Hedrion Rising

Part 1: The legend

Hedrion had been a peaceful land for centuries. Its people had lived in peace with one another and nature. It's lush green hills, the powder snow mountains, and its ever vast and mysterious sea. The people were content with their lives and had confidence in their golden age of prosperity. Such bliss is really sad when one considers the obvious, all good things come to and end.

This perfect order was shattered in the same instance the sea was. On that fateful day decades ago the sea now know as the Shadow's Cauldron, trembled and shook with intense ferocity as a great evil rose from its depths. A figure clothed in shadows and armor hovered still in the sky, and with it power projected a message to all of Hedrion.

This dark entity proclaimed,"I am Lord Ferikiah, I come from the realm of Opaca. I have come to conquer this land. All you pitiful insects shall burn to ash in my wake."

And with that, Ferikiah's minions began to pour into the world. His army was as diverse and vast as all the creatures in Hedrion. Some were nothing more than feral beasts devoid of all but the most rudimentary intelligence. Other were battle hardened warriors with weapons crafted from  ore and and trained in the shadows. There were also six very special and very dangerous demons know as the umbra autem Paladinis, these were his most trusted underlings. They would lead Ferikiah's army in merciless assaults on Hedrion's people. Yet out of all these despicable monsters, one of them stood out above the rest. He was simply known as the Heinous one, a dark and corrupted knight encased in a crystal-like obsidian armor, Brandishing a similar sword and shield unwillingly in the name of his master.

With his legion of loyal demons at his command , Ferikiah ravaged the land. The assault was merciless, for none were spared from his wrath. True to his word, everything he touched was turned to ash, everywhere he willed was torn asunder , and the land was thrown into chaos. Nothing would stand in his way without either being destroyed or turned to his army.

Faced with great evil, all of Hedrion put aside their differences to work together to stop Lord Ferikiah. People of all backgrounds and places in society were banding together to do all they could to help defend their land. Farmers and merchants put their goods to the war effort, helped build defences in the towns and villages, and armies from every kingdom joined together to fight on the front lines of the war.

Humans fought Ferikiah's army on several occasions, rarely resulting in victory. Despite their best efforts, they couldn't even get close to Ferikiah without running into a massive amount of his army. To make things even more difficult, The Heinous one was always protecting him and no one survived a battle against him , much less bested him. On the battlefield. His skills in combat were unrivaled, for he was far too quick and once he figured out how a person fought, you were finished. The Heinous one, in short, was an unstoppable warrior without a weakness or a voice to his dreaded name.

Ferikaih's army had soon conquered half of Hedrion. As the war dragged on many kingdoms began to pull out of the war after losing hope of ever claiming victory. Some isolated themselves to their own domains and put it in total defence in wait for Ferikaih's inevitable arrival. Others fled Hedrion entirely, leaving on large ships to islands far from Hedrion to try and escape his wrath. One very deceitful kingdom, known as Helankia, betrayed the others and joined Ferikiah's legion, giving away numerous military tactics and secrets of Hedrion. By the end of the war, only three kingdoms were still fighting as one, Corinth, Renmore, and Valhime. It seemed that war would soon end, and the land would be consumed by chaos.

In the midst of this despair, a man covered in plain brown robes was walking through the Corinth's main town. As the man ambled through, he looked around to see not a single person outside with the exception of the armed soldiers patrolling the town. One of them stopped him and asked him who he was, the man held up his staff and the soldier let him walk to the castle. The man entered silently through the large front doors of the castle as the three remaining rulers were discussing their final attempt at victory.

"Perhaps if we attack them from the north?,"said Charlestine, ruler of Renmore,"We might..."

The man in Robes interrupted, saying,"Your plans will not succeed."

The three rulers and their knights, turned their eyes to the man, now standing in their room.

Darius, ruler of Valheim, spoke first,"How dare you interrupt this council! We are in the middle of discussing our plans to end Ferkiah's tyranny once and for all!"

"Those plans will lead to the destruction of all Hedrion,"said the man.

"And you think you have a better idea than the three of us,"Darius said.

The man nodded his head in reply. Darius began to laugh in response to the man's wild claim. Charlestine was irritated at this man's ridiculous intrusion and began to explain Hedrion's plight to the man as if he had been asleep the last ten years. And at the head of all this the ruler of Corinth, Bronsin, simply sat back and stroked his beard, watching this scene unfold. At first he had no idea what to think of think man and went along with what his fellow men were saying. Then he looked at the map of the country then at the man. After a while it dawned on Bronsin that they would lose no matter what plan they could come up with.

Relenting to the fact that they were desperate and holding in by a thread of hope Bronsin said,"What do you think should be done then."

Darius and Charlestine silenced themselves at this question in astonishment.

"A...are you serious?"Darius exclaimed,"you're not really believing this, this neurotic fool's claim to know how to defeat lord Ferikiah?! Are you?"

"As weird as it is," Charlestine says,"I must agree that this man's proposal is very unlikely to be true, he's probably lying to use."

"Well said, in fact,"Darius snaps his fingers,"guards, arrest this interloper for interrupting our meeting, IMMEDIATELY!"

The armored men began to march on the robed man, when Bronsin intervened,"STOP! M friends what do you think you're doing?"

"Getting rid of this intruder, who dares to think he knows better than we do!"

"And who's to say he doesn't?" Bronsin said.

The guards lowered their weapons and the whole room looked at the man and then at Bronsin with puzzlement on their faces.

"Let's face the facts,"Bronsin said," we have only managed to delay Ferikiah's conquest. All of our plans have failed us one after another and our forces have so vastly dwindled that our three kingdoms are the only ones left fighting."

He then turned to the man," Our own ideas have failed. If this man believes he has a plan to defeat Ferikiah, I ask you all what we have to lose from listening to what he has to say?"

His compatriots looked down in embarrassment for their actions and apologized to the man. He still had not said a single word since entering the room and remained so.

"Please tell us, What plan do you have, that you believe is worth bringing to our attention?"Bronsin pleaded.

The man lifted his head to the kings and removed his hood, that shrouded him. His face was thin, tall, and well-worn. He was bald on the top, but had a long beard under his slightly crooked nose. White as snow in some spots, yet grey as storm clouds in others. When you looked into his eyes it was like staring into space, vast and mysterious. Those eyes told you this man both knew much and seen much. He began to speak in a raspy and weary voice, yet it sounded confident and consoleing. Several hours were spent in that room simply listening to the man and his plan. The more they listened, the more they came to see the plausibility of the idea. When the man had finished, the three rulers debated amongst themselves and by the end of the day they came to a decision.

Bronsin Spoke with a rekindled hope in his voice and heart,"The necessary forces to carry out your plan will be prepared to ride for the Shadow's Cauldron by tomorrow morning.