THE SCOURGE OF THE DARK ENEMY
Courtesy CD Mjollnir

The end of the Race Wars was never really marked by a specific date, but the goblin scholar Pincteef generalized a calender date which he named SR, or Sineet Radseea. This means roughly "Since the Wars," in the old Goblin tongue. SR 1 marks the start of the first calender year by this standard.

The races never really got along after the Wars, but battles were no longer an issue of race but along the lines of skirmishes and border disputes. No race waged a war of expansion on the others; the human and goblin races, the most numerous, were also the most susceptible to disease, and suffered many plagues which prevented them from needing to expand beyond their borders. It could be said that peace reigned, though if it was peace, it was very uneasy and prone to occasional suspension.

Still, the world was relatively unprepared when the Dark Enemy, He Who Shall Remain Nameless, began his war of conquest.

It is estimated that the time of his rising was about SR 1592. Many scholars disagree, however, saying that evidence of his rise could be seen before that. Nevertheless, this year was the year that most of the world took notice of the dark happenings, but uncertainty held their hand, and the Dark Enemy took that opportunity to strengthen his hold.

It was in SR 1600 that the first battles began, in Korresh. The Dark Enemy was extraordinarily powerful, and though humans outnumbered his army by nearly ten to one, it is next to impossible to win against something with the power of a god. His objective was the multi-racial Wizard's Council, which was in the Ahrin Straights. It housed the mightiest magics in the Known Worlde, with artefacts dating back from before the Race Wars and the only knowledge that might prevent him from maintaining his power. The easiest access to it was through Korresh, and so he began there.

Strange, dark creatures were suddenly in every land, migrating to Korresh and killing everything in their way. No one knew what these creatures were...there were many different kinds, some which were obviously demonic, some which were obviously no longer alive, and some things that were just plain terrifying. They poured in from strange black ships from over the Eastern Sea, and invaded Korresh from the unexplored lands of the West through Garr. A great amount sprang up from inside the Kingdoms themselves, and whether they were people corrupted by the Dark Enemy's magic or simply creations, no one could say.

The Ss'tiss were the first race to respond to the call of the humans, and Tahnn marched to war, led by the Matriarch of the Clans, a title that had never yet been invoked by the multi-tribal lizard race until now and which bestowed on its bearer the curse of not aging. Her name was Ssltirst, and unlike nearly all of her race, she was able to use magic. Indeed, she had been an initiate of the Wizard Council, and knew well the Dark Enemy's goal. She quickly called for the intervention of the other races, and bearing a strange banner none had ever seen before, made her way into Korresh, leading the largest army any had ever seen thus far. The ss'tiss, made hardy by thier life in the desert, were still unprepared for the foul legions they fought against. A horde of pincer-clawed demons intercepted the ss'tiss in the mountains between Korresh and Tahnn, and proved nearly unkillable. It took the Matriarch's mightiest magics to learn thier weakness, the secret of which did not survive to this day but enabled the ss'tiss to pass with only a few more losses.

The Goblins were the next race. Led by Kreegan, the mightiest warrior known to the goblin race and said to be descended from Lochkeen himself, massed the vast numbers of goblins from the jungles of Mirg and sailed them in leaky boats down the Ahrin Straights. They interposed themselves between the Dark Enemy and the home of the Wizard Council, and gob shamans immediately began raising as many wards and protective spells as they could. Their earthy magic was the only kind at the time that could prevent the Dark Enemy's minions from appearing in the midst of an army out of nowhere. Kreegan's armies were immediatly fighting upon their landing, and scores of goblins died. A gigantic water-creature, summoned by the Dark Enemy's foul magics, rose from the depths and destroyed many ships. Kreegan himself, his tiny body clinging to its massive beak, was the one whose blow killed it.

The dwarves marched then, appearing from below the earth in long-forgotten tunnels, whose discovery came about from a portent by one of their most powerful sages. Led by Dunthrek II, the dwarves proved the most resistant to the Dark Enemy's magics, and became the bulwark of the faltering human army. Their losses in the field were enormous, rivalled only by the humans themselves. Dunthrek led the first charge himself against an army composed of undead minions and strange, dog-like creatures, supported by a company of ss'tiss who saved his life that day and earned the eternal friendship of the dwarves.

The elves were the longest to muster, but not because of their reluctance to aid the races that had supplanted them during the Race Wars. The Warrior Monarchs of Lirynn were the second pair of joint monarchs in seven centuries, and despite their names, the brother and sister were both initiates of the Wizard Council as well as fearsome warriors. They were called Ellenryan and Aisallyn, and from across the Ahrin Straights, they sought the means to defeat the Dark Enemy. Ellenryan travelled to the Council to search its records, and his sister Aisallyn gathered the scattered kins of elves to lead across the straights to support the goblins.

The humans, meanwhile, had crowned three monarchs in a row on the battlefield, the latest being Teslin. No one had ever suspected how much the losses of battle had affected him...and his betrayal of the other races to the Dark Enemy for a promise that his race would no longer die led to the death of the Matriarch and of Kreegan when the Dark Enemy slew them as they met to conjoin their efforts. Their corpses were reanimated by the Dark Enemy, and the goblins and ss'tiss faltered at the deaths of their heroes and the corruption of their very beings.

Leshya, the general of Teslin's armies, never knew of his treachery until the Matriarch and Kreegan died before her very eyes. She survived only because she was late arriving to the meeting, and saw the lonely pair and their retinues die in a flash of darkness that nonetheless nearly blinded her. It flashed her pupils milky white, and until she died, she said that it was like she was peering through a veil.

