Champions of Meridell Story

The plot began with four friends, Lisha, Kayla, Morris, and Boris. On a school trip to the Neopian History Museum Lisha and Morris found a painting of a Lupe named Sir Borodere. The Lupe in the painting strongly resembled her brother and brought back memories for Lisha, who lost her brother during a game of hide and seek years ago. Knowing that the painting was hundreds of years old, Lisha concluded that something must have happened to her brother, Jeran, that day.

The next day, the four friends ventured to the place where Jeran and Lisha had played hide and seek the day he went missing. They located the ruins of an old castle, and Lisha frantically searched for the place where she lost her brother. With no luck Lisha became frustrated waving her wand in the air. Something charged it with different magic, and the four friends were teleported away to a real castle—in the lost destroyed land of Meridell.

As King Skarl, ruler of Meridell, called Sir Jeran for advice, the four friends were captured by guards. As they were led away to the dungeons, strange creatures burst through the windows and attacked the guards. The friends were quick to react, fighting back the monsters and winning the trust of the guards. Sir Jeran convinced King Skarl to pardon them, after sharing that he too had a similar experience when he arrived in Meridell.

With the situation resolved, King Skarl began to explain the possible motives for the monsters attacking the castle. Long ago, Meridell was facing famine, and so King Skarl sent out his knights to find a cure. They came across an old seer named Morguss, who told them the location of a magical orb. The knights recovered it and returned it to Meridell, and instantly the country began to blossom again. King Skarl determined that the monsters had arrived to steal the magical orb.

The Orb had originally belonged to Lord Darigan and was stolen by the Meridellian knights. The creatures attacking the castle were the people of the Darigan Citadel, a floating citadel that had arrived to reclaim its stolen property. The Darigan army was ordered to retrieve the Orb so the Darigan kingdom would be the great land it once was.

A great battle raged across Meridell, with the Darigan forces being the eventual victors. Lord Darigan recovered the Orb and retreated to the Citadel. Yet, something was wrong, the Orb did not begin to heal the people. Lord Darigan, bewitched by strange magic (later revealed to be that of The Three), chose to use the Orb for himself, and focused all its magical energy on destroying Meridell. Lord Darigans thirst for power and destruction transformed him into the Spectre of Lord Darigan.

Seeing the madness that had overcome their leader, the Darigan army began to join forces with Meridell to stop the powerful Lord Darigan in his new form. Heroes such as King Skarl, Jeran, the Green Knight, Lisha, Borris, Morris, and Kayla teamed up with Villains General Galgarroth and Master Vex to defeat Lord Dairgan. Their combined might proved to be enough, overpowering Lord Darigan and causing him to disappear in a flash of light. The magical orb, before anyone could claim it, split in half, removing its power.

Meridell and the Darigan Citadel formed an uneasy truce. One which would eventually be shattered in the plot’s sequel, Battle for Meridell.

Up in the Citadel, a former General named Kass, had assumed lordship after the disappearance of Lord Darigan. He began manipulating the people of the Darigan Citadel into hating the Meridell people, while imprisoning those who did not agree with him. Lord Kass, prompted by visions from spirits known as the Three, began to convince the people of the Citadel that there was only one solution to their problems – declare war on Meridell.

Back at the Meridell castle, Kass sent the Court Dancer to King Skarl under the disguise of a peaceful gift in honor of the truce. However, the Dancer immediately began weaving her magic, completely bewitching all the male occupants of the castle. With the King and Meridell army incapacitated, Kass launched a full invasion. At the time Sir Jeran was outside the castle without reinforcements as they were entranced by the Court Dancers spell. The situation looked dire as the armies of Lord Kass marched across the land.

Meanwhile, a strange bat-like creature was discovered in the farmlands of north Meridell. The creature was soon rescued by Sally, who hid the wounded and weak creature in her parent’s barn. Slowly, Sally began nurse the creature she called Mr. Scary back to health, not knowing that his true identity was actually the fallen Lord Darigan.

A small group of Darigan soldiers came across Sally’s farm and set about attacking the young Usul. Mr. Scary came to her rescue, revealing himself to be Lord Darigan. With his memories restored, Lord Darigan dispatched the soldiers, and set off back to the Citadel in the hopes of stopping the war.

Back in Meridell castle courtroom, Lisha had discovered she was immune to the Court Dancer’s spell. Lisha managed to counteract the Dancer’s spell and revealed the ugly beast she truly was. With the spell over, King Skarl’s mind was freed, and reinforcements were ordered to the front. Using giant petpets, and assaulting the Citadel directly using mounted Unis, Jeran hoped to end the war quickly.

However, Kass had well fortified the Citadel, and a bitter fight began. Kass and Jeran met in battle, and Jeran slipped, falling from the Citadel to his apparent death. Appearing from nowhere, Lord Darigan challenged Kass. The old Lord defeated the new, and Kass fled to the inner chambers of the Citadel. Tormented for his failure by the Three, Kass collapsed to his knees as they enacted their punishment – seemingly vaporising him on the spot.

The battle was over, and Meridell was saved. Even Jeran turned out to be alive, having been saved during his fall by the Air Faerie, Psellia. A new truce between the two kingdoms was created – one not broken to this day.