by Dean Cadman
***
Lord Zelroth watched impassively as his Darkseed Elite started interrogating the boy-mage’s mother once more.
Over the centuries he had set up many protection spells to guard his stronghold, Azmarin. One such spell, was to detect the use of any kind of scrying magic originating from outside the walls of his fortress. And just over three weeks ago, he had detected such a spell being used. His defences had failed to prevent the spy from seeing within Azmarin, and he had unsuccessfully attempted to magically block the intruder himself. He had instantly recognised the boy-mage’s power, having witnessed it first hand within Coldmont several months earlier.
Only now, he was far more powerful.
Lord Zelroth knew full well the reason why his power had increased so much: he had read the Guardian book within Lamuria. The same Guardian book he himself had tried for so long to gain access to, and recently failed due to the very same boy-mage. What he didn’t know, however, was how the boy-mage had managed to read the book and survive—and that troubled him greatly.
When Lord Zelroth had first discovered Irragin and taken possession of it as his own, he had no idea that it had contained either a Guardian book or a dragon heart. Even then he had been a powerful warlord in his own right, and far stronger magically than most. But looking back, he knew without doubt that reading the Guardian book would have killed him if he hadn’t discovered the secrets of the dragon heart first. Back then, he had been a mere mortal, struggling with the day to day battles and skirmishes that had become commonplace within Thule’s society after their defeat, and the closure of The Great Rift at the hands of the Guardians.
The name Zelroth wasn’t his true birth name. Instead, it was one given to him by his own men during his rapid and brutal rise to power. The word Zelroth meant ‘the punisher’ in the old Thulian language. He had quickly gained a reputation for mercilessly destroying his enemies. And also for his burning desire to reunite the Thulian people, and ultimately exact his revenge upon Afaraon for the death of his own family. He quickly renamed Irragin to Azmarin—after his father—but much to his irritation, people still referred to it by its former name, both in Afaraon, and throughout the Thule Empire. It later became a death sentence within the Thule Empire to utter the old name of Irragin.
After taking control of the vacant stronghold within Mount Nuxvar, it didn’t take long to discover the magically protected walls it possessed, along with many other magical curiosities. It would have been a relatively easy place to defend without them, but with the magically shielded walls, it was virtually impenetrable. Zelroth’s power and influence grew rapidly, and before long he ruled the entire northern part of the continent.
During those first few years within Azmarin, Zelroth became more than a little curious as to what exactly powered its defences. He tasked dozens of his men to find the source of its power, and lost most of them in the process. When the precise location of the power source was finally discovered, it took over two years to excavate it from where it had resided. This was not because it was buried deep within the mountain, but because every attempt to remove it seemed to be thwarted by the power source itself. Any attempt to physically touch the power source, resulted in the almost immediate death of the person doing so.
Eventually, it was moved from its original location, and relocated in the throne room of Azmarin. It took Zelroth a further decade to learn how to tap into the power of the strange object, and during that time, he lost many more lives to it.
Once Zelroth had learned how to harness the power of the object for himself and the protection of Azmarin, no one was able to challenge him there. He set countless magical protections throughout the whole of Azmarin, all powered by the object, and all with a single goal: to keep himself in control.
The power drain on the object was immense, and soon its power began to wane significantly. No matter what Zelroth tried, he was unable to replenish its stores of magic. It almost seemed like a sentient decision was being made by the strange object. A decision not to accept the magic offered to it. Soon after, a huge pulse was felt by all, as the object finally used the last of its magic reserves. It had been very similar to the death-pulse felt whenever a mage dies, but much, much stronger.
Zelroth, concerned with his sudden perceived vulnerabilities, ordered a new search of Azmarin and the surrounding areas of Mount Nuxvar for any other potential power sources.
They found none.
One thing they did find, however, was a small hidden room containing a single book: a Guardian book. It was assumed that the room had previously remained hidden due to the magical protection of the power source. When the object’s power reserves had run dry, the existence of the room became apparent to anyone who was magically searching for hidden areas within Azmarin.
At first, Zelroth had no idea what the book was. He knew it must be of great importance to have been protected as it was, but also couldn’t understand why the Afaraon magi had not taken such an important object with them when they had left.
Fortunately for Zelroth, the first mage who had found the book opened it to see what was written inside, and promptly died as a result. After testing the book on several more prisoners with identical results, it was placed within a secure vault, where it remained all but forgotten for another two years.
When word got out about the drained power source, many of the opposing warlords banded together to try and take advantage of Zelroth’s new vulnerabilities. But they soon found that Azmarin was a formidable place in its own right.
During the two years of uprisings against him, Zelroth had tasked his most powerful magi to find a way of utilising the discharged power source to his advantage. They soon discovered that recharging the object with magic was no longer a problem. It seemed that ever since the object had been fully drained, it no longer refused any magic offered to it, and soon it was fully recharged once more. However, it took far longer to work out how to tap into that power and use it, but when they did, everything changed.
