Prologue
For many ages, five ruling lines reigned in peace on the eastern side of the Ausonan Divide. Two of these were human and three Folk, and they existed in relative harmony with one another as rulers enlightened, tyrannical, or benevolently neglectful rose and fell. Numberless alliances and rivalries were formed and broken as the bitter enmity of some generations replaced or was replaced by warm comradeship.
As the years passed, however, the balance of power began to shift. More and more of the central woodlands disappeared, to be burnt as firewood or shaped by craftsman to serve people’s needs, and crops and villages took their place. One of the three subgroups of the Folk split as a result, with the dryads taking up residence in what became the Great Northern Forest while their elfin cousins ruled over the Great Southern Forest. The influence and numbers of all the Folk began to recede despite their possession of what the humans called “magik,” which included such abilities as seeing the future, casting light, and controlling the elements.
No one knew why this happened. It was suggested that the loss of the woodlands diminished the powers of the dryads and the elves, but nothing was disturbing either the ocean habitats of the naiads or the dwellings of the land nymphs. A popular myth arose that both magik and the peace of the land alike were dependent on a magikal artifact, which was then in the possession of the Folk, and upon the disappearance of the object, chaos would descend.
The human Houses, Zurielis and Devine, rose to prominence, and only the nymphs retained their high standing due to their skill at manipulating glass and metals. The naiad and dryad peoples retreated further into their respective domains, and few traveled outside of their lands willingly. Far to the south, these Folk were the first to become regarded as legends by the humans. As for the elves, what few palaces they had remained airy confections of the most delicate construction, so insubstantial that they appeared to be made of nothing more than lacy woodwork held together by fragile flower vines, while the elves themselves became increasingly martial.
House Zurielis itself was somewhat more tolerant of the magik folk, due to a number of alliances forged in the past few centuries that had led to the rise of a special type of magik in the ruling family as a result of several of their line marrying Folk. However, their people were mostly without magik, and they were the ones who saw and experienced the disastrous effects of hostile encounters with the Folk. Humans’ brushes with the Folk bred fear and hatred, for the more peaceable Folk began to disappear from the human realms while their last great fighters inflicted great damage with their magik.
The kings and queens of House Devine and House Zurielis soon came to see that it would be to their advantage to eliminate the other and become the sole rulers of all the land stretching between the ocean and the Ausonan Divide, as few of the Folk seemed suited to pose any threat. The Devines coveted the exotic trade the Zurielises carried on with their neighbors over the Divide and desired to expand over the mountains, while the landlocked Zurielises sought more arable land.
While the Devines built up their armies and navies, the Zurielises, who ruled the mountainous western portion of the territory, revived the old tradition of signing treaties with the Folk. In exchange for their aid and magik, the Zurielis monarchs promised that their people would leave the Folk in peace. To win over the more reluctant Folk, they swore the oath of their patron goddess, the warrior goddess Valencia: that if they broke their promise, their line would be cursed to lose all the future battles it fought. Seeing that this was possibly their last chance to make a comeback, all four Folk kingdoms sent their troops to fight, weighting the balance heavily in House Zurielis’s favor.
The Devines grow more and more desperate as the Zurielises pushed eastward from the mountains. They captured Folk warriors, some of whom defected to their side, swore oaths of loyalty to House Devine, and became the forerunners of the pet mages of the court. Those fighters who refused to renounce their people and managed to linger for a time in their enemies’ dungeons were to see greater sorrows. Poisons targeting the Folk were created through the cooperation of the most gifted herbalists and alchemists among the Devines and the captive and traitor Folk mages. Those Folk who consumed the poison or were wounded by a poison-tipped weapon soon lost their powers and eventually their lives.
And so the tide of war flowed to favor the Devines. As huge numbers of their people lay dying, the Folk withdrew from the war, leeching numbers and magik from the Zurielises. The royal line of House Zurielis was slowly eradicated as its members perished in battle or went into hiding, to be hunted down and executed in the aftermath of the war. Thus did House Devine triumph throughout the lands, unchallenged by humans and Folk alike.
For over three centuries, the Devines ruled unchallenged, with no indication that their ancient rivals would emerge to trouble them again. However, humans began to rethink the legends and night-stories they told to young children. In the south and the most remote areas of the north, the Folk were seen to walk among the humans again.
Scholars and storytellers began to whisper of an old prophecy, rumored to have been revealed by one of the very last Zurielis princes. The gift of foresight had run strong in House Zurielis in former times, and the restoration of the Zurielis line and the royal houses of the Folk had been foretold. Those few who knew of the prophecy, long kept silent by the Devines, took the renewed presence of the Folk among them as a sign of promise. They believed that the time for the prophecy’s fulfillment had come.
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