Chronicles of the Lost World

Prologue

This story will take you far back in time, when the universe was but an atom’s grain of thought within the mind of the Almar, the great divine being that has existed for ages unknown, there it sat in the darkness of the Abyss which surrounded him. Constantly he pondered and thought on what to do with the infinite amount of time he had, then the thought that was the idea of creation came into his senses. Once decided, the Almar made his thoughts into reality, thus the creation of the Universe commenced, all around him stars and galaxies collided and parted. Huge worlds and tiny moons came to be in the great construction of the Dimension. Then after a few seconds, the building of the Universe was complete. Now that he being the greatest of artists was satisfied with the state of his canvas it was time to implement some more intricate details.

He created ten great celestial beings, these creatures did not serve the Almar in any explicit way that is really known, tales have told that their duty was for them to stand guard at every corner of the Universe and watch over the Almar’s vast creation, their extraordinary strength enabled them to destroy and repair anything that the Almar wished. Their great power could extinguish entire worlds like locusts on a wheat field. Their strength was also like a nurturing hand that could enable them to re-position entire Solar systems until the Almar was satisfied that life would be allowed to grow.

For an immense amount of time he created many creatures all over in his Universe, yet he desired more out of his creation than to be just simple minded creatures who did nothing but praise and obey him. He wanted creatures that would have a choice of their own either if they wanted to praise him or not or if they even acknowledged a sense of universally right or wrong moral standards. Hence the idea of our world came to be and, with a flicker of thought, he brought two whole planets to collide so that the necessary products for life would be available. Then soon after that, he gave that world its moon which was made of some leftover debris from the collision. When the magnetism of the Iron core and its orbital structure were aligned, great oceans began to form, making the planet wet and stormy, thus the Almar raised a great piece of land to rise above the floor of the World. From then onward Life on this Earth was ready to begin but who would inherit this Blue Planet.

This thought occupied the mind of the divine but then he decided to create his first universal servants, the Almaren meaning “the People of the Almar” they were humanoid in design but were far greater in power and they had beautiful wings that their creator bestowed upon them, spanning six feet or more and were made of light brighter than any Sun. However they did not have the free will, their purpose was to be the Almar’s personal servants and this meant that they did everything he commanded without question. He created millions for his service so that the whole universe was kept under his watch, yet there were some he kept for the recently created world, he told these Almaren to create the geographical land structures of each continent and where they should be placed on the sphere. There were to be six continents and three large sets of islands, thus the Almaren separated the great continent and began by raising the Mountains from the flat plains, planting huge forests and jungles across endless wasteland, tainting deserts with savannah or grassland, puncturing holes in the earth allowing great amounts of lava to erupt, allowing the water to freeze over entire stretches of land, such was the variety of this strange new world. 

Soon after the beginning of the creation of the world, the Almar decided to create a secondary servant only unlike the Almaren, these creatures would be made from the brightest of flames that would never smoke and would have a certain degree of free will but not to the extent of denying the Almar and his rule altogether and were named the Fynar. Their free will was to the limit of them being able to ask questions freely to the Almar and to even the extent of questioning his actions but whatever the task given to them they always obeyed the commands of their creator. The Almar created a chief to lead both the Almaren and the Fynar in the construction of the world and his name would be Galborotor and he would be the Almar's most powerful servant and he would be the leader of both Almaren and Fynar till the World was complete.    

While the preparation of the world was commencing, the Almar created the source of free will and the Almaren and Fynar alike marvelled at its beauty as it came from the same energy that the Almar was made of, it was called the Light of Arunar, a huge source of power of which the Almar would bestow to his creations that would live on this world. However a great catastrophe occurred that shaped the fate of the Earth and the entire Universe; out of sheer curiosity a Fynar accidentally touched the Light of Arunar, in doing so the great amount of energy killed the Fynar (who touched it) and sent a great piece of the Light flying out into the Cosmos, this caused the Earth to shake and rumble from its core and even the Almar himself felt the tremors of the explosion and wandered of its origins, the broken piece of the light travelled through space, millions of galaxies did it glide through until it landed on a desolate world populated by reptilian creatures called the Agandor, they had great intelligence but no free will, that was however till a member of their kind touched the fallen piece of the Light as it was driven by its curious and knowledge lusty mind, thus after this accident one by one the entire population of the mysterious creatures embraced the free will and soon this made them the dominant species on their world but like all beings that were free. They wanted more.

In a matter of a few hundred years they constructed great fleets of star ships, they then flew out into the vast dimensions of the Universe, they followed the trail of which the light left behind, their purpose for this journey was that like all creatures who posses a yearn to search, they wanted to find out where they came from, hence they arrived to our World when its construction was complete, the Earth being filled with fruits and game for its own races to live off, the Almar being a merciful being, allowed them to live but forbade them to ever come to this world, fearful of his wrath, the creatures left for their own world, only to return in time when the Earth seemed at peace and when darkness was slowly stirring in the deep places of the World.

Now that the world was set in motion, the Almar decided to create his first being of free will; the Almar created then carved the shapes of the creatures out of solid rock, then he took the tiniest piece of the Light and sprinkled it upon the dormant figurines, when the light touched their stone form they became clad in flesh and robe, these creatures became known as the Elves but they were named by the Almar “The Keranin” meaning the Firstborn.

The Almar placed them in three groups in three different places in a continent in the uttermost west that was called Kaleria, one set were to live in the forests, the second set were out in the plains, the third were placed on the coasts, for two and a half thousand years the Elves were left to roam the land, usually the groups mingled with each other and the Elves taught one another the things they learned living in their particular environments. The three groups each had progressed into fine civilizations, the Elves that lived in the forests called themselves “The Rekanin” meaning Forest Dwellers and they put the duty upon themselves to protect the forest lands that they claimed as their home. The Elves that lived near the coasts built great ships and spectacular harbours; they became “The Erenin” which meant The Explorers and at the first chance they seized, they sent ships out to the other continents to explore and discover, the elves that lived in the open lands retained their original name, they built magnificent cities, the finest the Almar had ever seen. The elves of the grasslands also developed other things like poetry and music, particular arts of which made their hearts yearn for peace and progress, they taught the other two elven civilizations of this; soon after its discovery all three civilizations of elves had emabraced the culture of writing ballads and songs on the world around them, the compassion of their creator and of the hopes and dreams of which they believed that their race could accomplish.

Overall peace was abundant in the quiet of the world, the Almar seeing on how well his first creations turned out, decided to create his second free willed race, the design to these creatures were very different to that of the Keranin, these had stout legs, making them chest height with the elves, they were characterized with great long beards that came with a variety of colours, despite their size they were gifted with almost superhuman strength, the last thing that their creator gave them was (like the elves) a sense of artistry, however they would carve their imaginations out of metal, wood and stone by the hammer and chisel.

Once the light of Arunar touched their stony forms, they too were clad in flesh and garb, the Almar named these creatures the Dwarves, the divine created six thousand of these little beings and he placed them in a continent in the farthest North, a land named by the Dwarves themselves; Kelumador.

It was a winter wonderland, tainted with tundra, frozen lakes and mountains, at first the Dwarves lived a very tribal existence, scavenging off the land and hunting and gathering whatever they could. However it was a miserable life, predators hunted the dwarves relentlessly and the cold picked off their weakest, the food was hardly edible without fire but their were few forests in the frozen land, this search for wood brought them to their new and permanent home, the Mountains, those that survived their harsh life fled for the caves and to their luck many trees grew on the mountainsides so death by lack of cooked food became a far distant memory. They found the shimmering caves much to their liking and eventually decided as a people to make their homes within the cold rock of the Mountain.

Three thousand years later, the Dwarves had progressed into the greatest craftsmen the world had ever known, their skills extended beyond jewellery and fine tunics, they had transformed their living environments, from living in the mouths of caves to carving whole gargantuan cities right out of the mountain's flesh, their tunnels and mines dug deep into the hide of the stone, much was found down in the darkness, Iron ore, Gold, Silver and crystals of unimaginable beauty. The Dwarves were ruled under one High King, hence when that king dies the other lesser kings would vote on who among them would take his place and this tadition carried on for thousands of years to come.

Thus despite the arrival of he dwarves, peace resumed in the World, thus the pattern of the creation of free willed creatures continued on for thousands of years into the future.

However the peaceful world would be shattered forever...

Out of the great Darkness of the Universe, a gigantic craft came; upon the strange ship was a motley crew of scientists and power mad enforcers, they were the Agandor, the same race that were given free will accidentally, the Almar had told them to keep far from our World but like all things with a mind of its own, they took the gamble to disobey their creator.

They landed on the planet looking for specimens to experiment on and then using those experimentations for darker purposes.

At first they captured simple farm creatures, Oxen, Horses, Goats. However their work needed a more intelligent indigenous species, they began to abduct several Elves from many villages around Kaleria. The purpose for their arrival was to create a labour working force so that they could build a stronghold on the World, marking the planet as one of many in their endless empire of stars.

At first they tried to create a stronger breed of Oxen and they also tried to genetically modify a population of elves to be but mindless servants, however months into the project, something went horribly wrong.

Some male Oxen DNA, spilled into one of the breeding pods of where they were growing their mindless elven slaves, the DNA contaminated one of the egg's biological structure, the result was that a hybrid creature was born from the accident, it had the head of a bull but the body of the strongest elf, thus the Minotaur was born, its terrible rage fueling Legends well into Ages unknown.

After examining the new creature, the Agandor decided to start gene-splicing instead of Genetic Modifications, the result was many more hybrids that were known to all as; the Centaur, the Satyr and the Fawn.

These creatures had the intellect and the free will given to them by their elven half but possessed the strength of multiple elves, thus the malicious plot of the Agandor would go as planned, however their was one thing that they did not take into account was that their so called slaves had their own desires.

A Minotaur named Yanwak, decided to break free of his master's grip, after he killed his guards he broke free of his cage, finding the mechanism to free his kindred, released all seven thousand specimens and after that all hell broke loose. The renegades savagely fought to escape. However their captors fiercely slaughtered those who were brave enough to fight but eventually a Fawn named Ferodan opened the main door and the hybrid beasts flooded out of the giant craft and onto the open land. The ones that survived fled deep within the woods. Yanwak and Ferodan rounded up all the survivors that they could find. The small population of hybrids traveled through the darkness of the forest lands, relentlessly being hunted by their creators and the Rekanin. They had discovered these abominations running free within their realm and their Rangers began exterminating all hybrids that they found.

Life was hell for the hybrid beasts, they were hunted on both sides, this lifestyle of hiding and fighting at every turn, made the beasts untrustworthy of any other race but their own, however the small force of four thousand found themselves cornered in a Mountain Pass by an army of seven thousand Rekanin elves. With no other option, the hybrids prepared for battle, the two commanders; Yanwak and Ferodan led the march.

Spurs of satyrs led the front while behind a solid block of Minotaur infantry stood ready, at their right flank their were the Fawns who were ready to ambush the elves by shooting down their left side, the centaur would then flank the elf's right to send the army into disarray.

The plan worked, the Fawns mowed down elven archers, leaving little to cover the right flank which was demolished by the arrival of the centaurs. Thus the battle was won that day and the hybrids were left to stay.

Soon after the elves were defeated, the hybrids made a small village near a waterfall in the center of the forest, they lived in harmony and peace but it lasted for a short time, quarrels started between the four races of hybrids and soon civil war started to occur. Ferodan decided that the four species should live separately and the proposition was accepted, the village became the property of the Minotaur and soon became their main stronghold in Kaleria. Even when the races separated they remained powerful allies and this union carried on till the end of the World.

