Edward Larel's Blog - Posts Tagged "pnumadesi"

*Warning, some spoilers involved*

To start things off, I'd like to thank Shay Fabbro for having Wren Emerson guest post on her blog. It was an incredibly well written piece on forming ideas which got me thinking about my topic below.

With that said, I wanted to take a handful of blogs and dig into character backgrounds from the Zen Chronicles. Today, I thought we’d start with the primary hero of book 1, Arawn Segomo.

Want a little more insight into Arawn's background? Check out his short story over on Deviantart.

When my friends and I sat down for the first time back in 2009 to talk about this world they'd always dreamt of but couldn't find time to build, I wrote down everything they had:

* Shapechanging race (xendauni) banished by elementals
* Arawn Segomo gets free and wants to rescue his people
* Race of tripodal creatures (vedros) who control magic
* A kid who is vital to the success of the heroes
* Children of Destiny, Diaden is a magic user, magic is forbidden
* Powerful artifact that can free the xendauni but is deconstructed
* Gems of Power
* Giant moon, lycanthropes

So, from that, I sat down and put together an elaborate web of notes that ultimately tied everything together. The first thing I did was determine that Arawn had to be important to everything related to my friends’ concepts. So, Arawn Segomo became somebody of great importance to the xendauni. He would be a prince, but not like the son of a king because the xendauni are ruled by elders. So, he’s the son of an elder, but also a hero leaving on this quest.

Why did they elect him? Because he’s exceptionally talented at changing his form. He can become animals and humanoids. Most xendauni can only become humanoids. He can’t fly, though, because that’s hard even for him. He’s also really good with swords and can use nature magic, but only when he concentrates.

Why is this important? The elementals won’t know what to expect if they do find him. It will also mean he can scout or spy better when needed. If there’s a tight situation (sometimes literally) he has some way out of it.

Does he know anybody? No, he’s been in the forest. He was born there and nobody has come into it since they were banished. So, he meets the mage and the kid when he leaves. He finds out that he should work with them because of a letter. The letter was written by somebody he can trust. These are the only people who know who he is and how to help so he has to rely on them.

The artifact is actually a pair of gloves. They have no power on their own because they require the Gems of Power to use properly. The gems were spread across the continent by the elementals. Arawn has the gloves because the person he trusted rescued them from the elementals and used a little of their remaining power to get them to him in the forest. The gloves were made by a mage before the xendauni were banished to help battle the elementals. The elementals stole the gloves from the xendauni and used them to exile the Black Forest.

The moon affects all things on Pnumadesi. It is always full. The xendauni, elementals, and lycanthropes can all change as easily as they do because of the presence of the moon. It isn’t the only moon, it’s actually the second. It also hasn’t been there forever, only since the second war, when the elementals banned arcane magic. There’s more about the moon that isn’t explained initially to anybody.

Lycanthropes train xendauni warriors, called sentinels. The training has a magical side effect that makes a sentinel’s normal form appear more animalistic over time. Arawn hasn’t started to experience that change yet, but probably will during the course of his quest. The more he uses his sentinel magic, the more it will eventually change him.

What are Arawn’s flaws? He has trouble controlling his emotions. He’s brash, stubborn, and a little arrogant at times. This is bad in a world where your enemy will declare war on the continent if they find you. Xendauni’s eyes trail colors when they’re emotional.
Arawn’s glow shades of purple. He can’t always hide the color by transforming and when his adrenaline gets going, he forgets entirely. He’s mortal, so he gets hurt when he falls or is attacked. He’s good, but not so good with his skills and abilities that he doesn’t have to worry about a fight.
He tires after extended exertion of any of his powers, so changing from a human to a xendauni to a horse wears on him and he needs to be aware of that if he’s going into battle.
He can’t transform from one creature to another without becoming a xendauni first, so there are times when he may just be stuck as something.
He’s all alone. With the difficulty of his quest and the fact that nobody really understands what he is, Arawn can’t always come to terms with things the same way another character might because he has to think about how it will affect not only him, but the view of his entire race. If he messes something up, the elementals could make a case that all xendauni are like him and people would hate them all for it. Then it wouldn’t matter if the race is free because nobody will trust them.

Thank you for sticking with me through this. Next week I’ll tackle another character. Got any questions, preferences, or suggestions? Leave me your comments.

(Field of Dreams; wonderful movie btw)

Before I start, if you have anything you'd like to request of me going forward, feel free to say so in the comments here or by message. Thanks

Hello and thank you for reading this humble blog post of mine. I really wanted to take an opportunity to put this one together right, which hopefully explains why I'm posting it two days late (according to my personal schedule, anyway).

So, I've got this wonderful set up now as a Goodreads author. By signing up with the site, I've already seen some more traffic on Facebook and I know Malcolm appreciates anybody stopping by his DeviantArt page.

On top of that, Arawn's Quest has been downloaded a total of 1141 times this month alone over at Amazon and Zen's Heritage has been purchased over 10. Much thanks to anybody who is a part of those numbers.

By now, you're probably wondering what I'm getting at here. Well, when we started Northwinter Press in August 2010 (Has it really been 1.5 years?), We knew what kind of competition we were getting into. D&D has so many established settings in all of its iterations, and the fans of those settings may or may not always branch somewhere else, that to introduce something new borders on insanity. Even the other independant publishers out there often fall apart after a short time because they don't see immediate reward and make the (often correct) decision to spend their time and money elsewhere.

But, call him crazy, Malcolm said then and there that Northwinter Press won't be going anywhere. We are here to stay, for better or worse. With that established, we punched things into overdrive and (despite a lull here and there) have really been pushing strong since then.

The best part, of course, is that there are no foreseeable plans to stop. The Zen Chronicles, and really all of Pnumadesi, are only two stories and a 4th edition D&D player's guide in. With that setting alone, we still have a timeline built from the creation of the world through several generations even after the end of the current novels; and that's just for the continent on which Arawn and his friends travel. There are actually 5 other continents about which we've got heroes, villains, settings, and stories. By creating this universe, we've really tapped a wellspring of information and creative oil.

Now, how does all this tie into the title of the blog? Well, By putting this down today, I want to reassure anybody who happens to have read this far that Pnumadesi, and Northwinter Press for that matter, aren't going anywhere. So, strap in for the long haul. It's going to be an amazing ride.

*Warning, some spoilers involved*

Want to know how Katrina started her adventures? Check out her short story over on DeviantArt.

The elves in Pnumadesi have kind of a bad rap. They're often discriminated against or, most often in the case of the women, exploited. Because of the treatment they receive when interacting with humans and, to a lesser extent, the other races, the elves usually stick to their forests.

Enter Katrina, the leading lady of Arawn's Quest. Trained as a hunter, she doesn't want to be tied to any one place. Wanderlust hit her early in life when she watched a ship dock on the river in Ganalodel and fell in love with the idea of sailing and adventuring in general.

After she finished her training to be a hunter, the elven woman requested, and was granted, freedom from her ties to the forest and her queen. Despite this, there were still some rules by which she has to abide. There are many such rules, but those which have so far been relevant include:

* She is an ambassador of her race. She must act in accordance with the laws of the lands in which she travels, unless those laws contradict elven paradigm.

* Whenever she enters a new region, she must report in with the elven council of that area so they are aware of her presence and purpose.

* On pain of death, she cannot trade elven secrets or goods without permission from the current ruler.

* She may cover her appearance, but she cannot mask her features unless her life would be put at risk.

Katrina evolved in a very interesting way from her concept. When we first thought her up, she was just the faceless leader of a mercenary group who would help Arawn get to Desmond. As I began writing her, I gave more definition to her character, which branched into elves in general and how they are viewed by society. By the time I had Katrina fully developed, she had shaped the elven race's presence on Pnumadesi.

