Zompist Bboard Again

So now I understand a bit of actual linguistics which I didn't when I was much younger... I have toyed around with redoing a language I devised (Notalin) from an old fantasy setting. Now the mythology is a bit silly in places and derivative in others, but I find I am not fussed about revising it now because it has been there for so much of my life. When I was younger I was a bit of Tolkien nut and read everything (LotR, Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, History of Middle Earth etc) and then the knock offs like the Shannara trilogy and so on, but maybe it's interesting to some and nobody has ever really seen any of this before so here goes...

I will begin with a precis of a story I called the Disappearance of the Balkhnor. Some background. The Universe is a sea of order surrounded by chaos and randomness. Randomly chaos creates order, spitting an entity powerful enough to a) survive and b) bend chaos to its will. The first such entity was Aer, the Creator. He fashioned a sea of order, dividing it into three realms - the mortal realm, heaven and hell separating them with a substance we know of as ether and surrounding it all with a barrier to keep chaos at bay. He then created a series of spirits (my equivalent of the Valar) to govern the world, but created them in part as a series of opposites to allow for balance: Good (also King of Heaven), Evil (also King of Hell), Death, Life, Fate, War and the seven elements: Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Light, Dark and Void. The King of Heaven desired to create a race of his own (elves if you like) but was unable to do so as he had no power to create life; taunted by his opposite about this, he turned to ask the Creator to help, but was lured into chaos. This would have destroyed him but a mysterious entity to whom we will come in a later post if anyone cares known only as the Nameless One guided him back to Order and granted all spirits power to create life. This became known as the First Intervention. So the King of Heaven created the aldar and tiftular (varieties of elf), and the King of Hell the Balkhnor (goblins if you like), each god and others working on a plane known as the Workshop (ek Palad eken Tamaþ in Notalin). Each was supposed to represent their god, so the aldar and titfular were the epitome of goodness and the Balkhnor the epitome of evil. There turns out to be a bit of contradiction here, because the point of life is that the sentient creatures, like human, aldar etc have free will so the question arises how we make sure that they behave and think like the epitome of goodness? There is also a bit of seed of jealousy and pride between the two races of elf in that as Aessur, God of Good, instructed them in the languages he had devised (known now as proto-aldar and proto-tiftular) he discovered that two of the tiftular had much greater aptitude for language and poetry than any of the aldar although he had intended all to be equal...

The Disappearance of the Balkhnor

History essentially begins here, circa 15,000 years ago. Prior to this the various kingdoms of humans, tiftular, aldar and the Balkhnor Empire had simply existed in stasis, their political systems and borders unchanging for … well nobody really knows quite how long. The Balkhnor Empire is your quintessential evil empire – temples have acquired a certain sentience of their own as a result of centuries of human sacrifice, the Balkhnor themselves practice advancement by assassination and regularly abuse their inferiors in petty and less petty ways. To care too deeply for any other is deemed a weakness and on obtaining any significant amount of power the first step is usually to try to kill all your main rivals. It is a theocracy ruled by the Priest-King who is also High Priest of the temple in the capital Balkh-Shatar. If then the base currency of evil is hate and treachery, what better way to extol evil than betray your own god?

The Priest-King developed two powerful magical artifacts – one designed to capture and hold a demi-god and help the Balkhnor (or as many as would follow him) to escape to ek Palad eken Tamaþ and one designed to control the seven elements (earth, fire, water, air, light, dark and void). This was a weapon designed – rather hubristically as it turned out – to both aid in the conquest of the world but also so he could supplant the god of evil himself.
Since gods of the Ancient Pantheon are finite and rely therefore to some extent on people telling them what is going on, the Priest-King was able to hide much of this from Đæfi, but not so much that the god of evil did not know something was up. In the city of Tormelil in the north of the continent the chief priest, Nuvarae, comes across a human sacrifice he has not authorised. This is always a challenge to the priest’s authority – does he allow it to go ahead and show weakness (never a good idea in Balkhnor society) or try to stop it. If the latter, will the god from whom his power stems stand behind him. If the answer is no, the priest is as good as dead. Nuvarae’s voice holds; he can still speak with the authority of the Lord of Evil and those behind the sacrifice withdraw the slave, but they have links to the Priest-King and the god speaks to Nuvarae commanding him to go to the capital and see what is happening.

