Prologue: Sylvana

He struggled through the snow, hunching his shoulders against the howling winds.

Only one chance

Behind him came large black chargers with riders garbed in black robes with red emblems in blazed upon them.

Red birds raising from the ashes…the emblem of Queen Sylvana

One of them raised an arm, in his hand a knife.

Blood splattered upon the snow, marring the pale white beauty.

~~~****~~~

Many moons before any of you where born there was a Queen…a lady of great and undiminished beauty who ruled over her kingdom with an iron fist.

She loved herself more than her subjects, she took from them much of their hard earned money and built herself a splendid castle of gold and inside this castle she languished upon her bejewelled thrown surrounded by mirrors so she could look upon herself all day.

It was said that she never aged and that any man who looked upon her would fall instantly in love with her.

But her subjects never saw her so they hated her, they tried many unsuccessful times to dethrone her but always these attempts ended in blood shed so the subjects began to leave, slipping across the borders of her kingdom and disappearing.

The queen ordered that a great wall of stone and magic be built around her kingdom so no one could ever leave, and those trying where mown down by her guards.

In the end the ageless Queen, her golden kingdom and her unhappy subjects became a myth told to children as a bed time story, but as so many things if you look hard enough they can still be found and are most certainly real.