With the higher importance I put on her, she naturally fell into a leadership role, which proved a major attraction to Arawn, who until his adventure started hadn't actually met another race besides his own.

The contrast between Katrina's appearance and Arawn's really sparked something in each of them, and their feelings for each other grew quickly from the brief interactions they had.

Making Katrina Diaden's granddaughter was a spur of the moment decision as I wrote that part of the story. I had yet to really put a finger on why exactly the man, who until now had a reason for everything he did, would pick somebody with such a stigma against her to aid in a covert mission. Sure, she was good at what she did, but this is the fate of the known world we're talking about. When I finally realized where I wanted to take their relationship to each other, everything else fell into place.

Spurring off that notion was the fact that Katrina, like Arawn and Zen, is a Child of Destiny. Any time Diaden would have tried to see what she was up to through the Book of the Forgotten Bard, he would have trouble because the book is never clear on them. He may never admit it, but it's obvious Diaden appreciates the people he calls family, especially those to whom he's actually related.

That's all I've got for now. If you have anything else you'd like to know about Kat, feel free to ask here or send me a message. Thank you -

I have a handful of short stories that I've written related to the characters introduced in the Zen Chronicles. Because I can't easily tell who follows Northwinter Press on Facebook or Malcolm's DeviantArt page, I thought it only fair to include links to those stories here as well.

If anybody would prefer the stories be made available to read directly on goodreads, please let me know and I can sort some things out to do so. I will also be compiling all of the stories, once there are enough of them, into an actual book to be offered as a limited print run (think of it as a special edition collection).

As always, Enjoy! I'll create a new post as more come out and link back to this as needed.

Arawn Segomo

Egress of the Annodam, the Highborn King

Katrina of Ganalodel

Rich of the Salt Flats

Jaca's Story (mature content warning requires DA account)

Rayton (Facebook)

Who's next? We've got a handful of drafts for short stories while Ed cools his jets on the next novel. So, who from the world of Pnumadesi would you like to hear about next (write in suggestions welcome, even for new characters but you'll have to tell us about them).

Alder (upcoming in Children of Destiny)
Araelia
Brister
Cheldaz (from Jaca's Story)
Diaden
Drestan (from Arawn's Story)
Emily
Forgotten Bard
Lina (upcoming in Children of Destiny)
Thok

First, I'd like to thank those who've offered such a great and varied response to my last blog about which character in Pnumadesi I should write about next. I've got a few in the pipeline now, including some that have been added by request.

We posted one such example last night on Facebook and DeviantArt. Aunika's story is a tale of an elven druid who wasn't originally part of the world, but with some collaboration between me and Aunika's real life counterpart, she now has a place in the storyline.

Writing Aunika's story was exhilarating because it gave me fresh material with which to work; like adding toppings to a sandwich. You can never have too many toppings (as long as they're good).

With that in mind, I'm still taking requests, especially new ideas or ideas that maybe some of those reading don't want to, or can't, flesh out for themselves. For an example, check out Aunika's Story, now available.

A very special story about a special mother for mother's day. Enjoy!


-Diaden will be waiting for me,- Araelia realized as she snuck through the lower halls of Smoulderflame Keep. -I need to at least reach him before they know what I’ve done.-

Her father had lied to her, of that Araelia was certain. The tomes he gave her to read from on Pnumadesi’s history since the second war of elements were all written with favorable views of her people, painting them in a light she had personally never experienced in her ninety plus years on the plane.

She turned a corner and almost ran over one of the guards who patrolled this part of her father’s home.

“What are…?” Araelia didn’t give the fieran a chance to finish his question. Removing the duskwood dagger her wizard companion gave her from the dead soldier’s chest, she quickly spread some salt around him and spoke the words that would deliver his physical form to an abandoned cellar within the keep.

-If elementals are so benevolent, father, why does the rest of Pnumadesi see us as their enemies? Why do we see ourselves as enemies?-

She took off again down the hall, careful to avoid another collision. The more guards she killed, the more likely she was to get caught when her father started looking around for them all.

From what little the woman gathered out of the biased information, at the end of the war, her father, Fire General Ragnar, gave the Gems of Power to the races of Pnumadesi as a peace offering. The humans, the dwarves, the dragonkin of the north, and the annodam each possessed one of the five magical artifacts. The last was kept by Ragnar, who deemed it too dangerous to trust with any other.

One last corner and she stood facing the door which led into the dragon’s den. The beast inside was an ally of her father’s, so she had to very carefully choose her words when it questioned her presence there.
From her own experience, Araelia knew that the fire general had used the gem in the room beyond to raise the undead creatures that now guarded Smoulderflame Keep alongside lesser elementals and elementborn like herself. Horrible, nightmare creatures such as the syn were created almost at a whim and bound to the soldier by whom they stayed at all times. Eventually, these bonds corrupted the guard as well, turning them into something that existed between the Underrealm and her reality. She was appalled to hear of such abominations, but her father was satisfied to know that he now had a means of protecting himself even within the realm of shadow.

-I hope you’re ready to work your magic, Diaden.- She briefly considered turning away from her task. Nobody would question three missing guards. Ragnar frequently killed his subordinates and never bothered to question who they were in the first place. It would be assumed he had done away with them or they left to avoid such punishment.

-No, I can’t give up. Not after learning what he is capable of doing.-

Doing some of her own research outside of the Elemental Plateau, Araelia read what she felt was closer to the truth. After taking the gauntlets from the xendauni, the elemental army hunted down much of the race on its way to wipe them from Pnumadesi. Those deemed worthy weren’t killed, but rather brought back to the Elemental Plateau, where the fire general’s brightest and most diabolical mages experimented on them.


One entire group had been set aside to test the effects of the gloves on them. Their own, lesser gauntlets were sewn to their arms so they couldn’t remove them without extreme pain and they were sent out in ones and twos for testing.

One extreme case detailed several days spent where water elementals slowly tortured a xendauni man or woman by wearing the Gauntlets of Brister and using the link between them to twist and warp the prisoner’s mind until nothing was left of who that xendauni was but a quivering, always fearful creature.

Steeling her resolve, Araelia strode to the doorway and walked through it. The spells on the door were meant to guard against any but Ragnar. Because she was of his lineage, Araelia passed through the wards without fear. Her father was well aware of this flaw in the magic, which was why she now faced the guardian of the gem.

-Answer as honestly as possible, or the dragon will kill you outright,- the woman reminded herself as the creature, a black-scaled monster both cunning and intelligent stared at her. Its head alone was easily large enough to smash her had it room to do so. Dragons of this breed particularly enjoyed their riddles and puzzles, she knew, so it only stood to reason that her father would ask one to be the first barrier to the onyx.

In a dry, parched voice, the dragon asked, “What are you doing here, Araelia, daughter of Ragnar?”

“I come to retrieve that which you guard,” she explained without looking it in the eye. She was reciting the words she and Diaden had practiced several times before she left Desmond to return home and recover the gem.

“The gauntlets or the stone?”

Before she realized what she was saying, Araelia asked, “The gauntlets?”

When she inquired about the fate of the Gauntlets of Brister, Ragnar told her that all she needed know was they were in a safe place. Asking some of the mages she could trust, the elementborn woman learned that he had at least attempted to destroy them, but the mystical gloves proved indestructible. None of her contacts within the keep could tell her where they were hidden, but it seemed now she had found out purely by coincidence.

The dragon shuffled to its left, “Then pass. The fire general has granted you permission to view the Gauntlets of Brister. Do not try to pass me, or I shall kill you. Do not try to take the gauntlets or I shall kill you.”

