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faesphere2026-03-31 11:41 pm
chronfrere) wrote in faesphere2026-03-31 11:41 pm
Expedition Archives
The Expedition Archives
00
Commander: Renoir
Lune figured out the landing point (Dark Shores - extrapolated from the archives/old intel)
additional Expeditioners for the follow-up/Search & Rescue = Verso, Simon, Julie, Claude, Louise, Dion
84
Commander: Yasmine (Continent: The Fountain - female voice)
Monolith Year 84
acknowledged as first expedition since Zero
knew the landing point for Expedition Zero (Dark Shores); expected to find clues, supplies, bodies etc. (none found, not known to Lumiere)
shield dome already existed in Lumiere
Entry: We landed at the exact spot where Expedition Zero touched ground and retraced their route, but there’s not a SINGLE scrap of cloth or body anywhere. Bloody hell, we’re out here chasing shadow, 15-year old shadows. I’m glad we restarted the Expeditions, but how the hell are we supposed to find them, no trail could last 15 years…
81
Commander: Renée (Spring Meadows - female voice)
landing point presumably near Spring Meadows
additional Expeditioners = Gregoir
Entry
78
Commander: Maxance (Stone Wave Cliffs - male voice)
stole airships from Lumiere, rebelled against the council, whom they deemed old and cowardly
Entry: … stealing the airships, but we knew we had to try. And it WORKED.
We deserve strong leaders, not those old fools on the Council, hiding under the Dome. Under their control, our people are condemned to a slow inevitable extinction.
Their timid half-steps achieve NOTHING. The answers are NOT in Lumière. They are out HERE.
Our only choice is to take matters into our own hands. Fortune favours the bold. We must forge ahead with CONVICTION.
70
Commander: Charlotte (Inside the Monolith - Tainted Lumiere - female voice)
grapple expedition!
finished within days of their Gommage
Entry
69
Commander: Fleur (Visages - female voice)
climbers expedition! responsible for: climbing handholds, map-making, mountaineering, recon
additional Expeditioners = Anthony
Entry: And as the Expedition 69 motto says, we are literally laying a trail for the ones who come after.
Step by step, handhold by handhold, each Expedition carries the next one forward. Gustave commentary:
Lune: Someone came here before and set up these handholds.
Gustave: Probably Expedition 69, the climbers expedition.
Lune: Let us thank them for that.
68
Commander: Elodie (Flying Waters - female voice)
ships caught in a storm, swept up and disappeared
they found 68's boat after joining with Maelle
Entry: It’s a miracle any of us survived. We were caught in the maelstrom and flung from wave to wave. We lost the moon and the stars, condemned to a never-ending darkness of punishing rain and raging clouds.
The Paintress sent a storm to overcome us, but it is we who have overcome the storm: After surviving that, crushing those Nevrons was almost an afterthought.
Strength and resilience, it’s how we survived that storm and it’s how we grabbed VICTORY! It wasn’t even a battle, it was an INKBATH. We squeezed those Nevs DRY. But this new one looks tougher than the others. Gustave commentary:
Gustave: 68. Elodie’s expedition.
Lune: You know the commanders of every expedition?
Gustave: Expedition 68. Their boat was blown into the air by a storm. Lumière lost sight of it, but assumed they crashed on the continent.
Lune: And they survived. The storm, at least.
67
Commander: Luc (Sirene - male voice)
expedition broke through the Axon island with explosives
additional Expeditioners = Marguerite
Entry
Verso commentary:
Verso: Thank Expedition 67 for destroying a lot of walls to get further. Couldn’t progress without that.
66
Commander: Marcel (Esquie's Nest - male voice)
those darn mushrooms
first hint that Esquie's friend is immortal
Entry: Damn you, Esquie and your stupid mushrooms. Your friend ate them with no problem, but it also seems your friend was immortal!
That’s the sort of extremely relevant detail that you should mention at the start. Ugh, stop crying! You’re not the one about to die.
I can’t believe this is the end of our expedition. We’ve learned nothing and achieved nothing and we’re not even leaving anything useful for future expeditions.
Damn it all, I should never have trusted a giant talking marshmallow. Great, and now, I’m losing consciousne-
65
Commander: Aurélien (Monoco Station - male voice)
Nevrons had already started overrunning the area
text implies that people didn't yet believe Grandis were legends, but Lumiere assumed they had all died in the Fracture
Entry: What a balm for the soul to know that other beings survived, that we in Lumière are not alone! It truly is a miracle.
