Once upon a time there was a woman of great influence. She was soon to be betrothed to the most powerful king in the land, and she would rule the great kingdom of Latium.
As time progressed she became loved by her people for her great kindness, but on the day of her wedding, trouble arose and brought with it tragedy. As she was preparing for the ceremony, her door was burst open by a messenger.
“Your Ladyship, the … the king is… being called to battle.”
Rival king, Gerumond, tyrant leader of Nirdam, had started a war on the border and broken the treaty. Her king was off to put an end to things before it actually became all out war across the lands. Dark clouds rolled over the kingdom the moment he left.
Several days later there came a terrible storm, strong winds and monsoon like rains washed over Latium. The would-be queen stood atop her highest tower and screamed her will to the gods for her husband, her king to be returned to her. She swore to them an oath that would one day change the fate of the kingdom, nay the entire world.
Her words never reached the gods, but they did not fall on deaf ears. Her words reached deeper into the earth than ever into the skies, and her call would be answered. The next night the storm raged harder than ever, and again the queen stood atop the tower cursing the gods, but she was cut short by the image in her peripheral vision. There, across the tower stood her king in bloodied battle armor.
“Oh my love, thou hast returned thyself to me from the wretched teeth of war.”
“Yes my dear, I have returned, quickly to the chambers, we must consecrate our betrothal!”
“What are you saying milord?” terror washed over her face, as his voice sounded vague and inhuman.
“TO THE CHAMBERS YOU HARLOT!” He rushed at her and grabbed her arms, dragging her down to the bedroom. As they entered the room, he took his true form, a demonic form. He threw her to the bed and pounced on her. He ravaged her, despite her efforts to fight back. He struck her once with his elbow and quenched her consciousness and her will.
The dark deed was done long before any of her guards could get into the room. There they found the demon standing above her with a twisted grin and laughing. They drew on him, but he raised his hand and began to speak.
“Kill me if you like, but I have already set in motion a destiny that will lay waste to your kingdom. There will be no stopping the rule of the netherworld now… hehehhahahHAHAHAHAH—“ The beast was cut down mid-laugh, pierced through the heart by the guards.
Nine months later, the king returned victorious to his kingdom. He found his bride in her chambers, in labor. He was infuriated, and drew his sword to kill her for her infidelity but stopped when his eyes fell upon two children, twins, one female and the other male. An heir was born, and he looked just like the king. The king decided he could use this to his advantage, he took the children and ordered that the girl be left out in the wild.
That night the royal guard took the girl outside the castle gates with intent to toss her aside… but he was jumped by poisonous snakes and killed. The girl’s whereabouts remained unknown for sixteen years.
The male child grew up, raised as a prince, and with every passing year became more and more like his adopted father. His father was aging and decided to hold a ceremony announcing his son as heir to the throne. His mother the queen sat in her room preparing for the ceremony when a fog rolled across her floor and a deep chill swept the room. She turned to ask her handmaidens to shut the windows, and found them dead on the floor.
“Guar—mphh” She was cut short by an unknown force holding her mouth shut. The lights in the room dimmed some, as if something was blocking the sun itself. Her eyes traced to the window, and what she saw paled her skin and took her breath.
“Hello mother… happy to see me?” The silhouette spoke before stepping into the room.
This is what had become of the daughter she was forced to give up. Twisted and ravaged by dark magics she had become a foul and dangerous creature of dread.
“You let him cast me aside like the runt from a b***h’s litter. Is that what I am to you, mother? IS IT? Am I just a runt, not fit for training or even breeding? Just some trash you can cast aside and move on with your perfect life? Well, you’ve unchained a wrath greater than any other… you have opened a portal to a hell you will never escape from. You have invoked the furious rage of the netherworld. I will bring hell on this lands, and I will do it with your essence."
With that, the young woman pounced on her mother and tore out her heart with her bare hands. She painted a ritual circle on the floor with the blood and devoured the heart before her mother’s eyes just before she passed away from the blood loss. The girl laughed, for she knew that she had just set in motion the wheels of apocalypse.