Soon after a few generations, the hybrids began to tell their children of their origins however it was a little different to that of the true events; they told the younglings that their creators were actually maniacal gods who tried to create a perfect race so that they could rule the world with it. When they were created the Gods were disappointed with what happened to their creations they decided to destroy their abominations, however the hybrids broke free of their masters and rebelled against them until the Gods left the World realizing that their plan had ceased its destructive path.

The hybrid beasts were allowed to live by the will of the Almar and surprisingly they did not ensue conflict with the Rekanin, instead they just buried their grudge deep down and moved on with life, therefore it seemed that the plan of the Agandor had failed and that their efforts were futile.

Unfortunately they had a secret contingency plan that would allow them to afford this loss but they would have to wait for a long time for the right moment for their plot to be accomplished, time would tell of their foul game and of their struggle to dominate the World.

Twenty Five Thousand years later, On March 22nd, at the end of the Age of Darkness; started the dawn of a new era for the world that had been named by its vast range of inhabitants as Undor, meaning Flowering Eden in the elvish language.

The Almar decided to create Man, the one creature that alone would shape not only the history of Undor but the fate of all the inhabitants in the known Universe, the Divine made the humans quite unlike the other races; in one way he carved their forms out of clay and not of stone, this trait would give them souls that could either adapt to their circumstances both good and evil, another difference in design was that mankind were not to have as many biological advantages as the other races, their trial would be on how they would mentally be able to cope and adapt to the world around them.

One thing that the humans would have that the other races would not; was their will to fight for their beliefs, most races were logical and narrow minded, believing that when they thought there was no hope there was none. The Gift of Man was that his faith would not only defy the impossible but would be able to make the other races understand their actions whether for good or evil.

There was one creature within the Universe that was not pleased about the coming of Man and that creature was the Fynar chief Galborotor, unlike the Almar he only saw the evil in Man and thought that they would bring about the end of the Almar's perfect world.

Galborotor then stormed to the Heavens and came at the throne of the Almar and questioned angrily about the creation of man and of the Almar's agenda behind it, many Almaren and lower ranking Fynar were greatly insulted at Galborotor's tone and went to kill him but the Almar stopped them.

Galborotor laughed at the compassion of his Creator as the Almar cared dearly for his servant but Galborotor's pride was unyielding and for days on end this argument ensued between the Almar and Galborotor but eventually The Fynar chief flew into a terrible rage and went to go destroy the dormant population of humanity, with a flash of lightning the Almar disarmed him and Galborotor was on his knees begging for mercy. Many of the Almaren and the Fynar charged forward to strike down their former leader but again the Almar stopped them and Galborotor slowly rose to his feet clutching his broken left wrist, The Almar banished Galborotor from the Heavens forever for his disobedience and sheer arrogance so that he would wander the Universe forever in search of a new meaning to his existence.

However Galborotor swore revenge against the Almar and promised his lord that his precious mankind would destroy each other and his world because of him and then he would prove to the Almar that he was right all along. Thus he departed from the glorious dimension forever and left for Undor to reside in a deep and dark place till the time was right to emerge. 

However still many of the Almaren and Fynar tried to change the Almar's mind about giving the humans life and meaning, even though they themselves could not deny the will of their lord, they were great logical thinkers and always they tried to make sense of logic that was seemingly beyond understanding "Lo!, My Lord, the creator of the heavens and the earth and all there is in-between, surely you are the most intelligent and most wise; tis for the safety of this world that we suggest that it seems unwise to give a creature such as man the gift of the Light, a creature racist and greedy, these are weak hearted souls, their lust for power is the only thing they live for, they will diverge from the original path, man alone will ensure the destruction of Undor and of all its inhabitants, even when there is nothing left to destroy, like a snake eating its own tail to survive, mankind will stop at nothing to gain the ultimatum of the riches and desires of the materialistic world"

The Almar then turned to the Fynar and Almaren which hence forth made them stop instantly as the Almar replied in a kind voice "Oh my servants. Surely I know better than you, I who createth Undor and the rest of the vast Universe, yet I understand your concerns, Yes man will destroy and burn, he will fight, he will pillage, he will murder and will shed innocent blood; but I have seen much goodness in what they can become and in what they have to offer to the world, the things of good that they can bring is tenfold of that bad, yet you forget greatly that evil has already found a foothold in this world, the Humans may allow it to flourish for a time but when the veil of darkness is removed, there will be nowhere on Earth that dark things shall be safe from the wrath of the Free Peoples, thus it is destined that man should lead the fight and it is by the hand of man that a great evil shall be slain, thus man like the other races of Undor will make mistakes, they will stumble, they will fall, but in time they will find the error in their ways, one day with my help, they will accomplish wonders, the greatest marvels that you too will bear witness to the astounding beauty of the things they can create"

Hence when the light touched the stone forms, many humans came to life, there were the white men, they had small mouths and quite narrow noses but were tall and broad shouldered making them fierce fighters, these men were called the Atanor. Then came the black men, these were slightly more lean than their relatives, they had slightly longer legs and tall statures, making them excellent athletes they became the Unzegan. After them came the Brown men, one of the men were slightly taller than the white man, they were strong in build and lightweight, these were a people built for speed and they were named the Sarayans. The other type of brown men were a bit different, they had slightly oblique eyes and had a much more yellowish skin colour, they were a bit smaller than that of their kin but they were gifted with wide chests and much strength, this gave them much endurance to pain they were called the Vanguardians. Then the last of them became the Red Men, so called for their reddish brown complexion, they were stocky, long footed and strong and had been given great powers beyond comprehension of the other races of men and were called the Thungarin.

The Almar then placed Humans in four places around the world, the two brown men were laid in the east and the white man was placed in the central continent while the black men were situated in the far south while the Red Men were put in the uttermost West.

Each of the peoples would have their own characteristics and cultures that would be richly influenced by the environment and of the other races around them. Religions formed out of the diverse cultures from all corners of the world. Three major religions came to dominate the world that arose from the race of man. One was called Gospelin, a religion started by a prophet of the Almar who rescued the people out of their ignorant ways by the many miracles God had given him despite the many attempt of the pagan lords of Alumar to subdue his teachings and soon many of the Atanor submitted their souls to the Gospelin religion, the faith was followed by mostly the Atanor and some Unzegan, the followers of the religion were called Athanisians and they lived in the center continent of Alumar.

Another main religion, Tanakhen, the second religion that dominated the southern and eastern parts of Alumar, the purely Atanor followers called the Zoharans originated when they were enslaved by the High Elves for around four hundred years till the Almar sent a prophet among them to unite them under the will of the Almar and to lead the slaves to freedom, the slaves eventually overthrew the High Elves and their kingdom was destroyed. The slaves then nominated the prophet as their new king and they ruled in the city in which they were once slaves. Due to the differing opinions on faith and politics the Zoharans were frequently in conflict with their Athanisian neighbors, with civil war constantly breaking out between the two religious groups.

There was a third religion that originated far in the East, over in the land of Dunekanalot, a mostly desert continent, a prophet of the Almar had come to the nomads of the East, Sarayan and Vanguardian alike and preached to them the religion of Al-Salam meaning (God’s Ultimatum), the man was born among them and he brought the desert dwellers out of their lifestyle of idolatry and corruption and the followers of the new religion became the Ulemans. The Prophet united the tribes of Dunekanalot under the belief of the Almar; in turn the Divine gave them a Holy book and much peace in their lives for many years, till a time when they would be called upon to bring the world out of evil's grasp.

Progress was occurring in the realms, science as much as religion was evolving from the peoples of Undor, Man had aided the other folk in the perfection of their technological advancements. However being human they became inspired.

Soon after many humans themselves tried to create something to call their own, most of the scientific achievements came from the south and the east, as the people had no quarrel to hinder their ideas. Unfortunately the land of Alumar was now a war torn continent, the Athanisians and Zoharans had declared war on each other after many years of hatred and prejudice, this then took their minds away from potential progress and instead focused on destruction, this war driven passion gave them new ideologies and thoughts upon themselves and their kin, they felt themselves superior due to the more advanced architecture of their cities and their superior weaponry over most of the other Men, this would lead to the great evil that divided the World of Men forever.

The war between them lasted only fifty years after an intervention from the Ashagon, The Chancellors of the Unzegan who came as arbiters between the quarreling nations and eventually settled their disputes under a truce that lasted for a short but peaceful time. However this then brought a new age onto the world, an age that would tear human religions and civilizations apart. Imperialism!

The Athanisians and the Zoharans began to raid the Southern continent called Malantar and Dunekanalot in the East; they brought back many captives and established garrisons on coasts in the South and East.

They cruelly tortured and enslaved many Unzegan and even Sarayan men, enforcing the mentality that the Athanisians and Zoharans were their superiors and that they were no less than primitives.

In this time they forced their slaves to work farms and to build cites of immense proportion, forcing them to labour until death claimed them, losing slaves meant nothing as they could always capture more to fulfill their fierce desires of power.

This cruel injustice and racial prejudice extended not only to men but to other races as well, Dwarven settlements were raided on a daily basis and many Dwarves were captured as slaves for their Arena to fight as Gladiators, Elves had declared war after one of the High Kings was murdered by the Atanor after a squabble over land borders, Minotaurs were captured and used as personal bodyguard and even as entertainment in their games and fights, the injustice of Atanor was limitless.

When a slavery ship heading for an island colony of Unzegan blew off course they found themselves on Kaleria's shores, they explored the continent finding it occupied by Elves and Beasts; yet when they delved further they found a new race of Men, they had found the secret sanctuary of the Western Red Men, long had these people passed into legend but they survived and lived in numbers beyond reckoning.

The motley crew captured sixty specimens of the Thungarin and brought them back to Alumar, they were terrible slaves, they had learned to work just enough for their need and no more but the ruthless Athanisians whipped the poor men and women till they collapsed and never arose from their exhaustion stricken comas.

So instead they brought more of the Red Men from over the Sea but the result was the same and soon they had hundreds of carcasses per month to burn, however their was one use for them, they were excellent farmers and grew more food than the black and brown men ever could and thus this became their main line of work as slaves.

Therefore the Athanisians and Zoharans had exacted their injustice every other human race in the World of Undor, selfishness and savagery were now the image of the Atanor, this caused many races to be dis-trustworthy towards them, thus within this depressing age, life was drenched with the scent of sweat and blood, yet despite all the evil that man had brought to this world, something more devastating was yet to come.

This imperialistic age carried on for four and a half thousand years, a time when the Zoharans and the Athanisians were at war with the other races of Undor and even their own kind, vast armies of Unzegan spear men from the south marched upon Alumar and Great Sarayan legions of cavalry came over the Great Sea and even rebel Thungarin squandered their progress in excavation sites for gold.

However no matter what the threat was, the Athanisians and Zoharans defended their territory ruthlessly, despite all the blood that was shed, gold that had been plundered like all men;they wanted more.

It was in this era that an even greater evil was awoken within the depths of the abyss, the ground shook violently and the earth beneath the sea split open, unleashing a terrifying horror onto the already war torn world.

It was a terrifying demonic being called Kairum.

This creature was the contingency plan of the Agandor, this was their second plot to dominate all life on this world; Kairum was created by mixing the body of an Agandor with the spirit of a most foul demon, the result was the most evil dark power ever to walk on the Earth.

Kairum was clad in golden armour from the dome of his head to the tip of his fingers, he bore a long dark cloak that draped to his feet which were attached to great metal boots, his face was concealed with a tight fitting mask that was surgically placed onto his face during his creation and gave him a monstrous appearance.

The demonic being found its way to Kaleria's shores. At first touch onto the land, it putrefied the very soil beneath his feet, Kairum made his way far west, were the woods and fertile plains ceased to exist, bearing only a mountainous wasteland, Kairum took shelter in the ancient volcano of Eruntain, here he contemplated and thought on what to do, his mind obsessed with power and perfection, Kairum then abandoned his mountain refuge and traveled further inland, were peaceful forests lay in the shadow of the High Mountains of the North, yet again wherever he went living things, plant and beast alike ceased to coexist with such darkness brewing so close within their quiet home.

