Bringer of Shadows

Prologue

The Land.

No one knows why it was called that, or if it had ever had a proper name. If it had, it would have been long before kings and queens, before Dragons and Skinwalkers. Long before her.

The land was split into six different parts, as the king decreed to stop civil wars. The largest of all was located in the centre of The Land. This was forest areas, with villages and cities spaced few and far between. The capital was positioned to the north, with good access to the sea, for imports, and little woods either side of it for decent trade routes.

The other four were roughly the same size, created like that so no one in these sections so that no one would try to fight over size.

The hottest part was north east. This was due to many volcanoes, which never slept. The lava ran so hot and so much, that it cut into the ground, and caused rivers of lava to flow throughout it. The ash in the air made it hard for people to breath, but the people who lived there wore clothes over their mouths to make sure they breathed in air that was as pure as it got in a place so dangerous. Due to the heat and the lack of water, there were very small amounts of vegetation, and the area there was mainly city, using bridges to enable access over the rivers.

To the south east stood the area full of water. There was forest and rivers, ponds and swamps. Water falls cut into the side of cliffs, and the ocean kept creeping closer and closer inland. There were many different villages, and people moved between them more freely than anywhere else in The Land.  The crops grown there tasted different depending on the year. Sometimes, they were the most amazing things ever tasted, but sometimes, the sea had risen too much, and most crops tasted too salty.

At the border of these two areas lay a stretch of ashy desert that lay for many miles, due to centuries of river and lava fighting for control.

To the south west lay an area was thick jungle and rain forest, which it was possible due to the water from the south east. The people here lived in huts, and like ancient tribes, using sticks and stones, hunting instead of farming. The people living there were hard to find, and couldn’t be found unless they wanted to be found.

In the North West, lay the mountains. These Mountains lay hundreds of meters above sea level, and the many people living there were mainly monks, praying and taking life slow, due to the think air up in the clouds.

These people never got along if they all came together, which representatives always did every year for the annual counselling meeting where feuds would be sorted and discussions would be made over what changes should be made.

These people living in their own area believed that their way of life and place was better than anyone else’s, even the kings, although they wouldn’t admit that to his face. Never had a full scale war actually happened between two areas, although many had come close to happening, being resolved with promises to change, which never happened. The feuds were over things like theft of ancient artefacts, used as a leverage opportunity. However, this was easily resolved with the use of a theft, or assassin to steal it back.

The last of the areas was the worst one to live in. it was on an island off of The Land, and so wasn’t part of the land, yet in the kings eyes, it was. This island was called Scafta.

It was a place of violence, death, war, and Skinwalkers. Skinwalkers are beings who have the ability to change their shape into another creature, so long that they are wearing something made out of the creature they want to change into. The beings who lived there are violent, often being controlled by the animalist nature that they are born with.

However, these creatures are willing to take orders, and are amazing soldiers, which is why the king had agreed to give them a kingdom of their own, so that if he needed to, he could call upon them and they could help him out.