A/Ns: Thanks for the reviews, everyone!

This chapter was fun to write, for it deals with the origins of the Necromancers’ Guild. References are made to my story “Shadowstalker” but no real spoilers. Most events here take place either before or after the story.

This story is supposed to be an account from the archives of the Necromancers’ Guild.

The ‘genetics’ of the previous chapter were rather a slip of the keyboard, but I’m lost as to what I could use instead. Suggestions welcomed.

Third Passing.

Under a crimson dawn, the winds were unleashed as Bregadosh’ tail came too close to Lokleran. The storms howled and raged and for months all trade ceased, for travel through the desert routes had become impossible. A few courageous traders sailed the Adonai river to bring supplies to the starving settlements of the south.

After four years of storms and howling winds, the weather settled back to normal. But it would take years before raising crops and livestock back to their previous status. Driven by hunger and fear, several tribes resulted to raiding and living off the scraps they could steal from their neighbors. Amidst the turmoil, a child was born to a small fishing village at the coast of the Misty Ocean. The first years of his life are lost in time, but according to later myths he was conceived by the very winds that had stormed Lokleran.

His village was raided by Corsairs when he was seven years old and Dorran Stormborne was taken away as a slave. Few things are known about his years among the Corsairs, but at the age of twenty five winters he was the sole ruler of the Misty Ocean. From his stronghold at the ruins of Omara, he set out to claim the land as he had conquered the North Sea. Either by cunning or by sword he stormed the hills and the deserts. With his army equipped from a lost armory he had unearthed under Omara’s ruins, no desert tribe chief could match him in combat.

Having no significant opposition, he declared himself Emperor and heir to the Ivory Throne of Omara. The High Priest, seeing him as a threat to the Temple’s authority, attempted to deem him as a blasphemer and failed pitifully, meeting a messy ending. His successor was quick to bow before the new ruler and thus ensure his survival. But forbidden scrolls from that era speak of Dorran’s meddlings with ancient magic and his shady bloodline, connecting him with the lost race of the White Ones. But nothing was ever confirmed.

Dorran ruled with sword and lightning. But during his reign the land prospered and the people were well fed and clothed. His terms with the Temple were civil although underneath there was always political friction. Meanwhile, a mage by the name of Daynar Shadowstalker, who had broken away from the Temple, stumbled upon the ruins of Tuth Malul in the desert and made an astonishing discovery.

Daynar returned to Omara with nine urns containing ancient scrolls and an incredible tale. The High Priest excommunicated him and ordered his death as a blasphemer, but an unexpected intervention from Dorran resolved the situation. Daynar, aware that the priesthood would not cease their attempts to silence him, fled from Omara to an unknown destination and nothing was heard from him for almost two centuries.

Dorran died at the age of seventy two, rather old compared to his subjects.  Despite rumors of foul play, the first Dorian Emperor was buried in Omara and was later deified by the High Priest in an attempt to appease the Imperial family and especially Dorran’s eleven sons. With his late father the divine protector of the city and the Empire, Dekkeran, the eldest of eleven brothers, assumed the throne and continued the Stormborne dynasty.

Almost two centuries of peace went by until the day when a ragged man came out of the desert, followed by eight companions. On the dawn of the Winter Solstice they walked like ghosts of another era through Omara’s streets until they reached Dorran’s grave. On that hallowed ground, their leader identified himself as Daynar Shadowstalker and announced the founding of the Nightshroud Brotherhood, an order dedicated to the study of Death. The High Priest was enraged, but did not dare to intervene while Daynar and his followers were near Dorran’s grave. Lokinor, the seventh Emperor from Dorran’s bloodline, granted Daynar the freedom to follow his beliefs openly.

It was only after Daynar’s and Lokinor’s deaths that the High Priest succeeded in taking action against the Brotherhood. The new Emperor’s wife, Lunamilla, was a devout follower of the Moon Goddess. Through her, Nolikar, the High Priest, convinced the new Emperor Kodaen to outlaw the Brotherhood, accusing them of human sacrifices and unspeakable rituals involving corpses. The Brotherhood received the news of their banning with arrogant indifference and retreated into their strongholds.

The fragile stand-off would end a year later when the Temple Guards assaulted one of the Brotherhood’s strongholds and got slaughtered by a horde of hideous creatures. For the following decade, bloody conflicts took place even inside the capital. Despite their significant losses, the High Priest stubbornly refused to stand down. Encouraged by their only real victory on the coast town of Gor-Kerren, where the Brotherhood premises were flattened and its inhabitants burned alive, he continued with his persecutions. The fact that Gor-Kerren turned to a cursed place, roamed by the undead and creatures he had no name for, did not make him reconsider.

It seemed that the Spirit War would continue for ages when grave, unbelievable news reached Omara. The Temple’s holiest shrine, Menorach, had been raided by an undead army. Said to be led by Daynar’s very ghost, ghouls and corpses had slaughtered the priests, demolished the temples and defiled Renameron’s grave. Nolikar died the same night Dorran’s spirit was said to have appeared before his descendant, demanding the Spirit War to end.

The new High Priest, fearing he would follow his predecessor to the grave, was quick to agree to a truce. But it would take another decade before all armed conflicts ceased. Despite the enmity that had rooted deeply between the two factions, they managed to co-exist without open friction.

Iolegar, Daynar’s successor, renamed the Brotherhood to the Necromancers’ Guild and established its ruling party of the Inner Circle, consisting of nine necromancers in honor of Daynar and his initial companions. During his time as the first Order Master he regulated several of the laws still in effect, including the initiation and advancement rites. And when Bregadosh came closer for another passing, the Guild was well respected and feared everywhere on Lokleran.

And so ended the Third Age.

Happy New Year, everyone!