Part of her wanted to scream that she’d already ruined the plan. Another part of her, though, was glad at least to have this opportunity. Watching the black dragon, Araelia carefully walked down the left-hand path.

-Why store both the gauntlets and the gem down here, though?- She suspected trickery, her father was always up to something after all, but the woman couldn’t think of what.

Reaching into her faint, blue robes, Araelia pulled out the box Diaden had given her. Now that she was inside the dragon’s den, she could finally open it as instructed.

Pressing the sides of the lid, Araelia lifted it to reveal a pair of gloves that looked exactly like the Gauntlets of Brister, -He knew I would end up going after the gauntlets. Damnit Diaden, I wish you would have at least warned me first.-

Thinking about it, she realized that he may have saved her life. If she had known the gauntlets were down here as well, she would have been forced to make a choice. That was why Ragnar had placed both items within the den. He expected her to come down here at some point and try to take them. By placing the dragon here on guard, he would have assured her death when she couldn’t decide on a suitable answer to the beast’s request.

-Diaden, old friend, you never cease to amaze me.- She knew the mage had encountered Ragnar before and was the only person in the world to ever outwit the fire general, but his depth of consideration and counter-intuition almost scared her.

An almost indistinct popping sound, like a gas bubble in one of the swamps that dotted her homeland, indicated that Diaden’s stored spell had finished casting itself. Looking back at the gloves in the box, it seemed as though nothing had changed, but the magic that now emanated from the gloves inside told Araelia otherwise.

Shutting the lid, she turned and walked back to the dragon, who watched passively as she left back through the door and away from its den.

*****

Diaden held his arms out to embrace her as she stepped off the trail at the top of the Elemental Plateau, “Araelia, you made it. I was worried you might have gotten into trouble.”

She didn’t share in his joy and, rather than hug the man, handed him the box, “I got through fine, no thanks to you.”

He frowned, “Why’s that? Was I not there when we came up with the plan to retrieve the gauntlets? Did I not give you this very box with the fakes that would magically switch places with the authentic gloves?”

She looked at him with a measure of her father’s heritage burning in her eyes, “Our plan was to get the Gem of Power, not the Gauntlets of Brister.”

Diaden shook his head, “You must be confused, Araelia. Or maybe I am. Could just be my age getting to me. It’s getting time to cast my ritual again. Was the plan to get the onyx?”

She sighed, knowing all too well that he was likely telling the truth. Diaden had explained when they decided to start the resistance that this time of year was often when the ritual that stopped his natural aging wore off. During times like these, he would start to feel and act his age. Because he was technically still human, being close to seven-hundred and six years of age meant his mind and body deteriorated quickly when it wasn’t strengthened by the council’s ritual.

“Let’s get you home so you can do exactly that, then we’ll finish our conversation. As it turns out, it’s a good thing. My father set a trap that would have surely killed me if I knew about the gauntlets being there.”

“That’s nice, dear,” the mage said, patting her hand as she helped him to a horse he must have borrowed in case this happened. They had been close friends for going on sixty years, and he always planned ahead, even for when his power would wane again. “You remind me a lot of my sweet Jennie.”

He stopped walking, and she watched as tears fell from his eyes suddenly, “Oh how I miss her. It’s been almost thirty-four years you know, this next spring. You would have liked her, Araelia, and she you. I loved her so much.”

Trying to keep her own emotions in check, Araelia cleared her throat, “I know you did, my friend. Come now, let’s get home.”

*****

“What’s the plan?” With Diaden back to himself, Araelia wasted no time getting down to business, “If they find out the gloves I left are imitations, not even my status as Ragnar’s daughter will spare me his wrath.”

“Then we must act quickly,” Diaden replied. With his ritual cast, the color had returned to his cheeks and he had power in his voice once again. “Before Brister left, he gave me the instructions I needed to use the weakened powers of the gauntlets. They’ve got three charges in them to do what I’m planning.”

Araelia tilted her head the way she always did when the mage started to get ahead of himself, “And what, exactly, are you planning?”

“We should use the gloves to pass into the Black Forest at the Obsidian Wastes,” he started, then paused to gauge her reaction. Being of air heritage, she was proud to know she could sometimes baffle even him. This happened to be one of those times, so he continued.

“Once there, you…”

She stopped him, “Me!?”

He held up his hand, “Yes, you. You will go to the xendauni as proof of your dedication and give them the Gauntlets of Brister.”

“Two questions,” Araelia asked when her friend finally let her talk, “Why aren’t you going in, with me or alone, and what makes you think they won’t kill me as soon as I set foot in the forest?”

He shook his head, “I would go if I could, but, and you must carry this secret to your grave, the magic that holds the forest away from our dimension would cancel out my ritual’s power. As for your second question, I am not entirely powerless to help you. I will give you protection from the forest’s inherent power that would otherwise drain you to nothingness. The spell will also work as a sign the xendauni will recognize. They will be honor-bound to allow you to explain yourself before they decide whether or not to kill you.”

She coughed a little bit at his proposal, “That’s reassuring, I guess. So I’m just supposed to win them over with my charm?”

“And the gauntlets,” he reminded her, “those are tantamount to your success. Make sure you ask for Elder Segomo. By this time he should be the head of the council, so his decision will hold the most sway. I trust you’ll find him amicable.”

The mage smiled about something that he didn’t share with her, and though she couldn’t help but wonder what he wasn’t saying, Araelia let the man’s gesture go for the moment, “Alright, Diaden, when do we leave to start this grand scheme of yours?”

“Tomorrow morning. Tonight, I must consult with a colleague and help him with his own ritual. He’s not been using it as long as I, so there are still some things he needs assistance with.

She assumed he meant the white-haired man who sometimes visited the Desmond Capital home Diaden borrowed from Brister. Brister’s manor was specifically warded against elementals of any kind, and her companion didn’t want to destroy the carefully woven spells without good reason, so he always went alone to see the man he called Cheldaz.

-I wonder if he doesn’t break the wards in case I end up being a threat to him.- She wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case. Diaden always seemed prepared for every eventuality. Though he swore to never get himself in trouble by reading the Book of the Forgotten Bard in excess, she knew he did sometimes refer to the tome the other mage carried with him at all times, so he probably watched for changes in the text that would indicate she was backing out or changing allegiance.

Still thinking about Diaden’s many ulterior motives, Araelia bid her friend goodnight and went to her room to rest.

*****

Without a horse willing to let her ride it, Araelia and Diaden were made to walk the four months to the Obsidian Wastes. They traveled mostly at night to avoid having to explain her presence outside of the Elemental Plateau, let alone why she was traveling with a druid.

They made it to their destination without any trouble and prepared for her to use one of the gauntlets’ charges to get in.

“Remember, they will need to let you out using the second charge, then the xendauni will hold onto the gauntlets for the next fifteen years while you and I collect the Gems of Power. They will then send their champion to get the gems from us and call the forest back into reality.”

Araelia looked at the mage for a moment, “Why don’t we just get the gems first?”

“Because,” he answered immediately, “if the worst happens and we can’t continue on, the Gauntlets will still provide one of them a chance to continue the search. Without them, the xendauni will remain stuck as they are.”

She hadn’t thought of that. With a shrug, the pale blue, practically transparent woman allowed Diaden to cast his enchantments on her. When he was done, the man cut some of her hair and held it to the light. The strands turned blonde once they were separated from her, and her friend smiled as he placed them in one of his pouches, “You’ll be fine.”

Thoroughly protected, she took the Gauntlets of Brister from their box and walked to the edge of the Obsidian Wastes. Holding the gloves up, she watched as the roots of the trees that stood there almost five-hundred years before began to glow.

