That Which Escapes Us

That Which Escapes Us is the title of running plot in Realms, created by the collective efforts of Benjamin Lacasse, Michael Zajac, Kelsey Miranda and Danielle Guimont. The first event where this plot officially premiered was titled That Which Escapes Us: The Siege of Eroewan and took place from 6/21/2019 to 6/23/2019. Future installments are planned for 2021 and onward.

The Premise
That Which Escapes Us follows and explores the lore behind Mova, The Mother Tree, Keeper of Mortal Knowledge. The story began when Mova's home in Eroewan was mysteriously attacked by an army consisting of Meenlocks and Flayers, where brave adventurers would have to rally and defend her from imminent destruction. It's a tale of the corruption that even the greatest of intentions can create and the consequence of tampering with a delicate cosmic balance.

The Inspiration
The story of That Which Escapes Us is the brainchild of Benjamin Lacasse and Michael Zajac, born after a 6 hour Dungeons and Dragons session in which they killed an Elder Brain. They lamented together over how many of the plots in Realms that they'd experienced were more focused on making you afraid of what mechanically happens to your character rather than whats happening to them In Character and separately were frustrated with the effectiveness of spells of a "divine" persuasion in their ability to sap pivotal moments of their weight through making players so mechanically strong that "story" becomes irrelevant in light of that fact that literal deities will basically nuke even the most formidable foes at the request of anybody with enough foresight to pick a single spell, so they labored late into the next morning in what they hoped would become a counter to these issues. Thus That Which Escapes Us was born.

From a thematic standpoint, there are many obvious references to Lovecraft, Dungeons and Dragons and other medieval fantasy properties, but Zajac brought on a second layer of technological themes from things like Systemshock.