choose your own adventure, a second preview…
…since the game will begin on Monday.
Meanwhile, let’s have that preview!
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Concerning the foundation of the Two Orders:
For many years, the heirs of High King Malahan Pendragon ruled over their new kingdom, the realm of Andomhaim, and were fruitful and multiplied, and grew wealthy and prosperous.
Yet other races dwelled in this new world, races who had waged war against each other for longer than mortal man dwelled upon the Old Earth, and some looked upon mortal men as prey.
Thus the knights of Andomhaim waged war against the orcish tribes, the manetaur kingdoms, the wolfborn, and diverse other foes. In time the orcs paid heed to the missionaries who came among them, and forsook their idols and accepted baptism. And the orcish king of Maluusk swore fealty and homage to the High King, and peace reigned over the land.
And then the urdmordar came.
Before them marched their slaves, the great hosts of northern orcs, filled with feral rage and worshipping gods of blood and death. With them came the corpses of the slain, raised from the churchyards and the barrows by the black sorcery of the urdmordar. In their van marched the dark elves, the worshippers of the darkness, who delighted in cruelty and slaughter. And at last came the urdmordar themselves, invincible and immortal, wielders of dark magic beyond compare. For no earthly steel could harm them, and all the world worshipped them as gods, and the urdmordar desired to humble the stern lords of Andomhaim.
And the urdmordar and their slaves made the armies of Andomhaim as wheat on the threshing floor. The realm was overthrown, and valiant knights slain beyond count. The High King Caradoc Pendragon and his loyal men retreated beyond the walls of the royal fastness of Tarlion, and despaired of all hope, and determined to fight to the end.
And then the Keeper came to the gates of Tarlion, and with him came Arhythain, the last mage of the high elven realm of Cathair Solas, for all the other high elven kings had otherwise been conquered and overthrown by the urdmordar over long millennia of struggle.
“Behold, High King of Andomhaim,” spake the Keeper, “I come with aid and counsel. Our realm is overthrown, and only the walls of Tarlion stand fast. Long tradition has decreed that among the folk of Andomhaim, only the Keeper may wield magic. Yet my powers are not enough to stave the dark tide from the north. We must change or perish utterly. Noble Arhythain will unlock the powers of the ancient Well in Tarlion’s heart, and teach our folk to wield the power of his ancient ancestors.”
To this the High King consented, and thus the two Orders were born upon that day. The first, the Swordbearers, knights noble and true, wielding blades quenched in the waters of the Well and bestowed with the powers to wound creatures of darkness. The second, the Magistri, learned and disciplined, trained to unleash the magic of the Well itself against their foes.
And so Prince Calenhard, the High King’s brother, took up the High King’s sword of Excalibur, which had been reforged into a soulblade upon the Well, and became the first of the Order of Swordbearers, and he led the men of Andomhaim against the urdmordar and their hordes…