The Lands of Myth

The story thus far...   150 years ago, the Armies of the Dark came out of the East and laid waste to the greatest empire the world had ever known. Muirthemne and the surrounding farm land was devastated when Balor and his Fallen Lords buried all of it under millions of tons of rock and sand. All the human lands east of the Cloudspine were lost to the vast armies of the Undead. The Dwarves soon lost their homelands of Mygard and Stoneheim to the onslaught of the Ghols.   After 17 years, the Nine - a group of Avatara led by the rightful King of Madrigal, Alric, led a desperate war effort to push back the Fallen Lords. But the war was slowly being lost. The decapitated Head of one of Balor's old enemies, dug up from the ruins of Muirthemne, provided information that aided the war effort.   At first.   As it turned out, it had ideas of its own and after sending Alric deep into the wastes to be captured, it led a Civil War against the surviving members of the Nine.   When The Watcher - one of the Fallen Lords - utterly shattered the army of the avatara Maeldun, and with a Civil War raging back in their home land, the recently rescued Alric knew he had no choice but to lead the remains of the Legion to take Balor on directly.   Using the battle standard of an ancient foe, Balor, revealed to be the great Hero of the Wolf Age, Connacht, was defeated. His head was removed from his body and thrown into the Great Devoid to never be seen again.   The war should have ended there and while the Fallen Lords fell with Balor's death, one did not. His most trusted Lieutenant, Soulblighter retreated deep into the Untamed Lands, to the hidden temple where he first learned the dark arts. There he studied and waited and prepared.   Sixty years went by. Alric, who had reclaimed his kingdom and rebuilt his war torn land, was now an old man and the once great armies fo the Province were a shadow of their former selves, just a simple police force more than anything. Thus was the state of things when Soulblighter returned and unleashed the armies of the undead once again on the lands of the living. But to make things far worse, he also unleashed the Myrkridia, a race of flesh eaters whose ferocity and terror were legendary. One by one, the cities of the Province fell and Alric, desperate, retreated with the Legion to Muirthemne. There he reestablished the Cath Bruig Empire, taking the Ebis Crown as his own and the ancient magical sword Balmung, he faced Soulblighter and laid waste to his army of undead and Myrkridia.   Cornered, Soulblighter retreated into the Volcano Tharsis and attempted to shatter it and break open the world, but Alric defeated him, plunging him to his death within the Volcano's molten heart.   With the Cath Bruig Empire reborn and the enemies of all life defeated, Alric led the Empire into a new Golden Age. 90 years later, the Empire thrives, with the rebuilt city of Muirthemne the center of all art, wisdom, magic and knowledge. The Province, rebuilt for the second time in as many centuries, enjoyed the security of the empire. The Dwarves, having reclaimed their homes from the Ghols, focused all of their efforts on the advancement of technology.   The cosmic powers were restless. Ten years after the defeat of Soulblighter, a single journeyman, known as Four Bear Silent Oak, who had not returned with his brothers to take on the role of a Heron Guard in Muirthemne, was drawn to the East, to follow horrific, violent dreams - what he believed to be prophecies.   In his wanderings, along with his friends Fenris the Warrior and n'Ric the Archer faced the Witch Kyrilla who had raised an army of the undead and made war upon the new Dukedom of Cavanaugh, a client state of the empire. Joined by the brave Militia of Swan's Crossing, they battled her army of the undead along the western borders of the Untamed Lands.   Four Bear and his company investigated further and realized that Kyrilla was in fact the daughter of their dear friend Kyrand the Mage, who had been struck down defeating the Demon Cartucke, ten years earlier during the War Against Soulblighter. Reasoning with Kyrilla, they discovered that Cartucke, a fiend of immense power had manipulated her into making war upon the living. The company traveled into the catacombs beneath her castle and defeated Cartucke once and for all, but at the cost of Fenris and Kyrilla's lives.   Four Bear was at peace but only for a while, as the prophecies soon returned. Once more he set out from the small village of Swan's Crossing, entering the high deserts of the Untamed Lands to search for what troubles him so.