All at once, the air in front of her opened up, and through the tear Araelia could see dark trees that glowed purple as she neared them. With one last brave look to Diaden, she stepped through the opening and into the Black Forest.

*****

The xendauni captured Araelia moments after she was on their side of the tear between worlds. When the mage that traveled with them saw the wards placed upon her, he suggested they bring her to the capital for interrogation, and she told them she had come to speak only with Briac Segomo, elder of the xendauni.

They laughed at her bold nature until she showed them the Gauntlets of Brister. One of the soldiers suggested they kill her and take the gauntlets themselves, but the mage warned that the magic protecting her would surely destroy them all if they tried to do such a thing; so they resolved to follow the elementborn’s request and brought her to Elder Segomo.

In her time away from the Elemental Plateau, Araelia had heard many bards’ tales about love at first sight. Being elementborn, she was capable of such emotion, but never believed such a thing would ever happen.

After meeting the head elder of the xendauni, she believed. It was like a weight that was at once lifted from her shoulders and placed on her heart. Had she the power, she might have faded away into wisps of air like a true air elemental.

She could tell the man felt the same from the pale shade of blue his eyes turned and how he stammered over his introduction. For being almost two-hundred himself, Briac still acted quite young.

They negotiated for a while. She explained who she was and from where she came. She told the xendauni of Diaden’s help in recovering the artifacts from her father and their plan to retrieve the Gems of Power over the next fifteen years.

When all was said and done, Briac invited Araelia to stay and learn about his people. She was given a room in his home and treated like the ally she was. There were several members of the race that, for good reason, didn’t trust her. Most of the xendauni that remained in the forest had lost family in the second war of elements, and now their elder council was taking sides with the daughter of their most hated enemy. Araelia understood the hatred and took the glares and occasional jibes in her direction with a grain of salt.

After almost two weeks in the Black Forest Araelia had to leave. The gloves had worked their next charge back up, and the xendauni knew all that she could tell them until she returned with the Gems of Power. Briac told her that his son, Arawn, would be the one to collect the stones from her when the time came. She was excited to meet the sentinel prince, as he’d been away on his first mission during her stay.

Now that she stared back through the rift into Pnumadesi, almost six months had passed and the spring season was coming to an end. Before leaving the Black Forest, she gave Briac one final, heartfelt kiss and looked into his glowing, blue eyes, “I will see you soon.”

“It will be the longest fifteen years I have spent in the forest,” the xendauni elder told her. They hugged and she stepped through. It was the tearful goodbye she’d never had with anybody from her own race, least of all her parents.

The tear closed behind her again, and the elementborn looked around to see if her companion had returned for her as planned.

“I trust everything went well,” Diaden commented from his vantage point several yards away. It was as if he hadn’t moved from that spot since the day she left.

“Very well, actually,” Araelia responded with a coy smile. She took a moment to think back fondly on her time spent with the race that was supposed to be her mortal enemy, then walked to the green-robed man and gave him a hug, “I missed you, old friend.”

“And I you,” he replied, matching her embrace. “Come, much has happened these past months that I will explain as we make our way back to Desmond.”

*****

On the trip back south, Diaden brought Araelia up to speed on current affairs. The lord of Desmond passed away and was replaced by a dwarf heritage northern born man named Anthony. They would need to do their research on him, now that he would be the one in possession of the humans’ Gem of Power.

“Speaking of northern born,” the mage commented as they left Bristan one morning, “some fighting in the area of Frostwhelm between the elementborn and the dragonkin has made it hard to keep tabs on the pearl. I’ll see what I can do before we get there. Do you know anybody in that area who may be of some help?”

She frowned, “No. Alder and his mesh of elementborn are no allies to my father, but neither are they to be trusted. If we had to ask anybody, the earthen would be our best bet, but even they answer to him for the most part.”

Diaden’s brow furrowed, “Hmm, I’ll see what I can do to work that angle. Anyway, I have Cheldaz on his way to Annodam Territory to check on the emerald. We likely won’t see him for a couple years, and without his copy of the Book of the Forgotten Bard to aid us during that time, we’ll need to be careful.”

“Any word on the dwarves and the ruby?” It was the only gem not accounted for before Araelia left, and she was curious if Diaden’s search had panned out.

He shook his head, “Unfortunately not. Lord Helmhad refuses to say whether or not the gem is still in his possession, and he’s kept the secret of its whereabouts even from his son, Jeremiah.”

She wasn’t surprised to find that the mage had tried to subvert the dwarven ruler’s authority through his kin, but it did surprise her that the dwarf had seemingly guessed at such a possibility, thus blocking that path as well.

As if reading her mind, Diaden smiled, “I have no doubt that David somehow divined my attempts to learn where he kept the ruby. He and his son both have the faith, after all.”

“Is their whole family so blessed?” Araelia asked, half-jokingly.

The mage chuckled, “No, Lord Helmhad’s other son is becoming quite the mastersmith, though.”

Araelia was about to say something else when she suddenly doubled over and lost most of her breakfast on the path.

****

“Since you were only in the Black Forest for a little while, your body never acclimated,” Diaden explained to the suddenly very pregnant Araelia. “When you left, it raced to catch back up to the normal flow of time. Judging by your progress in the last week, I’d say you’re almost seven months along.”

Araelia was excited, scared, angry, and overjoyed all at once. She lay with Briac while they were together, but it never occurred to her that they might spawn a child together. Now she worried that she had jeopardized the mission before it even really started.

Diaden admonished the elementborn when she made her fears known, “Nonsense, my dear. This is a miraculous thing. There has never, even to my knowledge, been a child born to a xendauni and an elemental. Your son or daughter will be very unique indeed.” He helped her back onto the horse they bought because of her condition. The mage admitted that he hated doing it, but he charmed the beast so it would let her ride on it without trouble.

She realized something terrible and grabbed her friend’s shoulders, “I have to get back to the Elemental Plateau, now.”

Her friend was confused, “Why is that?”

“If the child is born more elemental than xendauni, it won’t be able to survive outside of the Elemental Plateau’s atmosphere for at least a year.”

That got his attention, “Then we must hurry to the plateau. Are you able to travel longer on less rest so we can?”

Araelia gave him a shaky smile, “I already can’t sleep, so we may as well travel.”

Diaden rubbed her knee in sympathy, “That will do.” He slapped the horse on its flank and mounted his own so they could finish their trip to Desmond Capital and the Elemental Plateau beyond.

*****

For the next month and a half, Araelia suffered as she and Diaden pushed to reach her homeland before she gave birth. Finally, as the sun rose on the fifteenth day of the fall season, the two friends climbed to the top of the plateau, where the fire general stood waiting for them.

Diaden was the first to spy Ragnar as his head rose above the mountainside on which he and Araelia climbed. Ducking, he very quickly blew a handful of dust in her direction, disguising her to look normal.

“I’ve already seen you, mage. If you run, I will kill you both as you try to climb back down the path,” her father’s voice rumbled like a kiln as a bellows was blown through it.

Frightened beyond all reason, Araelia started to cry while clutching her belly. The contractions had just gotten to a point where she knew her child would be with them any time now.

Undaunted, Diaden leaned down to her and whispered, “No matter what, act normal. If you want to get your child out of this safely, you must.”

She nodded and held her head high while they both stepped up onto the top of the range that separated her world from the one she had adopted.

“We have no reason to run, general,” Diaden told her father. “I am merely helping your daughter back into the plateau because I’d rather not give you a reason to take your hostility out on my people if something were to happen to her.”

