My first master was a cruel man he beat me till I broke Then I was sold to a merchant who lived off the sea. I was there for a few years and learned the craft of sailing. Well one day I was sold to a baron of one Duchie or another. He trained me to be his bodyguard and Assasin, I learned fast and well. I leared how to kill, How to take the life of other beings. Well this went on for a while and Moravia got in a war with some country or another and my master was drafted. He sent me to take his draft spot(You can have your slaves drafted in Moravia). I became quite the soldier, leading raids and strikes. We ended up winning the war and I had earned my freedom.
I had also become quite wealthy, I made my way to the Magic capital of the World, Aielum. I studied the arts of Magic for years while I was there. I also met a young woman who became my wife latter on. Her name was Keshana. We had two childern Gwydion and Cainten. They brought joy to my bleak life. Then one day that joy was wrenched from my hands. An alliance of neighhboring countries attacked us and my entire family was slaughtered. I fought hard, but was overwhelmed by numbers.
I fled north into Dragon country where I learned much of Dragons, I took particular liking to a silver. I called her Kara. I studied with the dragon riders that inhabbited the country. And a few months later I linked with Kara. The happiness I felt riding her in the great open sky could almost get rid of the sickening feeling of sadness and despair I felt for the death of my family. I became a sqaudron leader, we were one of the best in the Nation. Well, we were assigned to strike a Military outpost of a different clan. (I was in the Dragons Fang Clan) Well we went throught the procedures and began burning the village. Then suddenly we were attacked from behind by double our numbers. We fought hard and well, but it wasn't enough. Kara was struck by the edge of one of there blades. She went down and me with her, but not before a cast a flame to kill the one that brought her down. I tended her wounds as best I could, I even used the arts. Alas, to no avail. She died and I burned her as was the tradition.
I mourned her for 5 years, I barely ate, barely slept, barely did anything but sit in my room and feel sorry for myself. Then one day a small boy came and told me the Emporess requested my presence. I went grudgingly along until I got there. I found that I was to be her personal body guard. I really didn't care my heart was all ready plagued far to much. I did my job though no mistakes, no emotions. I almost hoped a dagger would take my life. They almost did a few times. Well I survived through the years, my only happiness came while practicing my magic.
My power in the arts became extraordinary. The emporess died one night, I'm not quite sure what of. Well I made my way back down to Demuron, my native land. The people had overthrown the Monarchy and anarchy was at hand. I decided to just hand out for a while. I was hunting one day and I fell into the large hole that had been covered by grass. It opened into a chamber of some kind,there were spiderwebs covering everything. There was a tomb at the end. In back of the tomb was set of Full plate armor. Which I happily took and it fit me somehow. There were sword cases on the left and right of the tombs. They had writing on them. It was in the old languge. Fortunately for me I had studied the old languge. The first sword was called Death Bringer and the second was Savior. I took both of them and there scabbards. Well I couldn't just leave them there to rust!
Then I was on my way. The following months were good to me I hired my skills out to various groups, a mercenary of sorts. With those two swords I was unbeatable. I had victory after victory and my fame grew. I got so caught up im my work I forgot about my past all my pain was lost to me. The only thing I thought about was my next "Mark". I had quite a profitable buisness, I employed about 20 well trained men. And one woman, she was one of the best assasins I have ever met.
Well anyway, I decided I would take up my studies in Magic once more. I put Uther (One of my most trusted men) in charge of my buisness and I traveled across the sea back to Aielum. I found the others in my tradition (The Verbena or the Masters of life) and began my studies once more. Over the next ten years or so I became a Master(The ranks go Apprentice, Disciple, Adept, and Master) of the Spheres Life and Forces. I was also Disciple at a few others. I also took on an Apprentice of my own. His name was Mat, he was a good student. Quick learning. We had many a good times. He became quite the competent Mage. I also started learning the Lore of theKindred(Vampires) and the Garou(Werewolves).Or as us Mages like to call them, corpses and pit bulls. Pit bulls do not like us much, they do not like us taking the Quintessence out of Caerns. We call them nodes, and regretfully we do Take there power from them, this is not a practice I tend to take place in very much however.
