might axe, but it feels like deadweight in my hands. Am I rallying my men or running from the enemy? The passage opens into another tableau of slaughter, my kinsmen dying or dead on the cold stone, their blood sprayed in crimson arcs or pooled in dark puddles. I stop dead.

You cannot linger. You are Toth Ágnes. You are the First of the Bloodline. Others need you. Empty words. This is a slaughter. I know there are no others. I've brought death upon these people who followed me away from the homevaults.

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Memory and reality are hard to distinguish. I slumber, drifting between the past and present. The battle is over, of that I'm certain. I survived, somehow. In the here and now I feel renewal, regrowth, and a desire to reach into new places. I am confused. I slip back into my recollections, the familiarity outweighing the distress...

----------

Something grips my ankle, and my body tenses, fingers gripping the shaft of my axe. It's only a dying kinsmen though. To my shame, I don't know his name. A handful of words spill from his lips, whispered and ragged.
"Avenge us."
Tears come to my eyes, but my sadness swiftly turns to fury. "I will," I reply, clutching his forearm. "I promise."

DREAMS OF A MASSACRE

SUMMARY: Everything is hazy in the aftermath of the Mage's massacre, but I survived. Now I must recover my strength. Now I must prepare for vengeance.

PART	OBJECTIVE	REWARD
1.1	Research the Alchemist's Furnace tech, to enable the construction of Mykaran Extractors.	Random Resource
1.2	Deploy and fully grow (#) Mykaran Extractors.	Random Resource

OUTCOME: Even though I slumber, every day I feel myself grow stronger, more capable. Somehow I feel faraway places healing me and giving me sustenance. Soon I will come to full wakeness, and understand, I'm sure. In the meantime, the memory of my people's slaughter at the hands of the Mages only sharpens my enmity.

Chapter 2: The Apotheosis of Toth

Today I awoke and discovered the horrifying truth. I am Mykara, and the Mykara is me. We are one, a symbiosis of flesh and filaments, memories and myths. In the cold light of day, I can now clearly remember how I survived.

The Mykara had fascinated me for a long time, when I led those who would join me away from the homevaults. It was an ancient fungal species, mycelial tendrils and mushroom fruit, no sign of what it would one day become. Growing largely in the subterranean realm, it was unseen by most, and overlooked by the rest. But I saw its potential. Sinewy, resilient, vigorous, I knew it could transform a Vaulter settlement. And it did. Crops, waste, defense. It was a wonder material. It even began to shed light on the legendary Urkan beasts, who reputedly emerged from the Aurigan crust every few centuries, before slipping back into folkloric tales...sadly one of those same beasts came under the spell of our ancient enemy, the Mages, who used it to find and then destroy us...

As my kinsman died in my arms, as I basked in my feelings of vengeance, a desperate idea came to me. The Mykara had brought me to this juncture, and the Mykara would grant me my revenge. After all, in my heart, I'd always been convinced it was much more than a mere, mindless organism. I scrambled deeper and deeper into the earth, far into the inky darkness of the thickest mycelial forest, where thick tendrils vied with web-like skeins. Unable to move any further, I lay on a bed of filaments, and curled myself into a ball. It swiftly ensnared me, a cocoon of protection wrapped around a heart of malice...

Now we are one. It acts, I act, we act. Sometimes it almost feels like I'm doing things against my will. It is terrifying, but I will grow used to it, even perhaps enjoy it.
Besides, I have real power now. And the first task is to learn if I wasn't the only survivor.

THE APOTHEOSIS OF TOTH

SUMMARY: My new existence--a union of Mykara and Vaulter--is an unsettling one, but one that gives me power. Before I begin my quest for vengeance, I must interrogate those nearby to learn if others of my vault survived.

PART	OBJECTIVE	REWARD
2.1	Control 5 Overgrown villages of any number of Minor Factions.	Random Resource
2.2	Assimilate a Minor Faction.	Random Resource

OUTCOME: Neither the local population nor their artifacts give any clues as to whether any other of my kinsmen survived the Mages' assault. Perhaps they are afraid and are good liars, but any inquiry regarding the Urkan-led massacre is met with vacant eyes and curt shakes of the head. It is strange...

