Tales, Part One

They had given him time to compose himself, time to clean up after his journey from Caemlyn of Allaria. Now, however, they wanted the news, they needed to hear the tidings... good or bad.

But Bertrand was no fool. Words held power, tidings sevenfold. He asked the Attendant and a chanticleer was gotten (a man far from his birthhome in the untame lands of the southern Ryngaerd, yet a man at home wherever he found wine and an ear for listening to his tales). Midst the company of a host of teachers and gardeners, of shepherds and scribes, of members of all the various sorcery Schools that stayed in those parts this time of year, the chanticleer began the evening Tale with a remembrance of things long past...

what tales and songs that man of rhyme and riddle is telling even at this moment is only for our imaginations to guess, but for the benefit of our readers a small historiography:

HighKing Norman: Centuries ago, after the War of Things Uncreated, after the destruction of the Great Empire and the diaspora of the Men of the West, this man among men gathered together the tribes and peoples of the Havnheim region uniting them under his leadership. Although they had lost the heart of their western home hundreds of years past, they drew up plans to make the whole of the east theirs - they drew up plans for the invasion of the southlands, the Ryngaerd. They chose to traverse the thin line of the Shreken, the Tumbar so as to reach the southlands quickly. Though the Shreken was known to be full of shadows, its true extent was not felt until that dreaful season when the northerners attempted to pass southwards. Monsters and creatures and most awefully, the Ebon Serpent attacked the northmen. In the end the monsters were crushed, even the Serpent, but at high cost. HighKing Norman was felled and ended his days with vipers eating their way out of his blackened bowels. And yet on that battlefield he had found an amulet of great worth, and he kept it, and it became the heritage of every Allarian king thereafter. Until the reign of Emry Exultaine, that is...

Duke Zular Mollari: Man of Allaria, Duke of Trescent. He was known to be a loyal kingsman, although of dubious moral character. In fact he was a depraved sadist who enjoyed stealing maidens from the Duchy of Stonewall in the southeast. Three years ago Zular went on an expedition back west. He had his family members (those with him) murdered and nearly died himself, due to bad maps and odd happenstances. In the end he found an old tower near the Dead Sea and within it a much prized palantir. He looked into it and was ensorcled by the creature who stared back at him from within its depths; a little girl. He returned to Allaria and Trescent, and any madness he may have had prior to this became even more pronounced. Although known only by King Emry Exultaine (any others having been executed), it was Zular who - with Prince Emry - helped kill the elder King Exultaine two years ago... making it look as if illness took him, of course. As the preparations for the new King were made, even on the eve of Prince Cedrik Exultaine's coronation, it was Zular who sedated the Prince and took him to the foul caves of the Shreken. Although the powerful in the surrounding nations did not give him much thought, and most within the royalty of Allaria did little to stop any known madness of his, it was the people of the land, the serfs and peasants, the indentured and free servants who felt his twisted passion and his wrath, and who had come to look for saviors wherever they could see one. Within the recent weeks the BlackHand, with Lord Fred, helped liberate Trescent from the mad Zular. Zular fled, and managed to escape to as far as the Duchy of North Umbria, but it was there that he was found out and beheaded as a traitor. What has become of his palantir is still unknown.

Simon Lightbringer: Forty years ago a great danger came upon the lands of Havnheim. Neither the White Hand nor the military powers of the north proved capable in defeating it. Four men from four different kingdoms came together during that time and joined their strengths, their powers, their virtues into One. They came to be known as Whirlwinds amongst the Maelstrom, and each was given a Name by the people: the Axesmasher, the Warlock, the Huntsman, the Lightbringer. The man Simon came to be known as the Lightbringer for his wisdom and foresight and healing touch. For some ten years these men traversed the northlands fighting for peace, justice, and honor. But twenty years ago another evil came - to this day the general populace does not know its nature - yet in truth it was a woman. A woman came between these four men and in the end she was destroyed, but not before the Axesmasher was killed. Simon fled in shock, remorse, and horror... horror at what he had done during that trial and horror at what he could yet do. He ran beyond the hold of women and of men, beyond the lands of law and order, he fled to the Fens of Canmoor - a sanctuary of assassins and breeding ground of terrorists. Only four years ago, however, he returned to the civilized lands, to Allaria. He made a home in the Vale region of the Duchy of Stonewall. He began helping the people, healing their illnesses, teaching them, instructing them. It was he who formed the Black Hand, the band of black-clad men willing to fight in the darkness against the dark evils of men. Only days ago a bizarre parchment was placed into his hands by the brothers Westwind, and even as they pledged their loyalty and service to him, he pledged to take on again the Name of Lightbringer!

1. the history lesson continues...

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