Well anyway, Mat and I were needed to go south and negociate a truce with the Garou tribe Get of Fenris. We were going to combine are two forces to stomp out the Kindred Clan of Tremere(Mages for the most part despise Tremere) No major thing happened on the way down. We hunted a couple of times and that was about it. Mat learned how to Shapeshift. We both took the form of wolves for our hunting. We slept that night on the ground, fortunatly it was summer and it wasn't very cold. The next day we set out at dawn. We figured to meet the tribe late that day. However about half way there a most inconvienent thing happened, we were attacked by 3 werewolves. I recongnised them as Red Talons tribe. I unsheathed Death Bringer and sent it at a straight path at the first Pit bull, it made a clean mark taking his head from his shoulders. The second shifted into Crinos form (Half wolf Half man) He slashed at me and I rolled out of the way, sword went toward his belly but missed. I felt his claws sink into my arms as I dropped the blade. I called upon the Sphere of Forces and he began to combust internally. I turned around and saw Mat had taken care of the third, with a few scratches. I healed both of us and we continued on are way. We stop to sleep then continued on. We reached the tribe near midday. We were fed and than taken to the Tribe leaders. We discussed how we would end the leeches. What we planned doesn't really matter.We failed miserably and lost many mages and Werewolves alike. Someone had warned them. I dedicated the next few years of my life finding out who had betrayed us. I found out it was a Werewolf of the Silver Fang tribe. I tracked him down and "ended" him.
I returned back to Demuron.I started back up with my buisness, Uther had done a good job. We had nearly doubled in size. He was put second in command. We prospered more, there was a war. Wars are great for buisness! I made enough off that war to retire like a King! Well anyway, needless to say fighting for both sides increases wages. Mat also became an important part of the Orginazation, he helped me teach the men I had with the spark to learn the "skill" a litte bit of life magic so they could heal themselves in battle. It worked out quite well, when people thought they had killed one of my men they were very surprised to see them get back up and finish them off. It cut down on casualties greatly. Which was a very helpful thing.
We built a large fortress far out in the country, withing a few years a town had grown up around the fortress. The population was about 100 and most of them worked for me. The others were mainly weaponsmiths and farmers. (It is hard to feed so many people). Well anyway, we prospered to say the least. Than we got hired to take out a different kindred clan. There was a Ventrue city a couple day ride west. We were to go in and crush them, taking no prisoners. Well we rode there, and it was like a ghost town. There was just nothing there. We found a few mortal corpses and nothing else. A lot of my men were spooked, but we decided to spend the night there and leave at Dawn. I set up wards around the camp and we had 10 man watches. Everyone was ordered to sleep with there weapons close by. I put myself on first watch with 9 others. Nothing happend. My shift was over and I went to wake Uther for the next wathc, suddenly about 50 Vamps jumped out. I had only brought about 40 men because I figured to just burn the coffins. Well, some of my men spooked and I had to get them under control. I had some time because of the wards I had set. We went into formation and began preparing for battle. The ones with the skill sent flames at them. Others just fought, we did win but Lost about half or numbers. Some of them had fled also. We decided to depart immediatly. We encountered nothing on the way home. I took the next couple days off, it not every day you have to right a letter to 20 peoples family telling them their loved one was dead because we were stupid.(Actually it was the letter for the messenger to read to them, most people couldn't read.)
A few more buisnesses started in the small town. It was now called Dragons Den. The name came from the name of our group which was now known as The Order of the Red Death. I broke off most contact with my Tradition. The Order of the Red Death were like my tradition now, most of us could use the arts. We were based very much on the Verbena anyway. (A little Euthantos) So for now my tradition was Order of the Red Death. We made treaties with other Traditions (Verbena and Dreamspeakers) also a few Vampire clans (Assamite, Nosferatu, and Ventrue). We hired are hands out to them before any other and they helped us in other ways.
I taught all in the Tradition to settle things in a mundane way before resorting to the arts, as not to become dependent upon them. Kill with weapons unless you cannot win, clean by hand, and other such things. Well I was talking to one of my men, and he asked me if I knew anything of the Smithy art. I told him I knew nothing of it. He took me to one of the local blacksmith shops and taught me basic things. I took a few more lessons, and got pretty good. I took lessons for about a year. I also learned how silversmith and various things with gold. It was a happy time for me. I learned those and I learned many different fighting styles. I would learn anything anyone was willing to teach. I became quite good in most of the styles for very few things occupied my day. I did several training sessions each morn than had nothing left to do. So I would practice my smithy abilities, or my swordplay, or my magic.
