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The land grew quiet after the Great War 60 years ago. Perhaps we thought it too quiet and secretly wished for this; perhaps we are to blame. In that dark time, before we were born, our grandfathers and fathers fought to save our land from evil in the form of Balor and his Fallen Lords. These dark generals and their leader laid waste to our land and very nearly consumed it, but for the valor of our people and the desperate bravery of Alric, now King Alric. With the dubious counsel of an enchanted head found buried in the desert, Alric managed to behead Balor and cast his head into the Great Devoid, forever preventing him from returning to this world. Forever is a long time. Of course, the songs tell us that Balor had walked this land before. As Connacht, he was a hero in our land during the Wind Age, exterminating the evil pestilence of the Myrkridia and ushering in the Age of Light. His sudden appearance under the light of a comet was almost as strange as his equally sudden disappearance many years later. None knew his fate until the comet arose again a century ago. With it came our hero in a new and terrifying form. There is no comet now, but everyone can feel that we have failed in our vigilance. We have taken our triumph for granted. For 60 years, we reveled in the glory of this victory, never allowing ourselves to consider the unfinished business about which Alric refused to speak. What, we never wondered, became of the surviving Fallen Lords? Had any survived? What of Shiver, the Deceiver, and, worst of all, Soulblighter? Had they been imprisoned with Balor? Reports have begun to filter in of undead creatures attacking some of the land's more remote towns. Most of us waved these off as rumor and folklore, but as these reports grow more prevalent and as the horror creeps closer to the cities of our land, I fear we can deny them no longer. Something is happening, something familiar, and yet different. What will become of us? |
