After The Last War

Eight miles on the road outside Boggharbour is when the rain really starts to get to you, it’s been going for hours, an oppressive never-ending drizzle that seems to seep the colour from the world. Not that there was ever much colour in this part of the country, dreary swampland punctuated by miserable villages, the odd gnarled grey tree rising up from the bog as you pass in the back of the cart is as interesting as it gets. Still, the pay wasn’t bad, enough for a warm bed and decent food for a few nights at least. Although the rest of the group seem a bit off, not the sort of folk you would trust but at least they looked like they could probably kill goblins well enough, just as long as they stayed away from you, you’d all get along just fine. The fat old coach driver turns around out, letting you know you’re nearly there, as he turns the cart down a narrow dirt road towards a low, rock-strewn hill. A quick check of your equipment, such as it is and you start the shake out your arms and neck, it might only be gobs but no need to get sloppy, it’s been a long time since you were in a real fight Suddenly the horses start to panic and scream, black, twisted arrows pepper their hides and the cart tips and crashes as the horses die, throwing you and your companions hard to the ground into the thick mud. The driver is crushed under his coach, head caved in and bright red blood leaches into the rainwater. Spindly-limbed goblins leap out from behind the rocks, their filthy, yellowy hides daubed in crusty white mud, rusted blades or twisted bows clutched in clawed hands, the scamper towards you, hunched over, heads darting back and forth, checking their backs for any surprise. You pull yourself up, the bog sucking at your limbs as you right yourself, you grab your weapon from the ground beside you, the goblins are startled to see that you’re still alive and you see them quickly trying to count up to see if they outnumber you before they continue at you.   The Last War   The war of Allatar ended four years ago, no one can say why it started now but over the decades that the conflict raged, every nation and city-state were dragged into it. No one alive today could even begin to understand the shifting loyalties and boundaries of the last seventy years. What is known is that The Last War was bloody beyond anything seen before. New weapons and ways of war were developed that would end lives on a scale beyond comprehension. As the War ground on, the notions of honour, loyalty and chivalry were eroded, every side visited unimaginable horror on the other in those dark years. During the time, the conflict it was known by many names by the different sides each convinced they had the right of it but now most people called it The Last War, because the world probably won’t last long enough for there to be another one.   Just as no one can truly say why it started, no one can tell you how the Last War ended, just that it did, and what happened changed the world forever. One day, something blew through the world, every battlefield, every army encampment, every war room or senate where battles were planned, all were gone. A thick grey fog hung over the world on that day and when it lifted, almost everyone who had taken part in the wars were dead or dying. In the weeks and months that followed, chaos reigned, countries collapsed, cities were ransacked by looters and those desperate to survive.   Soon after people noticed that the world was dying too, slowly but surely. Every year it gets worse and spread further, crops were blighted, the trees in the great forests sickened and died, even the bones of the mountains seem to rot and decay. Whatever happened to end The Last War is, by accident or design, ending everything else as well. A pervasive feeling of despair permeates the air, people are going through the motions, struggling on to live in a world free from hope.   There is no future, for most, this is a punishment from some other place for the horrors of the Last War, for others, the world was ended by some terrible weapon or magic gone too far by one of the nations embroiled in the war. Most however simply don’t even care to assign blame anymore, their rage and indignation are spent and they just want to survive for as long as possible.