THE WORLD OF STEEL & BLOOD

OTHER TALES AND AFTERWORD

SWORDS OF MAGIC

While the fighting men and women of the realm brandish weapons of steel, iron, stone and bone, there were only a small few that fought with an unusual metal.

Black Steel, as it is known as.

During the Conquest of Sargon, eyewitness accounts claim that they saw Dreadknot warriors brandishing swords and axes made from a black metal.

For decades, it remained a mystery, until my fateful interview with Jason Bryant in 105 A.D., when he entrusted two books to me. The book that I shall refer to has scribed upon its pages a great many incantations and spells of necromancy and other variations of blood magic.

It took me over a week to ready through it all, but then I came upon the chapter entitled "Steel of Magic".

According to the text, Black Steel is made from the minerals mined underneath Mystic's Point and forged into actual steel through a specialized method of bladesmith work as well as incantations to help make the steel indestructible.

It is believed that the Forgotten Ones may have delved in the use of weapons of steel, in times of war, when their magic wasn't enough.

The creation of Black Steel swords was believed to have ended in 429 B.D., when the Kaliso stormed Mystic's Point and slaughtered all who resided inside, forcing a great many other Forgotten Ones to flee all throughout the realm.

When the slaughtering was finished, the Kaliso then returned to their homes along the coast. Mystic's Point was not ransacked or robbed of any riches. Not even the swords of Black Steel were taken as spoils of war.

Another example of magic steel came in 300 B.D., when a practitioner of ancient blood magic arrived at Dragon Hall and presented Lord Thorak Daemon a gift.

It was a great broadsword made from a steel that was similar to Black Steel, but instead of the blade being black, it was silver with a beautiful hue of blue diamond within.

That sword would be the Daemon house's ancestral blade, "Dragonfire".

The one who presented the sword to Lord Thorak was a man by the name of "Scarabus"; a man who claimed to have lived for two hundred years, thanks to his use of blood magic.

Scarabus and a few other mystics would remain allies to Daemons until the time of Lord Tyrel Daemon, when Scarabus and his fellow mystics mysteriously disappeared. Nobody knows for sure where Scarabus and his fellow mystics went to and perhaps we may never know the answer.

A decade after Scarabus' disappearance, the Conquest of Sargon began.

According to the chapter of Steel of Magic, Blue Diamond Steel was a steel forged from a rare mineral that was believed to have been hiding under the foundation pillars of Mystic's Point. It is claimed that unlike Black Steel, Blue Diamond Steel had an unusual ability: that when wielded, the magic within the steel would bestow upon its wielder incredible speed and strength in combat. But while there were positive effects when wielding Blue Diamond Steel, there was but one negative effect and that is having terrible visions within one's own mind and hearing voices at the same time.

It is believed that every Lord and Lady in Dragon Hall who wielded Dragonfire were plagued with visions of Dragons setting fire to the world and hearing the voices of others telling them to "Rain Fire", the very words of the House of Daemon.

No Daemon in Dragon Hall dared to follow through with the voices in their heads, until in 53 A.D., when Cedrick Daemon's only grandson, Jason Bryant flew the mighty Dragon, Titus into war against Sargon's daughter, Enaya and when he razed all of the city of Azura to the ground with Dragon's fire.