She killed Teslin with her own knife, stabbing him mercilessly in the back and slitting the throats of the other human traitors who had joined him. With what was left, she assumed the crown in situ and let the human remnants to bolster the faltering ss'tiss. Her sword became the scourge of the Dark One's minions, as if to erase her unwitting crime of ignorance.

Ellenryan, meanwhile, had convinced the Wizards to open their vaults to him. The Vaults contained some of the most dangerous artifacts to ever exist, and it was for this reason that the Wizards were reluctant to open the vaults. The use of these artefacts might win against the Dark Enemy, but it would also almost certainly mean the death of Telgard and all the races within. But it was not the artefacts that Ellenryan sought...it was the knowledge of the Book of Secrets he wished, and he was willing to pay the ultimate price to get it.

The Book of Secrets was deadly to the person who read it. It had been scribed by an Ancient One, and it contained knowledge of nearly all that affected the world. Ellenryan sought a way to defeat the Dark Enemy, and found one. The price would be enormous. Nearly all the Wizard Council would die doing it, and the conclave, the home of the Council, would become vacant.

Ellenryan's mind was torn apart by the Book, and in gibbering insanity, he killed himself with his most powerful magics, nearly setting off an explosion that would have destroyed the conclave and left the Straights a smoking crater.

However, his sister Aisallyn had been waiting. She knew the sacrifice her brother would pay, but though his loss wounded her deeply, she needed the information he would get. She watched from afar in his mind, saw it being torn apart by wild magics that nearly killed her as well. Her grief nearly overwhelmed her, but the last bastion of sanity in her brother's mind threw her out, and with her went the knowledge needed to defeat the Dark Enemy.

Leshya and Dunthrek caught Aisallyn as she collapsed, and the two warriors carried the elf to the Council who was still recovering from the blast of Ellenryan's death. Leshay and Dunthrek did not participate in the meeting that followed; it was for Wizard's ears only. When the meeting closed, the wizards were grim and haggard. They, too, knew the price they had to pay.

Leshya and Dunthrek returned to their armies. The greatest general they faced was called Cryon, and Cryon was cruel and merciless. During their absence, he had managed to take Maston, and the cries of the dying sounded from the grim and broken walls. Cryon was a creature no one had seen before, and he gloried in death. His power was augmented by the Dark Enemy's own, and it took all the might of the Races to take back Maston. What was found there was terrifying...the dead were twisted, grotesque in the pain of their death throes, and the armies that took back Maston had to fight the risen corpses of their own families.

But the regain of Maston distracted the dark armies enough for Aisallyn and the Wizard's Council to act. First, they warded the Conclave so that none might ever land on the island save one, who was the only one with the power to lower the wards. The greatest goblin mage directed the efforts of the wards, because it was goblin magic that proved most resistant to the Dark Enemy's power. The Wards were instant death to any who so much as touched foot on the soil of the Conclave, and the only one who could enter was one mage, Taerlon, who would be, it was decided, the only Wizard of the Conclave who would live, and whose duty it was to guard the Conclave in successing years.

The Council then left the Conclave, and sought the Dark Enemy. Thier success required the recruitment of the Dragons, the most powerful beings in Telgard aside from gods, and that line being a very small one. But the Dark Enemy, some inkling of the future flashing in his sight, turned nearly all the Dragons to his side, corrupting them with his power. Only a few were left, and they grimly joined the Wizards of the Council on their hunt.

The Wizards found him, and a third of their number died in the first onslaught of his powers. But they persevered, and when it was over, not a single Wizard was left standing. The Dark One had been sealed away, and his power left the Kingdoms. The Dragons who had been turned by his power now numbered five, and these five were imprisoned as well. Only one of the Dragons who had fought with the Wizards survived...none can say to this day where that dragon is, or even its name. Every single one of the Dark Enemy's minions save for Cryon and a few others crumbled to dust or disappeared with a wail. Cryon vanished, and none knew where he went.

The Seals were never seen...some say that someone came in the dark of night and took them away, but no one knows for sure. Leshya and Dunthrek gathered the broken armies, joined by the Matriarch's successor Ss'thil, a scarred male who had become the Patriarch of the Clans after Ssltirst's death, by Tlinken who succeeded Kreegan and whose strength had kept the goblins from fleeing after Kreegan's death, and by Maranyesr, Aisalynn's son who had taken her place after her death.

The cost of winning had been terrible. The wails of the grieving could be heard everywhere, and the Matriarch and Kreegan recieved a funeral unmatched by any other. Ellenryan and Aisallyn were symbolically buried with their brother and sister monarchs, though no remains existed to lie with the goblin and the ss'tiss.

Each army limped home, but not before the current monarchs met one last time. It was decided that if any Seal was found, it was to be taken to the conclave, though it meant the courier's death, to ensure that none could tamper with them. To mark the immense loss and the victory of the only joined effort of races, the date was changed from SR 1621 to AS 1, After the Scourge. And finally, this very script was written, and copies were distributed among all the races so that none would forget.

That night, a lonely torch burning in the highest tower of the Conclave could be seen from across the Straights, perhaps evidence of Taerlon's grief. But no activity was ever seen, and no one, of course, could approach the Conclave.

The light flickered out and died, and no light was ever seen again in the Conclave.

Thus ended the Scourge of the Dark Enemy.