mildflower
Terrarian
The Dryad’s face scrunched up.
“No, it’s different with uniforms. Are you the Wall of Flesh?”
He paused, turning the question over in his mind. He knew she knew he was. She knew everything about Terraria; it was why they got along so well… So there must have been some ulterior motive behind it. Some sort of conclusion she was pushing him towards.
“Of course. But I’m also the Guide.”
Summary:
The Hero has, through an irrevocable (and largely accidental) series of events: defeated the Wall of Flesh, broken the dam keeping cosmic pandemonium at bay, and unleashed an infantry of new monsters, demons, and lesser gods onto the world. This was fine. This was part of the plan.
Training them over the past year and a half had been difficult in several ways, but the Guide knew better than to think of them as ill-prepared for what the new world was going to throw at them. Being slain by them during their final trial had been harder, but that was where his job ended anyways, and he could slink off back to the Underworld and retire from his Guide duties—return to an easy existence of keeping its demonic government in line, reading quality literature, and drinking tea.
(That was what the Hungry were for, after all.)
... Except he doesn't, because for some inexplicable reason, the forces that be decided that he was worth bringing back to the surface world, in a human vessel, to act as the Emissary between it and the Underworld.
The Hero is burning with righteous betrayal, the townsfolk are ready to inquisition him, and the great bureaucracy of destiny has decreed that he cannot return until the Moon Lord is put in the ground for good.
This was not part of the plan.
OR:
Being human has a steep learning curve, and despite being all-knowing, the Guide has a lot to learn.
AO3 link - The Emissary - Chapter 1 - Mildflower - Terraria [Archive of Our Own]
Ff.net link - https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13828931/1/The-Emissary
Chapter List
1 - Sometimes Dead is Better
Author's Notes (very skippable):
Hi, Terraria forum! Someone gave me the idea to post the writing I do for this AU over here, and I figured some of you may get a kick out of watching
Remember all of the theories floating around that the the Guide was actually the Wall of Flesh? I decided to put my own spin on it in prose form. This is a story about sacrifice, consequence, and the complex relationships formed by its characters/the NPCs. It's also about the weight a predetermined destiny places upon a person, killing a god (or ten), and the morality of self-sacrifice and lies of omissions. It is told largely from the perspective of the Guide, who has been with the Hero since the very beginning, known about what their destiny really entails from the very beginning, and has been very guilty of hiding truths from them (from the very beginning).
The ideas behind it were created pre-2019 lore update, so I'm afraid that it doesn't line up perfectly with it. There is no order of the guide, and the Dryad race isn't quite as heroic as they were in Re-Logic's official canon. But hey, that just means you won't need any background knowledge to read this as long as you've played the game!
I hope someone enjoys reading it as much as I enjoy writing it. I'm sorry if I've broken any forum conventions; I read all of the rules twice but I'm very new here. Please let me know if I have.
-Mildflower
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