Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of The Starry Skies - Story

Story

Dragon Quest IX begins in the Observatory, the kingdom in the sky where the angelic beings called Celestrians, including the main character, reside. The main character begins as the guardian who has just undertaken protection of Angel Falls, a human village. The Celestrians have been trying for some time to move into the Realm of the Almighty. However, before they can leave, they require a rare fruit called the Fygg. Yggdrasil, the "World Tree" that it grows on, must be empowered with benevolessence, spiritual energy that can only be obtained by helping people in the Protectorate, the world of mortals.

By protecting Angel Falls and earning the gratitude of its people, the main character obtains enough benevolence for the World Tree to produce the fyggs. As the tree blooms, the celestial train know as the Starflight Express arrives to ferry the Celestrians to the Realm of the Almighty. However, before the Celestrians can board the train, the Observatory is attacked from below by a mysterious and powerful force. The force scatters the assembled angels and knocks the fyggs, the Starflight Express, and the main character down to the Protectorate.

The main character awakens without wings or a halo and finds himself/herself rescued from the base of the waterfall in Angel Falls. He/She comes to learn a little about his/her fall on the great earthquake that happened at the same time. Having lost most of his/her Celestrian powers, but not his/her memory or the ability to see deceased and magical spirits, he/she travels about trying to find a way back to the Observatory. During an adventure to reconnect his/her village to the nearby castle after landslides caused by the great earthquake, the main character finds the broken-down Starflight Express and its fairy engineer, Stella. Stella promises to help the main character return to the Observatory if he/she can prove he/she is a Celestrian.

By helping humans, the main character gathers benevolessence, though he/she can no longer see it. His/her ability to aid and protect the humans convinces Stella that he/she is indeed a Celestrian. The main character then uses the benevolessence to restore power to the Starflight Express and returns to the Observatory. Upon his/her return, the main character discovers that the fyggs have also fallen to the Protectorate and that many Celestrians have been dispatched to find them, though none of them have returned. His/her prayers to become a Celestrian again are unanswered, but a vision is presented to the main character as he/she stands before the World Tree. Taking the vision as a sign, the main character returns to the Protectorate to help collect the Fyggs.

As the main character travels the Protectorate in search of the fyggs, he/she finds out that fyggs have the ability to grant those who eat it any wish. Unfortunately, the wishes are not always fulfilled in the way they were expected and those who eat the fruit succumb to strange and demented ways. The main character travels from land to land and battles those possessed by the Fygg's power, freeing them from their twisted forms and regaining the fyggs one by one. After the main character collects seven fyggs, the Starflight Express is attacked by the hero's former mentor, Aquila, who is now working for the Gittish Empire, an evil organization thought to have been wiped out three centuries ago. Because Celestrians are unable to fight their superiors, Aquila easily defeats the main character and steals the fyggs before meeting up with two more of the Gittish Empire's forces: Lieutenant Hootimgham-Gore of the Triumgorate and the dark dragon Barbarus. Hootingham-Gore has Barbarus attack the Starflight Express, causing Stella and the main character to tumble out of the train and fall back down to the Protectorate.

The two land in an isolated village called Wormwood Creek, whose residents have come to despise outsiders after an attack by the Gittish Empire hundreds of years ago. The main character is met with hostility by all of the town's residents except for the mayor's nephew, Wallace, who sympathizes with the main character and helps him/her recover. Thinking he/she may be an accomplice of Barbarus, the townspeople kick the main character out of town, despite Wallace's protests. Wallace then suggests that the main character travel to the town of Upover and enlist the help of Barbarus' mortal enemy: Greygnarl, the legendary dragon that lives atop a volcano called the Magmaroo. In order to open the path to Upover, Wallace directs the main character to a sealed cave known as the Bowhole. Along the way, the main character and Stella meet a ghost named Serena who is searching for Corvus, the former guardian Celestrian of Wormwood Creek and Aquila's mentor. Serena reveals that she was the daughter of Wormwood Creek's elder who nursed Corvus back to health after he fell from the Observatory. When the Gittish Empire invaded the town and tried to take Serena, Corvus fought back in her defense and forced them to retreat, only for them to return later and kill her.

