Prologue

It has become universal conviction that “The Dance Master” is a title taken from the writings of Praufyhet and his Rider, yet there is no substantiation for this widespread belief. Praufyhet was one of many Mardonkans who survived the Invasion only to witness the shattering and disintegration of Mardonkan culture and Drunian society as it had been. The Retreat signified the division of the ranks -- the parting of ways between those who were inherently purists, and those who desired to maintain the traditional existence of the Mardonkan culture.

The Purists were those who feared the evolution of Drune’s society away from Mardonkan Blood. With so few lineages of strong Blood intact, from either House, these ones actively supported the Retreat. They felt what Blood remained should be hoarded within the Grottoes, protected from the dilution of Blood and lineage that would surely result from living amongst not only the general population of Drunians, but also the influx of Earthmen. Being the minority ethnicity, the Purists were certain that all Ability and talent would gradually fade away until any vestige of what delineated Drunian Mardonkans from their cousins on Earth would be indistinguishable.

Drunian culture before the Invasion involved the active presence of Mardonkans within the civilian populous, revolving around the distinct House lineages and heritages. Even those Drunians without fledged Ability still boasted strong Blood, and were recognized as such. Traditionalists did not feel that Mardonkans had a right or privilege to set themselves apart or above their Drunian brethren, and did not view the increased presence of their Earth cousins as a threat to either the culture or the purity of Blood and the strength of the Houses.

Thus, the Grottoes no longer exist as the cohesive faction of Mardonkan Blood that the civilian populous of Drune publicly believes them to be. The Brotherhood of the Freemen functions as the counterbalance of the Grotto-trained who consider themselves the betters of Drune’s general populous. While the two factions coexist without blatant clashes of power, without tangible struggles for control, their bond of peaceful coexistence is a tenuous one at best. Both the Purist Grotto Mardonkans and the Traditionalist Brotherhood strive to gain a foothold of sway with which to influence the political environment and indirectly their own power.

Praufyhet had been able to foresee this tenuous relationship, this fractured culture of Mardonkan existence. He knew that, if left unchecked, the eventual bipartisan political atmosphere would rend the Mardonkans incapable of thwarting either the influence of their Earth cousins, whose society increasingly deviated from the agrarian structure Drune upheld, or the hostile faction that was the rayserpent species.

Therefore, he detailed in his foretelling the means by which the bipartisan factions could potentially cloy into a cohesive whole once again. Such an occurrence would demand the presence of a Mardonkan influence, whose Ability and Blood was of such purity and strength that none could deign to stand against it, neither Purist nor Traditionalist. While Praufyhet was certain this Mardonkan influence would need to demonstrate a balance between powers, a coherent joining of the bipartisan political extremes, he could not foretell details specifying how long such an evolution would take, or what form it would present itself in.

Throughout the ensuing generations following the Retreat and Praufyhet’s eventual demise, Mardonkans began interpreting his theories in fashions that distorted and convoluted his original intent. They twisted his foretelling passages to convey the future coming of a savior, a Marked and Rider who would single-handedly overthrow the debilitating hostility of the rayserpents and restore the sanctity of the pure Mardonkan Blood to the heyday of knowledge and might it had realized prior to the Invasion. This would be the Dance Master, to hear the Grotto faction of the Purists tell it. The Brotherhood of the Freemen, however, envisioned something wholly different from Praufyhet’s theories - the arrival of one named Jer’shod, elected by the collective Blood to bind the Mardonkans together as one Drunian community the way life had once been. One of their own, who would stand in the presence of this Master, and make their truth known.

Excerpt from “A Comprehensive & Interpretive Study of the Evolution of Mardonkan Culture”, transcribed by Cleontan Fhordge, Head of Histrion Chapterhouse, The Eye; 1007 P.I. (Post Invasion).