Soon nearly half of the Great Forest was withered and died off, forcing the Rekanin to abandon their solemn fortress along with many Minotaur who survived the arrival of the Dark plague, the rest of the forest transformed into something only such evil could do, it became alive and angry the very trees attained voices of their own, the grass and brush began to move and breathe; the vines started to hiss like snakes, trapping anything and anyone that entered their domain thus the Dark Forest was born. To the South the same happened to its jungles only this time the creatures perverted into things unnatural, they became larger, their shapes twisted, they gained many horrid attributes, horns and claws grew longer, hair became thicker, teeth became sharper, hearts turned darker.

These creatures became an unstoppable legion of darkness who's every move was to destroy and ravage, they first targeted the kingdoms of the Erenin and they sacked and raided their cites, butchering the women and children, The Erenin were utterly defeated; the survivors fled far from Kaleria and many headed for the South-Western Middle Kingdoms, where there would be a temporary refuge from the horrors of war. The Rekanin and Keranin, the hybrids and the remainder of the Thungarin had to flee the land despite fighting bravely to defend it, the creatures of the darkness then roamed Kaleria and further destroyed and plundered all the old cites, Kairum then came to these abominable beings and convinced them to join him, they became Kairum's first servants and he named them the Valon meaning "The Mindless Ones".

After many years of destruction and refurbishment, Kairum had utterly destroyed the continent that was once Kaleria, where there was much green and life. There was now darkness and wasteland (save the Dark Forest and the Southern Jungles); in his pride he renamed the destroyed Eden-The Dark Lands, a title that would strike fear into the hearts of every mortal being on Undor.

This however was not enough for Kairum; he wanted more, more blood and destruction. Till everything in this world was under his command, only the would his idea of total perfection come to pass, after witnessing what the Elves were capable of he wandered if the other races would fight just as hard or even greater.

This Kairum would not allow, he returned to his original refuge under Mount Eruntain and commanded his legion of Monsters to construct a great fortress upon the slopes of the ancient cauldron of fire. It was named Amon Enchar. This is where Kairum would reside while his armies would destroy the Known World.

Yet he realized that the Valon of The Dark Lands were too few in number to take on the might of the Free Races, the demon realized he would have to create his own minions if he wanted to drive down his enemies.

Therefore he returned to Mount Eruntain, delved deep into the Mountain's heart till he reached the slumbering lava chamber, here he spent most of his days, the only awareness of activity was that the earth near the Mountain would rumble and quake, soon after many years of trial and failure Kairum had his second hand minions that would add to his armies. They were called the Goblins, these evil little things were shoulder height to man and resembled Orcs, only their faces were more squint and narrow and their bodies were bony and thin compared to the heavy build of the Orcish warriors, they were also a light green in their skin tone and they had a ravenous hunger for flesh.

Kairum had already created a staggering twelve thousand to begin his campaign upon the earth, when the gates of Amon Enchar opened the great horde marched upon Undor, they sailed towards their first target; Alumar.

The savage legion raided the Gold sites of where the cruel Athanisian overlords were occupying, in defence of their fortune they put their slaves on the front line, the result was a massacre, the poorly armed slaves and cruel masters alike were forced to retreat at the sight of the merciless army.

When word caught to the Zoharan and Athanisian kings of this unstoppable legion, they decided to combine forces and march to meet this army, however they greatly misunderstood the impact of the size of their enemy, the Goblins had gained reinforcements that had added their numbers to a staggering fifteen thousand, along with five hundred Valon that were tasked with commanding the large force.

It was the same result as before, a great massacre of Men and the two kings who cowardly tried to retreat were slaughtered by Goblin archers, the World of the Atanor was under siege, as a result the slaves were freed from the tyranny of their masters but many died on return to their homelands by Goblin hunters or from the weakness in their bones.

The rest of the World for a time being stood by and watched as Athanisian cities and Zoharan temples were desecrated with their own blood, The Zoharans and Athanisians made a last stand for the fate of their people at the Athanisian's capital Winter's Bane.

The army of the remaining thirteen thousand Goblins and the remaining three hundred Valon marched upon the city, they used captured human slaves to man their siege machines, the armies of the Dark Lands were held off for a time, eventually though they managed to break through the gates and all hope nearly faded away for the Atanor of Alumar.

That was till a force of six thousand riders appeared on the Western hills, they were the Eastern folk who were Ulemans in faith, Sarayan and Vanguardian horsemen bearing beautiful scimitar and khatana like swords, the Sarayans wore silk cloaks with their war garb they bore mostly light armour with no chainmail and their heads were dressed in a sort of turban, a great tradition of the Sarayan warriors, the Vanguardians wore wolf-skin cloaks and beautiful heavy black armour and on their heads they dressed in fierce metallic helmets that protected their eyes from the blinding sun, with a fierce pledge to the Almar (Anum Almakram) they charged upon the unprotected flank of their enemies, this caused the Goblins temporarily panic and scatter in disarray.

This allowed for the Athanisian soldiers of Winter's Bane to launch their counter attack, four thousand foot soldiers ambushed their enemy from the city, the Valon commanders ordered many Goblins to create a firm barrier so that they could prevent the two armies from uniting.

The Riders managed to rip through the Goblins poorly organised defences, the horsemen cut and slashed at the scattering horde, the foot soldiers fiercely fought against the overwhelming enemy but despite the numbers they drove on.

Much to the Men’s despair the Valon bodyguard intervened and they attacked the horsemen with a fierce tenacity that caused many riders to die by their hands, this forced the horsemen to regroup and reform into a defensive line.

This state made them susceptible to attack, the fleeing troops of Goblins rallied behind the Valon and they began to attack the terrified cavalry, the foot soldiers were also driven back by the heavy infantry, pushed back to the very wall of the city.

When things seemed dire and the thought that all hope seemed lost forever, an event of miraculous origins occurred; seven hundred Arkemenian knights (Zoharan heavy cavalry) charged out of the gates and cut a hole in the barrier of heavy infantry holding back the soldiers, leaving the pale faced swordsman cowering behind the halberds in terror.

The soldiers used this to charge through the gap and they furiously cut down Goblins with haste and they ensued fear into the hearts of their foes and this distraction allowed the Riders to escape the onslaught and retreat further away were they could make their second charge.

The Uleman horsemen cried the Almar's name so fiercely that the Goblins felt the might their enemy was going to be much greater of that of the first attack and many started to falter and scramble away. The horsemen made their final charge and this confront smashed through the enemy lines and the Riders cut through Goblins like a combine harvester cutting wheat and they overran the northern half of the battlefield, this then loosened the barrier of Goblin troops from the city and allowed the Arkemenian knights and Soldiers of Winter's Bane to cut through the goblin ranks alongside their ally. Then suddenly fierce cries were heard from the East as there came a strong force of four thousand spearmen and swordsmen came charging out of the horizon, they were of the Unzegan and Thungarin, they also forgave their former oppressors and marched to aid of the Eastern folk in rescuing them.

The recently arrived army charged at the eastern flank and ripped a massive hole as it was largely unprotected due to all the heavy infantry being used to hold back the soldiers of Winter's Bane. The United forces of Men crunched the armies of the Dark Lands between their masses, with the Goblins being attacked at all sides the remaining yet shaken Valon Commanders ordered their retreat and the great horde flooded off the battlefield and the Warriors of the Tempest had won.

The Athanisian Prince (Tirion Andarin) and the Zoharan prince (Malekin Borodin) met with their saviours in the field of battle, seeing the graceful mercy and compassion of their former enemies (despite all the horrendous torture they had insinuated upon their people) they were overwhelmed by the kindness.

The princes ordered their armies to bow down to their heroic new friends but the Generals ordered all of them to arise and told the bewildered Atanor not to thank them but to praise the Almar who had gifted this day with the victory they had witnessed.

Now that the World of Men was united once again in brotherhood, they could tackle the problem of the arrival of Kairum on their domain. Yet as much as they wanted to challenge him, their armies were broken and their cities destroyed by conflict, the World of Men had become scattered in the reunion and the three main religions had no longer the power they once had.

Thus they devised a plan to bring the power back into balance. There were many warring tribes within each race of Men that were pagans and nomads and did not ally themselves to any mainstream religion, if the forces of these tribes were trained under martial discipline, they could be an army more powerful than any that walked the Earth.

The Ashagon were the first to propose to their free tribes of the alliance and since the tribes required protection from raiding pirates and Orc war bands the chiefs seized the offer, soon the Ashagon had a powerful army behind their backs, armoured and ready for war.

Soon after the Eastern Men united the many rogue clans that traveled freely across the continent, forever desiring change like the unpredictable sands of the desert, all the clans accepted the proposition and just months later they had a terrifying force of thousands of horsemen and many more foot soldiers under their command.

The White Men however found it more troublesome negotiating with their pagans and wild folk, for many years the Athanisians and Zoharans had hunted the tribesmen and pagans like game and this gave the pagan men a huge distrust and hatred for the civilized man.

However the Dark Lord had plans of his own, He sent a legion of ten thousand Goblin troops that marched upon the steppes of Alumar to destroy the remaining strength of the Atanor, one by one the weaker tribes fell to the power of the Enemy. This left just ten remaining tribes to stand against his will.

Then came those who resisted.

A young blacksmith, Caldor Andreas, ended the divisions and petty quarrels of the tribes and he lead a powerful army of the Paganistic men that utterly destroyed the foul servants of darkness, the survivors fled back to the Dark Lands and screamed the name of the ferocious warrior who cut through their armies like they were nothing.

Caldor was then crowned as the King of the Free Men, a people not tied by religion or nation but by solidarity and brotherhood and this included the Athanisians, Zoharans and even any Eastern folk or Unzegan that lived in his kingdom, the Athanisians and Zoharans gave the command of their armies to him as they knew they would use their men for better cause than they ever would.

Caldor was then given a magical sword by the High Elves of the North; they forged the sword from the metal that came from the stars itself. It took many weeks for the sword to be completed. When it was finished it had the appearance of magnificence about it from the hilt to the tip of the blade. Caldor named the sword SilverStar.

Kairum then realized that it would take more than mere Goblins to destroy the Old World; his deep contemplation gave him the terrible new idea of recruitment of other races to aid him in domination of Undor.

Kairum let forth a beacon to all who lusted for power and precious things, these creatures who listened heed to his broadcast answered Kairum's call. Dark Elves and two nations of Men came first. Of the two nations there were the Tarmens, relentless warriors from the Isle of Yedar whose desire for wealth was beyond comprehension. The second were the Pirates of Korad-Dun, merciless sea farers who plundered and destroyed without reckoning. The Men and Elves along with legions of Goblins were sent to the South-Western-Middle-Kingdoms (an army of five thousand) to trouble the remaining Erenin who were building a great star ship that would carry the remainder of their kin into a space station outside the rim of the World.

This was all sabotaged when the armies of the Dark Lands came; much bloodshed was seen that day, the last of a mighty people brought low, the survivors fled into the woods of where the armies continued to hunt them down but their advance was stopped by a an army of one thousand six hundred Sarayan colonists that ambushed the horde. They fought hard and long and drove the armies back; the second force of the Enemy had been defeated.

Unfortunately there were no feasts or songs of old that day since the dead Erenin were beyond the reach of grief, none were found alive, they buried all the bodies they found except their Leader of whom they burned in a traditional funeral pyre in honour for his noble death in the defence of his people.

Kairum had destroyed his closest threat but yet had gained more enemies, the second legion returned to the Dark Lands, they had lost three quarters of their original number yet Kairum bred more Goblin troops while more Tarmens and Korad-Dunian Pirates flocked to the fortress of Amon Enchar.