Overnight Zelroth’s power reserves grew immeasurably. His constant mental and magical contact with the strange object also began to subtlety influence his thoughts. He began seeing faint, ghostlike images of faces and places he had never seen before. Like a faint whisper in the back of his mind of a distant, almost forgotten memory. One of those faint whispers, however, was louder and more persistent than all of the others.
The book.
He began to dream about the book, even when he was awake. And when he slept, there was nothing else that occupied his mind. It soon became obvious to Zelroth, that whatever the object had been before its ultimate demise, it had been placed there solely to guard that book. All other things were secondary to that purpose—and this, he knew for certain now.
Zelroth was never one for taking unnecessary risks, especially when his own life was at stake. But ever since bonding with the strange object, he began to feel more and more confident about being able to safely read the book. It whispered to him every night and day that he should read the book. Urging him, almost pleading with him to become the book’s new protector. It felt like the distant whisper of a ghost’s final request. A request which had to be fulfilled before it could free itself completely from the bonds of life and move on. The day that he finally chose to listen to those whispers, was the day both he, and Thule changed forever.
Azmarin had been under siege for months. Food and water were running critically low, and his men’s morale was at an all-time low. Zelroth had already discovered the maximum range that he could draw power from the object, and it didn’t extend more than a short distance from Azmarin’s main gates. He knew he could destroy some of the attackers from that range, but without food and water supplies, his men would be unable to recharge the power source again. That meant it would inevitably become fully drained of its magic once more, leaving him vulnerable to any counter attacks.
The whispers in his mind became louder and louder that day. Until finally, he did what he knew h
e must do.
He read the Guardian book.
The man who walked out of that vault after reading the book, was nothing like the man who had walked in. The aura which burned around him, half-blinded his men. Never before had they seen such power in a man.
Lord Zelroth was born.
He walked alone through the gates of Azmarin to face his enemies outside, and gave them all a simple choice: serve him, or die.
Many chose the latter, and he was more than willing to oblige them.
It took Lord Zelroth less than six months to take complete control of Thule and create his new Empire. The most powerful of those magi who swore allegiance to him, became the first of his Darkseed Elite guards. It wasn’t until much later that he created the Necromatic rings, which would also allow him direct access to their magic.
The knowledge he gained from the Guardian book went way beyond the simple use of magic, it held the secrets of eternal life itself: immortality. He learned that the Guardians had never before allowed that particular magic to be used, as extending one life, meant ending the life of another. That may have been something the Guardians would never do, but for him, it held no such taboos.
Another incredibly useful skill he gained was the ability to read the minds of others, as well as control their minds and bodies. This new magical ability he would later teach to his most mentally gifted followers, the Inquisitors.
The book also contained the secrets about what the power source used to protect it actually was: a dragon heart. He also knew the knowledge within the Guardian book was incomplete, and likely only one of many similar books created by the Guardians. With this in mind, his search for more Guardian books began in earnest. Now that he knew what to look for, he soon found another magical telltale sign of a Guardian book deep within the Elveen Mountains of Afaraon.
Lord Zelroth sent scouts to find the Guardian book and report back its precise location to him. He was thrilled to discover that not only was it unprotected by either magic or people, it was actually hidden within the fabled Guardian’s stronghold of Coldmont. When his spies within Afaraon confirmed his suspicions, that no one seemed to know the true location of Coldmont any more, he began making his plans to secretly cross the sea to Afaraon.
Lord Zelroth was now extremely powerful, but far from unbeatable. The continent of Afaraon held a vast army of powerful magi, and almost every normal family held at least one competent mage. He couldn’t simply land his ship, then stroll through Afaraon into the Elveen Mountains. He had to be much smarter than that, and bide his time for the perfect opportunity to present itself.
Lord Zelroth wasn’t naïve enough to believe that Afaraon didn’t have spies of their own amongst his people. So he began sowing his own seeds of misinformation amongst his population. These suggested that he wanted nothing more than a peaceful and prosperous Thule, and had no desire to go to war with Afaraon ever again. Having discovered the secrets of immortality, time no longer mattered to him, and so, he waited patiently for that perfect opportunity to arise.
He was rewarded for his patience a few years later, when Podrana, the land to the north of Afaraon, declared war on his old enemy. All eyes in Afaraon suddenly shifted to this new threat, leaving Lord Zelroth the freedom to carry out his own plans.
It wasn’t a simple matter of concealing himself and a few men while they reached Coldmont. He also had to transport the dragon heart along with them. Without it, he could no more read the second Guardian book, than he would have been able to read the first. Although touching the dragon heart was no longer dangerous to him, the weight and size of it made the journey slow and cumbersome to say the least. There would be no quick escape for them if they were discovered, and nor could they afford to be.
