The Ring of Haganax the Beautiful
A tale commonly told by both the Churches of Peoni and Morgath.
The Church of Peoni recount this story as a cautionary tale. Doing evil even for a good cause will only make things worse.
The same story is also told by the Priests of Morgath. They interpret it as an object lesson in the application of power and corruption.
In the last days of the Corani Empire, Anthani of Tillinok was a Peoni Priest who was administering for a small parish in the village of Mistoni. This was a quiet and prosperous border settlement hardly touched by the Red Death plagues and rebellions ravaging the Empire at the time. But on a dark day, the Balshan Jihad swept into the peaceful settlement and imposed their unjust and cruel laws as well as banning the worship of any god save the evil Morgath.
Still, the villagers kept to the old ways and held secret services to Peoni for several years before being discovered. Enraged at the villager's defiance, the Jihad decided to make an example of the miscreants. A tribunal led by the particularly cruel Haganax the Beautiful and Anthani with dozens of congregation were tried and found guilty. Their sentence was hash; starvation, torture then followed by public execution.
Distressed Anthani prayed to his goddess for help, but no salvation was forthcoming. One by one the villages he cared for suffered and died, he made one last plea for divine intervention. But someone else answered his cries, Klyss the Necromancer, Morgath's most powerful servant. Klyss whispered to the priest, told him that Haganax wore a magical ring, it was the source of all his power. This ring infused with evil forces granting him immortality; a body will never age or be subject to disease. All he had to do was take that ring, and he and his fellow prisoners will be set free.
Anthani knew much of warfare having, spending much of his youth in the Legions before taking up the priesthood, was faced with doing violence and thereby breaking his vow of peace. It was a hard decision, but he decided maybe just this once he should fight back. He volunteered to be next to the sacrificed. As Haganax prepared to cut out his heart, he surprised the priest, disarmed him and grabbing his sacrificial blade, and cut off Haganax hand. In the chaos, he claimed the ring for himself.
Peoni appeared before Anthany and pleaded for him to stop this madness as evil only acts beget only greater evil. Rejecting his goddess, he put on the ring and was lost. Imbued with new strength, he cut Haganax throat and took command of the confused Jihad soldiers demanding that they release the remaining villages. After they were set free, and he started killing those that tortured and murdered his parish.
The villages were afraid, seeing him only as a monster and fled into the forest. Unfortunately, they encountered a Kuboran Warband. These barbarians were out for revenge for some atrocity the Jihad inflicted on their tribe and were not fussy as to who they spent their rage on. All the innocent villages were brutally murdered. Looking at the dead bodies of his congregation, those that he gave up his soul to save, Anthani fell into despair. The entered the Vault of Miston never to be seen again.
Comments