The Triangle of Destiny Revisited

And as most of you probably don't know, I got around to doing something I normally don't do. Thinking. Inspired by my good friend, Keng200, I went on a bit of a search through the Time, digging up articles from the golden olden days. Try, "Over 3 years ago" old. "Before the NT as we know it" old. Back to the initial destruction of Maraqua, and the mysteries surrounding it. And I came across an old prophecy.

"Pillars are placed throughout the land. When Strength, Wisdom and Faith are joined in the Triangle of Destiny, a terror from the deep will rise, and Neopia shall choose its fate."

Any other Neopian dinosaurs remember that? No? OK, I'm the only one with a centuries-old account.

Well, to those people who don't remember the days when we could say the word "blood" in the Times without having to fear the editor's army of evil Kadaoties that enforce the rules, here's a brief synopsis. Back when Tyrannia and the Lost Desert were still new, there was a prophecy. Specifically, the one in italics above. So you can imagine the panic that overtook Neopia when Coltzan's Shrine first appeared. And when we discovered that the word "Faith" had been etched into the front in hieroglyphs. We got into that whole mess with Coltzan's crown, and finally, the ghost-king was open for business.

Then, in Tyrannia, the second obelisk appeared, this one bearing the word, "Strength." According to the Neopets Staff, we'd be able to play a game with our collectable cards on this one. Meanwhile, rumors circulated about the lost city of Floatlantis.

We never got a chance to play that game. The king of Maraqua, dolled up in his gold and silk, made fishy deals with Captain Dread, the scurviest seadog this side of Terror Mountain. He promised money that he wasn't able to pay. Actually, no. Judging by the luxury of his clothes and the jewels on his fins, he was still quite rich. But he claimed that he couldn't pay Dread due to bad kelp harvests.

Surprisingly, Dread was calm about it. He turned quietly, still wearing the serious scowl of a swashbuckler, and said, "I'll be seein' ya in heck." Only he worded it differently. At the bottom of the screen, it said, "To Be Continued." The three words of doom.

The next day, Maraqua drowned in a freak whirlpool. No one was able to officially pin the blame on Dread, but puh-leeze.

And later that same day, the Obelisk of Strength vanished too. Vanished into thin air, without so much as an announcement on the news page. And we wondered, what just happened? And what will happen next?

Could the whirlpool have been the disaster from the prophecy of the Triangle? How could that have occurred if the Triangle was incomplete? If not, why did the Tyrannian obelisk disappear? Will the prophecy ever be fulfilled?

Let's assume, for a minute, that the Triangle was completed. After all, the Pillar of Wisdom may have been unearthed without us knowing about it. People weren't expecting their "terror from the deep" to be a tiny, albeit ferocious-looking Kiko pirate. They were expecting the apocalypse to come down in a rain of glory and destruction in the form of Mechachiazilla or some other aquatic monster. But we forget that terrors can come in all shapes and sizes. And some of the smallest of us can pack a really huge punch.

It's suspected that Captain Dread knew where the Pillar of Wisdom was all along. And when the king refused to pay him, he unearthed the third pillar, and all heck broke loose. (Okay, I'll stop doing the italics thing.) He unleashed a whirlpool that devoured Maraqua like a Lupe devouring chocolate Chias. Shame, that was a cool world.

But maybe Dread didn't use the obelisks. Maybe he had a dark faerie friend who conjured the disaster for him. Or maybe he's a mage, and conjured it himself. Maybe the disappearance of the Obelisk of Strength was a mere coincidence. Maybe the entire legend is a faerie tale told to children, and nothing more.

But you can't help but wonder…

So are these obelisks good, or are they evil? It's hard to tell. After all, if they can cause something as catastrophic as the destruction of Maraqua, wouldn't they be evil? But then, if something was created by a king as good and as wise as Coltzan, wouldn't it be good?

Well, my theory is that the monster is something that needs to come to pass. If we prolong its coming, that would just make it worse for us. Dark magic seems to work like that; have you ever noticed? Maybe Coltzan knew that fighting the beast would strengthen Neopia.

But I can't imagine Coltzan ever doing anything bad for Neopia. He's a good Lupe. (You won't believe how many dubloons I can get off that guy…)

Wait… dubloons? As in the currency of Krawk Island. Home of the pirates that sunk Maraqua?

We've officially reached the pinnacle of weird.

So, let's assume for a moment that Coltzan made the same mistake as the Koi king did, and teamed up with the mangy cut-throats. That would make him corrupt and foolish. Neopia seems to have a problem with corrupt and foolish leaders. The Koi king seemed to be foolish enough. Not to mention that all the trouble Meridell has gotten into over the past two years has been due to corrupt rulers. History is destined to repeat itself, I suppose.

So why bring up this piece of ancient history? It's supposedly over and done with, why not move on?

Because of the last line of the prophecy. Neopia shall choose its fate.

Choices like Fate don't happen overnight. And Neopia is still in the process of Choosing.

When we fought for Meridell against the forces of Kass and rejected the luster of evil, we made a choice.

When we defeated Sloth's forces in the Lost Desert, we made a choice.

When we selected a side to fight for in the first Meridell War, we made a choice.

When we rescued four children from the clutches of Neopet V2, or when we solved the kidnappings on Mystery Island, when we're nice to newbies on the chatboard, or when we feed our pets on time, we make a choice. And all of these choices will add up to Fate.

Chew on that for a while. I'll be back when you're done.