Dance Macabre: Tales from a Cursed Land

Foreword

When one dies, they pass through the Passage of Souls and are stripped of their memories before being reborn. Sometimes this process takes only a few years, sometimes centuries. Yet there are times when people with strong attachments to unfinished things or possessing magical powers out of the ordinary retain some of those memories. This was proven in the case of self-proclaimed Lord of the Dead, who over a millennium ago terrorized the world with his army of undead. In the end he was imprisoned and executed, but 20 years later another with the same powers – with the same memories – rose to take his place.

The great sorcerers of Theriavon, the largest and most advanced human country in the world, instead found a different way to deal with the threat. Another dimension separate from our own, a dark place only accessible through a one-way portal they created. The abyss, the netherworld, the cursed land. It goes by many names.

Supposedly at first this punishment was only reserved to the most heinous of criminals. But as time passed and wars ravaged the land, entire tribes were cast out to the cursed land. In this day, all of this is carefully hidden lore, but the fact remains that the sorcerer council ruling Theriavon does indeed still banish people they consider too problematic through the portal.

How do I know this? Because my twin brother found some arcane knowledge they decreed forbidden. Most likely to avoid open conflict with the elven tribes, they accused him of killing innocents with ancient black magic. I could never prove that the charges were fabricated. But abandoning my career as a warrior and following in his footsteps to the path of magic has after ten long years allowed me to find a way to the cursed land – as well as a way to return home.

I will save him without fail.

~ Raviel of Nightblade Clan