Hymn of Sorrows

Nohlaerys had seldom seen bloodshed and the storytellers had long forgotten the final quarrel between the three great kingdoms until the near-abandoned council of Maelii was slain in the very room that had declared peace generations before. Forces rose to claim the capital and as the high lords tugged at the promise of power and glory, the integrity of the treaties that governed its peoples safety withered. Two decades passed with no sight of grasping an accord; trees grew red where the blood of waged battles was spilled; children became motherless as armies swept through villages; plots and ploys were hatched.

The land was too vast for any one man to clutch to his breast, though for nineteen years many valiantly dared to try.