Chapter 3: The Place Where They Fell

I feel myself, my identity, slipping deeper into the Mykara's collective consciousness. It is a soothing, liberating, mind-expanding feeling, as my attention expands across the world and deeper into the past. But it is also a betrayal. I swore I would have vengeance, and I will not break that promise. I must not forget.

As the Mykara has changed me, so I have changed the Mykara. Out of my form, perhaps out of my very cells, it grows workers, builders, soldiers.

Some will be my instruments for my purposes. I will send an army back to our devastated home, and find the Mages' trail.

The site of our old vault--and the massacre--is hazy to me, but I must find it. During my slumber the Mykara moved me, and the geography of the world feels unfamiliar. It is hardly surprising that a Vaulter struggles to recognise the landscape; we've always been happier in the subterranean realm, more attuned to the vagaries of stone, the smell of the depths, and the shades of darkness that you learn from living underground.

Still, I have some ideas, and we will find the place. And if we are lucky, maybe we might even surprise a few Ardent Mages who've lingered too long...

THE PLACE WHERE THEY FELL

SUMMARY: The only way to pick up the trail of the Mages is to revisit the site of the massacre, the place I once named home. My armies will need to search among a few candidate sites.

PART	OBJECTIVE	REWARD
3.1	Search the 3 ruins located in ((3 nearby regions)) to pick up the Mage's trail.	Zolya's Blade (Hero Item, 1-handed sword)

OUTCOME: Devastation upon devastation! I am ruined anew. I hang here in my cradle of tendrils, crushed under a new weight of knowledge. Centuries have passed! Centuries. I am old beyond mortal comprehension. I am cast adrift from every soul I ever knew. The only sliver of solace is the ancient Vaulter sword found in the ruins. What is my purpose now?

Chapter 4: A Vengeance, Renewed

Calm, the Mykara whispers, but I am anything but calm. The growing symbiosis, the melding of my self into the Mykara collective, has been arrested as I find myself shaken to the very core. Did the Mykara save me or imprison me?

As my soldiers explored the ancient scene of the massacre, relaying their impressions through the mycelial web that stretches across Auriga, it was the small details that first alerted me to something being amiss. Flooded corridors and stagnant pools of water, lichen overgrowths and collapsed caverns, rusted machinery and scattered bones. Ironically, it wasn't until they came to the chamber of the great orrery, that the truth became impossible to deny. Despite the decay all around, the celestial mechanism had carried on working flawlessly, a testament to Vaulter engineering.

Auriga had circled its sun 284 times since the Mages' attack.

The Urkan beast commanded by the Mages would've returned to the depths. The Mage who was the architect of the slaughter would've died long ago. The same for their offspring. And their offspring's offspring, and onwards for who knows how many generations...

In that thought though, I found a tiny, devious, shard of hope. The Mages were a proud people, enraptured by their heritage, traditions--and history. A clan who committed such a famous victory--with an Urkan, no less!--would likely survive, even prosper, through the ages. The clan would be celebrated. Songs would be sung in their honor.

They wouldn't be hard to find. And so it was.

We will not have our revenge on those who committed the massacre. We will have our revenge on their descendants. They will pay for the sins of the ancestors, and they will have a new song to sing. Is there anything sweeter?

I war with the Mykara, but I still must avenge the Vaulter dead.

I am First of the Bloodline.

A VENGEANCE, RENEWED

SUMMARY: We cannot hurt those who committed the genocide, lost as they are to the river of time, but we can hurt their descendants.

PART	OBJECTIVE	REWARD
4.1	Defeat the two armies roaming around ((2 nearby regions)).	Random Resource
4.2	Defeat the Ardent Mage army hidden within the ruins in ((one of those regions)). Your army must be led by a Mykaran hero equipped with Zolya's Blade.	Testament of the Urkans (Tome item, -30% Food & Science on City)

OUTCOME: The Vaulter fallen have been avenged--in part. Faresh Zima, a woman from the lineage of the butcher, is dead. I can feel the collective's condemnation, but the Mykara don't understand this is justice. An unexpected boon--Zima carried an ancient tome on the Urkans. Wouldn't it be even sweeter to complete our vengeance with their instrument of our slaughter?