Ragnar never took his fiery gaze off of Diaden as he addressed his daughter, “You stole the gauntlets from me. Where are they?”

“Safe,” Araelia said, trying to sound brave, “from you.”

Her father laughed, still watching Diaden, who hadn’t moved since speaking before. The sound reminded Araelia of a gnomish turbine she’d seen back in Helmdar as it started to spin.

“Nothing is safe from me, precious Araelia. Do you realize, mage, that you have broken the treaty by stealing the Gauntlets of Brister?”

With speed unexpected for a being his size, Ragnar reached the eight feet out to Diaden and slammed him hard enough to bowl him over.

But the mage did not move. In fact, her father’s fist passed right through him as a voice to Araelia’s right said, “I did nothing of the sort, general. An elemental ambassador brought the Gauntlets of Brister from the Elemental Plateau and bestowed them upon one of the races of Pnumadesi as a peace offering.”

Araelia and Ragnar both looked to where Diaden had moved. Seeing the man unharmed, the elemental roared in anger and turned as he drew his axe, “You’ve played your games for the last time, mage. Tell me, what name shall I burn into your tombstone?”

It was Diaden’s turn to laugh, “You’ll not learn my name this day. When at last you hear my name, general, it will be your last day on this plane of existence.” He dove back to avoid a slash from Ragnar’s axe. The weapon carved into the ground without meeting resistance and came back up just as easily.

Araelia knew Diaden was stalling. He didn’t have the magic to fight her father alone, so he was doing his best to tire the fire general out. Taking a step forward to try and help her friend, Araelia practically fell over as the contractions hit her once more. Bowing on one knee, she locked eyes with Diaden, hoping he could see that she was giving birth.

Diaden and Ragnar both looked away from where they faced off and the mage teleported to her side so he could help her lay down, but had to roll away to avoid being cleaved by her father’s axe.

“What is it you are hiding, Araelia?” Ragnar closed the distance with his daughter in two steps and picked her up by the throat. His flames wrapped around her like a blanket, stifling her and making it impossible to breathe.

“Let her go, general,” Diaden threatened weakly. “She is still your daughter. Don’t do anything rash.”

Ragnar laughed once more as he stepped to the edge of the plateau overlooking Desmond Capital, “Like this?” With a casual toss that sent the elementborn woman a dozen feet clear of the mountain, the elemental released his daughter to fall, screaming toward the ground below. Had she been healthy and not with child, the fall would do little to Araelia, but in her condition, it could prove fatal.

As her voice failed and silence reigned, Araelia saw several bright flashes of light back up top. One of the flashes hit just as she was having another contraction, and Araelia found herself having a vision. Diaden had told her that sometimes, when something in the world was about to change, those involved would have a vision.

She was watching a young boy with gray, nearly transparent skin and bright, monochrome blue eyes. He was doing something while Diaden coached him. Before her eyes, Araelia watched as the child’s body transformed. It became solid and a pale, flesh color. Thick, blonde hair grew from his head into a short crop styled like the Desmondi men and women she’d been around for decades.

When his transformation was complete, he quickly checked himself in the mirror given to him by her friend, “Did I do it, Diaden? Am I human?”

“You certainly are, Zen,” the man said as he embraced the boy in a hug. “Your mother would be proud.”

“I am,” Araelia said with a smile as her body struck the ground.

As my work on Children of Destiny continues, I thought it would be fun to offer a few tidbits of information, like a movie teaser, for each book. If you're looking to avoid spoilers, read no further.

-The Highborn King-

1) Something tragic happens to the main characters.

2) Emily returns.

3) Two Children of Destiny will battle

4) There will be a revelation about the Forgotten Bard.

-Born of the Elements-

1) Zen learns about Pnumadesi's past.

2) We find out what it takes to become a mastersmith.

3) Not all elementals are evil, not all mages are good.

4) The truth about the Gems of Power will be revealed.

For anybody watching my author page, you'll notice I now have both Children of Destiny novels up as placeholders.

Children of Destiny: Born of the Elements
Children of Destiny: The Highborn King

We're moving along with these two at a pretty decent pace, even while also fleshing out a separate commission project. If you'd like to check out the current status of these (keep in mind there are spoilers), you can check out their newest pages over on Shelfari by Amazon. While I continue to work on finishing the novels, Northwinter Press will continue to update the page with more information. Looking forward to keeping you informed. Enjoy!

Born of the Elements

The Highborn King

What follows is one account of the history of Pnumadesi, written as it was understood from the Book of the Forgotten Bard.

:The First Age:

In the first age of the world, when the gods were still present, they created the first races to walk on its surface. Dwarves, elves, and humans existed to make a worldly representation of the deities’ homes within the Astral Realm. This map of the universe at the center of its cosmos became the world of Pnumadesi.

Jealous of the gods’ creation, the elementals met with the divine beings and made their case that the map was incomplete without including the chaos from which the races of air, earth, fire, and water heralded. Reluctantly, the gods agreed, and lesser elemental beings joined the other races at the southern edge of the world.

The elementals were indifferent to the gods’ plans. With their control over the essence of Pnumadesi, they quickly rose to power over the other races and turned them to shaping the world which, by extension, changed the domains within the Astral Realm.

Before the elementals could deface the world entirely, the gods extrapolated from it a perfect image; an Overrealm. This realm became the perfect incarnation of the first world. Only the elves could enter the Overrealm, and because they wished nothing more than to cultivate the world as it existed, this layer of Pnumadesi would remain unchanged for millennia.

Unaware of the gods’ layering of Pnumadesi, the elementals continued their changes to the world. They leveled mountains, burned down great forests, and split realms with wind and water. Through all of this, the gods debated and lamented their plight and the suffering of the mortal races at the hands of the elementals. They knew what had to be done, and though some would later question the intentions of their brethren, the gods declared war upon the elementals.

The battle within the heavens quickly became a world war across Pnumadesi, as the dwarves and humans turned upon their elemental rulers, while the elves returned from the Overrealm with the gift of magic. The slender race taught their allies to use their new weapons against the enemy to devastating effect, and the war was over within two human lifetimes.

Unfortunately, those who fell during the great skirmishes across Pnumadesi were left to suffer and torment the many who survived. Distraught by what their warring caused, the gods created an echo of Pnumadesi, called the Underrealm, upon which the dead could exist out of sight and out of mind. The mortal races honored and grieved the fallen in their own ways. In answer to the prayers of the devout, the gods spent a fraction of their considerable power to restore some of the greatest heroes of the day to life.

Because many of their brethren had died in the conflict as well, the elementals were equally aware of the Underrealm and sent their own to be forgotten there. Unable to channel the gods’ divine magic, however, the elementals instead discovered its inverse and used their newfound power to steal the souls and bodies of the dead, raising them as a shadow of their former selves. Though they were defeated in the greater war, the elementals would use the undead to harass the other races in any capacity they could forever more.

Both the elementals and the gods appointed a guardian of the Underrealm who would govern the dead and help those who were able to pass to another life or the great beyond. Those who were particularly faithful were granted a resting place in the homes of their deities.


:The Gift of Creation:

With The mortal races greatly diminished because of the war, the gods were weakened. To bolster their worship, they gave the secrets of mortal creation and evolution to the elves and asked that they help regrow the world to its former beauty while they focused on repairing their own homes. But, like the dwarves and humans, the elves had been changed. Marred by the war, they now found weakness in the mortal races where before they saw only beauty. With the gods’ gift, they had the power to remove that weakness so the elementals would no longer be a threat.

