Chapter 3 - DursTor

DursTor is an enchanted palace in the land of Moonga. It is home to two populations: the Luminatis and the Obscuras, who battle it out for control of the palace's only entrance.

The former to shut it up forever and protect the world from the Darkness, the latter to escape and taste freedom.
To understand DursTor, one must go back a long way in The Great History, more than 70,000 years before the Four Continents conquest. In those days, the world was divided into seven large regions named Primus, Secundus, Tertius, Quartus, Quintus, Sextus and Septimus. The first three: Primus, Secundus and Tertius divided up the present-day continent of Atariorus. The country that was Quartus is now a continent. Monastia was Quintus and Sextus. And the continent Hyriel was a vast land called Septimus.
In Sextus lived Domerica Anta, a small but ambitious kinglet. He had many unusual qualities, but the one that interests us today - and remains the most famous of them all - was his lack of discernment. Domerica Anta's kingdom had been at war with the neighboring kingdom of Eakaan for years. As Domerica was not an astute strategist, he avoided invasion only thanks to the numerical superiority of his people. Years passed in tears and blood, axes in skulls and poison in wine.
The day came when Domerica woke up with an idea that was far from brilliant, but which suited his particular interests. After careful consideration (while he ate his first meal of the day), he decided to share his idea with his advisors. Initially disconcerted, they quickly resigned themselves, due to the fact that they might "accidentally" fall down the castle stairs otherwise. Within two days, the talks with the enemy were done, armed conflict had ceased, and the news was announced everywhere: Dursa Anta, the daughter of King Domerica Anta, was to marry Torrece Eakaan of the powerful Eakaan clan.
This seemingly innocent event triggered a curse that was broken in the year 730 after the Four Continents conquest. For, you see, Dursa and Torrece were as destined for each other by the Ages as a doe might be to a pig! Torrece fell in love with Dursa at first sight. At the time, they were six years old and Dursa, who was not as foolish as her father and not yet interested in love, was not infatuated with the little boy. Years went by, and with each of their meetings - always during unsuccessful attempts to restore peace between the two kingdoms - Torrece's love for Dursa grew stronger. For her part, Dursa felt only friendship towards her suitor at best, and cold indifference at worst. The girl loved another.
And so it was done, with one of the parties delighted to celebrate the union and the other planning to throw herself into the sea... The marriage was concluded, consummated and begun when Torrece started building a home for his beloved wife. The residence was a small magical palace that regularly changed its appearance to entertain its occupants. Torrece hoped to fill the emptiness that was growing in Dursa's heart each day. The young wife didn't go out anymore, didn't answer when spoken to, and barely fed herself. When the palace was completed, Dursa and Torrece moved in. They only lived there together for one night.
The day after their first night in DursTor palace, Dursa took her own life. Torrece, overcome with grief, shut himself away in his palace, and, after burying the remains of his deceased wife in one of the many gardens, he announced the news to the Eakaan and Anta clans. By the time they came to visit Dursa's grave, Torrece had cleaned and destroyed the knife Dursa had used. However, he missed a tiny drop of blood. Just one drop... Fancece Eakaan, Torrece's elder brother, had loved Dursa with all his heart, and his love had been reciprocated. When he heard the sad news, he held Torrece responsible and planned his revenge. What he wouldn't have given to go back in time and marry Dursa instead of his brother! He wouldn't have pushed her into the arms of death!
Unable to bring himself to kill his own brother, Fancece cast a curse on Torrece, imprisoning him forever in this strange palace dedicated to Dursa's glory. Torrece, who had more than one trick up his sleeve, trapped Fancece inside a deer, knowing that the beast was the game of choice for his clan's hunting parties. The curses the two brothers had cast on each other kept them alive indefinitely, dooming them to eternal punishment. This kind of spell is called Time Hunting, but we'll talk more about that in another chapter... The Light was born in DursTor from Torrece's immense love for Dursa. The Darkness, for its part, used a single drop of blood forgotten within this brightness to emerge from obscurity and oppose the blind Light. Over time, the Light and Darkness, fundamentally contradictory, threatened and provoked each other, but Torrece's presence in the palace prevented the two sides from killing each other. As for the palace, it began to do as it pleased and became an autonomous entity. It was changing now, not based on Torrece's orders, but as it wanted.
65,000 years after Dursa's death, Fancece finally found a way out of his "prison." He got rid of the deer, regained his human form, found his brother and killed him. Fancece was never heard from again. When Torrece died, the Light and Darkness were unleashed and fought to the death. Time passed and the war in the palace, which had always been careful to keep its two sides balanced and ensure that none of the creatures born of the madness escaped, turned into an equal and endless confrontation.
The world forgot about this palace until the year 722, when Marnordir sent his Initiate, Aodh, to the continent of Monastia. Aodh, whose mission, like his sister Ileina, was to study Monastia, set out to climb and explore the Askian Mountains. He didn't have time to see much of the Kingdom of Askarh, barely a dragon or two, before he reached the great gate of DursTor.
Aodh's time in DursTor was both brilliant and destructive. The first Spells he created were for the Luminatis, beings of Light. He discovered their customs and wanted to understand where they came from, for he had never met so many Divines before. For those who don't know, Divines are creatures endowed with powers so extraordinary that the Ages grant them to very few beings.

