it was spirited away by a servant of the Cosmic Lords, the cyborg Aletheides. The Cosmic Forge was used to hide the location of the Astral Dominae, a powerful artifact with power over life itself, on planet Guardia. Because of this, its theft revealed Planet Guardia to the universe. Now, multiple forces are converging on Lost Guardia to find this artifact, including the party itself. It is after planetfall on Guardia that the story begins. As there are three endings to Bane of the Cosmic Forge, there are four beginnings to Crusaders of the Dark Savant (one for each of the endings from the previous game, and a fourth for parties who are starting fresh). The first beginning follows a party who believed the lies of the Bane Queen and killed her husband, the Bane King, his lover, Rebecca, and her brother, Bela. On a whim, the party then enters the mouth of a "giant slumbering beast" (in actuality, a spaceship), which was secreted behind Bela's room, and takes off for the stars. The ship is captured in mid-flight by the Black Ship Dedaelis, which belongs to the Dark Savant, who is the main antagonist of the story. The party is then pressed into service by the Savant, who explains that he wants the Astral Dominae to overthrow the Cosmic Lords, and they are then transported down to Lost Guardia to aid the T'Rang in finding the Astral Dominae for the Savant. The second beginning follows a party who did not believe the lies of the Bane Queen, and who spared the life of the Bane King. He commits suicide, and Rebecca gives the party the key to her brother Bela's room. In this case, Bela does not attack the party; in fact, the party agrees to accompany him on his spaceship to chase Aletheides to his destination. As Bela has been in contact with a race called the Umpani for some time on an interstellar communication device, the party transports to the surface of Guardia just outside Ukpyr, where the Umpani are based. They then have the option of joining up with the Imperial Umpani Federation in their mission to defeat the T'Rang. The third beginning is not hinged on believing the Bane Queen or not; rather, it is dependent on whether or not the party decides to take the Cosmic Forge before boarding Bela's ship. Aletheides appears and