The elves began experimenting with the creatures of the world, using different combinations of species, magic, and the essence of elementals captured during the war. After using the cleansing power of water to remove what they felt were their own flaws, one group of elves took to calling themselves children of the Overrealm, fey-blooded, or just fey for short. The fey then conceived of several races they felt were superior to the remaining elves, humans, and dwarves.

Earthen energies were siphoned to the brave and powerful Annodam dwarves, killing their males and warping the remaining females, making them larger, stronger, and violently obsessed with keeping their race alive.

The fey next turned the great and subtle powers of air upon the xendauni elves of the black forest. The magic of change imbued itself upon the xendauni and gave to them the power to transform and appear as other beings.

When the elementals discovered the new races upon Pnumadesi, they traveled to the lands of Ganalodel, where the fey held court. Utilizing their few remaining human slaves, the smallkin, the elementals stole a portion of the elves’ power back to the Elemental Plateau, where they would use it to create more beastial races they could rule unopposed.

In response to the theft, the fey turned the destructive power of fire on the human race living near the equator. Twisting and malevolent magic flowed into and through the race, burning into them a sense of righteous fury and a hatred for the elementals that unwittingly helped created them. This race accepted the name of fire-bred.

Not to be outdone, the elementals responded by changing some of their own pets, the dragons, into humanoid beings known as dragonkin. In a strange turn of events, many dragonkin betrayed the elementals and aligned themselves with the fire-bred and the xendauni. This forced the elementals to reply with more loyal subjects, goblins, minotaur, and the elementborn.

In their haste to counter the fey-blooded’s creations, the elementals damaged their source of power. The damaged piece was hidden away far at the frozen northern tip of the world, where not even the elves traveled. What remained of the power could only be used sparingly. A civil war grew out of arguments on how to utilize the power that forced the gods to return briefly so they could resolve it. But when the divine beings looked upon what the elves and elementals had done on Pnumadesi, they despaired.

:The World Sundered:

It was finally clear that the gods could no longer interfere with the races of Pnumadesi. They took the power they had given the elves away, but did not punish the race, for the fey did as they were told and helped repopulate the world; just not as the gods had intended. Angry at their loss of power, the elves ceased their worship of the deities and devoted themselves to nature instead. From then on, they would draw their divine magic from the Overrealm.

Since they still cared for the races that now covered the world of Pnumadesi, the deities did not want to destroy them, but they had to separate themselves from the plane to which they so closely associated themselves. To that end, they created one final race, the god-blooded. These heralds of the gods quickly spread throughout Pnumadesi to warn of the coming separation of the continents. Entire races that had spawned in the ages it took the god-blooded to prepare Pnuamdesi were relocated to what would become the continents of the world.

When the mortal races were as safe as they could be, the god-blooded reconvened on the eastern-most continent and sent word that Pnumadesi was ready to be sundered by the gods. After the world settled into its new configuration, the deities left it to grow and change on its own while they disappeared into the Astral Realm to watch from afar.

:The First War of Elements:

The elementals that remained on their own continent of Zufarig put an end their civil war and established generals on what remained of the central continent of Pnumadesi. The generals were given the last of the creation magic and were ordered to disrupt the other races so the elementals could once more rule the world.

The generals were immediately met with resistance from the humans, xendauni, dwarves, dragonkin, and fire-bred who lived along their borders. By the time the elves, and the annodam arrived, the elementals had already captured several groups from the resistance and used their magic to change them into beastial races including the ursaren, moonbred, and gnolls.

The animalistic warriors ravaged the mortal races and captured even some of the elven and annodam forces before they could be restrained. The elementals delighted in torturing their most hated of enemies from the first days of the world. They stripped away what divine and natural connection many of the elves had, turning them into creatures of shadow and leaving them to the Underrealm. The shadowkin were then let go to cause havoc among the dead, but most of the race exiled themselves to the continent of Meptbidin instead, where they could learn to accept their new lives away from their blessed cousins.

From the strongest of their opponents, the elementals bred ogres, orcs, and other deadly, powerful creatures lacking in intelligence and eager to follow.

Finally, unable to affect the xendauni with what little power they had left, the elementals took a different approach. They created special canines with the ability to revert a xendauni to its natural state with only its bark. These beasts became known as xendaugs and were sprinkled throughout the continent of Pnumadesi where they intermingled with regular dogs until the two were indistinguishable from each other.

Once xendaugs were populace enough, the elementals began a campaign against the xendauni. They claimed that the race was out to subvert the other mortal races of Pnumadesi and take them over. According to the elementals, they fought for a world free from xendauni control.

When several examples of their exploits were revealed to the masses, the xendauni were no longer safe to come and go among the other races. Their ability to look like any creature was suddenly met with skepticism and fear that they would try to take over if they could sneak into the greater society. To avoid the backlash of the elementals’ deceit, they closed themselves off in the Black Forest and became increasingly xenophobic.

:The Mages’ Council of Pnumadesi:

When the human kingdoms of Pnumadesi could no longer hold out against the elementals in what had been officially declared the First War of Elements, the greatest spellcasters of their age met and formed the Mages’ Council of Pnumadesi. The council would direct the other races and train those who wished to know about arcane, divine, and natural magic. Unwilling to teach the other races about their own fey magic, the elves excluded themselves from the council and closed off Ganalodel with a powerful spell that would turn even the most savage of creatures into peaceful interlopers.

With the elves hidden away, the council approached the xendauni and brought them back into the fold. The shape-changing race proved adept with both arcane and natural magic. With the aid of moonbred who had since revolted from the elementals, the xendauni even developed a style of fighting that gave them an advantage few others had. Where arcane magic could be countered with some practice, sentinels could rely more on their natural instincts to defeat the elementals.

In search of a place to call their own, the mage council traveled to most of the countries in western Pnumadesi before they found what they had been looking for.

The Veriqhan Plains was the region of Pnumadesi to which several of the elementals’ minotaur armies moved and changed their ways after the world was sundered. The plains also happened to sit directly over a cross section of the ley lines that ran through all of Pnumadesi.

After a peaceful gathering with the now tribal minotaur of the Veriqhan Plains, the mage council established Magelord Keep over a vein of potent natural and arcane magic. From here, they were able to increase their talents and power enough to rival the strongest of elemental spellcasters.

:The Books of the Forgotten Bard:

Around this time, strange tomes began to crop up across Pnumadesi that detailed the past, present, and future of the world. Nobody knew who penned the first book, or how they were linked, but the council dubbed and marked each tome as a Book of the Forgotten Bard. Some believed the tomes to be a parting gift from the gods in the war against the elementals, while others held to the belief that a single being from outside of Pnumadesi’s time and place in the cosmos wrote the book in the final days of the world and sent it back in time to warn them.

However they came to be, the Books of the Forgotten Bard became powerful tools in the battles against the elementals, but they had a terrible drawback as well. When the tomes were read by most mortals, even the magelords who now headed the council, the readers would become obsessed with their own history, forever reading the book until they died from common ailments such as malnutrition or insomnia.

In spite of the danger they posed, the Books of the Forgotten Bard were still sought after by the rulers of kingdoms, the leaders of armies, and scholars hoping to find they were lucky enough to be immune to the lingering effects. Several human nations and one dwarven kingdom soon fell as a result of the artifacts’ great influence.

At first, the tomes were believed to be cursed. As many as could be found were collected and destroyed, only to be rediscovered in a new location the following day. Since it was obvious they couldn’t just destroy the Books of the Forgotten Bard, the mage council decided instead to hold onto the copies they found and store them for the good of the mortal races.

:The Children of Destiny:

There were some among the council, and even throughout the greater continent, who could read the Books of the Forgotten Bard without fear for their safety. These individuals often found their own history unreadable. Something about the magic of the tomes couldn’t pick up on what would happen to them because every possible outcome was changeable with the slightest choice.