64
Commander: UNCONFIRMED
journal by Ben (Continent - Spring Meadows area - male voice)
"64 Epsilon"; groups separated by greek alphabet codes
Expedition had radios for long-distance contact; enough to connect with at least 5 groups, depending on location and connection
Alpha, Beta, Gamma, (presumably Delta) Epsilon
additional Expeditioners = Hamma, Marceau, Kaline (with Beta group)
the reason Ben isn't assumed Commander like most is because he is EPSILON. presumably the commander would be with the Alpha group.
Entry: We radioed our first report to Gamma. The line is good. Alpha will be out of radio for a few days as they investigate downcoast. They spotted an interesting island which could make a good relay point for the southern half of the continent.
But Hamma hasn’t heard from Beta in two weeks. Marceau should reach her in another day. I hope Kaline is ok. But it seems someone is using our radios against us.
How do they even know our codes? Nobody’s used them since the Fracture.
63
Commander: Damien (Ancient Sanctuary - male voice)
built armoured cars to drive through the continent; destroyed by a Sakapatate or something similar, Gestral-piloted
additional Expeditioners = Hector
Entry: Damnit. I can’t believe we crashed into this… whatever this massive thing is. So much for Gerald’s vaunted reinforced front plates. I can’t believe we have to abandon the cars already. We’re nowhere close to the Paintress.
And I definitely have a concussion. I could’ve sworn I saw some gestrals running out of that thing. I’m definitely hallucinating. Damnit, Hector, I told you to SLOW DOWN.
62
Commander: Virgile (Continent - after Gestral Village - male voice)
additional Expeditioners = Eugène
Entry: Eugène beat the rest of us to 100 kills, but I’m still three shy. I might need to do some solo hunting if I’m going to even up the score.
Oh, I hear a big Nev coming, they count for double. If I kill it quick, I can boost my score.
61
Commander: Margot (The Reacher - female voice)
the Nevrons fight each other, besides the workshop Nevron and the Axon
Entry
60
Commander: William (Lumiere - male voice)
THE MIDDLE AGE BEEFCAKE EXPEDITION YEAHHHH
naked muscles will save the world. they reached the Paintress
at this point she was still coherent enough to explain her situation and that Renoir under the Monolith was the real cause of the Gommage
Entry
59
Commander: UNCONFIRMED
journal by Julien (Yellow Harvest - male voice)
Commander unconfirmed because the signed name of "Julien, 59er" seems weird/informal for a commander
additional Expeditioners = Laure (female)
DON'T EAT NEVRONS IT MAKES YOU BARF
Entry: … disgusting. Laure’s an idiot, I can’t believe she convinced everyone to eat the Nevron. They’ve been puking for the past few hours. Great.
Well, we can’t move on with so many people sick. I TOLD her it was a bad idea. Hopefully they’ll feel better with some mushroom broth to settle their stomachs…
58
Commander: Delphine (Old Lumiere - female voice)
The Hauler was called "the behemoth"
Verso and "his father, Renoir" mention; advised it was an Axon, unkillable (except it was), that they've spent years trying
first mention of The Curator helping the expeditions, and that he could forge a barrier breaking weapon
Entry
57
Commander: Carla (Forgotten Battlefield - female voice)
siege engines built in Lumière and brought to the continent
Entry: I dare not show my true feelings. As Commander, I cannot yield to fear.
56
Commander: Lisette (Stone Wave Cliffs - female voice)
additional Expeditioners = Simone (female)
captured one of the "white haired bastards" who refuses to speak, looks human. presumed Alicia, not that Gustave knows it, but could reach that point
Entry: In my youth, I mistook drama for passion. Simone helped me understand the difference. Opened my eyes to an entirely different way to experience the world.
How can she be gone? How? How could they so callously, so nonchalantly, destroy such a beautiful soul? Vile, vile, VILE. They just killed her. Like she was a worthless Nevron. Those cold-blooded, treacherous, despicable parasites.
But my trap worked. We caught one of those white-haired bastards. She looks human, but I know she’s a monster. She refuses to speak, but I’ll make her talk. And then I will FEED her to a Nevron. Then the Paintress can take me, I don’t care, nothing matters.
I WILL HAVE JUSTICE.
55
Commander: Gilles (Sirene - male voice)
they augmented their Pictos with music
additional Lumierans mentioned = Rochelle (pregnant daughter), at least 1 other daughter (I miss my girls so much it kills me)
Entry
54
Commander: Constantine (Stone Wave Cliffs Cave - male voice)
offers some insight into how the expeditions used to work in the past, not all volunteers
council corruption in Lumiere
Entry: Lumière operates a certain way. It favours a certain group and a certain outcome and if you question the Council, well, the Council’s going to question you.