At the same time the Balkhnor army was being prepared to invade the neighbouring Kingdom of the Aldar, with which it shared the continent of Yendo. The aldar, like their cousins the tifular, can be considered subspecies of elf and are in turn the epitome of good. They know no hate or fear and have total trust in each other’s goodness. However, an unknown amount of time before they observed others – human and Balkhnor – fight in the FirstWar and there are books in the libraries of Nithar-Aldar setting out weapons and tactics and strategy in war. A witch, Tath Narentyr, hears of the gathering of soldiers and witch-priests near the border from some friendly tropical birds and tries to persuade the Witches Council to act. Knowing no hate or willingness to fight they decline to do so. He, however, goes in search of the records he needs on weapons and armies and seeks to persuade the king. Ultimately he and his fiancée, Rete Karl, journey into the Balkhnor Empire where no aldar has gone before. (The Karl-Narentyr dynasty incidentally would rule the later N’Dakwa Dominion for the best part of a millennium). There is no sign on the border between the aldar kingdom and the Balkhnor Empire, but you know when you cross. Everything feels like you are being watched by the birds or animals and air feels heavier somehow. Despite having used magic to disguise themselves the two aldar are captured and taken to the dungeons of the temple at Balkh-Shatar.

Nuvarae is on his way to Balkh-Shatar and because word has got back to Balkh-Shatar of Nuvarae’s departure he is harassed all the way – particularly through the passes of the mountains later to be known as the Curvewall. Once there he seeks an audience with the High Priest and he learns of the plan to invade the Kingdom of the Aldar. Such an invasion was carried out against the humans to the east to secure a source of human sacrifice centuries earlier but this was done at the behest of the Lord of Evil himself. This was an unsanctioned war. Inside the blackness of the temple Nuvarae and the Priest-King discussed the war and the need to take initiative unbidden by Đæfi. Suspicious but unwilling to immediately kill Nuvarae, the Priest King allows him to move freely around the capital until he reveals himself. Nuvarae quickly does so with a meeting at which he seeks to consolidate opposition to the attack on the Aldar. Nuvarae is forced to allow the Lord of Evil to temporarily inhabit his body to force others to see how he has not been abandoned by the god, but a priest slips out unnoticed and alerts the Priest King. The King then immediately arrests Nuvarae and leaves him in a dungeon awaiting sacrifice and sends an embassy to impose his own candidate as chief priest in Tormelil. Rete Karl and Tath Narentyr are discovered and also thrown into the dungeon – a prison with only three inmates. The prison is attacked by supporters of the chief priest and the three inmates released, the Balkhnor taking the two Aldar with them, reasoning that use could be made of them.

In Tormelil the Priest King’s candidate for chief priest attempts to impose his will on the priesthood, but his voice fails him and they sacrifice him instead. Escaping from the city and travelling northwards to Tormelil Nuvarae and the aldar are attacked by soldiers and magicians from the capital. About to be overwhelmed, Narentyr does what no aldar has done for years uncounted and uses witchcraft to kill. They escape again and enter the city of Tormelil and take refuge in the temple, much to the disgust of many of the priesthood who would rather sacrifice them to their god. Meanwhile the Balknor army of conquest crossed into Alda and Đæfi and Æssur met. The Lord of Evil had a price to be paid for (allegedly) helping defend against the invasion of the Kingdom of the Aldar. It may be that he had already decided to destroy Yendo and merely wanted to harvest a few more souls for torment in hell. Narentyr and Karl had to pray to him for help, thus putting evil in the hearts and minds of those who should be the paragons and epitome of goodness. At the same time, however, the aldar whose anger had been awoken by the deeds of the Balkhnor were already learning to kill and to hate. Narentyr and Karl do pray to the Lord of Evil who translates them from Tormelil hundreds of miles to the city of Nithar-Aldar as the Balkhnor advance and they begin the defence of the city, but he does not do so without granting them a vision of hell, a terrible, pitiless and tormented world to which he intends to condemn them. However, just as evil infects the hearts of the aldar who should be the epitome of good, so good must infect the hearts of the Balknor.