After much research, the council deemed these relatively rare and unique individuals the Children of Destiny, for it was they who could change the fate of others with the decisions they made, for good or ill. When they discovered one of these special individuals, the magelords would go out of their way to encourage them to join the fight against the elementals. This didn’t always work out, and some Children of Destiny even allied themselves with the enemy, willingly or otherwise.

Children of Destiny shared another trait between them. Each was an optimal specimen of their race, able to pass on traits from their heritage to any race with whom they mated. Since most races intermingled regularly anyway, nobody ever questioned the existence of half-breeds, but there was more to the offspring of the Children of Destiny. Their lineage could be found and traced back several generations.

This became apparent when, for example, a child born to dwarven parents had elven traits. Those with lesser traits became members of a heritage, while those with stronger ties to their parent races became members of a legacy.

Looking back through the past history of the world, the mage council learned that Children of Destiny had actually been around since the first wars between the elementals and the gods. They were always portrayed as great heroes or villains, but nobody ever linked them together until they discovered the Books of the Forgotten Bard.

:Culmination:

With so many sudden developments, the Mage council was positively overwhelmed with candidates. The vedros, dwarves born with a knack for arcane magic, were soon tasked with tracking the Books of the Forgotten Bard, of which a few copies remained in the possession of the council. Masters of the language of magic, the vedros were able to quickly and succinctly document every known race, heritage, and legacy. They kept this information in their Great Library under Vedros Island off the western coast of Pnumadesi.

The vedros also learned how to tie their own historical journals to the Books of the Forgotten Bard and set out across the whole of Pnumadesi to document every last piece of information they could ever find.

Meanwhile, the council was finally ready to put an end to the First War of Elements, which had now gone on for the better part of six human life-times. When at last they met in combat, the elementals found that the council had used an ancient ritual the gods left behind to artificially extend their lives. The powerful spellcasters they battled in this age were the same they had fought previously.

To make matters worse for the mages’ enemies, the information they gleaned from the tomes helped them strategize and review their battles so they could improve over time. The elemental’s advantage of being nigh immortal had at last been overcome and they were beaten back into their plateau. The mortal races had finally won.

:Changing Times:

With the war over, the Children of Destiny moved on with their lives and helped found great societies, but they were not meant to lead in such a way. To keep them from becoming drunk on power, the mage council ruled that no Child of Destiny could be the leader of a free country without the blessing of a member of the council and no member of the council could rule a country without the blessing of all other members. Only those who could provide other benefits to the regions of Pnumadesi would be fit to rule otherwise.

The council’s decree led the humans on the eastern half of the continent to elect their greatest of artisans, the mastersmiths to office, while the mages took the western countries and divvied them up between them. Each country was named for its new ruler, and efforts were put forth to help form each society.

Ever mindful of another assault by the elementals, the xendauni left the safety of their forest at the end of the war and earned back the trust of the new nations by training them in the arts of the sentinel. In particular, the race earned the respect of the men of Fedeck, whom they taught to breed special horses capable of travelling faster and longer than any other on the continent. With its centralized location on Pnumadesi, Fedeck soon became the chief means of passing mundane messages and letters between the countries quickly and safely.

There was relative peace for several generations, during which members of the mage council found there were limits to their ritual. When most of the original group passed on, the remaining few elected new members and taught them their secrets and the ritual as well. This new council usurped the rule of the mages’ countries and renamed them for themselves. There was a brief and poorly documented fallout between the eldest council members and the new that, when resolved, left an opening in the mortal races’ defenses through which the elementals could once again break through.

:Repercussions:

Just as the Mages’ Council of Pnumadesi learned from their mistakes during the First War of Elements, the elementals assaulted Pnumadesi once again with a force and vigor not seen since before the gods abandoned the world. Much of this new ferocity was found to be a result of a new fire general who brought with him a different strategy that threatened all life.

The great fire elemental had convinced his brethren to allow him to spearhead the advance into Pnumadesi. He gave no quarter, held no negotiations, and left nothing in his wake. Everywhere the elementals went on their new crusade, death and destruction followed.

Unfortunately for the mage council, none of their generation were Children of Destiny, so they couldn’t safely read from the Books of the Forgotten Bard. Without the wisdom of their elders to guide them, many of the spellcasters who comprised the council turned to infighting and bickering.

While the mages argued over how best to protect the continent, the eastern countries were left to fend for themselves, so the xendauni, with the aid of the other mortal races and the few mages who cared more for the greater societies of Pnumadesi, organized and declared the Second War of Elements.

:The Second War of Elements:

The elementals quickly gained footholds in Desmond, Shieldbarrel, and Zalery and started their progress north with the intent of seizing all of eastern Pnumadesi. From there, they would make their push west and finish the mage council. Then something miraculous occurred.

As if in response to the reignited tensions and war, Children of Destiny were once more becoming prominent among the mortal races. This fact was brought to light by one mage who suffered his own lapse of sanity to discover them. Before wiping his own memory so he would not devolve further into reading from the tomes, the mage passed along the secret to tapping the Children of Destiny’s power when they may not see it themselves.

With the secret divulged, the mage hid himself away for a time within the Black Forest, where the xendauni continued to lead the defense of the southern countries. He used his magic to transform the forest itself into a weapon against the elementals. When he was fully recovered, the mage set out on a great quest across the eastern half of Pnumadesi to create a more accessible and potent weapon.

As the elementals continued forward into Pnumadesi, they were stalled and eventually beaten back at the home of the race that had become their greatest rivals since the elves. The fire general was unable to progress through the forest and suffered heavy losses trying to go around.

In the meantime, the dwarven king of Shieldbarrel and his bravest of divine warriors sacrificed themselves to sanctify the ground of their country so that the elementals could no longer tunnel through it and get to them. The earth general was forced to rely on his mortal allies, the orcs, to keep the dragonkin and the fire-bred occupied while he worked to find another way in.

Seeing that the mage council had still not resolved their differences, and tired of fighting off elementals on three fronts, eight of the eastern-most countries of Pnumadesi formed one united entity and named themselves the Octacracy.

Over the next twelve years, the Octocracy sealed itself away behind both a magical and physical barrier that many started to call the Great Wall. Once they were entirely closed away from the rest of Pnumadesi, the Octocracy declared themselves independent of the Mages’ Council of Pnumadesi and ceased their war with the elemental generals of earth, air, and water.

:The Treaty:

The Octocracy’s declaration of independence finally convinced the mage council to act. They sent envoys to the elementals with a deal that even the fire general was willing to accept. If the elementals quelled the war, the mages would sign a treaty that outlawed arcane magic in the countries not under mage rule and greatly limited the use of divine and natural magic to those born with a talent for either. This would mean the council could no longer, legally, leave their homelands on the western half of Pnumadesi.

Suspicious of the mages’ intentions, the elemental generals added the stipulation that education would be similarly restricted so that future generations could not even read of the past. Since the mages would be safe in their own countries, they agreed without quarrel. The treaty was enacted and the war was ended for all but a sparse few who felt the mage council had done Pnumadesi a great harm by signing away their power.

When the Mages’ Council of Pnumadesi realized what they had done, they sought out the vedros, who now lived exclusively beneath their island and away from the remaining two dwarven capitals of Helmdar and Stonesour. The head of vedros society, who held the esteemed title of Librarian, consulted the vedros’ copy of the Book of the Forgotten Bard and determined that the mages would eventually be killed off by the angered races of the continent if something wasn’t done to distance them from the rest of Pnumadesi.

