Preface
Darkness can often appear as light, ever still conceived with the same purpose – to blind into unseeing the one who submits to it.
This story starts where the old times of the knowers and their lights end. It is a story of the times after, which mirror the ages before the knowers had mastered the knowledge. It is said that after man had collected all the knowledge he could, he decided to purify it with light. Contested knowledge became a battle of lights – the greater the light, the greater the power...until the light of life of the knowers was extinguished, eradicated. Reapers of light threw their harvests at each other. Pots of light grew over settlements faster than a raven could flap its wings. When it would be put out, light would take with it all that was beneath it. All went out of their lights as they went out of life. Few survived. Five hundred falls have passed since.
In the time after the end of time, kingdoms were re-forged, knowledge recollected and evil reborn. After the end of the time of the knowers, of the time-keepers, their knowledge was lost along with their time. Now, only few colonies are their only remnant - five of them to be precise. The lights of the knowers had different effect on the afterknowers. One of the surviving tribes is the tribe of the common straightwalkers - humans, as they were known back in the time.
The second colony is that of the Dabors, a brotherhood of a small nation of semi-straightwalkers. They are twice as small as common straightwalkers, but twice as a strong, resilient and devoted to their tribe. This is in short what the light had made of them. They dwell in the woods. They have made taming bears their trademark practice. The third tribe is that of Xelons. A Xelon, opposed to a Dabor, is sized as two straightwalkers. They are slow, patient, goodhearted but very dangerous when angered.
The last two...well, let’s just say that lights of might were not all too kind towards their ancestors. One of the two tribes are the Koprites. Koprites were deformed by the lights not just in flesh, but in their minds too. Sized as the straightwalkers from whom they came to be, they strike fear in the hearts of the ordinaries as they are driven by the same motives as any prey-stalking animal. Like animals they are, as they lurk in the darkness and slaughter for living. They live under the Doomed Dome, where no light enters, together with the second of the dark tribes – the Servarians.
Little is known about Servarians since they never walk outside the Dome. It is thought that it is because the air outside the Dome does them harm. One of the things known is that they are twice the size and twice as vicious as the Koprites and that Koprites are their main dish, literally. So, Koprites often leave the Dome and fetch straightwalkers for the Servarians, who prefer straightwalkers over Koprites.
The largest of the tribes are the common straightwalkers. The straightwalkers are now a kingdom spreading along the shores of the Grieving Sea. The king sits in the city of Karos, which is the furthest to the north. On its eastern side are the city’s great walls sitting in-between two steep hills. To the west is the second wall, facing the belly of the Dead Lake. The Dead Lake is a desert which used to be filled with waters of the Grieving Sea. The desert’s horseshoe shape molded by steep hills ends with a narrow opening towards the Grieving Sea at its opposite end.
A monumental dam stands on the way of the water now at that far western peak of the Lake. It is not clear whether the dam was built by the afterknowers or if it is the last remnant of the knowers - stories differ. However, one thing is sure - the passage is so narrow and the dam is so high that it takes no more than a single crew to control this back entrance to the capitol. The crew is equipped with mighty catapults so that even if a ship was to wish to approach the dam, it would have been sent to the bottom of the sea from a distance of two thousand lengths, which is just about the distance from which one could throw the first glance at the soaring dam. Even if one is to come near it, the dam is so tall and smooth that no walker could climb it and still it is so high above the sea that the crew on the top could not be seen from the sea. This is what is said as no one has lived to approach or touch the dam, let alone to talk about it, except for those who were there to make occasional reparations or reinforcements to the walls. None of those would ever return to the mainland.
On the north side of Karos lays the Unscripted Land, part of the land secluded by an insurmountable mountain from the dwelling lands. No one knows what lays there. Even the Grieving Sea is confronted by the northern mount which swallows under its belly all ships that come near it. As far as the Grieving Sea is concerned, it is said to have gotten its name by the lost settlements of the knowers which lay beneath it. After the knowers turned against each other, the balance was disrupted and nature turned against them all.
King Daors now rules in the lands of the straightwalkers. His rule is recognized by the Dabors and the Xelons, who in return for their loyalty receive the king’s protection from the Koprites and all other malicious wrongdoers. More importantly, the king’s rule is recognized by the three prophecizers. The three prophecizers are the rule-writers of the realm. No one remembers the days of their birth. They live by meditation in the Tower of Five Fires on the outskirts of Karos. Seventeen summers ago, they delivered a prophecy about a “king who is to be reborn in the face of a horse.”
The Baranthams, the family of Daors, were for centuries known as protectors of horsemen. Being the monitors and patrons of the cavalry guard of the realm, it was understood that it was their time to sit on the throne. The ruling king objected. The prophecizers ruled by two against one that the prophecy meant that the Baranthams are to have the throne. Their will was fulfilled. As the old king Damius Kulin objected until the end, he was beheaded. To keep the peace of the realm and to prevent its division before the strengthening Koprite hordes, Yon Kulin, the eldest, but still bare-bearded son of Damius was appointed as lord of Baan Senicore, the most southern of the three great cities of the realm and its greatest port. Another strong reason for it was the fact that the prophecizers were not one when they interpreted the prophecy. The Barantham family has ruled the city and the kingdom since.
