On the error of creation.
Beastman Shaman - prototype sketch by Enggar Adirasa |
Where children of Dusk came to rule, chaos would ensue. With minds set on battle and destruction, without common enemies, the wild beastmen fought among themselves, forming tribes to war each other, spilling blood over hunting grounds – and falling deeper and deeper into an internal strife that would in time leave them open to retaliation. Displeased yet again, the Nightfather tried to punish those of his children who were first to turn against their own kind, but quickly found that whatever ill fortune he would condemn the savage creatures to, it would only make their fury burn ever hotter and more savage.
And then he came to realise the weakness of his creation. While men, made when Dawn and Dusk laboured together, the beastmen were condemned to the one purpose the Nightfather had forged them for – and all they wanted was the power and might gained by what he poured into them.
On the coming of the Mists
Unable to control his children any more, Dusk devised a most cruel punishment. The Nightfather took away all the power his support had lent them thus far and with it, all dark magic they called upon to strengthen their blows against humanity. Suddenly deprived of their might, the shamans and chieftains of the tribes called out to their father, but he would not answer, watching in bitter satisfaction as servants of Dawn started reclaiming the lands they had been banished from.
But the beastmen, unable to comprehend the change of their fate, would still call out, craving for their lost strength. Drums beat day and night, as the abandoned tribes preformed dark rituals, trying to win back the grace of Dusk by feats of strength and bloody sacrifice. Determined to regain what they had lost, they would call out dauntlessly, until something answered.
From the far north, from a land where night and day are almost like one, the Mists reached out to the abandoned children of Dusk, filling them once more with the power they had craved so much. But the touch of the Mists was far different from the gaze of the Nightfather, as it would twist and transform some of its new servants, and where it was thickest, even the animals or the land itself.
Skeletal Magus by Enggar Adirasa |
On the Age of Heroes
Filled with a new power, the beastmen started yet again to gain the upper hand against the children of Dawn. Faster and more determined, as if filled with a rage unknown even to the Nightfather, they struck against all, mercilessly killing even those few among men that served Dusk. And as the cold tendrils of the Mists spew out creatures transformed into beasts even more fearsome and savage than the beastmen warriors, a new threat emerged from the impenetrable, ashen veil.
The tales were first told by the few survivors of the nightmarish battles against the servants of the Mists. And they were tales of ghostly shapes walking the barrows and the dark woods, of empty skulls and rotting flesh peeling off bones that would move once again. Tales of the dead raised from the ashes. Tales of former brothers reanimated and twisted by the power of the Mists, once again taking up arms, but this time in service of a power bent on only one thing: a total annihilation of all Dawn and Dusk had ever created.
Deprived of his power over the beastmen, Dusk turned to the few servants he had among men, once again lending them his power and voicing his will. Seeing the plight of her children, Dawn spoke to men as well. And while Dusk moved his pawns far away from the new threat, Dawn empowered the bravest of her children and send them into the Mist ridden lands. Many of them would not return, but the Mother of Day knew that the power that twisted her world and shaped it in its own malevolent image must be stopped at any costs.
And so came the Age of Heroes.
__________________
Follow us on Twitter: @NSKNGames
No comments:
Post a Comment