A few months later a revolution occured the peasants revolted against the Monarchy. It was time for me to choose a side...... I could also go with my family the Monarchy, even if most of them had no clue who I was. Or I could help the people I had pitied for all those years under my fathers rule. I decided to go with the Monarchs for they could offer more money. I leanred of court intrigues and other polotics in the next few weeks. I learned of rebellion withing the Royal Family itself, the youngest brother was planning his older brothers death's so he could be succesor to the throne. Well me and the youngest prince did not get along well on our first meeting. I almost had him "ended" that very night. So when I leanred of his plot I was only to happy to make him fail. Well, the prince had hired an Assasin to kill his elder borther. Unfotunately, (For him at least) His assasin kind of died. I can't imagine why....*smiling* Well, the princeling (The name by which I called him) was quite put off by the death of his assasin. Therefore, I decided to make his plot known to the entire court. I had not quite decided how I was going to do that though.... So I kept out of sight for a couple days watching the princeling the entire time. I thought over several ways in which to make him confess it himself. This idea would have brought great pleasure to me. Well, the King had a dinner party a few nights later. *smiles* A kind of drug accidentally got put in his wine, I can't imagine where it came from *grin* Well I started talking to him, he admited everything. And in front of the King I might add. *laughs* I went to see him in the Dungeon a couple days after that, you should have seen the look on his face. However, It didn't matter to me for he was on Death Row. My job was finished there.
Than one day it happened, a Famine hit Demuron. It killed a great many people. I let all my men leave my service to take there families away from it. My buisness was ruined, however it was a small price in exchange for lives of my men and thier families. The famine kind of made the Revolution abade.
I made my way back to Moravia. I travelled to the outskirts of the country, I met a weaver and I got him to teach me his trade. Try as I could, I was never much good. I could make average things, but nothing better.
I decided to move on, I came across a Fletcher. He decided to teach me what he knew. I was very good at this, I made arrows that flew true and fast. However, this too, was wrenched from my hands. The man fell sick and did not survive the winter. I buried him and moved on. I went back to Aielum, met up with my Mentor Chellios. He accepted me into his house. I studied magic with him, for a while. I was content there as I had been in a long time. I did a lot for the old man, old man is what I called Chellios, I did a lot of errands for him. He taught me more of tha Arcane arts in return. It was during this time the Monarach Wars were being fought.
All the powerful rulers wanted to be Emporer of the World, they were all fighting each other. However, most had been defeated leave two. The first was an arrogant insufferable miserable excuse for a human being. His name was Mordeth, he reined from the country Southern country of Borra. The second was a little better. Sedric was his name, he would at least look out for the people. He was the Prince of Ursa, located directly north of Demuron. It was said, however, that Mordeth held a commanding lead over Sedric.
It looked as if Sedric was doomed. It was soon after this the Sedric sent a Messenger to me. I asked the Old man for leave of absence, he he agreed to it reluctantly. I traveled to the country in which Sedric lived. It seemed he was desperate, he said he had heard of me when traveling through Demuron after the Battle of Anvil. He wanted me to work for him, he offered me more money than I could ever spend and the rank of Prince to the house of Might.(That was his house) I agreed. I led his armies to several victories over the hordes of Mordeth. Though we were greatly outnumbered, I used guerilla tactics, or hit and run. It looked as though the tides of the war were turning. I kept scoring wins in the side of Sedric, I had lost a few men here and there, but nothing compared to what Mordeth had lost. The war did not last the next year. Mordeth was killed by myself in the final battle. His last words were I will be back for your soul. My men and I rode back to Sedric to give him news of Victory. Sedric welcomed us with a great feast. The following days were very busy all the other Princes were marching to see Emporer Sedric.
Each counrty had its own prince. They all arrived with large escorts as if showing off there wealth and helpfullness to the Emporer. I had grown sick of it all frankly, I was told the Coronation of my Princehood. My name was now known very well through out the Princedoms.And they all did a lot of bribing and wanted me to sign a lot of treaties, other such things. I met a lot of young ladies whom wanted to be my bride, there were none I wanted though. As much as my princedom needed an heir, I did not want to chance the pain of another loss. So, the coronation took place and I was crowned prince. I was given my own castle in Ursa, it was located on the border to my home country of Demuron.
The castle was fairly large, it was located on the river that had been named in my honor. It was called The River of Pendragon, *smile* it made my ego grow a bit. But, what can you do? The Castle was named Hammer Forge. I basically ruled the lands of Borra for the High Prince. I prospered as did the land with me in rule of it. The trade and agriculture was as good as it had been in years. My life was easy for a few years, but as always there was that living void. The part of me that yearned for those long dead, but I pushed that aside and did my job to the best of my abilities. The years were peaceful, for which I was grateful, there were no wars. I thought I could finally live in peace. But of course not, that would be to easy. *smile* But then again, what was one more adventure or 5?
