The truth is rarely pure.
There is a rumor within the church. It goes like this:
Long ago, a party of knights and priests, journeyed into the Valley of Defilement.
The Valley is home to everything humanity wants to forget...
Outcasts, the deformed, the despised, and the aborted.
The party of knights sent there never returned, and the leader of the party, the Maiden Astraea, is
said to have become a demon.
Demons take many forms; though all fall into three categories.
There are minor demons. There are major demons. And, there are archdemons. All demons can be likened to the roots of a tree,
spreading through an area and gathering souls just as a tree would gather nutrients.
At the core of Demon-kind is the Old One, an ancient being that sent its demon's with one purpose:
gather more souls.
If we can take out the Archdemons, we will prove ourselves as the most powerful demon of all...
This will open a path to the old one, for the old one needs powerful demons to gather his souls. Once close,
we can put the old one back to his slumber,
instead of becoming his demon.
The old one is spreading a Demon fog, a fog filled with demons and a fog that turns things into demons
The fog has touched the Valley of Defilement.
It is here where lepers, the poisoned, the plate and the deformed are banished to live out their days in agony
Not just the living are sent here, but the dead.
Aborted babies can be found at the base of the river
all the foulness of the world runs into this place, the denizens of which struggle inside of the impurity
The poor dwellers are gaunt, infested and filthy yet
They're adapted with masks spouting long beaks packed with aromatic herbs and spices that must offer some small respite
What exists there would be enough to challenge the Faith of the most devout heart.
Somehow, humanity struggles on within this place.
food for the giant ticks, the leeches, the mosquitoes, the rats. The most impure being of all resides at the center of the Valley.
A woman turned Demon who apparently turned on her fellow knights and protectors.
Upon hearing these rumors the church sends some of its best knights into the valley to discover the truth.
Vito the Moonlight Knight, Lizaia of Istarel, and Selen Vinland.
Many honorable Knights have ventured into Boletaria in search of the Valley of Defilement.
The vicious rumors about Astraea offend our most basic sense of respect for God's name.
However,
none of these great knights has made it back.
Could it be that the wretched Valley is so infested with grime that even our Lord's voice does not resonate there?
Or,
perhaps it is the fate of those left behind by God
We find the corpse of Bito,
covered in slugs and fallen to the valley. Above the Leechmonger is also Lizaia's wooden spear.
She presumably fell below to be consumed by leeches. People whisper that these adventurers fell at the Demon Astraea's hand
Ever since that Demon which came here everything has turned foul.
All the men worship her like she's the Virgin Mary, the same men who would snatch my child away from me!
This was a much better place before she came.
Astraea is indeed the Archdemon at the center of the Valley, though while the Valley brims with grime, it also feels strangely pure.
But the last knight we sent into the swamp still lives, and we find her here now.
Why, you are one of the sane ones, are you not? I am Selen of the West.
I seek my brother, Garl Vinland.
The knight who accompanied Saint Astraea on her travels.
I believe they settled here.
If you happen to see my younger brother, please tell me. I must share with him the last words of our father.
I heard an unflattering rumor about Saint Astraea. Have you met that herb peddling woman?
She claims that Saint Astraea is herself a demon.
That woman has no reason to lie.
Surely she must be mistaken.
I find something odd about this place. It brims with grime, but at once feels strangely pure.
Selen holds the Ring of Devout Prayer,
which she intends to give to her brother. It is the sister ring to the Ring of Sincere Prayer, a holy relic that
increases the power of miracles. When Astraea was a young girl,
she found the Ring of Sincere Prayer,
a discovery that instantly propelled her into sainthood. The ring,
they said, was a revelation of God, a sign that God himself had chosen the girl for great things.
When Astraea became a saint, she took on the knight Garl Vinland.
Garl was a night of the Vinland family, a powerful family within the church and likely a friend of Astraea since their childhood.
He was to serve as her bodyguard, and whether or not he was more than a friend,
he served her loyally and the two remained inseparable.
It's common for the people of the church to embark on pilgrimage, a journey of spiritual significance or awakening.
When Astraea learned of the suffering within the Valley of Defilement,
she embarked on a pilgrimage to search for it. When she and her knights found the valley,
she must have seen a land abandoned by God, full of suffering and those who were to be forgotten.
This filthy woman tells us that Astraea made things worse,
but she is simply jealous of Astraea, for before Astraea came,
the filthy woman was the apple of every man's eye. In truth, Astraea
did great good in the Valley. Her heart was broken by the plight of the depraved, and she cared for them and healed them, and
they worshipped her as a christ-like figure, for she cared for them when no one else would.
So by the time the Demon fog rolled over the world and through the Valley of Defilement,
Astraea had changed. The Valley had stripped her of any belief in her God.
How could a benevolent God allow these people to suffer. The church wasn't worshipping
God, it was more like they were worshipping the devil. So she made a decision.
Instead of fighting the Demon fog, Astraea embraced it, becoming the first human to successfully weather the
transformation into Demon. She kept her sanity, her personality and her form.
The only one of her party of knights to live was Garl, a lifelong friend.
He decided to stay with her until the end. Her demon power was not used for great evil.
She tried to use it for good. She resurrected the aborted children of the valley,
she created a sanctuary for the lost and the wretched and she tried to cleanse the most vile place in the world.
As an Archdemon, she needed to gather souls for the old one, so whenever a traveler or knight came into the valley to discover
what was going on, the depraved travelers would murder him and bring the traveler's soul to Astraea.
Truth is, Astraea is a beacon of hope.
She is our only example, that those with a powerful Demon soul are capable of using evil for good works, and
given time, the perception of Demons could change. As Sage Freke the visionary says,
Astrae has proven that humans can evolve to a higher state.
Yet to us, she is an archdemon, and from our narrow perspective, she must die.
Leave us, Slayer of Demons.
This is a sanctuary for the lost and wretched.
There is nothing here for you to pillage or plunder.
Please, leave quietly.
You will not turn back, will you?
How dare you persist that intruding upon our haven?
You abandoned us long ago. What right do you have?
We live humble lives. Leave us be.
I shall let no harm come to dearest Astraea.
May you rot in the deepest depths of this swamp.
Cruel Lord,
what more can you possibly take from us? Stop.
Please stop. This is our home.
We have done no harm to you.
Dear God,
have mercy.
Is not your abandonment of us punishment enough?
How long must we weather this cruel fate?
Ye covetous ones, let it be known.
We shall defend our heart and home to the death.
Dearest Astraea. I have failed you.
You... you killed him, didn't you?
Very well, I can no longer resist you.
Do as you like, take your precious demon soul.
Just like Astraea,
we committed an evil in the name of good. We kill an archdemon in order to rid humanity of the old one and his demons.
Yet, Astraea was the Demon using her power for good.
So ask yourself, Slayer of Demons, do the ends justify the means?