Prologue
The green dragon swooped down on the man, but the man's reflexes were too quick and he jumped clear over the dragon. The man quickly turned around to find his foe. The dragon swooped around and came down for another attack on the man, but pulled upwards before he reached the man, hoping to fake the man into jumping again. However, the man's reflexes saved him again, for he had prepared to jump but stopped just in time.
The dragon was angry now. The human had dodged it twice now and it did not usually take the dragon this long to kill a weak human. But no human could withstand a dragon's fire breath. So the dragon inhaled and unleashed a stream of fire upon the human. Unfortunately for the dragon, the human reacted to its inhaling and pulled up its shield; a magical shield that could block fire.
The dragon stubbornly kept breathing its terrible fire at the human, not even trying to get around the shield. What kind of shield can withstand fire? The dragon would see that accursed piece of metal melted on the ground and the human holding his left hand in agony.
But the shield held and the dragon ran out of breath. The dragon was beyond angry now. It came down for another swoop attack on the human. Unfortunately, the human was more than ready this time. The human jumped, but not high enough the completely clear the dragon. Instead, the human brought his sword up and slashed the dragon's right wing clear off.
The dragon hit the ground hard and the man didn't give him a chance to recover. The man ran up to the dragon and stabbed it in the heart. The dragon writhed in agony.
The man walked up to his kill and took a moment to catch his breath. The reality of the situation hit him. His comrades were gone, killed when they had been ambushed while scaling the volcano. He had escaped death by chance. A monster's spell had sent him over a cliff. The monsters must have thought him to be dead for sure, and they were almost right. However, the man had enough in him to cast healing spells on himself, and he climbed up the cliff to try and aid his friends.
However, the dragon had not been killed by the man's stab. As the man stood there catching his breath and his thoughts, the dragon got up again. So absorbed was the man in his reverie that he did not notice. The dragon did not have enough strength to breath fire or even fly, but it used its strength to try and ram the man. The man came back to the present too late; the dragon rammed into him and died on top of him. Even more unfortunate for the man was the fact that they were close to the edge of the volcano. The dragon's massive weight crashed into him and sent both of them into the volcano…
Aliahan had once been considered a great and glorious place. The two previous Great Wars had seen great heroes rise from Aliahan. The first great hero of Aliahan, Simon, had united humanity in the first Great War against the forces of the Master Archfiend. The resulting war almost wiped out human and monster alike, but both survived.
It was because of the second Great War that Aliahan lost its standing in the war. The Master Archfiend's only surviving apprentice inherited its master's magic and once again brought a force of monsters against humanity. But, like before, a hero from Aliahan, Desmond, united humanity to meet the threat. The monster, who was only given the title Archfiend, was no match for humanity's forces.
However, the true struggle of the war came after the Archfiend's defeat. With the great force he had command of as a result of the War; Desmond began to abuse his power. He invaded the territories that he had protected and brought about the Aliahan Empire. Not only that, but he proved to be a tyrannous ruler. Eventually, his subjects rose against him and he was forced to retreat back to Aliahan itself. There he held out in a bitter siege as the people of Aliahan stood by the ruler that had come from their own land. But eventually, Desmond's tyranny was too much even for his native people, and they too rebelled against him.
But from that time on, Aliahan would be shamed. As the world rebuilt, it came time to divide up territories among the different nations. Aliahan had been vanquished, and had caused the world a lot of trouble. To stop other nations from preying on Aliahan, a powerful wizard, who had fought with Desmond, sealed up the Cave of Enticement, which contained a Traveler's Gate that served as transportation to and from the Kingdom of Romaly. With the cave, and the Gate, sealed Aliahan became hard to reach. As it was a long trip by ship, the other nations decided not to bother with Aliahan, which really had little to offer. However, Aliahan had to swear never to break the seal or interact with other nations. Aliahan had to be isolated from the world.
Aliahan was not completely isolated. Ships came by every so often that brought some news of the outside world and engaged in trade. But for the most part, the isolation stayed true. However, when one ship brought rumors of a new Archfiend rising up, a man of Aliahan decided to depart with the ship and gather news of the fiend. The man's name was Ortega.
Recently, another ship came to Aliahan, this one bearing bad news. Ortega had gathered news about the Archfiend and found that it posed a significant threat to humanity. Ortega tried to forge alliances with different nations, but none would hear him out. Then Ortega and a small band of warriors tried to run a reconnaissance mission on the Archfiend castle, high up in a distant mountain range. There, he and the band met their ends on the top of a volcano.
