Prologue
From The History of Melhamarr, as written by Orien Selmiras
Once upon a time, when the world was still youthful and Melhamarr was a beautiful, enchanting place to live…
There was a kingdom. The name of this kingdom was Ramah. In those days, Melhamarr was almost entirely covered in forest, but it wasn’t the kind of inhospitable forest that covers most of the continent today. This forest was full of birdsong, beautiful wild animals, and a peaceful atmosphere that made the people of Melhamarr revere it as an enchanting place.
But this wasn’t to remain this way. After a few centuries passed, King Talric the third was crowned. Although he was a just and noble king, he made the mistake of appointing one of his close friends, Corvin Maelric, as his advisor.
For 12 years, King Talric ruled with wisdom and goodness, with Corvin ever at his side. As the 13th year of the King’s reign dawned, a voyager from another land visited the kingdom. He claimed to have power beyond any that the King possessed. He offered this knowledge to King Talric in the form of a large, leather-bound book.
Initially, the King was in favour of gaining this knowledge and power. However, when the voyager opened up the book, the King realized it was full of dark spells. Immediately, he ordered Corvin to have the book destroyed, and the voyager banished.
The people of the kingdom, upon hearing of this news, were torn amongst themselves, half of them believing that this magic could greatly benefit their lives and the good of the kingdom, and the other half sticking to the belief that the magic was dark and shouldn’t be trifled with.
Unbeknown to the King at the time, Corvin disobeyed. Instead, he let the voyager stay in his house for long enough to let the stranger teach him all the spells that the book taught.
After a few months, on the Midsummer’s eve festival, Corvin confronted the King. He told King Talric about all that he’d learned, and how that power could benefit the kingdom and make it the wealthiest in all the world.
The King called the spells that were in that book dark magic. He commanded Corvin to bring him the book to be destroyed. The power that Corvin already had a small taste of was too much for him. He refused.
The advisor left the castle with the book, and returned with a dagger hidden under his clothing, with the intention to kill King Talric and take his place as king. The townspeople therein were celebrating joyously and were blissfully unaware of the feud that was happening between the King and his advisor.
As he stepped through the large front gates that he’d been through so many times, Corvin realized he couldn’t kill his friend who’d been loyal and unwavering in his friendship for all those years.
Instead, Corvin stepped out onto the King’s balcony, looking over the people celebrating the festival below. He called down to them, and said that he was to start a new kingdom, one where the magic would be used for the good of the people and the prosperity of the kingdom. He said that anyone who was willing to join him should leave the festival immediately and come with him to start a new kingdom.
King Talric sent guards to stop this, but to no avail. Within a fortnight, Corvin had rallied almost half of the kingdom to join him.
The King wasn’t about to give up on his lifelong friend, and he tried one last time to reason with Corvin. The advisor stayed hard-hearted against the King’s advice and pleas.
Finally, Corvin lifted up his arms, and brought a whirlwind down around his followers. Once it dispersed, there was no sign of the traitor or his followers anywhere.
King Talric moved his people from the middle of the island to the southern end, aiming to rebuild his kingdom and his people’s trust from scratch. There was great sorrow in the kingdom for many years, as family members had been pitted against family members in the division between the King and his advisor.
Some years later, it was discovered that Corvin and his followers had settled in the northernmost part of the island, and were building a prosperous kingdom there.
The followers of the King started to call themselves the Sensarasti, meaning ‘free from magic’ for the reason that they’d resisted that dark magic and would have nothing to do with it. Messages and letters were exchanged with Corvin, and he called his people the Varnarinth, meaning ‘black ink’ because they weren’t afraid to educate themselves in the highest powers of this world.
As Corvin stated in a letter to the King, “We shall be called the Varnarinth, because we are not afraid to read the markings set permanently on the page by black ink. By discerning this darkness, we will be brought to light. The followers of Talric are the Senkerris, the ‘empty page’ - because they are only willing to read the whiteness of a blank page, and by sticking to this ‘light’, will inevitably fall into darkness.”
Talric’s people quickly adopted the name Senkerris, taking what was supposed to be an insult and turning it into their identity.
A year after this, Corvin cast a spell that made the two clans so different that no longer would anyone mistake a Varnarinthian for a Senkerrisian. The spell gave all the people loyal to the King, the Senkerrisians, pale skin and hair that varied between a very light brown and a pale blond. The Varnarinthians, on the other hand, all received darker, olive-coloured skin and black hair.
The King and his former advisor kept up a steady stream of correspondence, the King always begging Corvin to bring the two halves of the kingdom back together, and Corvin always refusing, his denials getting more and more blunt.
Finally, Corvin cast a spell that turned Raleth, the island’s largest forest, into an enchanted wood so that the messengers would no longer be able to get through without an armed band of soldiers to keep them out of danger. This separated the two kingdoms with no hope of them being reunited. Later, this forest would be called Sheveleth, meaning ‘The dangerous forest.’
Corvin cast many other spells before his death, and those are too numerous to be named here.
After Corvin’s death, a single, final message was sent to King Talric, announcing this news. In his last hours as king, Corvin, who knew he was dying of pneumonia, had hidden the book of spells, then burnt his palace to the ground. He died hours later, content that no one would inherit the magic that he had guarded so fiercely, and so selfishly, throughout his life.
The message also stated that all relations would be severed between the two kingdoms.
This must have been true because although King Talric attempted sending a handful of messengers to try to re-establish ties with the Varnarinth, and to find out who their new king was, none of his messengers returned. The King gave up, and six years later died of old age.
Three hundred years passed. The Senkerris lived peacefully and prosperously, quickly forgetting about the Varnarinth. One day, however, a battalion of Varnarinthians attacked. Their reasons weren’t clear, but their malice was. And since then, the Varnarinth have relentlessly fought against us, never showing mercy, never spilling the reason for the attacks.
Since that fateful day, we have been trying to stay courageous and strong, and have been fighting against the Varnarinth for the kingdom we’ve built and come to love.