Lord Zelroth had not been idle during his patient years of waiting for an opportunity to access Coldmont. Instead, he had constructed several ships capable of travelling much greater distances than any regular warship or trading vessel. He had sent scouting missions north to find a route which would avoid the populated areas of Afaraon, and they had reported one such route back to him.
His plan was to sail east, far out into the South Seas, past the Isles of Lost Souls, and continue northwards around the far northern tip of Afaraon. His scouts had reported discovering a sea route which led to the western side of The Spine. From there they could make landfall on the unpopulated side of the Elveen Mountains, then make their way east, towards Coldmont.
It was a long and dangerous journey. The seas east of the Isles of Lost Souls were renowned for claiming the lives of sailors, and two of the five ships which had set out to scout the route, never again returned to Thule.
Lord Zelroth’s mission to reach Coldmont undetected and read the second Guardian book was a success, and he returned back to Thule far more powerful than when he had left.
Aside from the Guardian book itself, he discovered two other vitally important things whilst he was in Coldmont. First, he discovered the use of the book pedestals, which enabled him to travel in a blink of an eye between Coldmont and Azmarin. And that in turn led to an even more tantalising discovery; that of an image of Lamuria painted on the ceiling of Coldmont. From that moment on, he felt sure he would find a third Guardian book hidden within the High Temple of the Deceiver Goddess.
Lord Zelroth returned alone to Coldmont shortly afterwards by using the book pedestals, and left behind a powerful detection spell to warn him of any future intruders entering the book room. He knew that one day someone was bound to find the ruins of Coldmont, but he wanted to make sure that anyone who did, never reported its location to anyone else.
Although Lord Zelroth would have liked nothing better than to attack and destroy both Lamuria and the Deceiver’s High Temple, he knew that he had no chance of doing so, not without first both strengthening his own forces, and greatly weakening those of Afaraon’s.
He began by introducing a new class system in his own land of Thule. This was based solely on the strength of magic the individual possessed. The stronger members of society moved up in the new class system, whereas the weaker ones were relegated to performing the more menial day to day tasks required to run an empire. In the first year or two of the new system, there were several small uprisings against its implementation, but they were swiftly and brutally dealt with by Lord Zelroth.
It had been a well known fact for centuries, that magically strong parents, often produced children of strong magical abilities. The opposite was also true of magically weak parents, as they often produced children of weak, or even no magical ability whatsoever. Lord Zelroth’s new class system was more than a reorganisation of society within Thule. It was intended to rebuild an entirely new Thule. A Thule that contained the strongest concentration of magi possible. A Thule that would one day crush the continent of Afaraon once and for all.
Lord Zelroth knew that it would be many generations before his plans for a magically superior population would come to fruition, so he spent the next several centuries consolidating his own power within Thule. He would not move against Afaraon yet. Not until he possessed both superior numbers and strength. Then he would begin to implement another plan he was harbouring. One which would see the slow and steady decline of magic within Afaraon, whilst at the same time watching the magical strength of his own empire grow.
Although he was convinced of the existence of another Guardian book hidden within the walls of the Deceiver’s High Temple in Lamuria, he also knew of another possible location for a Guardian book.
High above his throne room, painted in exquisite detail, was the possible location of a fourth Guardian book. The image depicted an island surrounded by ocean, with a single archway of pure light shown in the south west corner. Beyond the archway lay mountains and forests, and within those forests were images of strange looking creatures, the likes of which he had never seen before. On the highest mountain, stood an enormous temple surrounded by a dragon. Its body was wrapped impossibly around the entire building, leaving its
gaping jaws to guard the entrance.
Lord Zelroth spent centuries searching for that island without success. He sent men to scour the oceans in search of such an island. They travelled further than any maps known to man. He fought a war with the seafaring lands to the far south, simply to gain access to both their ancient, and more modern maritime records. He sifted through every part of Coldmont looking for information as to its whereabouts, and sent spies throughout Afaraon in search of any clues. He even sent his spies north, to Podrana in search of anyone with information regarding the potential whereabouts of the illusive island. Many locations were suggested, but all eventually proved to be a fruitless waste of time. But he kept looking.
Three centuries ago, he finally abandoned his search.
By which time, Thule society had become a magically potent race of people. Lord Zelroth’s plans to concentrate the magical ability of his population had proven most effective, but there were still further improvements to be made.
Non-magical citizens within Thule were now treated little better than slaves. They had no rights within the Thule Empire, and were forced to live under the heels of their superiors. They would often simply disappear without trace, or be arrested for imaginary crimes against the Empire.
None of them were ever seen again.
Occasionally, even a child born to magically powerful parents lacked the potential for magic themselves. When that happened, it was now the rule of law to remove that child, and dispose of it accordingly. Of course, that created a lot of hatred and animosity towards Lord Zelroth from the parents suddenly bereft of their newborn child, but he believed it necessary to maintain the strong magical bloodlines for his future plans.