"Before there was this world, before the planes were shaped, there was Myn'ria, birthplace of the gods, where the furnace of creation housd the Sacred Flame
Here many gods were born, great and small
The greatest among these were the Sisters.
Sellous, Goddess of Wisdom
N'riss, goddess of Joy
and Miranda, Goddess of Sorcery
In that place too came a tribe of powerful gods, who left Myn'ria in the First Schism, and formed the place they called Asgard. Led by the god Odin, who nearly equaled the three in power, they remained on good terms
The success of Asgard led to the fateful decision to create on a grander scale
With Sellous's Wisdom to give structure to N'riss's unlimited Joy, the planes were in place in a matter of days
Miranda's sorcery allowed bits of these to anchor, forming the Astral and Material planes.
Encouraged, the three once again combined their flows, and the Elf came, and Man, and Orc.
Odin was unhappy about being left out
So the three gave him one-time access to their powers.
For an eye, he drank, and gained Sellous's Wisdom
He endured torment to gain Miranda's sorcery
He died and was born anew to gain N'riss's Joy
With these trials done, he was granted access to the Flame of Power, which allowed him to create the dwarves
This was a trap
Miranda, Having long since realized that hers was by far the weakest of the Powers
Had desired access to the Flame for eons
But only with the combined strengths could the gate be opened.
When Odin opened the gate, she entered behind him, and once he was finished, she took the Flame for her own.
This was the beginning of the Godwar
There are about sixty pages missing
The Flame of Creation had long been spent, but Miranda had gained complete victory in the Godwar
She alone, of all the gods who rose up, had survived, but her enemies were secure behind a wall that none could penetrate, save only the Dead.
For the Valiant Dead were touched by one who had the right to claim the Sacred Flame, and the barrier made by that flame could not keep them out entire, although Odin himself could not break it.
It is in this time that Miranda abandoned her name, and took on a new one. E'za.
In the old tongue of Orc this meant in turns Destroyer and Betrayer.
The Orcs did worship her, believing that she alone had created them, and that She had come to give them dominion over the sons of man.
Elves alone did not kneel before her, but carried on the Godwar against her.
Some fell to darkness and served her in the long dark years, of course
And many more were destroyed
By the Year of Judgment, only one thousand remained.
No sign marked this year. It would not be known as such until long after.
In this year a child was born to a farmer, who -being something of a scholar- named him Shonus, an ancient elven word for Hope.
Shonus's father had fallen to the Ravages of time, but his mother still lived when the tax collectors came.
The harvest had been very poor, and they did not have a fraction of what they wanted.
Shonus was out hunting at the time, and learned of this only when he found the mutilated corpse staked to a tree as a warning.
His ancestral farm was in ashes.
He buried her next to his father, and thought only of revenge
He hunted the taxmen down and attacked them. Despite their training and weapons, his wrath was so great that none could stand against him
These were the first strokes of the Titan War
many pages are missing
The elves greeted him with great joy, because they had long hoped to see the humans rise up to join their crusade. They trained him and his men in the arts of war, which he practiced upon Eza's supply convoys.
Through all this, he ceded leadership in all things to his close friend Angokor, whom all respected
There are many pages missing
It picks up some time later.
...ors of the ambush wept as the reinforcements came, for they came too late. Angokor lay dead on the field, and they could not concieve of going on without him. They laid him to rest in a nearby cavern on a bed of his slain enemies, his unconquered sword at his breast.
It was in these dark times that Shonus came into his own. Rallying his forces, he captured a dozen cities in a matter of days, bringing nearly half the world into open rebellion. His name now seemed prophetic. The people had Hope.
More pages are missing.
...ar was not going well. Though they won many victories, each battle sapped their strength, and the forces against them grew ever stronger.
At this time, Shonus learned that his wife was pregnent.
He resolved on a desperate course of action
His wife, along with all children, old men and old women, were sent with the shield-maidens to cavern fortresses, there to make a final stand if need be.
All others, Hale men and women, elder boys and girls able to bear arms, and a new alliance, he lead forth into the darkness. It was time to end this war.
Five thousand thousands strong they marched, but those that stood against them were far stronger, by a tenfold at least.
Finally, they lay siege to the gates of E'za's vast fortress, and made ready for the last battle
For six months they battled before those gates
Heroes fell by tens, by hundreds
It was then that Shonus played his final gambit.
Sounding a trumpet, he let forth a prearranged signal.
many battalions of the enemy cast down Eza's banner and raised his instead
this allowed them to bring his artillery in range of the gate
That night, he was wakened by a light in his tent
Angokor stood before him, bearing a sheathed sword.
"This came from the forges of Ra'c'l, the greatest of all godly smiths."
It alone of all weapons on this earth can harm your foe.
For only a weapon forged by a god can harm a god.
You must realize that this is the last chance for your race.
If you fail, none will be allowed to live
with that, Angokor departed
Dawn broke on the last day of the war.
Despite his allies, the forces of E'za were methodically crushing his own
The final stone of his last catapult finally broke down the gate
Leaping into the saddle, he sounded the charge
the ten thousand men who were all that remained of his army followed
and held fast the breach in the gates.
Shonus entered alone.
What happened in that place none recorded.
But a trumpet sounded an hour after he entered, and the gods rode down from the sky, leading an army of immortals
When the battle was finished, the victors numbered only five hundred.
Only 200 elves, the last of their kind, remained among the living
When they entered in triumph, they found Shonus dead on the ground, bearing no wound that they could see
His sword was buried in E'za's chest to the hilt.
Many gods lay among the fallen.
The weapons they had borne were revered greatly, and became heirlooms of the mortals who survived that day
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Topic: D&D: The mercenaries - Game Concluding (Read 128716 times)