Selvaria: Rise of the Shadowlords

Prologue

Rise of the Shadowlords is the first story of an ancient land from a forgotten time. For many years the land of Selvaria was a relatively peaceful one. It was a land divided. The western half was a thriving, prosperous region dominated by many powerful kingdoms. The eastern half was an unfamiliar, isolated expanse of territory closed off from its western counterpart for hundreds of years. Unbeknownst to the people of Selvaria an impending threat to life as they knew it was looming. Amongst the chaos and carnage unsuspecting heroes would emerge to challenge this threat and become part of a history that would rival that of any land.

Chapter 1

An arrow soared through the sunlit cloudless sky, howling as it pierced the air, like a kettle reaching its boiling point. A nearby crowd gasped with anticipation, listening to it scream before finally impacting, with a violent thud, the center of five rings painted on a bale of hay. The crowd erupted in delight, after seeing it climb into the heavens before descending perfectly into the target. The crowd's reaction sent a wave of exhilaration through his body.

Koldan walked with an air of humble arrogance about him. He was friendly, polite and well-mannered yet tough, disciplined and confident; he was a charismatic young man just leaving his teen years. He was a favorite of many of the ladies in the crowd due to his tall, modestly muscular build, chiseled features and short dark hair that naturally stayed in place. Many women found his green eyes captivating. Like looking into the deepest of all emeralds, as one lady put it. They would often let out a shy giggle as he gave them a smile in passing.

he was no stranger to the crowd's adoration but this time felt a little special. The spectators were cheering unabashedly for him in an event he'd never won before. The deafening excitement filled him with the hope he could finally win the archery contest at the Alkarian Games. Walking back to his seat amongst the other contestants, he smiled and waved to his fans. He gave a particularly lingering smile to a young dark-haired maiden, who became bright red before smiling and turning her head in embarrassment.

Koldan just launched five arrows in a row, four of which landed within a five inch bullseye and the other just outside of it from approximately one hundred fifty yards away. He knew he'd bested his performance from the previous year; a year in which he finished third in the event and only hit the bullseye with three of his five shots. He also hadn't made any of his shots disappear from view; a feat which had rarely been performed with any accuracy but always achieved high scores when it did.

All that was left was to see how the judges would score his shots. He briefly scanned the crowd and his opponents, most of which had already taken their turn for the event, to see their reactions and gauge how impressed they were by his performance. As he scanned the crowd, he saw many of the onlookers clapping with enthusiasm and some of them on their feet while doing so. He could hear the occasional blistering whistles from people who were either really excited and happy for him or just trying to garner attention for themselves, he knew not which.

Koldan was aware very few in the audience were all that invested in who wins, they just came to enjoy the show and be a part of the festivities. He couldn't count how many times he'd done or seen something extraordinary happen at the games, turn quickly to catch someone else's reaction and realize they weren't even watching what was going on. They were talking and looking at their friends the whole time, but would clap and whistle when they heard others do it as if they'd witnessed what happened and gave a damn about it.

The lack of truly caring by so many of the spectators often irked Koldan, but he understood unless you really knew one of the competitors or had a serious wager on someone it was hard to get overly excited about an outcome. Koldan glanced sharply at some of the contestants who proceeded him in the event, most of whom were barely better than novices and what they thought meant next to nothing to him. He was looking for someone whose reaction could give him a good indication of how he did.