Prologue

A peel of thunder tore through the stillness of the twilight hours creeping over Fortuna City. The purple arcs of lightning lit the rapidly darkening sky. The spring shower was as unexpected as were the events taking place within the marble structure at the heart of the city. The picturesque castle was a symbol of power for the country of Fortuna as well as a cornerstone of peace keeping between the eight countries that made up Anidris. But peace was far from the minds of mist living in these lands. An unknown horror had been sweeping across the land from the East; paralyzing each nation it touched without warning. All that was left in the wake of the attacks was death and destruction.

                Kingdom after kingdom was left crippled; the royal families grotesquely murdered and their halls of power sacked. Three nations had already been consumed by monsters cloaked in dark mist without warning. These dark creatures were left in power as the evil continued westward to claim more prizes for its own.

                On this day, the day that should have been marked with adulation in the kingdom of Fortuna as it was the 18^th birthday of the kingdom’s twin princes Alisto and Xaphan, but instead it marked the blackest day in the country’s history. As the guests arrived at the castle they were welcomed by a blood soaked banquet hall. Demons cloaked in misty shadows hovered at the edges of the hall; their attention focused on the man at the head of the hall. Prince Xaphan stood there over the mutilated bodies of the late king and queen. The king’s head had been removed and Xaphan held it in his hands, laughing like a mad man as his twin struggled against the ropes holding him fast to a marble pillar a short ways away from the scene.

News of that night spilled out into Anidris like a tidal wave leaving fear and uncertainty in its wake. If the mighty kingdom of Fortuna could fall to the darkness what was stopping it from claiming the remaining countries was the question most were asking themselves. The Guardian Guilds across the nations began to take notice of the silence of their brothers and their fear of the Darkness grew. This threat was obviously much greater than they had previously perceived.

                The Guardians full filled a number of roles from the obvious body guarding to the more cloak and dagger needs of the kingdoms they served. Many members were in direct service of the royal families of each kingdom. This was not purely out of the need for security of the royals, but more for the original purpose for which the guild was founded.

Anidris was an old land, ancient by the standards of the current human occupants. Signs of the original inhabitants marked the landscape and the older architecture revealed much about the elves that had constructed them. Most humans did not know the elves had been the crafters of many of their castles, but the Guilds did. They knew the elves had been forced to abandon Anidris when the humans had grown jealous of the elves’ prowess with magic and nature and somehow the humans of old found a way to use magic of their own. The elves had quickly noticed the dark nature of the human’s magic and took action to stop their use of it. Civil war broke out over Anidris and the Dark magic wielding humans proved to be too much for the elves to handle.

With their numbers dwindling the elves took one last offensive against the humans with the aid of a small band of humans that were left uncorrupted by the darkness seething through the lands. The elves knew that the actions of the humans corrupted by the darkness were not of their own doing and they knew what had to be done to stop it. During the final battle the elves sent 8 of their strongest sorcerers to the ruins where they had discovered the darkness was seeping out of due to a tear in the barrier between the realms. The allies the elves had found in the pure humans were used to protect the 8 as they worked to seal the gateway into the spirit realm. When the sealing ritual was complete, 8 seals had been made using the life essences of the 8 sorcerers and the pure humans took the 8 seals and scattered to the winds with their charges, forever sworn to guard the seals. The remaining elves sensed that their comrades had been successful and they fled across the ocean to the land of Eferia.

The Guardians broke off into their own sects in different regions of Anidris. Each region eventually evolved into the 8 different countries: Saydel,Ivera, Sol-don, Ceilora, Leederia, Targris, Bron, and Fortuna.

The Fortuna guild had been one of the first to be formed since it was located in the land of the last stand of the elves. But this founding guild had fallen just as far and fast as the royal family had, but the Guild members had already heard whispers of the evil growing and spreading like a disease from the east and had taken actions to protect themselves and their greatest treasure.  They scattered to the winds like embers; fleeing to the four remaining free nations with word from the fallen kingdom to tell  their brothers and sisters about the horrendous fall of Fortuna at the hands of their own prince.

News reached the southern nation of Bron by way of a cryptic message from their Guild master.

(via portablesunshinebaby)

Currently I am working on writing a story that has been rattling around in my head for a while now. But the thing is I have hit the proverbial brick wall in the creative process and to top it off I have become slightly obsessed with Star Wars: The Old Republic…And I have several steam-punk projects also demanding attention. What is a nerd to do….

stitchnymph:

a fun and creepy band i’m exploring.

tumblrbot asked: WHAT IS YOUR EARLIEST HUMAN MEMORY?

My earliest memories are of preschool when I was three.