Soon Đæfi decided to destroy those who defied his will even at the cost of destroying the aldar as well. He acted, coming down onto the mortal plane in incarnate form: a giant in plate armour and sword, planting his sword in the earth outside the gates of Balkh-Shatar. Before he did so, he warned the Tormelike to leave, intending that some of his true loyal worshippers should survive. Nuvarae in turn warned Tath Narentyr to get as many aldar from the continent as possible in the first recorded great act of goodness by a Balkhnor. Đæfi was a mighty man in his incarnate form nine feet in height-armour black as night and sucking in the light, an unlight formed of evil. His helm was similarly fashioned with a great skull mask fashioned in the visor. The sword was huge, man length and broad as two ordinary swords. His shield was red with one device- a spirit being consumed and regurgitated. He stood before the High Priest who raised the Sphereglobe and spoke," I have here a power even you will not scorn."
" I do not scorn your power. I spit on it. You and all your works will perish and there is nothing that you can do."
" Is there not." The Priest King was beginning to work the magic that would send him and his people away to the out of where they would be safe; none ever return to the out of.

As the rift began to form and others began to keep it open and to shepherd the city into the rift the Priest King activated the Sphereglobe to force all elementals to his service, but they were stripped from him by the power of the Lord of Evil. Annal, Lord of Fire, caused one holocaust to grab the globe and bring it to him. As a fiery figure grabbed the globe the Priest King screamed in agony burned as he was. The elementals were free flowing now and Devi span them to his will up and up the fireball went, up and up the screaming vortex fanned by immense wind speeds and flashes of lightning. Darkness began to flow around the vortex, slivers at first, and then huge gobbets of black unlight sucking in the light from all around. The river was spinning as whirlpools formed and span out of control. The earth moved and cracked and in the midst of all the destruction the Lord of Evil, King of Hell, God of Midnight stood unperturbed directing the total destruction of half a continent. The High Priest fell on his knees and, as he was swept up by the rift in time and space that the other gods, horrified by the actions of their brother, were holding open, the destruction span out, running amok beyond control. From afar on the sea the destruction was seen as lights in the sky and then the shock wave hit them. Ships and rowing boats alike capsized or were torn apart as the massive hot wave slammed into them having previously flattened almost all the vegetation between them and the city of Balkh-Shatar. The heat incinerated everything else and left the land a bare desert wasteland, broken boulders and unrelenting heat. What was to be known as the Broken Badlands and the Baranash Wasteland had come into existence then and there.

In the final intervention of the Nameless One, he bound the Lord of Evil, precluding him from ever again leaving Hell and taking incarnate form. He propounded the Scales of Balance which meant that neither good nor evil could prevail in mortal hearts. As evil had come into the hearts of the aldar, so good must be in the hearts of the Balkhnor and evil must come into the hearts of the tiftular also. Only this way could free will prevail. Otherwise both gods would need to be tyrants, governing their creations’ thoughts and actions. The Sphereglobe was taken from the Lord of Fire and hidden where none -even the gods - could see.

Meanwhile the aldar, putting to sea in whatever they could find made landfall first in an archipelago to the west of Yendo. Some settled there, but others made their way further west to the continents of Voltria and Khetinda and in the north east of the latter continent founded what would become the N’Dakwa Dominion, an empire stretching all the way across the top third of the continent and vying with successive tiftular empires for supremacy. The Balkhnor pirated their way across the seas, plundering what they needed before finally making landfall in the north east of the continent of Mtardon and founding the cities that would form the core of the Tormelike Empire.

There are a few references here - the FirstWar (say) - that need expansion as well as 15,000 years of history across both the Aeredam and our own world, Earth to which I can come in later posts if this proves interesting?

I haven't read most of it yet, but the idea of the Creator himself having been created in an act of random chaos sounds interesting, and not like something Tolkien would have come up with - it would have been against his religious beliefs, after all.