That moment a priest entered the room to speak with the woman, and found himself staring at the end of the demonic ritual. He reached for his holy book and pulled the crucifix from his robe in preparation to vanquish the demon, but his actions were thwarted by the woman striking him with her claw-like-fingernails. His throat split open pouring crimson to the castle floor. Guards rushed into the room weapons at the ready, they attacked her from all angles, but she was too quick for them, she spun and slid around all their strikes taking down a few of them before making her escape towards the cathedral where the ceremony had begun.
She darted through the crowd until she reached the stage. She leapt up to the stage and in one fell swing killed the king and his two bodyguards leaving only the grand priest and her brother standing alive. She turned to the panicked crowd and raised her hands and shouted out to them.
“People of Latium! Fear not for I have taken the lives of those I came to kill, my purpose here is done, and I wish you luck with your new king. Let it be known that I will give birth to the one that will change the fate of this world, and unleash the netherworld realm upon you all. I bid you adieu.” And with that she vanished, not to be heard from again for many a year to come.
Seventeen years passed by and the kingdom prospered under its new king. He incorporated the church into his law bringing a peaceful religion across his lands. The kingdom entered a period of tranquility and prosperity never before heard of anywhere. The new king had set in motion a peace treaty that would be signed setting in motion peace across not just his kingdom, but the entire continent. The night before the treaty was to be signed a dreadful storm rolled into the kingdom. A dark legion appeared on the horizon, a hundred strong at least.
The king sent out his army to meet the legion. They marched out and were ambushed by a small group, but easily overcame them. Grueling battle began, and the king’s men proved they were the better. They slaughtered all but a single unit in a matter of hours. The sun began to rise, a red sun, as if soaked in blood.
The remaining unit evaded the main troops and made it to the castle gates. The leader turned out to be two people on horseback. One was the demon girl that assassinated the previous king, the other, was apparently her daughter. The elderly demon woman was taken down by the archers on the castle wall, which sparked rage in the young woman. She dismounted her horse and drew her weapons, she barked orders at her guards in a strange tongue and they dropped their helmets. The king’s army stopped dead in their tracks, frozen with terror.
“Attention Latium, I am Danika. Birthed of a demonic mother, spawn of a ravaged and murdered queen. I am here to unleash hell upon you. I will open the gates to the netherworld. The soldiers you see with me are Ogres, demonic creatures spawned from pure hatred, fueled by greed, and more powerful than you can imagine. I will claim these lands in the name of Danika, queen of the netherworld!”
She turned to the king’s army and thrusted her hands forward. Green mist formed around her and a green orb formed at her palms. She was casting one of the darkest spells known in the magic world, Acriduum Noctum, Poison of the Night.
The army fell ill instantly, their skin boiled and peeled away, it was like the black plague was taking its course in a matter of seconds. After a few minutes all that remained were piles of bones, armor and weaponry. The entire militia demolished by one spell.
“Tell me Latium King, dost thou doubt my power? Bow to me or perish!”
But unbeknownst to her the king had called for the holy church to assist. Their most powerful clerical mages were readying a powerful spell as she spoke. They would seal her demonic presence into the ethereal plane, never to return unless the seal be broken.
She pushed open the gates with her magic and marched her ogres into the square. White runes surrounded her, and as the mages chanted she began to scream in pain. A white crystal formed around her entrapping her and containing her magic.
“You haven’t heard the last of me! The netherworld will claim my soul from the prison and I will return immortal and omnipotent to slay each and every one of you…” Her cries changed into the strange tongue as before as the crystal began to shrink down to a hand-sized jewel.
The king, escorted by the mages, retrieved the jewel and took it to a blacksmith. The jewel was to be crafted into the hilt of a sword. The blacksmith nodded and began his work. After two weeks he brought the weapon before the king.
The jewel had changed color to crimson during the forging process but the mages agreed that no damage to the seal had been done. The sword was given to a great knight that had survived the battle against Danika. He was to take the sword to a location that would be sufficiently difficult to find so that no one would ever be able to break the seal. The knight set out on his journey, leaving the king and his advisors from the church with a difficult decision. The knight would know the location, and he could reveal it to anyone, he could not be trusted. They finally reached an agreement that he must be killed to end all ties to the sword and the sealed evil it contained.