Chapter 5: A Greater Purpose

I still feel the Mykara's disapproval, but I also feel their acceptance. Every day our union grows stronger. My thoughts entangle with the collective's, such that I'm sometimes unsure where my mind ends and the Mykara's begins. Calmed, I follow threads of meditations deeper and deeper into the distant past. I witness that the Mykara and the Urkans have clashed many times over the ages. The cycle is always the same. The Urkans emerge from the heart of Auriga and wander the land, wrecking havoc on the fledgling cultures they encounter. Before they can strike a terminal blow though, the Mykara rise up from the depths and pacify the beasts.

For time immemorial, the Mykara have been the Urkans' keepers. And now the Urkans rise again, the Mykara rise likewise.

I wonder how many souls like myself have been merged into the collective over the millenia? Within the collective's memories I find no impression of such spirits--either I haven't reached deep enough into the Mykara's recollections, or the psyches of these individuals has blended so intimately that they've become untraceable. Will this be my fate too?

From that well, another thought springs. Observing from a vantage point that spans the ages, my own vendetta against the Mages feels...petty...inconsequential. With the Urkans likely to roam the lands once again, I must focus my will on a greater matter than revenge. I will prepare a Mykara hero...

PREPARATIONS

SUMMARY: With the Urkans return imminent, it is time to work in harmony with the Mykara. Even if it weakens us, we must study the ancient tome and be ready for the great beasts.
OR
With the Urkans returned, it is time to work in harmony with the Mykara. Even if it weakens us, we must study the ancient tome and gain dominance over the great beasts.

PART	OBJECTIVE	REWARD
5.1	Equip a Hero with the "Testament of the Urkans" tome and have them govern your main city for 8 turns.	Wild Urkans Guidebook (Tome item, +2 Science & +2 Influence per person on City)
5.2	With a greater understanding of the great beasts, it is time to tame another Urkan--or retain all three if already tamed.	Talisman of Courage (Talisman item, grants Urkan Slayer 2 capacity)

OUTCOME: I hope our time spent studying the ways of the Urkans was not wasted. We have learned some of their weaknesses I just hope we can use that knowledge. Now I must better understand the balance that we seek, and be ready for the endless winter.
OR
Our time spent studying the ways of the Urkans was not wasted. We have tamed the great beasts, and learned some of their weaknesses. Now I must better understand the balance that we seek, and be ready for the endless winter.

Chapter 6: Voices of the Past

Deep in my slumber, away from my corporeal perceptions, I hear them. A faint babble, not unlike the gentle susurration of waves on the shore. Listen more carefully though, and the murmur becomes more like a chorus of lullabies. They are the voices of children of Auriga, long assimilated into the Mykaran collective, and I am simply the most recent of their number. The youngest sibling.

I know not their names, and even though their bodily forms have no doubt enmeshed into the mycelial fabric to such a degree that identification would be impossible without instruments of science, I can feel their heritage. Among the refrain I detect a Drakken, Wild Walker, Sister of Mercy, Necrophage, even a Morgawr. No doubt there are others I cannot yet discern. I imagine they are in communion--conversing, pleading, persuading--a combined influence on the intentions of the Mykara who harbors them all.

They carry the history of their people, the history of Auriga.

The winter grows harsher every cycle. We must sharpen our weapons and weaken our enemies, so the Mykara--and all its voices--survive...

PREPARATIONS

SUMMARY: We must strengthen the Urkans we control and defeat the armies of lice that threaten the Mykara's survival. Only this way will the past be preserved.
OR
The Urkans are not abroad yet, even though their lice roam. We must bait them to the surface, and ensure they become ours. Only this way will the past be preserved.

