This article is about the storyline The Emerald Abyss. For the subregion, see Emerald Abyss.
The beginning of Dax's storylines, unlocked during Crafting the Dawn Shield.
Mysterious Beginnings[]
Sometimes the best of friendships are formed in the most unlikely of ways. Such was the case with the Freelancer and Sentinel Dax. Years ago, Dax's Aunt Cardea, a royal cartographer, vanished alongside many others in the Emerald Abyss. Cardea discovered a link between the Emerald Abyss and the Heart of Rage, but disappeared before she could learn more. Dax hoped she and the Freelancer could pick up where her aunt left off.
The helpful Freelancer agreed, but things didn't go quite as planned. Instead of exploring the Emerald Abyss, Dax led the ever-patient Freelancer to an outlaw hideout under attack by ursix. After a fierce battle with an ancient ursix, the Freelancer recovered a cypher link from the beast's belly and delivered it to Dax.
Dear Diary[]
After leading the Freelancer on a wild ursix chase, Dax admitted her aunt's journal—containing the key to solving the Emerald Abyss mystery —was stolen by the outlaws in the ursix den. Dax hoped they could piece together her aunt's research with the cypher link, but it was missing too much information. They would need to steal back the journal from the outlaw gang's ruthless leader, Talon.
Together, Dax and the Freelancer tracked down Talon's location and ambushed the gang's hideout. The outlaws put up a valiant fight, but were no match for the seasoned Freelancer and exuberant Sentinel. Although Talon escaped, Aunt Cardea's journal was back in the right hands.
Vanishing Act[]
If Dax and the Freelancer had one thing in common, it was their stubborn aversion to giving up. They studied Aunt Cardea's journal and discovered the Heart of Rage's appearance created a ripple effect of volatile Shaper energy that caused relics far and wide to react in strange ways. Cardea believed this ripple effect was behind the disappearances in the Emerald Abyss.
After defeating Talon once and for all, the Freelancer and Dax found a beam of Shaper energy at the heart of the Emerald Abyss. As they approached, people stumbled out of the light. Merchants, Arcanists, caravan drivers—people from all walks of life emerged, including one royal cartographer: Dax's long-lost Aunt Cardea Dell.
Back at Fort Tarsis, Cardea and Dax thanked the Freelancer for reuniting their family and looked to the future and new adventures together.