The power of the Dark Lord grew as not just Men but Beasts as well came to Kairum's dark gathering, Firedrakes and Great Serpents swore allegiance to the Lord of Darkness and even the gruesome Ogres and ferocious Mountain Giants bowed before him.

He first sent an army of Ogres to the North to trouble its inhabitants, while being followed by a second army of Mountain Giants; he then sent his legion of Firedrakes and Great Serpents along with hordes of Goblins over the Sea to terrorize the East.

New allies of the Dark Lord came from all over. Wild Men called Berogs and a secret contingent of Wolf-like Shadow Hounds along with hideous Ghuls and a legion of vengeful Tarmens were sent to Alumar along with thousands of Goblins, Kairum also sent three hundred Valon as the Commanders for the mighty army of twenty five thousand, the largest army ever mustered by the Malevolent Kairum himself.

When the unstoppable horde reached Alumar's shores they raided the broken cities and burnt simple villages as a warning to the entire continent that death was upon them.

The New King of the Atanor of Alumar, Caldor Andreas, gathered his army of ten thousand men and marched to war against the forces of darkness that had made their camp in the hills of Gelhart, yet when they began their march, they heard of a second and greater invasion of Nyadds and Vampires who had also offered their service to Kairum and had planted themselves near the South.

The Orcs of Alumar had gathered their forces and marched towards the Vampires fortress and were holding it under siege, it was just the Nyadds and their keep that was still kept unchecked.

When the human scouts told the Atanoren army of the sheer size of their enemy, Caldor decided to call off the attack, that was till a second and powerful army of ten thousand Dwarves (from the Rising Pinnacles in the dwarven colony of Oldenheim), came to his aid, given with enough confidence that the combined forces were enough to challenge his enemies, they made the final walk to the battlefield of where the two armies met.

The armies of the Dark Lands were surprisingly even in number, where the remaining five thousand of the army they did not know, yet all they could thing about was that of how they could use this to their advantage. The opposing army was poorly equipped in armour compared to just the Dwarven warriors who wore fierce battle masks and clothed with spiked metal plates and bore the sharpest battle axes, the armies were equally matched in number but in faith the Men and Dwarves were still held high.

When the armies collided, the Dwarves smashed through enemy lines and cut down their ranks with ease, the Men of Alumar also bore through the front of the hordes of the Dark Lands with great efficiency, Goblin troops were being disbanded as many were hewed down by Dwarven axes and the Berogs were ruthlessly being chopped and sliced by the human soldiers and the Tarmens were being knocked down by the sheer tenacity of the Dwarves and even the Ghuls were being cast aside by the swift swords of the Men.

Then the Shadow Hounds came.

A huge mass of five thousand four legged beasts came from the hills of the allied force's right, Yagor, General of the Dwarves, ordered the heavy infantry to quickly form a barrier of shields to prevent the hounds from interfering with their comrades who were fighting an equally strong foe.

This left only half of the dwarven army to aid the men against the Goblins, Berogs and Ghuls and Tarmens who were now beginning to push them back, Caldor and the Dwarven General Yagor were fighting side by side as the forces of darkness began to sweep in like the tide.

Then all hope silently faded away.

The army ceased its path and a section parted way, out of the horde came the very thing that started it all, Kairum the Malevolent had come.

He stood tall amongst the frightened men and dwarves, he bore a great sword made of thalasium (a metal well known for its conductivity of dark energy) and a diamond shaped shield with ancient markings that spelled his name. The armies of the Dark Lands then pressed on the attack and began to further push back the Men and Dwarves as the Dark Lord uttered a terrifying roar that shattered all bravery in the hearts of his enemies.

With one sweep of his sword ten men and dwarves alike were thrown out of his reach and the allies kept trying to stay out of reach of his dark sword that cleaved and killed so many, then Caldor and Yagor confronted the Dark Lord and the battle continued as the leaders of the armies stared at each other fearless of death, they fought long and hard as the battle raged on around them, Yagor hit seven times upon the hide of Kairum while Caldor only managed to strike four times, despite this the dark lord was unhinged by the futile attacks and this drove Kairum to slash at Yagor of which ultimately killed him.

Caldor then raced to the injured dwarf's side and held his head in his hands; Yagor then grabbed the hilt of Caldor's sword and told him that to avenge the dwarves he would have to bring Kairum down with the sword that Caldor had been gifted by from the Elves of the North, only this metal could cut through Kairum’s armour and only Caldor alone could wield it.

He lay the dwarf's head upon the ground and then brought his sword high and met Kairum in battle once more, the battle was vicious as both lords wanted to become victorious, however Kairum gained the upper hand and gave a terrible blow by his shield to Caldor's head, as the Dark Lord stood over his body Caldor mustered his courage and plunged his blade into the evil heart of Kairum.

The demon stumbled backwards and clutched his chest as purple blood flooded out of his small wound, the pain made him sink to his knees as Caldor stood tall above him, bathing in the rays of triumph.

Kairum the Malevolent learned that day that the likes of Caldor would not be so easily broken, the wounded Dark Lord was dragged away by his servants and the Shadow Hounds drew back from the flank of the Allies and retreated far into the hills.

Caldor spoke to Men and Dwarves alike and he rallied them together and led the last charge.

The allied army fought hard and drove the legions of Darkness back into the abyss, Kairum, the enemy, had again been defeated.

Men and Dwarves celebrated victory in each others arms, embracing one another as brothers, today was a day of great joy and great sorrow all the same. They burned Yagor and sent his ashes in a north bearing wind so that his remains may settle in the ancient motherland of the dwarven people.

This began the great revulsion against Kairum's dark expansion, all the races of Undor (except the ones who had allied themselves to Kairum) were at war with his evil Uprising, it began the War of the Shadow.

Caldor lead an army of Men to the Southern coasts of where they destroyed the Nyadd garrisons, the remainder fled to the Middle Oceans, here they united with the Mermedians, firm enemies of the Nyadds, together the utterly defeated the strength of the sea dwelling creatures and they scattered across the Seven Seas in fear of Caldor's name.

The Eastern folk were still under siege from the foul reptilian beasts and rampaging mad Goblins that were destroying their beloved home and the Eastern people called out for help in their endless siege of doom.

A fleet of Elves and Men answered their plead for help, they were lead by the legendary elven warrior Ranikor Valiance, The Elves and Western Men helped lift the siege of the Ulemans, the Eastern folk rallied their forces and united with the army of Elves and Atanor and utterly vanquished the shadow of Kairum from their sandy shores.

Losing one foothold, Kairum was determined not to lose any of the rest. He reinforced his Northern forces with an army of the remaining Firedrakes that survived the onslaught of the East; he also sent legions of Werewolves to capture a chain of free islands known as the Floating Isles south of the Tarmen's island empire.

His plan was extended the Tarmen Empire’s reach southward in order to have control over the Middle Oceans and eventually lead an assault upon Malantar and exterminate the Unzegan people to prevent them from uniting with the Atanor of the Centre lands.

Another army was sent to the South-Western Middle Kingdoms, Dark Elves and Goblins sailed forth to the island civilizations. Their orders were to eradicate the populace of the islands and take control over them, in particular the Imperial city, which lay at the heart of the Kingdoms.

Caldor then came to their rescue; his army of five hundred companions pushed back the forces of the Dark Lands and eventually became a naval battle between the Goblins of Anum-Kain (their coastal fortress) and the Men of Alumar.

The Men prevailed and the Dark Elves fled in all directions and the Goblins retreated back to Anum-Kain.

The Elves then deployed all of their forces in a massive navy and sailed to reclaim the Western Sea of Elinor, The only thing standing in their way was a gigantic armada of Goblin ships along with thousands of flying harpies and legions of Tarmen vessels.

The Elves struggled against the formidable foe standing in their path, the Goblins had already mastered the techniques of naval warfare while the elves knew zero to none, it seemed like a hopeless war.

Despite this the Elves met the challenge head on and for forty days and forty nights they raged this terrible battle against the hordes of the Dark Lands, many ships were lost on both sides, the elves had superior technology compared to the Goblins but the foul creatures deployed their harpies of which cast many sailors off their ships and constantly Tarmen ships used to bother them at any oppurtunity given. Heroically the Elves fought on and loosened the shaft that struck down their leader and commander, King Rashqon of the Sea Devils, a subgroup of Goblins from the Eastern Shores. With the death of their commander, the navy of the Dark Lord scattered and divided, they returned to their fortresses to replenish their losses while the Free Peoples celebrated victory once again.

Kairum then deployed a second wave of heavy Goblin infantry into the Centre lands followed by a legion of Dark Elves and behind them was a combined force of Tarmens and Berogs along with a secret ambush horde of Ogres that marched alongside the foul beasts.

The Goblins began to lay waste the West of the continent, many survivors fled and other were slaughtered by the hands of the merciless creatures under Kairum's command.

The Dwarven Kings of Oldenheim then marched out of their kingdom with thousands of axe bearing dwarves behind them; they alone met the armies of the Dark Lands and furiously fought them in several battles across the lands as the Dwarves chased their enemy relentlessly across the realms of Alumar.

The final battle was at the gates of the Orc city Viridor, The Dwarves had surprisingly come to the aid of their sworn enemy and both an army of Orcs and Dwarves ran to meet the uncountable army of Kairum and the final battle of Alumar began.

Dwarves and Orcs fought with equal ferocity, the Orcs knowing no fear of death savagely tore and slashed at their enemies and the sheer fury of the Orcish warriors stirred fear in the hearts of the puny Goblins and other allies of Kairum.

The Dwarves as well raged in battle fearless of death, yet their experience with the foul agents of the Dark Lord helped them to know how best to kill them, this knowledge along with the general strength of the dwarves wrought much destruction on the battlefield.

Just when victory was near, a massive and thick line of Ogres dressed in the crudest of armour and armed with great spiked clubs, came charging onto the battlefield; The gargantuan weapons of the Ogres cast aside many a dwarf and Orc, despite this a few were brought down when the Dwarves ran grappling hooks across their limbs, causing them to trip and fall, thus ultimately getting killed by dwarven axes and orcish swords plus the Orcs planted spears into their hides and this weakened their strength for them to be brought down.

More Ogres were brought down by the elite crossbows of the dwarves and the swift longbows of the clever Orcs, the many missiles announced the sundering of the beasts as many began to fall to the Dwarves and Orcs and the remainder of the hideous beasts began to retreat, this was then followed by the rest of the army that had now lost faith at the sight of their War Beasts being slaughtered.

The fourth legion of darkness had now been defeated and none were left alive; save a small Goblin scout that managed to crawl back to Amon Enchar and tell of the massacre that was inflicted upon them by their enemies.

Caldor heard of this victory and then returned to his homeland and consulted with the Orcs, he gained knowledge of a great army of Ogres, Mountain Giants, Firedrakes, Goblins, Dark Elves and Shadow Hounds besieging the Orcs northern settlers.

Caldor gathered his army and began to march towards Kelumador, this time he was followed by not just Dwarves but by Elves as well and even the Orcs sent a legion of their own to aid their kin.

They rendezvoused with the Minotaur who were also going to Kelumador as their race was under threat by Kairum’s deadly army, the huge gathering sailed towards the freezing continent, when they arrived at its shores they pressed forward to attack the enemy at all sides and lift the siege of the Orcs.

The plan was successful, the ambushed their enemy at all fronts and the Northern Orcs released their counter attack that was enough to strike fear into the hearts of the giant invaders.

Yet despite the surprise attack, it quickly wore off as Kairum’s army was still superior in number and the began to push back the attacking forces and the Northern Orc defenders, The Ogres were mainly dealt with by the Dwarves who had paid many lives that day as the Ogres vicious clubs cast aside many dwarves who died in honour of freeing their motherland.