The main character obtains an artifact from the Bowhole and uses it to restore the bridge to Upover, and as a result the people of Wormwood Creek realize their town's original purpose - it was originally named "Wyrmward Creek", and the natives served as wardens of Greygnarl. They apologize to the main character and send him/her off to Upover, faithful that he/she can defeat Barbarus with Greygnarl's help. The main character passes through Upover and meets with an aged Greygnarl, who initially mistakes him/her for a member of the Gittish Empire and attacks. After the main character convinces Greygnarl of Barbarus' return, Greygnarl gives him/her a seal he stole from the Gittish Empire and allows the hero to take on the role of the Dragon Warrior. The two take to the skies to confront Barbarus, but in the ensuing battle Greygnarl throws the main character off his back and sacrifices himself to save Upover from Barbarus' attack.

The main character is then captured by Hootingham-Gore's forces and taken to the Goretress, a Gittish Empire prison watched over by Triumgorate member Goreham-Hogg. Using the Gittish Seal, the main character is able to bypass the Goretress' force fields and helps Sterling, the prison's foreman, to lead a rebellion against Goreham-Hogg. The two defeat Goreham-Hogg and use his key to free the prisoners of the Goretress' solitary confinement, who are actually some of the missing Celestrians that were sent to recover the fyggs. Before anyone can leave the Goretress, however, Barbarus attacks, but Stella arrives with the Starflight Express and drives him away. Sterling reveals himself to be the captain of the Starflight and the three return the captured Celestrians back to the Observatory.

The main character informs the head Celestrian, Apus Major, of the Gittish Empire's return and Aquila's betrayal, and is surprised to learn that Aquila had returned the fyggs to the Observatory. With the fyggs in hand, the main character, Stella, Sterling and apus Major are able to travel to the Realm of the Almighty, but upon arriving at the Temple of the Almighty they find the place had been hit by the ray of light that struck the Observatory and the Almighty, Zenus, is nowhere to be found. The main character offers the fyggs to Zenus but instead his daughter, the Goddess Celestia, appears before them. Celestia reveals that she had transformed herself into Yggdrasil to prevent Zenus from destroying the Protectorate, intending to prove that the mortals were capable of kindness. Swayed, Zenus decided to spare the humans and created the Observatory and the Celestrians, though he was doubtful that they would ever manage to accomplish their task.

Assuring everyone that Zenus had not been killed by the blast of light, Celestria then explains that the being who launched the attack was the same one who revived the Gittish Empire and tasks the main character with preventing him from destroying the world. The main character then goes to the Gittingham Palace, defeating both Hootingham-Gore and the final member of the Triumgorate, Goresby-Purrvis, before finally confronting Aquila and the emperor King Godwyn. Aquila is revealed to have been working as a double agent and attempts to kill Godwyn, only to be killed himself. The main character then defeats King Godwyn and descends into the dungeon beneath the palace, the Oubliette.

Within the Oubliette the hero finds Corvus, who had been captured by the Gittish Empire when they returned to Wormwood Creek. Upon freeing Corvus, the main character learns that he attacked Realm of the Almighty and revived the Gittish Empire, having developed an intense hatred for mortalkind during his three-hundred year captivity and concentrating it into a powerful force. Corvus attacks the main character and escapes the Oubliette, with Serena appearing soon after his departure. She explains that when the Gittish Empire returned to Wormwood Creek, Corvus tried to defend the town again despite his injuries. To keep him safe, Serena fed Corvus a sleeping potion, but Serena's father delivered Corvus to the Gittish Empire, leading Corvus to believe that Serena betrayed him.

The main character returns to the Realm of the Almighty, finding that Corvus has changed it into a dark and twisted world known as the Realm of the Mighty. Confronting Corvus, he/she eats one of the fyggs and becomes a mortal in order to fight back against the fallen angel. Surprised by this, Corvus sends Barbarus to attack the main character, but he/she manages to best the dragon and goes on to fight and defeat Corvus. After the battle, Serena arrives and explains her intentions to Corvus, managing to redeem him. The two then disappear and the Realm of the Almighty is returned to its former state.

The main character then learns that because he wished to become a mortal, the hero will eventually become unable to perceive the world of the Celestrians and is returned to the Protectorate, having a final farewell with Sterling and Stella before they vanish before his/her eyes. However, during the events of the epilogue, comes across another fygg and eats it, restoring his ability to see them.