War of Dawn

Memoir #1

What do you do when your world crumbles to dust? A thousand years ago, the entirety of humanity asked that question. Their society, their technology, everything came crashing down the moment the Valnr tore through the Divine Shroud and into our plane of existence.

Their goal was simple: Prana. This vital energy lies in every living creature and the invaders were all eager to collect. With power beyond compare, a civilization thousands of years old was reduced to rubble. Worse, many who lost their lives were raised into undeath, further bolstering the Valnr's forces.

This period was called the War of Twilight, but a "war" implies a clash of forces; what occurred was extermination. Entire regions of the world were reduced to ash, billions dead. The status quo only shifted when, from across the Shroud, the Altr gods reached out to one Finnish woman: Eliina Vanhanen. Naming themselves our creators, having been at war with the Valnr for millennia, the Altr empowered Eliina to do the same. They proclaimed her the first Scion, and commanded: unite and fight.

And so it was. This lone woman was tasked with molding the ashes of mankind into a fighting force capable of facing the Valnr. "Impossible" seems the only way to describe it. Still, Elinna and her first recruits, Marco Alvaréz and Viktor Iliev, gathered men and women from across the world into the newly formed Corps of Scions. Together, they learned the arts of combat and magic that crushed our civilization.

"Grand Scions", the three of them were called. Calling them actual gods would've also been appropriate, considering what they accomplished. Under their command, mankind did the impossible: the Valnr were routed, sent back to the Northern Reaches where they first entered our world. They would never leave again, as the Scions and Altr locked the frozen land behind the Paling. Within, the battle raged on unabated.

After years of bloody conflict, the Scions stormed the Valnr's headquarters at the dead center of the Northern Reaches. The Valnr God, their leader, was killed; without its power, the rest followed suit.

A pyrrhic victory, though. Eighty five percent of the Corps was killed during the campaign, including Eliina and Viktor who perished in the final confrontation. Still, the War of Twilight was over; the Age of Dawn began as mankind went on to rebuild.

What remained of the Corps, now hailed as heroes, reorganized under Marco and maintained their vigil. The problem, however, is that one cannot watch the entire world with half-blind eyes. Humanity had two centuries of peace; a surprisingly long period, all things considered.

Still, it ended: on November 17th, 203 After Dawn, the Valnr returned as the Divine Shroud was once again torn open in the north. By human hands, even... though such people hardly deserve to be called "human".

But while the Corps was in shambles, the Paling held strong; the Valnr were still corralled, unable to leave the Northern Reaches. So, they restarted their old campaign in earnest: claim the Prana of anything within reach and search for a way out to the rest of the world. The remaining Scions, meanwhile, were forced into another war – one they were wholly understaffed for.

[...]

That was eight centuries ago. Eight hundred years in an unending standstill against an enemy that the Scions couldn't beat nor could be beaten by. It all had become mundane, really. The world at large mostly forgot about the situation in the Northern Reaches; at most, the Corps received token support. The Paling kept the problem contained, so that's all that mattered. Meanwhile, the battle against the Valnr struck people as a very distant piece of history.

But the Corps does not forget. The Corps does not stop. As Scions die, they are replaced with fresh recruits. As those recruits die, they are also replaced. When the time comes, as sure as the sun rises, those chosen by the gods must answer the call to join as bricks in the bulwark.

The Scions remain. So long as one is alive, the vigil continues...

--Excerpt from "Memoirs of a Scion", author unknown