Raphael wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2023 1:42 am I haven't read most of it yet, but the idea of the Creator himself having been created in an act of random chaos sounds interesting, and not like something Tolkien would have come up with - it would have been against his religious beliefs, after all.

That I suppose he would never have come up with, but wait till we get to Nalud and Iladia, a story which (ahem) bears some resemblance to Beren and Luthien, but as I say after 30 years I don't much feel like changing it now... the idea of gods being spat out randomly from chaos did in the end prove a useful plot device. And so we get to the FirstWar.

I felt a need to explain the existence of the world I'm standing on so chaos spat out some gods called the Ana Atre, who looked on the island of Order that was the Aeredam and decided to explore and inhabit it, ultimately extending Order and adding the Earth to the plane of existence the Aeredam's own mortal realm existed on. They amount to the whole pantheon of gods that humans (here) have ever worshipped - Zeus, Athena, Thor etc. However, the original gods, who I will now call the Ancient Pantheon, took exception (apart from Aessur, God of Good). This started the FirstWar in which the Ancient Pantheon sought to subjugate the Ana Atre to their will. The Balkhnor fought on Earth (leading to our legends of goblins, hobgoblins and so on); humans from Earth invaded the Aeredam and came into contact with tiftular and aldar bringing back legends of elves. The Ana Atre created werewolves and vampires, some of whom were abandoned on the Aeredam after the end of the war. We will see some of these when I do the Destruction of the Preternaturalists (next post - quite long).

At the end of the FirstWar though the Ana Atre were defeated and the Ancient Pantheon arrayed themselves before the defeated gods to give judgment along with Aer, the Creator, but Satan suddenly attacked and killed the Creator. Daefi, Lord of Evil, then wanted to slaughter the Ana Atre wholesale and dissolve the Earth in Chaos, but the Nameless One began his Second Intervention. He decreed (good for us) that the Earth should survive, that no god from either side should cross to the other and separated Earth from the Aeredam by a curtain of chaos (difficult but not impossible to cross). It turns out that the Sphereglobe, created by the Priest King of the Balkhnor to control the elements and allow him to take on his own god was in the end hidden on our own world, ending up in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

The Destruction of the Preternaturalists:

The Tormelike Empire which had been founded some 8000 years previously by the refugees from Tormelil had spread south and west from the cities they had founded – Bizkanotral, Okotril and Tokai-Niril. On the continent of Khetinda the N’Dakwa Dominion had spread across the northern third of the continent from its own capita city W’Anak. To the south of the dominion was the Bisholian Empire – a tiftular empire intent on the conquest of the whole continent and looking north at an old and weak and overstretched aldar nation. To the south and east of the Tormelike empire was a peninsula with three major cities, Tormakak ruled by the Bisholian Empire (at least nominally), Totrinda and Drakento. Drakento was the seat of the Preternaturalists a group of powerful magic-users who had founded the city and ruled the surrounding area. Between the peninsula and the tastar plains where the Tormelike had control was a range of low mountains in which an old fortress (Darab El Nora) was situated. Originally built by werewolves – or technically by their human slaves - it was now garrisoned by the Tormelike who used slave labour to operate the mines.