Well it started with me meeting a young woman who I came to know as Areanna. She was quite intelligent, beautiful, and nice. But this was just the begining.... She was actually highly born in from a country to the west. Well, I will not get much into her story here. Perhaps another time.... But she moved to my Kingdom and to escape her father whom wanted her power.... You see she had two things going for her, one her Magical ability. And 2nd a sword known as Rainfire. A very powerful blade.... Well, let me just give you the sum up of her father. He was an arrogant one, his name was Lord of Pain. If he has another name at one time I do not know it. I hated him, I had nearly killed him twice. But could never finish him. Well, one day he tried to get me to join his side. I spit in his face, I couldn't believe he thought I would betray one I cared for her. And don't get me wrong, I thought of her more as a sister then anything else. Well, I battled him a couple more times. Still I could not destroy him, yet Areanna refused to fight him. Then one day she fought back and destroyed him.
She stayed at Hammer Forge for a long time after that. She became engaged to a young man known as Marius, who became one of my most trusted advisors. Those years were good to me, I prospered as did the people I ruled. My life seemed all in order for the first time since I could remember. Then, there was the revolution..... I never really knew why it happened, but rest assured it was not a pleasant experience. I was driven out of the country, many thought I was dead. I did not know what had become of Areanna and Marius.
I wandered south to Demuron once again. I became a guard under a different name at a small keep. It was a rather peaceful keep, but my mind always wandered to those who's fates I did not know. Then one day a strange thing happened. I met a young man, there was something strangely familiar about him... It was he who dicovered my true identity, and I learned his. His name was Gwydion, my son Gwydion. The joy that filled me when I learned who he was made me forget all the bad times in my life. Just for that moment I was at peace with the world, yes that world that always seemed to hate me. We left the keep and journeyed to Moravia, we setup a merchants buisness. I figured, hey, why not. We didn't do so well, struggled to break even. Now is when an old "friend" of mine came back. His name was Dakron....
He was a fellow apprentice with me under Chellios. Let me tell you power corrupted him and how, He yearned for control of everything and everyone. He believed those who did not follow him should be executed. Well, we battled and I emerged the victor, yet I had not had the chance to kill him. The second I drove him away once more, yet he injured my shoulder badly and I suffered a severe case of Paradox. It took me a few months to recover. I did not see Darkon again for a while. However, other problems presented themselves to me.
Sedric had been corrupted by power.... He was killing off all the other Lords and raising a huge imperial army. This did not make me amused. I went out in search of rebel factions to battle Sedric. Gwydion and I traveled across the sea, we ended up in the tropical country of Shirana. We found a rather large rebel army, I made "arrangements" to speak with the leader of the rebels. She was a rather beautiful young woman named Jayna. *grin* I think Gwydion was quite smitten with her actually. Well, I did get her to join our cause *smile* (I think Gwydion had a large part to do with that) Which, I must admit I saw no wrong with. I figured he was young, let him court whomever.... Perhaps he would find more stability than I ever had... The one thing I longed for him to have the most....
I left him there and sailed north back to Moravia. I searched there to no avail, so traveled north up to Aielum. I made a rather large mistake on the way.... I stayed at a keep, the name of it escapes me at the moment. Well, they recongnised me and Sedric had placed a price on my head. 100 Gold crowns! (That was a lot of money!) And that night they imprisoned me, this made me slightly annoyed.
I woke up with one hell of a headache! The cell was a small room with no windows and an iron door, one guard was sitting drowsily in front of the door. I noticed that my sword had left my side, I pitied the fool who had dared removed it. I guessed he was charred to a cinder. Well, first off I got the key away from the guard using my magic. It was rather easy. I unlocked the cell quietly, I left the guard where he was. I used my power of Arcane to dissapear from sight. I walked down a large corridor and entered an enormous banquet hall. Luck to be seen guess who the honored guest was? *smile* My little friend Sedric, what a pity I hadn't the time to kill him there and then. I finally found my sword locked away in the deepest corner of the Armory. Little did they know that I am drawn to the blade magickally. Anyways, I left the castle when I heard screams of the Lord of the Castles death when Sedric found out I had escaped. I fled quickly north in Aielum, Sedric's men pursued my profously. Many of them died in mysterious ways *grin* I think that spooked some of the other guards....