The Mountain Giants were occupied by the Orcs and Minotaur who were doing slightly better than the Dwarves but were taking equal amounts of damage on their numbers, the strength of the heavily built warriors meant that they could bring down the beasts easier than the dwarves thus ensuring destruction of the horde.

The Men were occupying the Goblins and Firedrakes; the Goblins were of no difficulty to the greatly skilled human warriors but the Firedrakes proved a foe too strong to fight in hand to hand combat, they had to be dealt with by the gallant arrows of the human archers, only when they were severely weakened were they safe to fight against but the scorching flames emitted by the Firedrakes were powerful enough to incinerate anyone within range, making the battle very hit and run.

The Elves on the other hand had to fight against the elegant Dark Elves and the bloodthirsty Shadow Hounds, the Keranin fought bravely against their dark hearted cousins but the skill in blade were equally matched in both elven races and this made it a very close conflict. The Shadow Hounds however were proving to be more troublesome as they were but marauding beasts who killed out of hunger while the elves were more refined creatures who killed for a cause that was for the good of the World, yet despite the valor, the Shadow Hounds proved to be relentless monsters that killed any elf that stood in their path, they even squabbled amongst themselves over what potion of their fallen elven soldier they should equally share. War was a terrible thing.

The might of the enemy seemed to be too much for the foes of Kairum and they were forced back to the very wall of the city along with the cities’ own defenders; hope had seemed to abandon them yet again.

Out of the smoke darkened skies came the body of the great golden dragon Yiberius, The High King of the Dragons had come to aid the foes of Kairum and to lift the siege of the Orcs of the North of whom were his allies. His fire seethed and burned many a foul beast, the evil minions of the Dark Lands soon became scattered and disorganized and they ran in terror.

This gave the United Armies of the Free Peoples to then make their last charge to rid the North of Kairum’s hold, the dark forces began to get slaughtered as the fury of the allies began to quickly cut down what force would fight back.

The brutal massacre of the forces of Kairum was massive, the United Free Peoples of Undor tore their way through The Dark Lord’s armies and slaughtered every last servant that was willing to do Kairum’s will till death.

Yiberius had an equally successful drive; His fiery breath extended across the battlefield and scorched the frightened dark minions, the fire spread quickly as the fear driven mad servants of Kairum scattered in disarray and crashed upon one another and set each of them in flames.

The Battle of the North was won as the armies of the Dark Lands ran in fear of the human leader Caldor who had rallied their enemies behind the dragon’s ambush, the North was free of Kairum’s hold and the Orcs and Men who were also sworn enemies now celebrated in friendship of their victory.

The North was free and the Floating Isles had been released of their imprisonment of Kairum when the Uleman navy destroyed the Werewolf fortresses on the islands, the Vampire’s too were driven from their stronghold in the south by the Orcs and had fled back to the Dark Lands.

With Kairum losing his hold on the World, he became very angry, his rage then led him to madness and in his insanity he began to breed a new agent that would turn the tide in the War of the Shadow; He created the Dark Dragons, a breed that only complied with him and carried out his evil bidding.

He sent thousands of the evil reptiles out into the World and they began to lay Undor into ruin and death, not even when the allies combined were they a match for these terrible beasts, Yiberius himself was weakened by the Dark Dragons, this left the realms in a state of chaos as the Dragons began to infuse terror on the war crippled world.

Being a merciless creature with no compassion, Kairum set loose a powerful legion of sixty thousand Goblin troops, being led by ten thousand Valon commanders, it was the most menacing army ever to walk the Earth and the very thing that could have insured Undor’s Destruction.

Yet there was an even greater horde of five hundred thousand ready to ambush any army that came to meet Kairum’s forces in battle; they were comprised of Werewolves, Vampires, Tarmens, Ghuls, Harpies, Ogres, Mountain Giants, the remaining Firedrakes, Dark Dragons, Dark Elves, Warlocks, Necromancers, Berogs, along with tens of thousands of Goblin infantry.

All seemed lost for the peoples of Undor, Darkness closed in.

Then the Human King Caldor Andreas came up with a plan that could have saved Undor… or destroyed it.

He formed an alliance with the elven lords and reenacted his friendship with the dwarven kings.

They vowed to unite under Caldor’s leadership and not to self destruct till Kairum was vanquished and his armies destroyed, the three peoples united into a powerful army of fifty thousand; Elves Dwarves and Men.

The United Allies sailed onto Amon Enchar and marched at its very gates were the legion of seventy thousand servants of the Dark Lord were waiting, even though outnumbered the united forces held no fear in their hearts as they stared deathless into the eyes of their enemies.

The battle commenced at the blow of the first horn, swords clashed and axes smashed, arrows pierced and spears shattered. Blood and Sweat putrefied the very atmosphere; screams of the dying rid the air of all sound. Dwarves fiercely drove through the fronts of the Dark Lands, Elves swiftly cut down the Goblin ranks and Men bravely brought down their enemies with great swords.

Despite the Valor, the armies of the Dark Lands began to push back their attackers and the Goblins and Valon started to viciously murder and kill the Allies that were being forced back by the sheer ferocity of the savage Goblins and their merciless Valon commanders.

Many horns then blew from the Western hills as the sound of hooves came out of the darkened land, then a great force thundered out of the darkness and behind them came the first dawn to grace Kaleria in one hundred years, The light revealed these newcomers as a great army of Uleman cavalry, numbering twenty thousand strong.

The horsemen startled the occupied armies and shook fear into the hearts of the Valon veterans who had witnessed the might of the Uleman horsemen in the siege of Winter’s Bane, here they were over twice as large a force and these were all firm religious men, men who had no fear of death and felt the will of the Almar on their side.

With the most solemn pledge to the Almar they had uttered since the dawn of their religion, The Riders of the East the charged down upon their foes and their wrath brought the reckoning of their enemy as they ripped through their ranks with the greatest of speed and overran the southern half of the field, cutting off their escape to the fortress of Amon Enchar.

The Allied infantry were then free to counter the drive of the Goblins and Valon and the fierce will to live gave them the comeback they needed to destroy the armies of the Dark Lands once and for all.

The Leaders of the Men, Dwarves and Elves rallied their troops for one last charge, the sheer will of the Allies made them seem unstoppable to their enemies and many spearmen and archers began to retreat from the frontline.

The Valon then began to see what their soldiers feared and a few of them also fled in terror but they were shot down by their own archers for cowardice, the remaining Valon charged the United Forces, despite their savage fury, they could not hold back the zealous desire and will of the Allies.

With the Uleman Riders and the Allied infantry pushing at both sides, it turned into an eventual slaughter of Kairum’s forces, only seven thousand Valon made it out of the massacre and escaped over the Western Hills, when the Riders and United soldiers pursued them, they were confronted with a terrifying sight; The Second army had come.

The Seven Thousand Valon had now taken their place as the Commanders of the newly arrived army that literately dwarfed the Allies whole contingency, despite this they reformed their lines and solidified their ranks.

The huge army of Kairum then slowly marched towards the cornered Allies but then Caldor rode out in front of the Allies and gave them a resonating speech that roused their hearts out of fear and instead filled it with courage.

Men, Dwarves, Elves; Folk of Undor.

I see your fear; that would also take my faith away

But no! Today is not the day of when fear and primal instinct takes over and we flee like heathens of old.

In time the Peoples of this Earth will remember our victories that marked Kairum’s end, this day shall be his downfall.

This day is when the Peoples of the World who chose their side in the battle against an evil thought so great, will be the people who brought him down like rain on the Mountain.

An hour of sword and shield awaits us, so I bid you stand, for the sake of Undor; Let us fight to the End.

With the end of the words they all yelled the Almar’s name so greatly that the foul drums of the enemy could not cease the sound. This then insinuated a small gram of fear into the hearts of the armies of Kairum and they halted their march and stood their ground.

The Allies then did the most unexpected thing, they charged behind their leader valiantly who had already rode ahead of his men, he alone strayed into the sea of monsters, elegantly swinging his sword high against the many opponents, then the enemies around him began to fall as the Allies crashed through the fronts of the forces of the Dark Lands.

The momentum of the impact that made the Allies have the upper hand in the first minutes of the battle began to fade as the infused hatred of the minions of Kairum started to drive back the Riders and Soldiers.

Soon they were surrounded at all sides as the overwhelming forces started to sweep in like the tide and the sea of minions began to overrun the Allies.

Fierce roars were heard from the North as the war drums of unknown origin came closer, then an impassable force arose from the darkness and surrounded the forces of Kairum, three hundred thousand Orcs bearing sharp blades and heavy plated armour roared and shrieked mad battle cries.

There were also one hundred thousand Dwarves from Kelumador who had decided to rescue their kin and beside them were fifty thousand Trolls from the South and twenty five thousand Thungarin swordsmen and another twenty five thousand Unzegan lancers, armed and ready for battle.

The newly arrived army smashed the armies of the Dark Lord on all sides and this caused confusion and disorganization among his ranks, Kairum himself came to the balcony of his fortress and observed the attack on his armies.

The Dwarves caused the most damage due to their tenacity in battle and they knocked down their enemies and cut and sliced with their sharp axes, The Orcs were however more ferocious and violent in their fray, they ruthlessly attacked any of Kairum’s minions; big or small.

The Thungarin, Unzegan and the Trolls worked together cohesively to eradicate any foe in their path, The Allies then felt a surge of rage and the willingness to survive, this made them drive back the armies that had completely pushed them into a tight circle against the hillside.

Soon it became a massive fracas as both armies of good and evil rolled within one another like the convergence of deltas with river waters and the open sea with its salt bearing waters.

The infused hatred and fury of the Dark Lord’s armies soon began to be not enough to hold back the Allies, thus the armies of the Dark Lands ordered the retreat, the forces scattered and divided, Abandoning their lord to his death.

The Allies stormed Amon Enchar, yet Caldor did not make to the highest tower of where Kairum resided as he was struck upon his head and knocked out cold, The Keranin and Rekanin Elves captured Kairum who had no choice but to surrender to their will.

The High Elves, emptied his body of his original power, this forced him to transform into a gigantic thirteen foot werewolf, in order to conserve what little life force he had left within his veins.

He was cast away from Kaleria, onto a desolate island; here he was imprisoned by the cunning sorcery of the elves that made magical chains restrain him if ever he tried to leave the sanctity of his imprisonment and for added measure they cloaked the island in an invisibility enchantment to prevent any of his former minions from ever finding him.

To this day they say he lives on the island, there he reaps to take his vengeance on the Race of Men and the World.

Caldor was then praised far and wide for his bravery and courage but did not hand it to himself for the victory but for the compliance and compassion of the other peoples that aided him in the final battles.

The Sarayan king Othman Ali, offered a marriage his daughter to Caldor as way of sealing the alliance between East and West, Nerissa, Othman’s youngest daughter was the most beautiful woman Caldor had ever set eyes upon. His heart pounded in his chest at the sight of such majesty. He agreed to the marriage and despite many of his Zoharan councilors of who told him of the problem with the interracial marriage.

The Unzegan people however offered him the entire continent of Malantar to rule alongside the Ashagon for ending the regime of Kairum upon their doorstep, Caldor then started making plans of an Allied Nation of Men, from all colours and all religions, united under a single bond of fellowship.

Thus all this was about to change.

Caldor’s mind was inflicted with a terrible curse caused by Kairum’s dark magic; this caused him to obsess over division and boundaries rather than unity, he broke the bloodily found bonds between the tribes of the Atanor, here old enemies were reborn and new rivalries were created.

The corrupted king then led an assault upon Malantar, at first the Ashagon tried to reason with the maddened lord however Caldor was blind to all else but to his own dark desires, His war upon the Unzegan went quickly but not bloodlessly, soon the Unzegan were reduced to a small province in the land of the Red Desert. Still this was not enough. He wanted to wipe out the entire Unzegan people.

