daughterofthemark | A Brief History of Arianna

Note: The names "Sven" and "Starlight" are not canon. They're the names that ended up being used in Airlocked for things that, in the actual game, are named by the player.

Born in the Duchy of Caledonia, Arianna was the "Daughter of the Mark," destined to travel to the Temple of Ginnungagap near the town of High Lagaard to perform a ritual. She was kept from learning that this ritual was to transform someone into the "Fafnir Knight," who'd give up his humanity to become a living seal for a monster for a century, because of an older civilization's "Yggdrasil Project" meant to save the environment using giant sufficiently-advanced-technology trees. While on a trip, Arianna met two kids named Sven and Flavio and she accidentally made Sven the new Fafnir Knight, then they both suffered amnesia about the whole thing.

When Arianna turned eighteen, it was time to do the ritual, so she headed High Lagaard to visit Ginnungagap, with Sven and Flavio accompanying her as bodyguards. They met up with an older knight named Bertrand and his not-daughter Chloe, and then when they entered the temple Sven suddenly gained the power to transform because Fafnir Knight, leading Arianna to immediately decide it was her fault he wasn't fully human anymore.

Stuff happened and they ended up having to join the people who were exploring the forest Labyrinth inside Yggdrasil in hopes of reaching a floating castle at the top, so they officially became an exploration guild called Starlight. Along the way they met other explorers in Yggdrasil, like the guy who was planning on committing suicide by boss battle until Starlight convinced him he needed to live for his dog's sake, or the witch and her buddy who were murdering adventurers to stop them from repeatedly killing her sister who'd been turned into an infinitely regenerating monster.

Finally they went to perform the ritual, which meant they finally learned what it actually did. Arianna immediately realized she'd inflicted even more on Sven than she'd thought, and tried to sacrifice herself in his place. But it turned out Bertrand was the previous Fafnir Knight, whose corresponding Daughter of the Mark had found a way to take his place, and the presence of two Knights broke everything and forced them to seek an alternate solution. That meant making their way to the floating castle, in hopes that the Overlord who ruled it could help. That... became a boss fight, ending with the defeated Overlord granting Sven his power.

With that done, Starlight headed deep into Ginnungagap to face the Calamity, and defeated it--only for it to rise again and surprise-attack them, knocking Flavio, Bertrand, and Chloe out. Arianna tried again to sacrifice herself to distract the Calamity so that Sven could escape, insisting that it was her responsibility because this was all her fault. Her desperation, however, awakened Sven to the full power he'd obtained, and he proceeded to destroy the Calamity for good. Afterward, Sven disappeared, and Arianna and the others set out to find him, following a shooting star south.

Apparently they did indeed find him, because in the postgame the whole party went on to explore another five floors of forest and fight some dragons.