Unlike the theocratic rule of the old Balkhnor Empire there was a split between monarch and high priest in Bizkanotral, but the High Priest (now called AraKhi) was still invested with some serious magical power by the Lord of Evil. The new high priest believed it again time to destroy the Preternaturalists - the Tormelike having tried some 50 years earlier and come up short - and prayed his god in aid. Now, because of his actions on Yendo the God of Evil was no longer able to act directly on the mortal realm but he was able to send through representatives and he sent a demon lord through to assist in the war. Flameroc, the Hadean Demon Lord, took over Darab El Nora and busied himself capturing and slaughtering preternaturalists (but as we see later, they refused to die). Occasionally slaves escaped the mines and a group out of desperation attacked a convoy between Totrinda and Drakento. Although the attack was outside the boundary stones, Nalud (who would be the last Lord of the Preternaturalists) went to investigate. He was no warlock or necromancer, but a mercenary employed as captain of the City Guard. To interrogate the dead he therefore asks the daughter of the current Lord (Iladia) to attend. This is how the Preternaturalists become aware of the mines being operational again. Mindful that the Tormelike had last burst forth to try to destroy Drakento only 50 years previously, Nalud is sent as an ambassador to Bishanador capital of the Bisholian Empire to seek military assistance. The Empire is by then tied up in war with its northern neighbour and few troops can be spared, although the governor of Tormakak lends his army to the Preternaturalists, sensing correctly that the Balkhnor would not stop at Drakento but would seek to swallow the entire peninsula.
At the same time the Tormelike engage in a peculiar double-cross. To the north of the plains behind another series of mountains lies Valdegar the home of the Aghed, Priesthood of the Nemesis-God, Kostomok (although technically Kostomok is not a god never having been granted the power to create life by the Nameless One, but he is worshipped as one). There are two gods with the power to see all the different possible futures – Mora (goddess of fate) and Kostomok. Kostomok’s specialisation, if you will, is prophesying death and destruction. Glorying in this to some extent he had in the past allied with Đæfi, Lord of Evil. At this point it is worth pointing out an oddity in that I have two gods who engage in prophecy, but since the nature of life is that we have free will there has been some lively theological and philosophical discussion over the years as to how this is possible. One theory is simply that Kostomok having prophesied something then proceeds to work at influencing people to actually bring it about - ie that fact of the prophecy existing and being believed makes it more likely to come about.

AraKhi and Flameroc visit the Ice Castle, their fortress, and interrupting a service seek to enlist them in assisting with the end of the Preternaturalists, insisting that the Tormelike were their nemesis. Elkaraeda, the high priestess, finally agrees, but only because she sees what AraKhi does not – the fall of the Tormelike Empire. AraKhi is, however, informed by Đæfi of the Aghed’s intentions to betray him and aid the fall of the empire; he bids them join him in the village of Calveley (near Totrinda). There the Balkhnor ambush the priesthood and destroy it and everyone in the village – except for two. The first is Elkaraeda herself who is plucked from the scene by Kostomok, ordered not to recruit any more priests and given immortality. We will come across her a few more times in subsequent posts. The second is a young boy named Tonthar who is named Seer of Kostomok and also granted immortality. He will crop up again later too.

Abductions of lower ranking preternaturalists continue and Nalud is sent out with a party of preternaturalists and a company of the City Guard to investigate. Again Iladia accompanies him. The whole party is ambushed by Flameroc and the preternaturalists, cut off from their ability to do magic taken to Darab El Nora (as is Nalud). Nalud and Iladia are thrown into a dungeon as the demon slaughters and buries the rest. So then the demon lord comes for Nalud and Iladia, expecting this to be easy; Iladia squares up in front of her human lover (reminiscent of Luthien squaring up against Sauron, but without the dog…). This turns out not to be necessary as all the dead preternaturalists surge out of the floor to defend him, calling him great in the history of the world, destined to be named Lord of Drakento and enabling the two to escape back to Drakento. They are married and Nalud named Lord of Drakento. In desperation a great research programme to send the demon lord back is launched and a magical object, the Key to Hell, is created. Meanwhile the Tormelike raze Totrinda to the ground, and on being met at Drakento the Tormelike army push into the city before the demon lord is sucked back to Hell as Iladia activates the Key to Hell. The chaos that this engenders allows remants of the Preternaturalists and the Tormakak armies, assisted by the undead preternaturalists to wipe out the Tormelike army. AraKhi and his lieutenants are plucked from the magical chaos and entombed in a solitary mountain rising above the plains waiting to be released in undead form 7000 years later. Iladia and Nalud escape and ultimately have a son, who leads the remaining tiftular east and out to sea to found the settlements on the Notalin Archipelago and founding a line which would ultimately become the royal house of Rakh. on Iladia's death a tomb is raised in what becomes known as the Schramian Forest in which she is buried alongside the Key to Hell and also an ensorcelled Spirit-Beast, tasked to defend the Key. Kostomok reveals a prophecy to her immediately before her death that a demon would come again to be countered by an immortal master of witchcraft. That immortal master of witchcraft is the subject of the next post