Aodh thought he was dreaming when he met the Divine Luminatis and their Dark enemies, the Obscuras. "All that power locked up in Spells, Marnordir will be delighted!" he thought. For their part, the Luminatis, who had been locked away in the palace for years, enjoyed having a stranger in their midst. They treated him like a king and agreed to let him do little experiments with his pieces of parchment. Four years passed and Aodh had created a multitude of Spells. He kept in mind that he was on a mission for Marnordir and had to return to Juzil.
When he told his new friends of his imminent departure, the Luminatis locked him in a tower. Indeed, after all he'd seen, he couldn't leave and reveal DursTor's secrets to the world. The Luminatis made it a point of honor not to let anyone leave the palace. All this knowledge and the powers he had imprisoned in his Spells were too dangerous to leave DursTor. What's more, Aodh had created Spells from Obscuras essence, and nothing to do with the Obscuras could escape the yoke of the Luminatis. Never! According to the Children of Light, the Obscuras were pure evil, and the world was not strong enough to face them. Thus deprived of freedom from the top of his tower, Aodh cursed the Luminatis.
One night, while the Obscuras were hiding in the bowels of the castle, one of them flew to Aodh's tower. He awakened the Initiate and offered him a deal. He would help him escape if, in exchange, Aodh offered him a year of his life. Aodh refused without a second thought. You don't deal with evil, period! The Obscuras returned every night, somehow escaping the Luminatis' surveillance, to propose the same deal to Aodh. The Obscuras told him the story of Dursa and Torrece, of Fancece and the birth of Light and Darkness, and Aodh found himself enjoying the company, not of a friend, but of someone who was sharing fascinating tales with him.
As you may have guessed, Aodh finally gave in and agreed to give a year of his life to the Obscuras. And just like that, Aodh joined the Darkness. The year passed and Aodh changed. He forgot his mission, the Alliance, the Empire and Marnordir. He was now fighting for the Obscuras.
For his part, Marnordir began to worry about Aodh's long absence. Ileina hadn't returned from the floating islands either, but the great magician had received the Spells she'd created in Densara and some letters. As for Aodh, he was gone for good. Marnordir decided to search for his Initiate himself, which he did for four years. He searched the entire continent of Monastia. He did other things too, but that's not the subject of this chapter. In any case, when he was certain that Aodh could be nowhere else but in DursTor, he returned to Juzil and sent the two most promising warriors he knew to the enchanted palace: Declan, Knight of Shadows and Lanna, heiress of the Kingdom of Water.
Marnordir didn't tell them why he refused to go himself, nor did he tell them the story of the palace. He kept them in the dark, leaving them with the popular belief that DursTor was a country, not a palace, and that no one could get out alive. There was even a rumor about DursTor involving two dwarves, a golem and the Emperor himself, but don't ask me to tell you; it's far too silly to be included in these pages. I don't understand Marnordir's behavior towards Declan and Lanna. All I know is that these two were strong and pure and that, perhaps, Marnordir wanted to test their bravery and the depth of their souls. But that's just a guess. Lanna and Declan traveled together to DursTor and learned the hard way that Aodh no longer wanted to return...
The war between the Obscuras and the Luminatis spiraled out of control and the palace collapsed, destroyed by its very heart: those who made it exist. Many souls perished in this war between Light and Darkness, and those who survived escaped to hide all over the Land of Moonga.
Lanna and Declan returned home and told Marnordir about their adventure in DursTor palace. Life in the Alliance of Marnordir returned to normal, and our heroes turned their attention to other matters.
It was the year 731 after the Four Continents conquest, and the Emperor Daryen gave Marnordir a very nasty surprise when he enlisted the four princesses of the land of Lymronia in his battle against the Alliance; four princesses more popularly known as the Poison Sisters of the Country of the Four Seasons...