Push too hard to change things and you just might end up on the next Expedition.
So. Nothing ever changes. They just send us out to die. Dissenters. And the status quo continues. At least out here, I don’t have to pretend anymore.
53
Commander: Lilou (Small Bourgeon - female voice)
additional Expeditioners = Dominique (female), Lance, Pons (male)
Entry: Dominique’s other injuries are manageable, but she’s been in a coma for two weeks with no change.
Fuck. What do we do? We can’t just leave her here, but what about the mission?
Lance says give her one more week, but Dom would’ve wanted us to go on. She’d have yelled at us for even staying this long.
It’s the right choice. It is. Even if it doesn’t feel like it. Right? Right.
Pons found a plant, tested it on some animals, says it’ll be painless for Dom. He’s preparing a tincture. It’s fucked up, everything’s fucked up, but it’s what she would’ve wanted.
52
Commander: Théo (Gestral Village - male voice)
Entry: Merde, I can barely think straight. That bulking Gestral broke my skull. What the fuck kind of “friendly fight” was that??
I’m bleeding out, but their medic is bloody useless, he just keeps telling me about his bone problems. Putain, I’m gonna die here, aren’t I?
51
Commander: Thibault (Frozen Hearts - male voice)
additional Expeditioners = Maxim, Clément, Fabien, Guillaume, Carla
Entry: Tomorrow comes,
And it comes for us all.
May it bring you the gift of peace,
And not just the gift of sorrow.
50
Commander: Lucile (female voice - Stone Wave Cliffs)
additional Expeditioners = Adrien, Gabriel
Gustave knew about this one! giant wheel built to cross the world. not acknowledged as a ferris wheel, though Sciel recognized it as such
Entry: Our beautiful Wheel, wedged upon the rocks, a casualty of the massive Serpent of the sea. But even shattered, its presence is still comforting.
Adrien and Gabriel are doing their best to sustain morale, but with no food, no clean water, no way to fix the Wheel, our fate is quite clear. To me, at least. But I have no desire to hold back the hopes of others. perhaps. Perhaps we will find a way back..
Still. These moments of quiet, sitting on the beach, are also a source of contentment. All our lives, we’ve been running, trying to outrace time. Trying to reach an unreachable goal. And now, we can finally rest.
At least, we got to see some of the wonders of this world. Even the Serpent, cruel as it is, has a deadly elegance that is mesmerising. But oh, what other marvels might we have seen had we been able to keep rolling?
I sometimes wonder what it would have been like to grow up outside the Dome. Perhaps even live amongst the Nevrons. Could we have achieved a form of peace? Or even prospered alongside them? Gustave commentary:
Sciel: Wanna go for a ride? Apparently that was where people went on dates, you know. What do you think happened in those cabins?
Gustave: No, actually, my guess is this was Expedition 50. You see, they created this giant wheel and they tried to cross the world.
Sciel: Okay, okay, professor.
49
Commander: Christophe (Falling Leaves - male voice)
healing expedition; made it for a while but failed due to loss of resources, couldn't do enough DPS to fell strong Nevrons despite surviving with heals/defense
Entry
48
Commander: Jean Fournier (male)
journal by: Vincent Constantin (Stone Quarry - male voice)
first indication of last names for characters besides the painter family?
additional Expeditioners = Thomas Fliegauff
Entry: Under Expedition Code 23, Jean Fournier is hereby relieved of duty. I, Vincent Constantin, have assumed command and have designated Thomas Fliegauff as Lieutenant.
47
Commander: Thomas (Continent - male voice)
DRUNKEN BRIGADE
additional Expeditioners = Benjamin
Entry
46
Commander: Annelie (Sirene's Dress - female voice)
journal by:
Additional Expeditioners = Brigitte, Lune's mother; fought the snake monster (Chromatic Glissando) 4 days & 4 nights
Entry
45
Commander: UNCONFIRMED
journal by: Cassandra (Crushing Caverns - female voice)
commander unknown because a BIG group was all killed at once, and Cassandra could've been a rando. could be commander though
additional Expeditioners = Timothee
Entry
44
Commander: Nicolas (Yellow Harvest - male voice)
expedition that tried to pretend to be Nevrons
additional Expeditioners = Jules
Entry
43
Commander: Sabine (The Continent - female voice)
the submarine expedition! subs built in Lumiere with a lot of resources diverted to the efforts; they were immediately destroyed by snake Nevron
Gus would have been in his 20s for this, potentially been part of the engineering department and helped design/develop them
Entry: Diverting the resources of the entire Engineering and Defence divisions to construct those subs. And merde, all the people who trusted our vision and volunteered their lives.