6000 years later Teldar-Rantor King of Rakh had united the kingdoms of the Notalin archipelago, a volcanic archipelago situated on an oceanic hotspot in the Rymersea (a bit like Hawaii). He was now turning his attention to the divided peninsula to the west. Instead of three city states surrounded by tribal humans there were now essentially four small kingdoms – Schramia which controlled two thirds of the peninsula, Isaura which had its heartland in the central hills in the middle of the peninsula, Tast-Melland which controlled much of the plains at the western end and Markus which controlled the hills separating the peninsula from the Tastar plains. Shifting alliances – and different claims to the Schramian throne – had led to 20 years of war. The tiftular, Teldar-Rantor, meant to create another tiftular empire. It would last 10 years.
His son, Rantor-Nydak (patronymics are at the front), was young but a talented warlock and courting the Lady Tivrai-Ilan, daughter of the Royal chamberlain. He was also a talented organiser and was set to organising the logistics of the invasion.
Meanwhile a peasant, named Embarin Estar, decided to pay a visit to a “haunted” tower- the ruins of Darab El Nora, torn down by our undead preternaturalists before they constructed their final resting place (ek Palad eken Niradaþ – the Place of the Cadavers) in the central hills. Over centuries of the Tormelike worshipping and practising human sacrifice the tower itself had acquired a certain level of sentience and, sensing that the prophecy was about to come to pass (or some of it anyway) that sentience possessed him, thus allowing other undead zombies to escape and roam occasionally the hills.
The tiftular fleet made landfall at Tormaseren, later known as Mel-Bari, and situated at the mouth of the river Bari where millennia earlier had been the city of Tormakak, taking the city and moving south. Embarin Estar arrived in the Kingdom of Isaura and deliberately got himself taken prisoner. Isaura was preparing for an attack through the main north-south pass by a large Schramian army was on the alert for spies. At night he interrogated and slaughtered the soldiers and moved to check on the cadavers and whether they had woken recently, but one of the cadavers woke and sought to follow him as he left. Estar, the cadaver and the tifular with whom Rantor-Nydak was riding were all converging on Tarrax, near the old site of Drakento; everyone could sense spirits getting excited on the astern side of the river Bari from somewhere in the forest. Meanwhile the Schramian invasion of Isaura met disaster in the hills.
As the Notalin sailed down the river in their galleys, Rantor-Nydak started to experience dreams where he was named “He, who is, was and forever shall be” and called on to visit Ek Keron Kæz Iladiak (the hill of Iladia). Embarin Estar met and slaughtered a patrol of tiftular, before being met by the cadaver who plucked another patrol from an inevitable slaughter. The cadaver, Torin Zatar, spoke to Rantor-Nydak in his dreams, following which the prince left the camp to go to the tomb, on which everyone converged, but also the night before the Notalin laid siege to the Schramian capital. At the tomb, spirits crowded round Rantor-Nydak
Spirits crowded around him, their grasping hands reaching out to him, until he swept his own arms out and they shrank from him. A whispering voice came from all around. “ We have waited so long for this moment, Rantor-Nydak, prince of the Notalin.”
“ For which moment?”
“ Do you know of the last prophecy of Iladia?”
“ Of he who was, is and forever will be, and the others?”
“ Yes.”
“ I do,” replied the prince, sensing that he would get no more from the spirits until he answered.
“ Do you believe it?”
“ I believe in the power of the Lord Asura, and of Lord Elena.”
“ There is a choice to be made – the time is now.”
“ You speak a lot, but say little, spirit. Of what do you speak?”
Amusement. “ Much is said, little is true,” replied the spirits cryptically. “ We must choose the immortal champion against the second demon lord.”
“ Me.” At last Rantor-Nydak understood. “ You chose me; that was the excitement. You were waiting for me to come to be given this immortality.”
“ Yes.”
“ Why?”
“ You have talent; with that talent comes responsibility. If nurtured you could be the most powerful witch in millennia. We need you. There may not be another soon enough.”
“And if I refuse?”
The spirits pulled forward again. It was a thought that had simply not occurred to them. “ You cannot. It is your destiny.”
“ As the goddess of fate has foreseen?”
“ Yes,” their desperation was in their voice now. They knew not what Moira had foreseen, but would happily lie about it.
“ I have free will. I could refuse the gift of immortality. Your prophecy cannot compel me.”
“ Yes,” they fairly shrieked. Kostomok from afar was aware of their distress, but would do nothing to dispel it. He could grant it anyway, but the risk of alienating the one he had waited for was too great. Embarin Estar entered the clearing in which the mound stood and moved to kill the motionless prince, but the cadaver stepped from the trees to meet him as Rantor-Nydak accepted immortality.
"You lied, spirits. It was Kostomok."
"But you cannot change your immortality now. Wait. The demon will return.