The mages conjured a great dragon upon notice of the knight’s return. The great flaming beast challenged the knight to combat in the great arena. The knight agreed, on the condition that he could spend the night with his wife before the fight in case he died in battle. The dragon agreed to his terms and waited in the arena. That night, the gladiator spent his final hours with his wife, and in the morning prepared himself for battle.
He met the dragon in glorious battle in the pit, now known as the Pit of the Dragon, and they fought for days. The dragon finally bested the knight, and the king and church were relieved knowing that all ties to the sword were now severed. They were confident that the seal would never be broken.
“And that is the legend of the netherworld queen. As to its truth, no one can be certain. The world’s greatest treasure hunters have searched for the sword, but come up with nothing. It has been decades since that time, and everyone has pretty much given up on it. Most folk on the street have never even heard the name Danika, the only ones that remember are the very few descendants of the soldiers killed by her spell and those who enjoy gathering historical knowledge.”
The old man smiled at the children as he stood up closing his book. “That is all for today children, I will have another story for you next week. You should be getting home to your parents and starting your chores.”
The children stood up and ran out of the corridor heading home. Their banter was full of talk about becoming a great knight to fight dragons, visiting the Pit of the Dragon, and searching for the sword to become rich and famous. The old man chuckled knowing he’d hear it from their parents for filling their heads with legends about evil. He didn’t care it took their minds off the horrible times they were in. Lodis had come to their town and taken full control. They were on a ‘holy crusade’ to rid the lands of heathens and sinners. By that they of course meant that they would take control of your city and kill any that didn’t comply. The Lodis knights had slain many in the name of their god, Lodis. Their little town of Baratia had complied after a hothead farmer told the knights to hit the road found himself in a few different places at once, so to speak. Saradin was unwilling, but he enjoyed living more than anything so he pretended to follow their ways in order to continue his craft of storytelling. He enjoyed taking the children to another time, or another world with his stories, just to make their lives a little happier in these times of war.
The Lodis Crusade had upset several of the bigger kingdoms. They had no intention of letting Lodis force their religion on them, and war had broken out across the lands. The kingdoms of Hiatha, Palatanea, Winnea, and Latium held the biggest armies and were working out an agreement to combine forces and put a stop to this crusade before things got out of hand, and their traditional religion was wiped from the earth, left only to be documented in Lodis history books.
Latium is the mastermind of the ordeal, they have sent messenger to each of the other three kingdoms in hopes that they will agree to work together, but there is definitely tension between the powers. Hiatha has been on the verge of war with Winnea and Palatanea for years, and Palatanea has never shown much trust in Latium’s peaceful ways. The kingdoms current ruler, King Platon Richmondt, is wrought with worry over whether his plan will work, or if the other kingdoms will fall to Lodis, strengthening their forces, making the overall outcome grim.
Saradin entered his backroom and closed the door. He sighed as he pulled the cloth off the table in the middle of the room. It was a war table, adorned in a map of the continent, covered with colored blocks and other pieces to mark troops. He waved his hand over it and mumbled something in an ancient tongue. The board seemed to come to life, he had cast a spell to update the map. “Well King Platon, it would seem that Lodis has beaten you to Hiatha, what will be the outcome I wonder?”
~*/ In Latium /*~
“King Platon, we have just received word from the messenger in Hiatha… the situation does not look good.”
“Meaning?”
“Hiatha… has fallen to Lodis, and declared war on Winnea.”
“So… it has gone from a crusade to a Holy War then. Very Good you are dismissed.” The king turned to his advisors as the messenger left the room. His expression was dim, and sweat was forming on his brow. “Well, what now?”
The men at the table turned to their maps and reports. “It looks like we need to start organizing troops for war, and hope that Winnea will join us, at least to spite Hiatha.”
“I agree… It’s a shame though, I never thought that my reign would see the return of the tides of war to Latium.”
-Story Introduction-
-Rules-
-Character sheet-
-World Description-