42
Commander: Armande (Old Lumiere - female voice)
there was a "Grandis Exhibit"? unclear what that is or what it means
additional Expeditioners = Freyja, Olivier
Entry
41
Commander: UNCONFIRMED (by phrasing, I'm going to assume it's Xavier)
journal by Emilie
additional Expeditioners = Estelle, Lea, Xavier
titled Expedition WOLF 41
Entry: Like Xavier says, subtlety is not our game. We only live ‘til forty, so let’s go make some friends.
40
Commander: Avril (Continent - island near Axons - female voice)
gliding expedition, tried to use gliders to go through the barrier to the monolith
additional Expeditioners = Gigi, Edmond, Bernard
mention of: sea Nevrons, fish (makes sense, Lumiere was mostly fishing village considering the market and all the boats)
Entry
39
Commander: Albert (Visages - male voice)
additional Expeditioners = Edith
or maybe Edith was the commander and they couldn't move on because she was MIA?
Entry: Edith’s not back, so until then, we stay on recon.
38
Commander: Genevieve (Yellow Harvest - female voice)
additional Expeditioners = Patrick (worked in the aquafarm / floating gardens), Pierre-Oscar
Entry
37
Commander: UNCONFIRMED
journal by: Laure (Gestral Beach - female voice)
entire expedition was slaughtered by Renoir & Nevrons
journal author tried to argue with everyone to abandon the mission, fled when no one listened
Entry
36
Commander: Isabelle (White Tree - female voice)
it's just the poem one, way to fail those who come after, gurl
Entry
35
Commander: Mathieu (Falling Leaves - male voice)
laid a literal trail with their bodies to create a bridge
Entry
34
Commander: Corinne (The Crows - female voice)
elemental focus expedition
Entry: We have discovered so much though. I suspect there is a deeper level of chroma beyond what Pictos enable us to manipulate.
The pull of chroma grows as we get closer to the Monolith. But thus far we’ve been unable to tap into those flows.
Maybe Gustave’s idea to convert chroma from Pictos to… What did he call it? Lumina? Maybe that’s not so crazy after all.
33
Commander: Alan (male)
well we all know how this one goes
Gustave is chronicling the journey by hand via his journal; Maelle takes over after he dies
Lune was the one creating actual standard journals for future expeditions
surviving Expeditioners = Gustave, Maelle, Lune, Sciel
additional Expeditioners = Lucien, Catherine, Margot, Michel, Seba, Tom, Amandine, Jérôme, Tristan, Catherine
Lucie was a part of E33 but left (Seba filled her spot)
Bastien is commander of 32
notable Lumierans: Emma (chief councillor) is Gustave's little sister; Alan had a daughter (Léona), Sciel was an only child, Lune had 2 older siblings, Stella and Sol
(Sol dated Gustave's sister/Emma, that's how Gustave and Lune met)
Verso assumes Lune knew Gustave for :"quite a while", Lune is evasive
Gustave and Sciel knew each other since at least Monolith year 38 (aquafarm confirmed to exist that far back)
Gustave's journal entries:
After Spring Meadows: He writes about how dangerous the Nevrons are, but how beautiful the continent is.
After Flying Waters: He writes about how the arm they created for him was incredibly useful against water type Nevrons.
After Gestral Village: He writes about Gestrals, he knows how happy his apprentices will be to learn that they exist.
After Esquie's Nest: He writes about Esquie and how incredible it is to travel on such a legendary creature.
Known details, journal entries found, and lore related to the Expeditions, both past and current, including information that historians (eg. Gustave) would know about them.
00 | 84 | 81 | 78 | 70 | 69 | 68 | 67 | 66 | 65 | 64 | 63 | 62
| 61 |
60 | 59 | 58 | 57 | 56 | 55 | 54 | 53 | 52 | 51 | 50 | 49 | 48 | 47 | 46 | 45 | 44 | 43 | 42 | 41 | 40 | 39 | 38 | 37 | 36 | 35 | 34 | 33
We deserve strong leaders, not those old fools on the Council, hiding under the Dome. Under their control, our people are condemned to a slow inevitable extinction.
Their timid half-steps achieve NOTHING. The answers are NOT in Lumière. They are out HERE.
Our only choice is to take matters into our own hands. Fortune favours the bold. We must forge ahead with CONVICTION.
Step by step, handhold by handhold, each Expedition carries the next one forward.
Lune: Someone came here before and set up these handholds.
Gustave: Probably Expedition 69, the climbers expedition.
Lune: Let us thank them for that.
The Paintress sent a storm to overcome us, but it is we who have overcome the storm: After surviving that, crushing those Nevrons was almost an afterthought.