So next post. The demon returns (which was actually the first story I wrote). We're getting there

Roughly 1000 years later, the Notalin Empire has broken up – in fact it lasted not quite 50 years, the three kingdoms have become one, the Kingdom of Melland. The story begins with the birth of a demon lord (Kaarok) in a wood on the tastar plains. In fact, this is the scene I first thought of that set this hare running. There is a running question throughout the first part of this story about how he arrives. It becomes clear later on that he had been summoned by Embarin Estar (the farmer possessed by the sentient spirit of Darab El Nora). Later he visits the rather lonely mountain I mentioned earlier, named Bruk Islin, which rises from the Tastar Plains and is referred to as the Haunted Mountain by the tribes people who live nearby and raises the undead, including AraKhi, left entombed for 7000 years since the fall of Drakento
Meanwhile Ludion de Kim, Baron-Prince of Markus and second son of the King of Melland has begun a relationship with Liz Marsham who has become a more or less permanent house guest at Markus Castle. They attend the wedding of Ludox de Kim, Crown Prince and Earl of Mel-Dasai to Liranen, daughter of the governor of the Xularn Empire’s province of Erlid just to the south on the other side of the Mellandic Gulf. Weddings are of course a great opportunity for political gossip and discussions naturally turn to the pirates who are terrorising the sea off the eastern coast. These are generally accepted – but without much proof – to be Notalin in origin. Ludion is dispatched by the king to Rakh, the capital of the islands to discuss the matter with the king – still Rantor-Nydak after now slightly under 1000 years on the throne. Rantor-Nydak is planning a renewed invasion of the mainland to obtain control of the tiftular-majority and Notalin speaking islands of Pahar and has no interest in such negotiations.
Kaarok now visits Elkaraeda, High Priestess of Kostomok, who has by now after 7000 years of solitude at the behest of her god gone more than a little bonkers. He seeks to persuade her to help in the conquest of Melland and to hold the castle at Blackfelsen, beneath which the cadavers were entombed. She asks if he fears their rising, which leads him to wonder if she even knows of the prophecy that Kostomok had given to Iladia to the effect that an immortal master of witchcraft would lead them and defeat the demon lord come again. Indeed, Elkaraeda has heard nothing from Kostomok for decades and seeks a way to bring him back to her. The demon and high priestess journey back to the plains and ready an army to invade. On their return to Markus, Ludion is informed of tastar raids up and down the border and scouts bring word of the army massing at the Shroad Gap, a wide southern pass through the Markus Hills.
The Notalin invasion of the disputed islands takes place, but troops also land on the mainland to take Mel-Krama with the aim of blocking any forces from Markus. The Notalin move eastwards along the north coast, supported by their naval fleet to the city of Mel-Bari, which is on the site of the city of Tormakak. Meanwhile the tastar break through resistance in the Shroad Gap and move eastwards along the south coast, striking inland for the city of Krakaumenos in what had previously been the Schramian Hills (now the Central Hills), and Blackfelsen Castle. The tastar invasion has meant that Liz Marsham was originally sent to safety precisely there and she once again has to move – this time to Mel-Bari. Markun soldiers have force-marched and leapfrogged the Notalin to arrive in Mel-Bari first as reinforcements from the capital Mel-Dasai and eastern provinces are diverted to meet the southern threat and then need to be re-diverted northwards.
