Etherium ~ Chronicle of the Third Age: Revelations to the Mistrani

Book 1

1.1 The dawn of the third age is heralded by the return of the light that drove away the darkness that had covered the lands since the time of sundering. Only the roots of the elder tree remained, yet its seeds took root in the ashen soil, beginning life anew. The elder creatures of legend awoke from their long slumber and again found sustenance among the stubble, and the tree spread forth, giving shelter to the nameless younger that came forth from its many leaves.

1.2 But the light did not triumph over the dark and the battle between them settled into balance, taking equal portion of time for their domain. Light governed waking life and the creatures of the day while the darkness presided over the dead and the realm of dreams.

1.3 And so it was that the two lovers awoke to a new world, alike to the one that was lost, yet changed and ever changing, only distant echoes faded in the span betwixt the ages. Too long denied, their embrace shook the land, raising high mountains spurting fire and cutting deep valleys that pooled with rains and from their ardor came others, three born into this new dawn of shadows.

1.4 The first of these were borne of the light and the life betwixt the kindred Storm and Air, but born to the realm of earth named for the substance of the land and the waters of the seas they were named; Kroma, the mountain, and Mara, the sea. Yet, in the darkness that lay over the desolate lands, through the cracks of the ground, in the shadows among the withered grasses and the places where the waters and earth remained still, a third appeared, borne of the night, and was named Kenra, the secret one.