Prologue
Book 1
The Arrival
A long time ago, in a far off universe, there was a world that possessed the most extraordinary things, including magic. Creatures that you think are but Myth and Legend were reality and greatness in the world of Seran. In it, great lands were discovered by its first kings, and an alliance was made between all the races. The flat lands of green would belong to Men, for they desired a world of beauty for their people. The great forests would be the home of the Elves, who treasured life and all of its creations. The Trolls and Giants took their kin to the mountains so that they might watch how men and elves lived. The Dwarves claimed the world beneath the world for in the ground they found treasures that brought great power to their race. And finally, the Aqualons, a race of blue sea creatures that resembled fish and elves, lived in the ocean waters to build a paradise under the sea.
But, there was another race that was cast out. The race of Black and Red Orcs were proud and stubborn. They were born with a brutal nature and sought after war and battle with the other races. After a great war ensued against them, they were cast into exile to the uncharted lands across the oceans and the barren deserts of the continent.
Under these conditions, peace reigned all across the great kingdoms on the continent of Erandire. Great legends were made and history was forged in the very breath the inhabitants drew. For 500 years, Erandire was at peace.
However, there was a price. A great power arose from the evil that was merely thought of and a terrible being was formed out of a buildup of 500 years of everyday sadness and anger of the people of Erandire. Chaos spread to and consumed the lands until all of the first great cities in every region were reduced to ruins and ash. The creature ruled all the lands and seas commanding the Orcs against their will. Terror replaced peace, and anger replaced love. Just when all hope seemed lost a group of ten young warriors fought back using the powers of the ten sacred elements: Fire, Light, Wind, Ice, Lightning, Darkness, Wood, Metal, Earth, and Water. Together the warriors defeated the creature and its evil and sealed it in the depths of the underworld where it slept, hopefully never to awaken.
But sadly, with victory came loss. For the great Warrior of Darkness had followed the beast into the underworld to perform a ritual to keep it sealed up in the depths.
As time passed, the victorious warriors grew old and gave their lives in restoring their lands to beauty and keeping the powers of evil at bay, for if the beast was ever released from its prison, it would bring the most abominable demons with it and all would be destroyed, and thus ended the second age of the kingdom.
The third age began as 1500 years passed since the defeat of the beast. All was forgotten until a group of cultists that worshiped the dark creature waited for the pinnacle of the sins of man, elf, aqualon, and dwarf to build up. Fueled with the power of 1500 years, they used ancient evil magic to crack the seal that held the beast and released a plague upon the lands that turned anything that had life into monstrous creatures. They did not think or sleep, all they did was kill anything they saw living. However, sometimes the infected would resist the plague and still have control over their minds. They who survived with their sanity would see their bodies grow animal features from the plague unwillingly. They were known forever more as Nightfall and were outcast by most. Along with the plague, the beast had sent his finest soldiers of the underworld to the surface to command his new army including his elite soldier that took a child’s body as its host. When all of that had transpired, the time of the third age ended and the fourth age, the age of the Nightfall, begun.
Twenty-one years after the plague had passed and all that was rebuilt had begun to fall apart because the war between the living and the plagued had begun. However, fate had decided to turn the tides. For the time had come for ten new warriors to be chosen to bring peace to the lands. For as the sun had risen on Erandire’s new day, the ten young people would begin their greatest adventures. But they could not begin their journeys themselves; they needed the guidance of another to begin. The one who had been alive since the beginning of the first civilization of the races.