I gathered a group of Rebel Mages and a group of Ventrue clan Vampires. Now, I had at least a small army to fight off Sedric. I bought a rather large ship and sailed our men(And women) down to Shirana, we made our base there for there were few imperial soldiers there. We planned a massive offensive against one of the smaller keeps in Moravia. We used the first ship I had bought to pirate from other ships, I mean we had to raise money some how.
Pretty soon the bounty on my head was a bit larger *smile* I was always happy to make the empire hate me. Well, we stole enough money to buy more ships and more warriors joined are cause. We sailed on to that keep and decimated the entire infantry there. It was not much of a battle.... We kept the keep as a base in Moravaia. From there we moved north and took some more smaller keeps. We were making Sedric sweat.... *smile* The bounty on my head got even bigger..... Well, I sent a group over to Demuron to take some fotresses while I continued are campaign northward.
I sent my son Gwydion over to Demuron to conquer my homeland. I marched on to the keep of Mercha.... It was one of the larger keeps in the nation. Not only that, many weapons were kept there. I figured if I took that I could crush Moravia out the war. It was a series of grueling battles, but finally I did take the keep. I lost a good 1/4 of my men though.... However, it did crush Moravia. I took the capital easily for they had no equipment to arm the soldiers with. I made this my base of operations. Many Moravians turned to my side and my army grew very large.
I got word from my son.... He had taken The Capital of Winter Bourne with little effort. They sailed in at night and took the city before anyone could figure out what was going on. He said he was going to stay there and begin building War ships to compete with Sedric's all powerful Navy. *smile* I was happy to hear of my son's success and relieved he had not gotten killed. Well, I sent an army into Aielum.
It was a group of Mages to combat those that were there. Remember, Aielum was the Magic capital of the world. We marched our soldiers and mages in there at night. The first city was easy to take, they were unaware that we marched in and took them by surprise. It got harder next time, they knew my troops and I were around so they were prepared for our invasion. We lost quite a few men, but still took the city. We remained at the city for a few weeks. However, this turned out to be a very bad idea. Serdic's troops surrounded the city. We decided flight was our best option. Only a small group of us escaped though..... This was a large blow to my pride, also I almost couldn't handle the death of thousands of people who had trusted me. I was very sick that night...
It was soon after this that I learned Sedric's plan. There were 3 crystals, when these crystals are set together during a specific ritual, the person who envoked them would gain a magic that cannot be rivaled by any. This could not be allowed, I had to stop him. However, there was a problem.... He all ready had one crystal and I had no idea where the other 2 were..... Things were bad and only got worse...
About 3 of my men and I had decided to ride north and scout. We were camping for the night when a large birdlike creature landed. I was sleeping at the time and on of my men was on guard. He woke me with a scream. The thing tore out his entrails with a slash of its claws, I leased my sword it was glowing red. It has never done that before. When it hit the thing nearly exploded. We packed up and moved out that night. That was not the worst of my troubles, the next months were much, much worse..... We were ambushed. The first man came at me and I lossed me sword quickly and slashed at him. He blocked and I came around loosening his head from his shoulders and it rolled away. I suddenly felt a stinging pain in my shoulder, I looked down and a saw a dagger in it. I pulled it out and looked to see who threw it. I unleashed a spell of fire. He burned to death before he even screamed. I spun and disembowled the amn coming at my with a morning star. I jabbed my sword back through the next attacker.I parried the next two that came at me using them against each other then finished them. I felt a club hit the back of my head as I faded out of consiousness.
When I awoke, I was was shakled on my hands and feet. I groggily looked around. I was in a wagon traveling, I was guessing north. There were armored men surrounding me. I noticed a collar around my neck and swore.A greema, I couldn't use magic while I wore it. I was put on the back or a wagon guarded by 6 men, it was well locked I soon found out. THe nights were very brutal to me, I would prefer not to discuss the tortures I was put through. I would come back and laugh myself to sleep though, I think I may have been truely insane.
One day , after I had been thoroughly broken, I tripped and fell on the way back to the wagon, to my luck there was a nail on the ground which I picked up and placed in the lining of my battered tunic.
I had all ready seen where the guards were positioned and I knew were my blade was being held. That night a bit before dawn, I tried to pick the lock with no success. I tried every night for week before it happened.
This page hosted by 
Get your own Free Home Page