PART	OBJECTIVE	REWARD
6.1	We must evolve the Urkans, make them stronger. Ensure there are at least 6 Urkan Upgrades unlocked. OR Bait the Urkans by placing 20 ((Luxury Resource)) in the ruins indicated by a ray of light.	Random Resource
6.2	Defeat the two roaming lice armies in ((2 random regions)).	Urkan Lice (Infantry unit tech)

OUTCOME: The Urkans we've tamed are strong, and the dangerous lice armies vanquished. Now we are ready to begin protecting more of Auriga's heritage before the snows turn the surface into an icy tomb.
OR
The Urkans will come soon, the Mykara promise. Their dangerous lice armies are vanquished. Soon we will be ready to begin protecting more of Auriga's heritage before the snows turn the surface into an icy tomb.

Chapter 7: A City in Amber

In the long silences I begin to discern the voices of the others more clearly. They are singing, a rich tapestry of music composed of many threads, each telling a piece of Auriga's history. In my mind's eye I see glittering cities of chrome and glass lancing up to the heavens, citadel-like eyries on snowy peaks, a band of hunched survivors trekking a devastated wasteland, each a remembrance from the Mykaran collective. I feel the stream of visions is a conversation, but I still lack the insight to follow the nuances, and the images come to me unexpectedly, jumping between long-separated eras like the attentions of a capricious god.

I don't think those that were once Wild Walker or Morgawr or Endless or whoever retain much sense of their own identity, and I feel the same thing happening to myself. The deeper I dive into the Mykaran collective--the more closely I can follow the symphony--the further I feel from my old self. I was a...Vaulter. Yes, a Vaulter leader. Something terrible happened to my people, but I forget the reasons, and only remember the fear and terror. It doesn't matter. It's over now. I'm sure the collective remembers, anyway.

Now my purpose is to spread the Mykara far and wide. Dispersal makes us safer, protects us from the whims of disaster. Most of all, as the unending winter threatens the world, it helps us preserve Auriga's past.

A CITY IN AMBER

SUMMARY: I am Mykara. Mykara is me. Like the others who've come before, I must help preserve the story of Auriga. We must ingest a city.

PART	OBJECTIVE	REWARD
7.1	Overgrow a City and integrate the conquered's Faction Trait.	Kernel of Plentitude (Building Tech, +10 FID per City on City, -6 Dust from upkeep, can only be built once)

OUTCOME: We have the city. I feel our tendrils reaching through its foundations, snaking its halls, and climbing its highest towers. Under the mycelial skin that swathes everything, time and entropy are much weakened foes. We preserve. Already we have found a most valuable artifact. And perhaps if we are lucky, within the ensnared city we will find another voice...

Chapter 8: History's End

The endless winter comes, creating an icy tomb out of an entire world. Snows will lie a hundred hands deep. Oceans will freeze. Life will cease.
Well, if we are fortunate, not all life.

Some species seek refuges from time. Others grasp for the cold reaches of space. For ourselves, the Mykara, we will withdraw into the heart of the planet where molten fires battle against the encroaching ice.

We sing rich remembrances: vivid memories of biological horrors in Endless laboratories; their descendants eking out a life in irradiated wastelands; later, a slaughter of one Aurigan tribe by another in a subterranean citadel. Our melodic discourse speculates on science and philosophy, truth and justice, crime and punishment, but our first instinct is always to preserve. Whatever comes of Auriga, we will abide, ready to share its story.

Of the Urkans, we know not how they will survive the winter. Likely they will return to the depths as they have always done. Maybe the heat of the core will be enough to keep them alive. And if, in one distant day--decades, or centuries, or millenia hence, it doesn't matter--they emerge into an Aurigan spring, the Mykara will be ready.

HISTORY'S END

SUMMARY: Deep divisions risk spilling into civil war over the rights of Auriga's other races. I must learn why the Endless sent us here--fast.

PART	OBJECTIVE	REWARD
8.1	Plant the Kernel of Plentitude in your Main City.	2 x Random Resource drops
8.2	Produce 100 Food, Industry, Dust and Science in your Main City.	Iron Veins (Unique Tech, +3 FIDSI multiplier on Fungal Blooms) Temple of the Earth's Core

OUTCOME: Our preparations for the endless winter are almost complete. The heart of our empire has never been stronger, our thirsting tendrils never more proficient, and our voices never louder. One day we will emerge from this icy crypt and tell the stories of Mykara and Urkan--and all of Auriga's other races.