Prologue

It is a commonly-held belief throughout most of the countries of the world that Sarlan is uncivilized. Stories circulate freely among the more civilized kingdoms of Sarlan's barbaric conditions, customs, and inhabitants.

Whether true or false, it doesn't really matter. With stories such as these, what matters isn't what really holds true, but what people believe to be the truth.

After all, if enough people believed the sky to be green, it would be written as such.

What we, as civilized citizens, label such things as colors of the sky hardly matter when all is said and done. Whether green or blue, the sky will still be the sky when we wake in the morning.

Yes, it is true that labels hardly matter. We have already established that green and blue, in the end, are inconsequential.

For argument's sake, therefore, let us rename civilized people a blue sky and uncivilized green. It only takes one blue-sky believer to think to himself 'the sky might be green', and the tidy blue sky world crumbles.

What would you, dear reader, think if I told you the truth? Would you believe? Or would you be the one person who wonders?

It is something to ponder.

But we have strayed from our story with tales of blue and green. So, if you would allow me, I would like to take you back with this universally accepted truth:

The sky in Sarlan is green.