Prologue

Re-write of the Prologue for my book "Elshor" (working title)

 

For a time, all the lands of Elshor were ruled by magic. Not only did it run through the trees and rivers, from the highest to the lowest peaks of the lands, it also ran through the people that inhabited it. Where kings and queens may have ruled the cities and towns scattered across the mass of land that Elshor was home to, the real power lay with the sorcerers who preached the words of the gods from atop their giant towers that dotted the landscapes and jutted towards the heavens.

It wasn’t always this way, however, for a time Elshor knew nothing about the ways of magic. It was only when the Omni, one of the earliest civilizations known, discovered the powers flowing through all the living things around them and began to manipulate it and eventually to control it entirely. Soon it was a regular practice in their way of life. Each new generation became stronger and stronger in their abilities and with that their powers became ever more dangerous.

The Omni had created a book that was to be handed down throughout the years by each new ruler to insure the ways of the old were never forgotten. In this book they put all their knowledge of the world around them. They put how they first discovered and ultimately harnessed the power all around them. As new civilizations began to rise across the lands of Elshor the Omni feared that if ever the book were to fall in the wrong hands it could spell the end of all life.

It was decided that the book would be sent to the sacred temple that lies deep within The Androma Desert; there it would be sealed for all time. It was there, however, the Omni were betrayed. Danfor, one of the men charged with the books protection, took the book in the cover of darkness and escaped to the west. He gathered as many followers as he could and prepared for his march towards the holy city of Capri. In a bloody battle the Omni were defeated and scattered across the lands.

The book began to take on a life of its own. Feeding off the anger and hate that flowed through Danfor it grew more and more powerful till finally, it consumed him. Deep within the Dark King’s castle it drove him insane. For hours he would sit at his desk just staring at the pages of the book, listening to its voice in his head. It would tell him of the power it could give to him if he would only give himself to the book completely. Immortality, it would whisper to him in the dark. When the Dark King could take no more of the constant berating and seduction he took a knife to his throat and fell to the ground. Slowly the blood dripped from the cut and spread across the floor. Closer it came to the book and as the red life of the Dark King soaked the pages the book fell silent.

For centuries it lay deep within the castle dungeons waiting for its next victim, waiting for its chance to see the light of day once more. As it lay waiting the world began to move on. What was once so powerful faded into the background and soon, all knowledge of the powers of magic disappeared. The Omni, once so powerful and mysterious, became just another myth, something to keep the new inhabitants of the world dreaming of something greater in life. The book, however, was persistent in its need to be found and soon a young archeologist would stumble upon the ancient ruins of the Dark King and unleash the ancient power that lay within it.