Taking the Librarian’s words literally, the mage council was thoroughly divided on how to prevent their fate. Until now, most of the younger generation of magelords kept themselves in check only through lying, cheating, and manipulating their fellow spellcasters. Some argued that they should just relocate to another continent, while others saw no reason to leave their home. They felt the Librarian could be mistaken and wanted to see how everything transpired.

:The Last Magelord:

Unable to cope with how much everything had changed, the last remaining member of the original council went outside of his fellow magelords and elected his own replacement. With the aid of his only friend and ally on the council, the mage sought a Child of Destiny, who he felt had proven a perfect candidate to help bring some semblance of control back to the Mages’ Council of Pnumadesi.

When they found the one they were looking for, the boy was waiting for them. It seemed he had learned to read from the Book of the Forgotten Bard at a young age and could even decipher some of his own story by reading about those who surrounded him. By doing this, he was well aware of why the mage had come and accepted his new role as the youngest magelords ever inducted to the council.

Satisfied that his decision had been the right one, the spellcaster gave his life to pass his magic, along with his wisdom, to the man who would take his place. When it was done, both mages, new and old, said their goodbyes to the man who brought them together as friends and returned to western Pnumadesi.

When they reached Veriqhan and the seat of the mage council’s power, the two mages tried to convince their equals that the decision made in their absence was far too dangerous and could destroy all of Pnumadesi. The council ignored the words spoken directly from the Book of the Forgotten Bard, though, claiming the young mage was not a true member of the council because he had not been properly elected.

Outvoted and outnumbered, the mages left back to the eastern half of the continent to try and prepare it for a potential apocalypse.

:The Separation of Pnumadesi:

By tapping into the nexus of power beneath Magelord Keep, the mage council created a mighty spell to rival the power of the gods. Calling upon the power of a being so chaotic that even the elementals locked it away in the center their plane in the astral realm, the council summoned a mighty Leviathan to chew its way through the very ley lines of Pnumadesi, splitting the continent in two and disrupting the flow of the oceans across the entire world.

Quickly, the mages acted while they still wielded their great magic to raise an island that was just west of the continent high into the air and suspend it over the new western edge of Pnumadesi. This new moon was named the Watcher, and the mages would use it for purposes unknown to the rest of the world.

Finally, with the last power garnered from their spell, the council moved their new home far enough away from Pnumadesi that none could see it without finding some way across the still very active Leviathan. They named this new land Pnumadeja in honor of their lost home. Since only some who remained on Pnumadesi had the power to do this, the mage’s were confident they would be safe from the foretold danger.

With the Watcher in place, the tides around what was left of the continent returned to normal, though the rest of Pnumadesi was changed forever. The islands that were considered the continent of Yokaizi Deren found land bridges suddenly connecting them and bringing alien societies together for the first time in eons. The resulting tides clashed between Yokaizi Deren and Cas’Dilae, and a whirlpool powerful enough to even cancel magical means of travel destroyed trade routes maintained for centuries, followed soon after by the societies supported by those routes.

:Faltering Magic:

The imperfect separation of Pnumadesi further crippled arcane magic on the continent, forcing the spellcasters who remained there back to a point where they had to choose whether to relearn their talents, move on to a different life, or retire. Similarly, the other forms of magic began to concentrate and build up until they would spill over. Children, particularly those related to dwarves and humans, were born with a condition now known as Having the Faith. They could still use divine power as potently as priests of the past, while others were greatly diminished.

In areas where natural magic became overly strong, tears into the Overrealm would occur and the fey-blooded found they were once again part of Pnumadesi. This also meant that others could now venture into the Overrealm if they could find a path. The fey would spend the next few centuries trying to maintain their realm from the taint that permeated Pnumadesi.

So too were concentrations of the elementals’ shadow magic building up and causing tears into the Underrealm, through which undead creatures and monsters of nightmare rose to haunt the living. One particularly dangerous type of beast, called the syn, would spring up from the deaths of those killed before their time. Ravenborn, agents of the queen of the dead, now worked endlessly to keep the realms from collapsing upon one another by keeping the undead in line and preventing the living from overflowing into their lands.

With magic so unreliable, even the elementals were forced to retreat and reevaluate their place before they took full control of the continent. This provided the only opportunity the mortal races would have in the next five-hundred years to remove them once and for all.

:Brister’s Folly:

The last three mages on Pnumadesi found each other and were able to retrain some of their own power together before one of them, who only now returned from his adventure across the continent, revealed that he had finally completed his perfect weapon. After transporting the gauntlets that would be the end of the elementals to the xendauni, the mage stood by and watched as the race made one final, disastrous push into the Elemental Plateau. An early success against their ancient and immortal enemy became the xendauni’s doom when the wielder of the gauntlets was tricked by the fire general and killed for his impudence.

Now in control of the gauntlets, the fire general strode, unopposed by the other races of Pnumadesi, to the Black Forest, where he used the power of the collected artifacts to banish the region and its denizens to their own dimension. He then separated the gauntlets from their power source, the Gems of Power, and gave the gems away to the remaining opposing races in exchange for accepting the elementals as their overlords. The governing bodies of each country would remain, but anything found to be a direct threat to the elementals would be stamped out; if not by the elementals, then by the other countries who wished only to have peace at last.

Utterly defeated, the mages dispersed and hid for four and a half centuries while the continent suffered under false leaders who answered directly to the elementals. In order to maintain some hope that they would one day free themselves again, the races of Pnumadesi elected to send men and women from each region to the southern country of Desmond, where a standing army could be kept to prevent the largest group of elementals from decimating them entirely.

:Resurgence:

At a time when Pnumadesi forgot about any other continent but their own, and when humans had all but forgotten the xendauni, a sudden emergence of Children of Destiny began again in the northern regions of Pnumadesi. The first to be recognized was an elven girl born to the region of Ganalodel.

As the girl grew and trained to be a hunter, the hidden mages, who were waiting for this sign, knew that the world was ready again to try and cleanse itself of the elementals. After spending the last age studying, living relatively normal lives, and looking for clues, they met once more at the doorstep to the Elemental Plateau. It was here that, with the aid of the Book of the Forgotten Bard, they decided on a plan of action.

From the uniform and militaristic country of Desmond, they set out to tap others who would aid them in the days ahead. While the other two moved north and east, one of the spellcasters turned his sights to the plateau itself. From the very homeland of the fire general, a small resistance had formed.
This remaining pocket resistance worked under cover for some time, and eventually gained its greatest ally in the fire general’s elementborn daughter when she secretly defected from her people to lead the revolution. Through much effort, the mage was able to earn the trust of the resistance, and their leader with them.

Enacting his part of the plan, the mage brought the elementborn north, where most of them separated and moved to the frozen area of the continent to form their own society out of the reach of the fire general. To aid them, the second mage had negotiated on behalf of the resistance and worked out a tentative peace with the dragonkin and the northernborn humans who inhabited the country. The mage himself returned south with his compatriot to pass along the rightful use of his home before he lost it to the Desmondi government.

While the two spellcasters sorted out their affairs in Desmond, the third ran into some trouble in the east when he was intercepted by a rogue water elemental and forced to use his copy of the Book of the Forgotten Bard to set up events that would eventually lead to the tome falling into the hands of another Child of Destiny who was recently born to the annodam.

With everything prepared, the fire general’s daughter snuck back into her former home and stole the legendary gauntlets, which she brought to her ally. Together, she and the mage traveled to where the Black Forest was banished and the elementborn used the gauntlets to get into the forest where she could give them over to the xendauni once again. In fifteen years’ time, the elementborn told her new allies, she hoped to also recover the Gems of Power so they could finally return to the real world and end her father’s rule once and for all.