Storyline - Hizor's Verdict
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Storyline - Hizor's Verdict | ||
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Almost 30 years have gone by since Nost was defeated, and peace was reassured on the Albazardan Continent... well, at least as much peace as it's possible there. Since then, Hizor Hares has pretty much achieved his lifetime goal: he founded and became the head of the most respectable wizardry research and teaching center on the whole continent: the Chrona Institute, in the portuary city of Boveric. The otherwise famed Albazardan School of Wizardry has since became a mere glimpse of its glory days, due to inside power fights and Chrona's growth. Over time, the Chrona Institute became not only the wizardry authority on the Albazardan Continent, but the overall authority. This happened pretty much because of the collapse of the Invincible Brigade, the once rulemaking lords of Albazard. This lead to the rise of another policing institute, the Kampa, headed in the northeastern city of Meriador. Unlike their predecessors, the Kampa allign authority with deity, being a very religious institute. Its head, a cleric called Nodin, is well known for both his magical powers and his big heart. The thing is the Kampa pray more than act, and chaos started to rear its read. First, the city of Enenah came to be. Located on a valley near the Northern Mountains, Enenah is dwelled by giants, ogres, dwarves and goblins. Obviously, the giants rule the place, with orcs, dwarves and goblins being little more than slaves. The giants' lord and sort of Enenah "mayor" is a huge and short-tempered cyclops called Blistho the One Eyed. He decided that Enenah should not pay taxes or even be friendly towards Kampa, and blocked many commercial roads on the Northern Mountains. This obviously brought rage to Meriador. The Kampa then started sending troops to take over Enenah, but Blistho has always managed to sent his own troops to thwart the attacks, due mainly to their better knowledge of the ravins and mountains that surround the city. Then, a problem that has always doomed the Albazardan continent reached new heights. Thieves and assassins from the whole continent managed to found an organization known as the Rogue. Their leader, a witty woman called Ruel, is public enemy number one according to the Kampa. The Rogue support various gambling places and fight pits all over Albazard, and are often related to sacking, stealing, and murder. The Kampa try, but can't seem to stop them. Many Kampa officers have been murdered since the institute condemned the Rogue's actions. Also, barbarians act all over the continent, sacking and destroying villages. They claim all the time that they are in no way related to the Rogue. In this grim scenario, the people's hopes have turned to the Chrona Institute, and they have answered. Chrona wizards have started to help Kampa police things, and are bringing results. More and more Rogue followers have been arrested, barbarian actions are diminishing, and they even have made progress in Enenah. But now, a conflict has emerged. A conflict that will require the most of Hizor and the Chrona. On one hand, the forest of Locara, almost destroyed by Nost, has been patiently rebuilded by elves, centaurs, and the ophine, a race of snake-people. Now, a female elf called Naane has came to rule over the huge elvish population of the forest, and her intents are sinister at least. Naane wants to destroy those who, in her mind, helped doom Locara in the past: the human race. Naane has magical powers that make her abnormally connected to Locaran trees and plants: she has the gift to literally control their growth and expansion, which helped a lot on the rebuilding of the forest. Now, she wants Locara to take over the whole continent, and turn it into a great forest, where forest beings - and especially, of course, her - rule. The centaurs follow her blindly, believing her a deity for her powers. The ophine don't stand against her, but also don't help in her mad plans. And she started by annexing Shindana, the ancient halfling town, fulfilling it with plants and trees and slaying those who stood against. It was enough for the Kampa, who immediately declared war on the elves. On the other hand, Skyscape, a faraway, colossal boulder of land standing literally on the middle of the air, has started to interfere. It's inhabbited by strange flying humans, birds, and illusions, and no one yet knows how it looks like or who is in charge of it. The fact is, for some reason, they decided to promote their own war against Naane and Locara, mainly ignoring the Kampa. Skyscape troops started descending from the skies and battling Naane's army. Until now, the battle is even, but the most losses are those of innocent people: more than one village has been destroyed by the war. The Kampa don't know what to do, and believe Skyscape's purposes to be the exact opposite of Naane's: to destroy the very naturality of the continent, and build a word of complete artifice and illusion. Caught in the middle of the crossfire is Hizor. The cunning wizard has to face not only those external problems, but also internal ones: there are great clues that the Chrona's time experiments have already gone too far, and will have great impications on the continent. Hizor's sorrow is mainly because of who he believes to be the fiercest inciter of the problem: Arnon, a young wizard, Chrona best student ever. And Hizor internally feels that all this has something to do with Skyscape's purposes... but he can't seem to find out why. The Kampa are lost. Chaos is about to run rampant on the whole continent. And the war between artifice and naturality threatens to bring the whole continent down. From Chrona's headquarters in Boveric, Hizor and his right-arm crew try to uncover misteries still left unknown, but they know very grim things might be waiting. Which side to stand, after all? Pro-Naane and her verdant expansion madness, to foil Skyscape's onslaught? Pro-Skyscape's speculated artifice dream, to thwart Naane's crazy intents? Pro-Kampa, against all, but unable to solve anything on its own? Or should they stand a completely different path, with no guarantees of success on their task? The time has come for Hizor's verdict. |