Strength and resilience, it’s how we survived that storm and it’s how we grabbed VICTORY! It wasn’t even a battle, it was an INKBATH. We squeezed those Nevs DRY. But this new one looks tougher than the others.
Gustave: 68. Elodie’s expedition.
Lune: You know the commanders of every expedition?
Gustave: Expedition 68. Their boat was blown into the air by a storm. Lumière lost sight of it, but assumed they crashed on the continent.
Lune: And they survived. The storm, at least.
Verso: Thank Expedition 67 for destroying a lot of walls to get further. Couldn’t progress without that.
That’s the sort of extremely relevant detail that you should mention at the start. Ugh, stop crying! You’re not the one about to die.
I can’t believe this is the end of our expedition. We’ve learned nothing and achieved nothing and we’re not even leaving anything useful for future expeditions.
Damn it all, I should never have trusted a giant talking marshmallow. Great, and now, I’m losing consciousne-
But Hamma hasn’t heard from Beta in two weeks. Marceau should reach her in another day. I hope Kaline is ok. But it seems someone is using our radios against us.
How do they even know our codes? Nobody’s used them since the Fracture.
And I definitely have a concussion. I could’ve sworn I saw some gestrals running out of that thing. I’m definitely hallucinating. Damnit, Hector, I told you to SLOW DOWN.
Oh, I hear a big Nev coming, they count for double. If I kill it quick, I can boost my score.
Well, we can’t move on with so many people sick. I TOLD her it was a bad idea. Hopefully they’ll feel better with some mushroom broth to settle their stomachs…
How can she be gone? How? How could they so callously, so nonchalantly, destroy such a beautiful soul? Vile, vile, VILE. They just killed her. Like she was a worthless Nevron. Those cold-blooded, treacherous, despicable parasites.
But my trap worked. We caught one of those white-haired bastards. She looks human, but I know she’s a monster. She refuses to speak, but I’ll make her talk. And then I will FEED her to a Nevron. Then the Paintress can take me, I don’t care, nothing matters.
I WILL HAVE JUSTICE.
Push too hard to change things and you just might end up on the next Expedition.
So. Nothing ever changes. They just send us out to die. Dissenters. And the status quo continues. At least out here, I don’t have to pretend anymore.
Fuck. What do we do? We can’t just leave her here, but what about the mission?
Lance says give her one more week, but Dom would’ve wanted us to go on. She’d have yelled at us for even staying this long.
It’s the right choice. It is. Even if it doesn’t feel like it. Right? Right.
Pons found a plant, tested it on some animals, says it’ll be painless for Dom. He’s preparing a tincture. It’s fucked up, everything’s fucked up, but it’s what she would’ve wanted.
I’m bleeding out, but their medic is bloody useless, he just keeps telling me about his bone problems. Putain, I’m gonna die here, aren’t I?
And it comes for us all.
May it bring you the gift of peace,
And not just the gift of sorrow.
Adrien and Gabriel are doing their best to sustain morale, but with no food, no clean water, no way to fix the Wheel, our fate is quite clear. To me, at least. But I have no desire to hold back the hopes of others. perhaps. Perhaps we will find a way back..
Still. These moments of quiet, sitting on the beach, are also a source of contentment. All our lives, we’ve been running, trying to outrace time. Trying to reach an unreachable goal. And now, we can finally rest.
At least, we got to see some of the wonders of this world. Even the Serpent, cruel as it is, has a deadly elegance that is mesmerising. But oh, what other marvels might we have seen had we been able to keep rolling?
I sometimes wonder what it would have been like to grow up outside the Dome. Perhaps even live amongst the Nevrons. Could we have achieved a form of peace? Or even prospered alongside them?
Sciel: Wanna go for a ride? Apparently that was where people went on dates, you know. What do you think happened in those cabins?
Gustave: No, actually, my guess is this was Expedition 50. You see, they created this giant wheel and they tried to cross the world.
Sciel: Okay, okay, professor.
The pull of chroma grows as we get closer to the Monolith. But thus far we’ve been unable to tap into those flows.
Maybe Gustave’s idea to convert chroma from Pictos to… What did he call it? Lumina? Maybe that’s not so crazy after all.
After Spring Meadows: He writes about how dangerous the Nevrons are, but how beautiful the continent is.
After Flying Waters: He writes about how the arm they created for him was incredibly useful against water type Nevrons.
After Gestral Village: He writes about Gestrals, he knows how happy his apprentices will be to learn that they exist.
After Esquie's Nest: He writes about Esquie and how incredible it is to travel on such a legendary creature.