Brightvale: Kingdom of Mystery

My fist stop was Meridell where I decided to start with King Skarl. When asked for a statement of Brightvale I got quite and earful from him:

“As far as I’m concerned Brightvale doesn’t exist! Those people say they value knowledge, but what they really value is hoarding knowledge! Could my brother deign to share some of their knowledge with me? No! And where were they when Darigan attacked? They have all those magic scrolls in their scrollery, but they wouldn’t use them to help their neighboring kingdom! Brightvale is…”

As I left the king I pondered his words, wondering if he was right. Where was Brightvale when Darigan attacked? Still thinking about that, I entered Kayla’s Potion Shop. Luckily Kayla wasn’t as negative about Brightvale as Skarl:

“Brightvale? Sure, it seems like a nice enough kingdom; in fact I’ve visited it several times. The nice ixi from Brightvale Books has loaned me some books to help me create new potions. Still, aside from that, I don’t really go there a lot. I can’t help but wonder where they were during our war with Darigan.”

Next was Ye Olde Petpets where I asked the ixi working there about Brightvale:

“I don’t really know anything about Brightvale. I used to be friends with the ixi from Brightvale Books, but we kind of… drifted apart. I don’t talk with anyone from Brightvale any more.”

My last stop in Meridell was Illusen. I figured that since she’s a faerie she might have a different view of Brightvale:

“Brightvale is a nice kingdom! I know a lot of people here in Meridell, especially the king, are negative about it, but they’ve been perfectly nice. Some people come over here to do my quests, and you’d be surprised how fast they bring me what I ask for! They’re nice people, but… well… I know a lot of people here wonder about this as do I, just where were they during the attack by Darigan?”

As I left Meridell and headed towards Brightvale I realized that I hadn’t really gotten any information from anyone. I got a lot of opinions, but no concrete facts. I hoped that people from Brightvale would be more forthcoming about their kingdom. Naturally my first stop there was to Brightvale Castle and King Hagan. Hoping to get more then just a rant from him I asked about life in Brightvale:

“Oh life here is very nice. We are a simple and peaceful kingdom. All we really want is to be able to study scrolls and books to increase our knowledge. Although we have an armoury we have no need of an army because we simply try to stay out of conflicts.”

Given an opening I asked, “Is that why you didn’t come to the aid of your brother when his kingdom was being attacked by Darigan’s forces?

“Although we prefer to stay out of conflicts, that is not why I failed to help my brother. The reason is very simple – my brother is a thief. He stole the orb over which the initial war was fought. We do not condone thievery, nor do we aid thieves.”

As I headed towards Brightvale Glaziers I had to admit that King Hagan’s words had made sense. Hoping for insight I talked to the Draik who was hard at work:

“Yeah, life here is peaceful. I have all the time I need to work on my windows. I know some people like leading exciting lives, but I would get tired of that very quickly. Now, if you’ll excuse me I need to get back to work.”

Not having gotten much insight from him, I headed to the Scrollery. The Acara there was deeply immersed in a scroll, but she put it down to talk to me:

“Life here is quiet, and I like it that way. As I’m sure you’ve heard we prize knowledge above all else. I’m happy to simply sit here and glean new information from my scrolls.”

I mentioned that in Meridell the people had generally seemed to think Brightvale was nice, but the king didn’t like it.

“Well Skarl wouldn’t like us, would he? He seemed to think that we should have ignored that fact that he was a thief and plunged ourselves into a war with Darigan. As I’m sure you heard from our king, we do not go to war to aid thieves.”

My last stop was Brightvale Books. I was especially eager to speak with the ixi here since the ixi from Ye Olde Petpets had mentioned knowing him. He put down his book as I entered the shop:

“Yes, Brightvale is a peaceful place to live. Things are nice and quiet – no wars, little noise, and long days to simply read and gain knowledge.”

As he started to pick up his book again, I asked, “What about Meridell? What do you think of them?”

“Well… I’m sure you’ve heard about King Skarl… being a thief. That that is the reason we did not come to Meridell’s aid. However…” He looked around nervously and beckoned me closer. “I would like, in the spirit of knowledge, to let out the real story. The official reason for our inaction during the war is that we do not aid thieves. While this is true, many people here wondered at the time of the war why King Hagan was being so cold towards his brother, even if he was a thief. Being curious myself, I began researching our history in my books, hoping to find some reason for this treatment.

Here is what I found: Meridell and Brightvale used to be one kingdom called Merryvale. King Skarl and King Hagan were duel rulers. This worked out nicely for a time and life was peaceful. Then, they started developing differences. You see, Skarl had noticed that Darigan’s people had an orb. He suggested to his brother that they ‘borrow’ it and use it to improve their own kingdom. Hagan was completely against this idea, but Skarl would not give up.

Finally, one day he went and ‘borrowed’ their orb without consulting Hagan. King Hagan was furious when he discovered what his brother had done. He demanded that Skarl return the orb immediately, but he refused. This created dissension among the people, and we split into two kingdoms: Meridell and Brightvale. King Skarl’s followers know nothing of this, and King Skarl himself will not admit to it. He claims that we refused to help him in the war for no reason other that that we don’t like them. His followers in Meridell believe this. I’m not sure why they don’t remember the two kingdoms being one, but I suspect a magic spell is involved. As for King Hagan’s people here, we remember, but we were instructed to only give out the official reason if asked. After discovering the truth I felt we were being hypocritical to love knowledge but his the truth. I feel better now that the secrecy has ended. Please go out and spread the truth!”

So, there you have it. I expected to gain facts about Brightvale, and while I did not get many of those, I did uncover and conspiracy of secrecy that has finally been broken after all these years.

Author’s Note: Obviously I don’t know what really happened, or what the Neopets team will come with for Meridell and Brightvale, but I had fun writing this article and imagining reasons why we never heard about them during the war.