When he gathered his armies to storm the last fortress of the Unzegan, the curse of Kairum lifted from his troubled mind.

At once he told his armies to retreat but it was too late to repair the damage he had done to the kingdom, The Unzegan people were now too few in number to retake their beloved home so they reluctantly handed the entire responsibility of the management of their realm to the very person who nearly wrought their destruction.

Caldor greatly regretted his actions towards the Unzegan, he tried to re-solidify their peace treaty but the remaining Ashagon sent the ambassador’s heads back to the troubled king, this did not anger Caldor for he knew that to deserve this, his deeds must have been of the foulest nature.

Nonetheless he took the throne of Malantar and claimed lordship over the land, in return of the eradication of most of the Unzegan he allowed all races of men to come to Malantar to settle and live in the kingdom. Surprisingly thousands of Athanisians and Zoharans came to Malantar, leaving their homeland, mostly secular.

The Athanisians founded their capital of Athanisia (City of God) in the uttermost west of the continent while the Zoharans situated their cities in the South East where they would remain safe from any contact with the Athanisians.

Caldor moved his court to Athanisia and with him came his Free People who were non-religious, this bred much conflict and civil disruption within the city, the priests of the Athanisians blamed the King and his Eastern wife of whom they referred to as “the Heathen girl”.

To this Caldor executed anyone who outspokenly said this, this only allowed more tempers to fray and more hatred to sink beneath the flesh, then three hundred thousand Ulemans moved into Athanisia.

The move in was not welcomed by all, the Athanisians hated the Ulemans for their religion, the Athanisians believed that they alone should preach the message of the Almar. Thus after the first migrant group moved in the Athanisians began to refuse service to these people and excluded from communal gatherings and festivals.

When the first temple of the Ulemans was built near the center of the city, a large mob of Athanisians came and threw pig blood and alcohol bombs at the place of worship, they eventually burned it down but luckily no Ulemans were hurt.

This kind of persecution carried on for at least five hundred years; temples were burned, men were hunted as if they were beasts, women were butchered like cattle in the meat house, children were put to slavery and were worked until death.

Despite this the Ulemans still preached the will of the Almar, when a huge mob of thirty thousand went to strike the small band of five hundred brave men (who chanted “God is Great” for the entire city to hear), Caldor’s personal bodyguard rescued the martyrs from death.

Caldor then held a counsel of the leaders of both religious groups, the argument seemed at a very one sided slate as the Ulemans had done nothing to provoke the Athanisians wrath. Caldor then issued a law that all men in the city, no matter what the cause should not persecute another for the sake of religion and that they should live together in peace.

Many of the Athanisian priests were moved by his words and then asked forgiveness of the Ulemans; however a minority of leaders from both sides did not agree with the proposition and stormed out of the hall. The hatred still brewing in their hearts.

From then on peace was abundant in the city, yet there was still prejudice and discrimination, for what seemed like an eternity, the Ulemans would suffer at the hands of the Athanisians and Zoharans alike. Till a time when the Almar would call upon them for their final mission.

With the racial tension in his homeland put at ease, Caldor could now rest peacefully and rule his kingdom with wisdom and valour, soon after Colonies of Elves immigrated to the land and settled in the great Ash Forest to the south and the cold realm of Rhan-Sodor in the North.

The Dark Elves also came and settled into a square shaped mountain range in the far East, here they resided in peace, away from conflict and violent desire, within this mountain range was a thick and dark jungle filled with monstrous beasts that survived a great cataclysm that wiped them out from the rest of the Earth at the end of the Age of Darkness. Despite their bestial nature, they did not trouble the Dark Elves yet soon this place would be the home of a more notorious race that would come in conflict with these beasts from the Dark Age long ago.

Dwarves also and made their cities in the North, they built in the Square Mountains that lay within the Frozen Desert, a large stretch of sand that lay cold and freezing unlike its warmer counterpart to the south.

Being accustomed to the cold, the Dwarves had no trouble adjusting the Mountains and Desert to their liking, they became famous for digging Gold mines and excavating Silver from the flesh of the Mountains, they sold this to Elves and Men alike who above all else desired Wealth and Power.

Soon the Free Lands of Malantar were beginning to be occupied by all creatures’ great and small, Minotaurs, Centaurs, Satyrs and Fawns also colonised small areas of land and formed their own territories and borders.

There also came Leprechauns, Halfoots, Bogrins, Gnomes; These small and gentle folk, moved into an area known as the Rolling Hills- A small range within the shadow of the Dark Mountains but had the pleasant and sunny weather of most southern countries, here they made little villages and towns within the little hill range and prospered in a life of peace.

Dragons came down from the North and West and settled in the Grey Mountains (north of the Red Desert) and in Mt St George to the far south, here these menacing beasts bred and lived in relative harmony with their smaller neighbours. However many times the Holy Seer’s (our equivalents of Pope’s) of the Athanisians ordered great crusades against the Dragons, secretly the Holy Seer’s had a terrible vendetta against all dragons and desired to extinguish them from the face of the Earth. Many great armies marched upon the Grey Mountains and Mt St George but few ever returned to tell their tale. Thus the pure hatred between man and reptile was born from this brooding conflict.

Many other races came to the land and settled in its rich variety of environments, the Unzegans surprisingly retained the Red Desert mostly to their own end but kept out outsiders.

The small minority of the Athanisian population that had accepted the terms and rights of the other peoples, soon moved out of the city and founded other small villages and towns in the North. These towns eventually became large cities and even a metropolis was created.

They tried to settle a few villages in the East but they were horridly cast away from inhabiting The Great Plains by the Centaur who firmly stated that the great stretch of wild land belonged to them and their other hybrid kin.

This sparked another civil war between the humans and the hybrid beasts, since the humans outnumbered the hybrids ten to one it was a clear victory and most of the hybrids (except the Minotaur) were driven North-East, they settled alongside the Athanisians Northern colonies and a peace treaty was signed between the hybrids and the Athanisians so that there would be no conflict between the two races.

The Minotaur however refused to sign the peace treaty, continuing to remain in the Great Plains and they founded their magnificent fortress of Avalandale. Here they resided in no conflict with the outside world; their numbers grew rapidly from a few hundred to over three hundred thousand in three years. This became known as one of the most advanced and yet barbaric civilisations all the same.

In time the lands of Malantar became occupied with creatures intelligent and savage of demeanour. Ogres migrated down from the North and settled in a foggy and dangerous hill range known as the Endorens. It was already occupied by humanoid cat like creatures called Guardians or the Haldimir in their own tongue.

The Northern half of the hills was a desert like area while the southern half was mostly covered in thick jungle; this bred two types of Haldimir-one desert dweller and the other a jungle dweller.

Giants travelled from the East and made their home in the coastal caves in the Quakey Inlet, a large stretch of water that separated Athanisia from the mainland, they lived as simple fishermen and mammoth farmers and bison herders. They often traded with the locals; furs and horn were valuable on the markets and in return they were given metal and wood, lots of it, to build their fires and to fortify their homes from attackers. Just as there were people who accepted them, there were also those who desired to hunt them.

Six hundred years after Caldor had first settled in Malantar, the old and wise king died by the slow decay of time. He passed his rule onto his eldest son, Gorgon the Wrathful. The boy was slightly unlike his father, he had a terrible temper and a separatist ideology, believing that the world was his for the taking and that he rightfully deserved it being the son of Caldor.

Gorgon decided to expand his empire eastward onto Dunekanalot, despite the pleads of his mother of whom he executed after she tried to stop the plans Gorgon had crafted in his clever yet terrible mind.

This brought much hatred to Gorgon by not just the Ulemans in particular but his own younger siblings who desired to challenge their power mad brother but feared that they too would end up like their mother and so they bided their time.

He gathered a great army of fifteen thousand men (and behind them was second force of sixty thousand) and marched north, passing the Human and Elven territories, treading through Orcish lands and walking amidst the Dwarves colonies. Soon they arrived at the land bridge of where they announced their arrival to the Uleman ruler Maraje Ali.

Gorgon declared war upon the East and all its inhabitants, human and inhuman. After a quick defeat in the first three open skirmishes, he realised that his expansion would not work while the whole of Dunekanalot was united against him.

He needed to divide its powers so that he would be able to defeat them individually, this gave birth to the legendary method that the evil heir of Caldor created, this would break lands apart and separate civilisations for centuries to come; Divide and Conquer.

He sent an assassin to the chambers of Vanguardian king Othrim Agthack; the assassin killed the king in his sleep and left behind a dagger incrusted with Sarayan symbols, this clue would lead to the belief that the Sarayan king and Uleman emperor assassinated their king so that he would have complete control over both peoples.

This lead to civil war and mass genocide, the Sarayans and Vanguardians let loose their wrath upon each other while the twisted king Gorgon sat back and watched the bloodshed take place.

However there were other strong empires under the Uleman’s rule that were not of Eastern origin, the land of Gorkalan was an Athanisian and Zoharan outpost that became the multicultural centre of the world, people from different religions flocked all over to this land that was rich and prosperous by the influence of the outside world yet peaceful and non-corrupted by the laws set by Uleman’s Prophet.

Gorgon played his evil tricks upon this peaceful nation; he captured the cities’ financial men and replaced them with his own, they corrupted the monetary systems by adding the idea of interest.

This system made all loans and investments cost more and for their customers to pay extra at the end of their deals. The taxes were raised to increase profit for the higher ranking businesses and the markets were corrupted as the lower ranking stalls and shops earnings gave a fifth of what they had to the state defences.

This lead to the economy of the land becoming less and less worthy of praise as its corruption and faults became known worldwide, this caused many to leave the land but those who stayed were in league with Gorgon’s impersonators who single handedly tore this fruitful nation apart.

The Elves of Umph-Alator had discovered of the treachery of Gorgon and called a council of the Sarayans, Vanguardians and of the Atanor leaders of Dunekanalot. However Gorgon had plans of his own; He sent another assassin to the gathering place only this time it was not to target any of the humans but the Elven king Orodell Arachon.

The sleek and snakiest assassin poured poison into the king’s wine goblet, before the Elven king even spoke a word at the conference; he broke into a fit of coughing and spluttering of blood. Orodell died that day and the leaders of men left suspicious of one another on who was the culprit.

The Elves plunged themselves into fire and war, the large realm of Umph-Alator was divided into five provinces each ruled by a son of Orodell. This cut the Elves off their power to regain the sandy dunes that had been torn and wrent by the evils of Gorgon.

The major powers of Dunekanalot were now divided and weak from their internal conflicts and crumbling societies, soon after Gorgon unleashed hell upon this land. He destroyed the Sarayan realms and enslaved its people. Then he conquered the Vanguardian lands and soon they too were under his command. The Elves of Umph-Alator and the Men of Gorkalan however proved harder to rule. They continuously defeated any number of soldiers that tried to enter their kingdoms; armies ranging from five thousand to ten thousand were cast back by the sheer tenacity of the Eastern opposers.

Gorgon the Wrathful then unleashed his entire army upon these lands, hoping to eradicate their force and let them come under his rule, when hope seemed to abandon the hopeless; Salvation came out of the Darkness.

Fifty thousand Dwarves marched out of the Purple Range in Arkania, their soldiers struck fear into the hearts of Gorgon’s armies and when they clashed in a small valley near Umph-Alator, the dwarves had gained the upper hand but then fifteen thousand men from the original army that acted as reinforcements ambushed their flank and drove them back into the Pass and the Dwarves began to crumble in courage and many began to desert but then a second army of ten thousand Uleman rebel riders came down from the North and ambushed his army from the rear and the Dwarven deserters returned to the battlefield to finish off their enemy, the result was the greatest massacre of Men ever known to the Modern World.