The northern diversion of this southern invasion puzzles everyone. The correct thing to do is to push along the south coast to the capital and force a surrender and indeed a Mellandic army was seeking to meet them there. Why go to Krakaumenos? What is the banner of the Mountain Spewing Flame? Rantor-Nydak’s choice was to fight the new army or to embark on the fleet and leave. He accompanied scouts going southwards and observed the two undead flying above the army. This told him who it was and that they were coming north specifically to engage him. In the city, Ludion now joined by Liz and the other commanders decides that his adversary’s options are the same – fight, ideally from within the walls or flee. A truce is agreed and the Notalin army enters Mel-Bari and the fleet (which as with 1000 years previously) can sail down the broad river Bari docks at the fortified docks. Discussions obviously take place about the nature of the commanders of the attacking army and that they seek a) to destroy the Notalin, killing Rantor-Nydak and b) to secure the Key to Hell as the weapon that can guarantee to pull Kaarok back and the need for both Rantor-Nydak, Ludion and Liz to go to the Tomb of the Cadavers underneath Blackfelsen Castle, the entrance to which Elkaraeda has just discovered.
AraKhi calls on the city to surrender and when this is refused the tastar prepare to assault the city. However, food stocks are running low and as Rantor-Nydak now knows the tastar will strike at Mel-Liabor to take the city and move on to the tomb of Iladia a break-out is planned with part of the army embarking on the fleet and part breaking through tastar lines before they can cross the river and fully encircle the city, which is part-built on each side of the river mouth and on an island. The cavalry successfully breaks through with Rantor-Nydak managing to protect them from any magical attacks while the infantry embarks on galleys for the trip south. They link up with Ludox who is in command of the southern forces and arrive to fortify Mel-Liabor as Kaarok splits his forces to hold the city and move south.
The ride to Blackfelsen Castle is swift and they enter the Tomb of the Cadavers. It is here that we discover that the lineage of Nalud and Iladia has two main branches. The first branch eventually becomes the royal family of Rakh, which makes Rantor-Nydak a direct descendant but also it transpires another branch has ended with Liz Marsham who is therefore able to call upon the cadavers to wake; the undead witches and warlocks killed by Flameroc 7000 years earlier are then able to transport them magically to Mel-Liabor where the tastar are threatening to overwhelm the defenders. They arrive a couple of miles from the fighting and while Ludion leads the cadavers into the fight, the two descendants of Nalud and Iladia make their way to her tomb. Inside the demon lord had broken the spirit-beast’s ensorcellment and was giving it a neck scratch. Liz realised that she could read the millennia-old inscriptions and while Rantor-Nydak kept the beast at bay read them out loud and acquired the Key.
A voice filled her mind, as the Vlakharn became aware of the spirits of Kostomok, freeing themselves from bondage," Now."
Almost against her will, Liz felt her soul being torn from her body, it was the key. Her soul flowed towards the chalcedony and settled invisibly over it.
The spirit beast smelt it and began to move forwards. It was hurled back by a jet of liquid helium. It squealed in pain and agony. The Vlakharn lunged for the key, hitting it and knocking it onto the floor, but the demigod within the key, pulled the soul back. They merged and the key began to pulsate with energy. The Vlakharn stared; it was too late to try anything else; he had failed. The spirit beast growled to itself in a corner. The Vlakharn refused to accept hat he was defeated and loosed a tremendous uncontrolled surge of magical energy towards the key in an attempt to destroy it. He failed, the demigod was fond of his own existence and hurled a shield around itself and Liz, not Rantor-Nydak and not the mound either. The energy was redirected, blowing away the top of the mound tearing the tree on top to shreds, starting a brief earthquake which felled tens of trees, and igniting tens more. However, it was indisputably true that the Key to Hell had sent the Vlakharn and surprisingly also the undead and spirit beast back to Hell.