All seventy five thousand troops of Gorgon were vanquished from the face of the Earth, however the twisted boy king was captured alive and the two races discussed on how the evil dictator should die.

Then a wise man came among this counsel and spoke of compassion and of how little Gorgon had exacted towards them, this then lead to him saying that they should forgive Gorgon for his crimes and let his family deal with the consequences of his actions.

The Dwarves delivered him to the gates of Athanisia, there he was cut, burnt and bleeding from the horrendous beatings inflicted by the Dwarves on his way home and when his family took him in they placed him in prison for the murder of their mother and for the declaration of war against an allied nation.

Thus for a short time their was racial tension among the ranks of men, the people had many a view on the subject of Gorgon’s invasion and destruction of the Eastern realms, this brought the much division and social injustice done by the Athanisians to a heated topic.

However the succession heir (after Gorgon was imprisoned) Tirigon the Fair established that what Gorgon did was unjust and purely evil but also stated that the family of Caldor Andreas had nothing to do with it and that they too lived in fear of his tyranny.

When Tirigon announced his lordship over the kingdom of Malantar, many of the races and peoples opposed this as the invasion of the East had brought them much wealth and power, in particular the Dark Elves and Zoharans who’s coin funded the destruction of Dunekanalot, The Dark Elves and the Zoharans gathered their forces to around three hundred thousand and marched to the city of Athanisia.

Tirigon tried to reason with the Zoharan ruler who was commanding the armies but like the days of old, the power lusty king sent their heads back as a warning that attempts to converse would be futile.

With the notion that the armies of the Zoharans and Dark Elves would not heed to reason, Tirigon called upon his allies to aid him against this terrible new foe, twenty thousand elves from the Ash Forest and thirty thousand elves from Rhan-Sodor marched to the aid of the new king and fifty thousand dwarves from the Square Mountains came down from their kingdom and camped outside the city gates alongside the Elves and Tirigon’s own fifty thousand soldiers.

When the Dark Elves and the Zoharans came to Athanisia that dawn they were confronted with a powerful force that was half their own army size, this however did not deter them and instead made them more zealous in nature.

Before the battle began Tirigon tried to finally reconcile with the Zoharan king for the last time but the mad leader was intent on the destruction of the city and of its influence on all of the land.

The battle began when the horns where blown and the two great armies collided, their masses swirled within one another like water in the sea, the Dwarves sliced through enemy ranks like nothing as their strength and fury made them unleash terror in the fronts of the Dark Elves and Zoharan men, The Keranin and the Rekanin simultaneously fought side by side and worked together to destroy any foe in their path as their swords blazed a path through enemy corpses. Tirigon’s men fought bravely behind their king as the young warrior surprisingly fought at the front of the battle and this gave a surge of courage to the Men and they began to brutally slaughter any enemies in their path.

All hell broke loose soon after.

Out of the darkened skies, a large contingency of winged reptilians soared down upon the city defenders, carrying many soldiers before tossing them into the abyss of falling corpses.

These beasts were bigger than any bird, featherless and without quill; their wings were but a bony membrane, nothing but tendon stretching from the abdomen to a hooked claw, a long slender neck elongated from a rather stout shaped body. They were wyverns. A creature of myth that had somehow crept out of nightmare and soared into reality.

The shrill screams of these foul beasts shattered the bravery of the Men and Elves but the Dwarves who were hard hearted and fearless shrugged off the terrible noise and fought on. The Wyverns clutched many a soul within their talons and cast them from heights unfathomable, this arrival of the Wyverns allowed the Dark Elves and Zoharans to press on their attack.

The attacks from both land and air forced the Men, Dwarves and Elves to fall back to the city, the barricaded gates were shut and the defences were manned as the Dark Elves and Zoharans unrelentingly besieged the falling towers.

The wyverns then dispersed into the dark skies but the armies of the Zoharan ruler continued their unrelenting attack.

The ballistae on the city’s towers were loaded and their missiles soared into the air after many wyverns but the majority of the targets were missed and those that did land only just scratched the hide of the terrible beasts as they fled the battle.

Catapults were also rolled onto the wall and these released chemical bombs containing something close to hydrofluoric acid, this melted the flesh of any creature it touched, Leaving Dark Elves and Zoharan carcasses to build up at the city gates.

The Zoharans tried to scale the walls with rudely made ladders that were carried by captured Sarayan slaves that were forced against their will and hastily built siege towers that where pulled by great mammoths that were whipped cruelly so that the laborious task would be done quicker.

The Dark Elves tried to cover the ladder men by knocking out as many Keranin archers as they could but the swift elven bows caught out any by passer and fought back the significantly slower archers of the Dark Elves, their arrows however did not bring down the mammoths in time and three siege towers came up against the wall and the Zoharan men inside pounced upon the unsuspecting elven archers.

This allowed ten ladders to lie against the wall and Dark Elves and Zoharans crawled up the ladders like cockroaches and began to obliterate any elf in their path, however reinforcments arrived in the form of Tirigon and five hundred brave men who ambushed the horde of the enemy and managed to hold back the wave of attackers. This allowed the elven archers to regroup and release a hail of arrows that brought down many a mammoth and evil minion of the Zoharan manipulates.

The Keranin archers and the band of five hundred then reformed and drew swords and began to push back the attacking forces of Zoharans and Dark Elves and the number of attackers began to grow low, the remaining siege towers were abandoned and the ladders were providing little but no use of scaling the wall.

Then the great machine marched into daylight.

A hideous battering ram came out of the maddening crowd, a fierce contraption created by a thing most foul indeed, it was heaved to its destination by hundreds of Goblin mercenaries. The Zoharans could not afford to waste the lives of their men on the seemingly fruitless siege.

Despite all the heavy fire of arrows on the machine, the ram made it to the heavily guarded gates, the goblins swung the battering ram in a rocking horse mechanism and the great sway of the momentum made it crash into the metal gate.

This was louder than any bell to alert the city of the gate’s attackers, soon after two hundred Arkemenian horsemen and about three hundred dwarves marched to the courtyard that was behind the near impenetrable gate. However their enemies were soon to prove that not even the gate could last forever.

After the fifth clash of the battering ram the machine made the gates swing open letting in a darkening mist that clouded the vision of the warriors, out of the mist came a force of a thousand goblin mercenaries that charged in to attack the small group of defenders.

The Dwarves charged their besiegers and the two contingents clashed in a fierce frenzy of combat that lasted many minutes with much blood on both sides being shed.

The Dwarven warriors formed a powerful blockade that limited the amount attackers that could charge into the city, the rest that managed to squirm through were dealt with by the fearsome horsemen that trampled and swiped down any survivors of the Dwarves’ shield wall.

The blockade then dispersed and the dwarves began to furiously destroy the futile amount of goblins in their path and the horsemen then flanked the mercenaries and the combined attack made the evil creatures flee from the gate and out into the land.

The remaining goblins that survived the attack were shot down by the Dark Elves but then the rest of the main army charged into the gate, the dwarves formed a defensive circle around the gate to prevent the majority of the invading force from entering the city.

Suddenly two hundred axe bearing dwarves along with King Tirigon and his band of five hundred men arrived and added to the blockade at the gates, the Arkemenian knights reformed behind them as the shield semi-circle wall began to push back the tide of evil minions of the twisted Zoharan king.

Tirigon with both sword and shield in hand fiercely held on as the mindless hatred of the Dark Elves and Zoharans began to slowly but surely push back the thousand brave fighters that were risking their lives against the powerful enemy.

The wall then disbanded and quickly reformed a few paces back as the enemy flooded in his troops, the warriors then charged at the invaders and the momentum made them topple any Zoharan or Dark Elf, the Horsemen released a small hail of arrows that mowed down dozens of manipulates. The Riders then charged in on the fierce fray of combat and the soldiers and horsemen battled against the tide of enemy soldiers that were struggling to break through into Athanisia due to the bravery and fearlessness of the defenders.

Nonetheless more soldiers came and they began to hew down weakened defenders, the soldiers and horsemen had to reform into a defensive line to hold back the forces of the Zoharan king, no matter how many they killed more kept coming.

Realising the strength of their enemy, Tirigon ordered the troops to fall back, Elven archers and Dwarven warriors also answered his call of flight, the armies of the Zoharan king trickled through the gate and soon they dispersed throughout the southern half of the city. Luckily most of the women and children were evacuated from that side of the establishment; those who could not make it with the soldiers suffered a brutal end.

Tirigon brought all the soldiers to the Northern half of the city of where he positioned them all over, whenever any of the Zoharans and Dark Elves tried to reach the palace they were driven back by the fierce defenders.

Soon enough a barricade was formed out of wood and scrap metal, this barricade wall bordered the north and south of Athanisia, here the fruitless siege continued, for months on end the Zoharans and Dark Elves tried to break through the barricade but were repelled by elfish arrows and the war mainly consisted of arrows and chemical bombs being thrown from one side to the other in retaliation.

The Zoharan king then summoned the wyverns again; despite the bravery of the archers they could not hold back the powerful attacks from both land and air. It seemed that hope had forsaken them for the last time.

Suddenly great drums were heard from the north, the sound of clattering hooves along rocky ground was heard for miles around, the chant of an ancient slogan (that had not been heard for eight hundred years in these lands) could be heard from the gates of the palace and even the foul wyverns turned their heads in curiosity.

In the heat of the shimmering midday sun came thousands of Eastern riders bearing smooth scimitars, they were Sarayan riders but all Uleman, the majority of the army was still stationary outside the city and they witnessed this new force surround them at all sides that numbered to around two hundred thousand.

At their head was the eldest son of the deceased elf king Orodell, Yaratorne Arachon with his own personal bodyguard of a thousand elf riders and the youngest son of the Uleman Emperor Umar Ali, after the two princes gave the signal the Ulemans under their command charged into the terrified army of the Zoharan king.

The Horsemen crashed into the army and the soldiers disbanded and scattered in all directions, abandoning their posts and deserting their leader to his death, the Riders trampled through and slaughtered any soldier in their path.

When the attackers within the city heard of the ambush outside they were confused on where to be, the Wyverns had dispersed and gathered on the battlefield outside, the Allies that had been trapped in the Northern half of the city then charged out full force upon their bemused besiegers.

Men, Dwarves and Elves ruthlessly brought down their enemies and they flooded through Athanisia as the Zoharans and Dark Elves began to retreat from their posts, the Allies then fought out every last evil servant of the Zoharan king and soon the large army was being attacked on both fronts.

However they did not take into the equation the value of the wyvern’s arrival.

The large flock of the flying beasts swooped down upon the cavalry; the evil winged demons clutched several horsemen at once and threw them into the distance, they grabbed any unfortunate rider or steed in their jaws and tossed them upon the open land.

In retaliation the horsemen released a storm of arrows soaring upwards at the wyverns and occasionally scored powerful hits with their slender spears that brought down a few of the horrid creatures. Then missiles came from the city’s direction, everyone turned to see that the ballistae in the city walls were re-armed and the archer stations where filled with skilled Keranin and Rekanin archers, firing arrows upon their enemies and at the unsuspecting wyverns that were being hit down by ballistae missiles and the large hail of arrows.

The Riders then cheered fiercely and rode on through the disorganised army of Zoharans and Dark Elves, the armies of the Zoharan king were so desperate for cover that they used the fallen bodies of wyverns so that they could shoot sneaky missiles at unsuspecting Horsemen.

This did not help them forever as Tirigon’s army wiped out any archer still remaining and they then confronted the Zoharan king who was cowardly riding away on his horse, Tirigon found a steed of his own and rode after the fearful leader.

The battle raged on around as Tirigon relentlessly chased the Zoharan king, eventually Tirigon threw a spear at the Zoharan’s horse’s legs and this caused the beast to fall and with it its rider.

Tirigon then leaped off his horse and unsheathed his sword, the Zoharan struggled to his feet but seeing the rage in the young king’s eyes he knew that if he was to survive this he was going to have to fight.

Whatever the consequences!

The finely robed king leapt upon the boy with blade in hand, the young king was fast and dodged the oncoming danger, back and forth their fencing played, each delivering powerful blows with either feet of fist.

Before long the brave Tirigon cast away the Zoharan’s sword and struck him down with a tremendous blow. The evil king was dead and when his army witnessed his fall they turned and fled, willing to fight no more for a cause that had lost its leader.

Tirigon placed a foot upon his chest and threw his fierce young head back and let out a raging battle roar uttered by his Veltoburogon ancestors long ago and this was followed by a fierce chant from all Uleman’s on the battlefield “Anum Almakran” meaning God is Great, the boy king then rallied his men towards him and lead the final charge against the armies of the dead Zoharan king.

One hundred thousand soldiers fled out of the battlefield and the rest were slaughtered at the hands of Tirigon, Yaratorne and Umar; the city was safe at last.

Tirigon went over to Yaratorne and Umar and embraced them both as friends, the elf prince told Tirigon of how the Sarayans had forgiven his family and under the command of Umar had asked for his repentance as well, this battle had reinstated the firm alliance between East and West and after the great battle peace returned to land and for many ages onwards it would continue to prevail.

 Tirigon's first act as King was to travel West, unto the Dark Lands were many of Kairum's Valon remained and existed miserably in the darkness that enveloped their kingdom. Tirigon gathered all his men and sailed west. Elves came with him as did many of the dwarven lords, Orcs went in their thousands along with horrid looking trolls that sailed with them.

The great armies destroyed the garrisons that the Valon tried to repair, the horde of monsters scattered into small groups, those that survived fled deep into the wastelands North of the Dark Forest. However Tirigon engaged in small skirmishes across these lands of the once beautiful Kaleria.

In these skirmishes many of the Valon chieftains were killed, finally after a year of violence the Lord High Valon was beheaded at the hands of Tirigon and the remaining surrendered and the entire host were clasped in chains and the horde were marched out of the wastelands and to the Spectral harbours, at the ruins of one of the old Erenin cities.

The horde were loaded onto great ships, it took one thousand ships in total to carry the entirety of the Valon which numbered a staggering one hundred thousand still after the defeat of their master, after many days of travel across the Sea of Elinor and the Middle Oceans, they came at last to the farthest east they could go. Dunekanalot.   

They marched the uncountable horde onto the windy slopes of the desert continent, they traveled far into the heart of the land, many of the Valon died of the overbearing heat upon their skins and this decreased their number from one hundred thousand to just seventy thousand which still greatly outnumbered their host but yet they had no leader amongst them to rebel against their captors.

Finally Tirigon made it to the place he was so eagerly searching for, a great and uncharted valley deep within the Purple Range (the largest mountains in Dunekanalot) here he herded the large horde deep into the valley's interior and left a great host of twenty thousand trolls to guard them while he was concieving his ideas on how to secure their imprisonment.

Thus it was his dwarven friend Rasghal that gave him his final decision, a great Iron wall surrounding the entirety of the valley to make sure that the Valon could never escape, thus began his great project and it took some thousands of men, elves and dwarves to help in the construction.  During the first year of the building of the Wall many Valon tried to attack the builders but the army of trolls kept them back along with a host of elves who were trained to slay these monsters.

In the infancy of the project the wall mainly consisted of Iron but when the annual rains came to the harsh desert lands, it rusted the solid iron terribly and thus Tirigon decided that he would need an inhibitor added to the compound structure of the wall to slow the effects of the rust that crept along the great structure like a cancer.

He decided to add a thick but smooth copper layer upon the iron bricks and when the entirety of the wall was built it would slow down the rusting decay of the structure and thus preventing the Valon from ever escaping. He requested more labourers from all the Free lands of Undor and many answered his call. Great Giants tread down from the north of Kelumador and Orcs came in their thousands along with stupendous Mountain trolls which had the sufficient enough strength of a hundred men. Sarayans and Unzegans came from the West of Dunekanalot as they were strong builders and well as fighters.

With the added work force the production increased rapidly and more copper coated iron bricks were loaded into large caravans and shipped of to the working stations around the large valley, the Valon then changed their tactics and began to dig deep tunnels beneath the earth and tried to find underground routes to escape from the valley.

However in one of their tunnels there was a terrible explosion, the calamity caused a minor tremor that shook the entire valley, thus alerting Tirigon of the Valon activity and gathered a strong force of three thousand men and subdued the Valon digging their tunnels. Those that survived the catastrophe fled deep into the valley. Forever fearing the son of Caldor and his wrath.

Months turned into years and with this time Tirigon's heart grew hardy and this gave strength to his character as he himself worked in the construction of the main section of the wall, never before had a king helped his subjects in their own line of labour. A sign to show of Tirigon's noble character.

After three hard years of building, the construction was finished. The mighty and vast wall was complete and to look upon it alone was intimidating to the heart; Fifty cubits tall and twenty cubits wide. Every thousand cubit along the wall was stationed with a Garrison to ensure that if the Valon ever tried to escape out in fore there would be watchful eyes to alert the Peoples of Undor for war.

Tirigon himself was not pleased with the completion of his project, he had been foretold a prophecy by Umar, that one day the wall would be shattered and the Valon will be let loose upon Undor in a vast and uncountable horde that would aid the other dark powers to finally cause the end of the world.

Tirigon thus gave a speech to all the laborers at the main section of the great wall and spoke of the wall and its purpose and of the coming doom that the end of time would bring on the wall;

  Oh, Peoples of the Almar.

Has our lord not granted us such mercy and given us strength to carry out such an arduous task such as what has been done.

Has the Lord of the Heavens and Earth not given us surety that the wall will not break unless by his command.

But beware my fellow creation that we must not now strive away with arrogance in our hearts but with humbleness and of fear for the mercy of the Almar to leave us in times of need.

Lo! Brothers in arms, Friends of Hardship and Honorable allies to come, we must persevere in the praise of our lord as the few pious and noble among us have done for so long.

It is a King's duty to protect his people from harm, thus I am warning my subjects among the crowd that we as a nation must not diverge from the path of God but instead we must encourage others to do what is right. By God. By Men, and for all of the peoples of this World.

Just after the speech ended the Ulemans of all races bellowed their legendary slogan "Anum Almakram" with this the earth rumbled at the mention of God's name and Tirigon's subjects all bowed before him in respect and sheer admiration of the King who acknowledges God before himself as the ultimatum of Power in the World.

Tirigon then left the Iron Wall a few months later after its construction, he left a garrison of Rekanin and Dwarves to guard the wall from whoever sought to bring it down. as he sailed back over the Middle Oceans, Tirigon began to grow weak and sickly, his healers said that it was probably just a cold but unfortunately something much worse was occurring.

The King had been poisoned by a treacherous Dark Elf that belonged to a treacherous cult called the Brides of the Dragon that believed that the Wall should have never been built and that if the Wall came down their Saviour would fall from the skies and give them salvation.

The illness progressed rapidly and soon the king could not leave his cabin and writhed in his bed due to the torture of the sickness that lay within him, the boy king was only eighteen years of age when he died. When they returned to Malantar they brought home his corpse to his grief stricken family.

A promising leader of men like his father before him, laid to rest in a time of vulnerability for the entire realm.

Now once again Malantar was leaderless, yet no one was sure on who to elect as their new king or queen, there were three sons all in line for the throne but they were all the same age and this brought much tension between them as on who amongst them would be King.

Yet however they still had an elder sibling, their older sister Elia, it was not the tradition of the Veltoburogon to elect a woman as the primary leader of a large tribe as Caldor's council followed. Yet they were no longer within the small tribe of the Veltoburogon, they were Malantarians and they ruled not just the clans of men but over all races that lived in their kingdom.

Elia was a capable and steadfast young lady who was as sharp of mind as her father but as delicate of speech as her recently deceased mother, the Council decided that she above her male siblings was best fit in title of Lordship.

Elia was crowned Queen at age nineteen and that was to change everything.

Being a young woman she was terrified of taking on this daunting task of leading a very misogynistic and still guttural nation of men and other races, however this would be the least of her problems. Her first trouble would not be from her own race but from a evil newly awakened in the depths of the Unknown.

A terrible tribe called the Gorgans, a tribe of beast like men that arose from the caves of the Dark Mountains, these were a people that arose from the shadow of the Old World and at once they began top burn and pillage innocent villages across the Great Plains. Not even the mighty Minotaur would charge to meet them as they saw their ferocity in their battle-fray and they dread ever that the bestial men would ever set sights on their stronghold.

As Queen Elia had to take action on this new threat but how she would was a mystery to even herself as she had had no tutoring on the arts of war as her male siblings before her, yet despite this she came up with a rather ingenious plan with her father's intellect and quick learning quality.

The attacks that the Gorgans had committed were in a random selection with no martial success either than instituting fear into many people, Elia decided then to organize her soldiers into eleven different squadrons. Each would have their own commander but the main authority would be from General Khazar, the most feared man in Malantar after Caldor himself. His victories in battle were countless and his prowess and stature were that of perfection and the exact equivalent of manliness. This tall and broad shouldered man in his forties with a large beard and face with iron eyes and intimidating eyebrows and no pockmarks. His strength came not from the large rolling muscles he possessed but from his fantastic mind that was built to win against any situation of which opposed him. Including War!

The brilliance of Khazar's martial intelligence was known even to the Queen and for this reason she placed him as General, the squadrons that she prepared would act very differently to the armies of her enemies, they would act alone on their individual conquests but would stay in contact and behave as one large force. Thus if one army was outnumbered and needed support another army would detach from its squadron and aid their fellow soldiers.

This began the Campaign of the Beasts, this would be the opportunity that Elia needed to prove to her subjects that she was the capable ruler her people deserved.

She sent out her neatly organized armies upon the Gorgans and they were hit with defeats that they could never recover from as time and time again the military precision and martial discipline that the soldiers had been prescribed with overcame the general ferocity of the Beast Men.

However as her enemy was suffering losses so too was she, in the first three battles alone she had lost four thousand men to the savagery of the Gorgans, despite this she continued here campaign. However one of her most trusted counselors. Leu-Bai Shen, a wise and old Vanguardian man in his sixties who was a scholar in his spare time and the Queen's most trusted adviser when occupied.

He tried to make Elia recall her troops and allow them to regather their strength, yet Elia would not heed, she was determined to prove that the faith of men could overcome their numerically superior enemy.

"Elia,Sweet Child, I used to teach you music and poetry when you were a little girl, where is she gone?"

"That girl left when I ascended the throne and took on my responsibility as queen"

"My Queen, don't be hasty to prove the people wrong, you are their queen they will follow you to whatever ends"

"That is where your wrong Leu-Bai, the people will only follow a ruler that they believe can protect and provide for them, if this campaign fails then I will have failed my people and I will disgrace my family name"

"Sweet Child..." 

"Do not call me child, I am fighting a war that seems impossible to win, trying to win over subjects that refuse my rule at every turn available and I am trying to preserve my family's honour that has been degraded with the help of my accursed..."

"Oh My Queen, I only wish what is best for you, I do not wish you to be unhappy"

"Then you will approve of what I have to do, I will write to all ten commanders to join their forces under General Khazar and meet the oncoming horde of the Gorgans at the Iron Pass, I will punish these foul beasts the like of which no Malantarian has ever witnessed before"

Leu-Bai, seeing the wisdom and spirit of Elia backed down from his original proposal and convinced every member of the council of her sound proof plan, yet despite their agreements there was still much doubt in their hearts.

All ten commanders received the Queen's message and they moved their forces towards General Khazar's position, Khazar was situated north of the Ash Forest