ark Age. Part one)
The first day of the year 999, Pyros, the capital city of the eighth realm, once famous for its rich cultural and religious life, was reduced to ashes.
However terrifying the Giants and the Dinosaurs might be, they were incapable of countering the rising influence of the
Dragons. After a terrible and unequal battle, Diplood’s creatures were forced to acknowledge their defeat and lay down
their arms.
For forty-four years, the Dragons grew more numerous and stronger each year. They were about to conquer Ganareth in
accordance with Dragoon’s schemes.
Year 1144 was marked by the fall of the Goddess Aesir’s realm. Daemonia’s demons were wiped out by the icy breath of
death, belched out by fearsome, powerful Blue Dragons. Having thrown herself headlong into the battle, Daemonia was
about to reverse the situation when she came face to face with a Dragon of a new species, bathed in a ghastly light.
As she also was bathed in this strange light, she felt her strength desert her; Lucinrhog had taken hold of her.
Dragoon had just sent the first of the five Lieutenants he had secretly conceived, in order to neutralize the mystic
entities, immortal by nature. Focalohr, Haboroth, Vapulrogh and Bunekorh were holding themselves ready.
The Gods then started blaming Calder for having let Dragons multiply and thrive in his realm without opposing it.
Aesir, weakened, too exhausted to materialize in the outside world, could not leave the Wahl anymore.
In the year 1225, it was the turn of Neutra’s realm to be invaded. Coccifera, the mother of animated plants, was ordered
by Neutra to give shelter to the Elves. The latter’s intelligence had enabled them not to fall beneath the Dragons’
spell, but their magic was no longer powerful enough to give them any hope of victory. Coccifera’s animated plants
put up a passive resistance, hiding the Elves, or partly blocking the way of the Orcs who were streaming up from the
south, at their masters command. A great many of these plants was devastated by the Orcs, which entailed the mutation
of certain species. Plants began to eat up their assailants’ flesh. The Elves resisted as much as they could, while
hoping for better times for their realm and for Elven folk.
On the 55th day of the year 1432, as Neutra’s strength was waning, the Elves split up into three factions, believing in
three different interpretations of magic, and they quarrelled bitterly during a meeting, over which interpretation to
favour.
Most of the Elves wanted to carry on with practising traditional magic, while the rest of the Elven folk wanted to
explore new ways to counter the terrible power of Dragons. Among the supporters of change, some wanted to practise
a constructive magic, which they considered as a necessary evolution of the traditional magic, while the others
intended to experiment with a destructive magic, in total conflict with the fundamental precepts of Elvish culture.
Consequently, followers of this kind of magic were banished at once, and they had to move into caves.
The supporters of traditional magic and the followers of constructive magic went on arguing after the departure of the
ones they considered as heretics; only Sylvandiel, a venerable, wise and respected Elf, managed to persuade them to
stay united during battles, in order to face the troubled times ahead.
For 122 years, the Dragons fiercely and unrelentingly attacked Neutra’s realm, before moving on to conquer the God Agnar’s
realm.
In the year 1554, Dragoon’s troops reached the heart of the second realm, without coming up against much resistance. Yet, at the expense of great sacrifices, the Dwarves succeeded in wounding several Dragons and killing many Orcs, by attacking them by surprise in the mountains. But many other Dragons came as a back-up from Neutra’s realm.
Complying with Agnar’s orders, Maam immolated several thousands of mammals and offered up their ashes to the Dragons,
so that they would spare the lives of combatants, who had but very few chances to survive. The Dragons went on thriving
within Agnar’s realm, without exterminating the Dwarves, though the latter had come to strengthen the Elves’ numbers in
many battles. Indeed, many Dwarves had escaped unharmed from particularly bloody battles, such as the battle of 1555,
which caused the death of thousands of combatants.
Just like Aesir and Neutra, Agnar’s strength was waning, and soon he was not able to materialize in the outside world
either.
In the year 1655, totally unexpectedly, the Dragons entered Malecta’s realm. As it was surrounded by water, her realm had seemed until then to be inaccessible. The Trolls, who had been in a state of lethargy until then, seemed to be waking up. A glimmer of hope rose within Malecta’s realm, but it soon vanished. A few thousand of Nthuma’s Trolls and Living Dead were heading towards the coast, but the Trolls turned against the Living Dead at the very moment when Nthuma was giving the order to push the Dragons back into the sea.
No one but Gothar would have imagined how strong and extended was the hold of the Dragons over the Trolls. Once the
surprise was over, Nthuma felt hopeful again; as the shores were strewn with Troll corpses, she turned them into
Living Dead, thinking the latter would rejoin her.
In her infinite wisdom, Malecta asked Nthuma to surrender. Dragons had the power to kill the Living Dead, and the corpses
of Trolls that Malecta had been bringing to life were turning against her. The only possible way out was to negotiate
peace with Dragoon. No one ever knew what Malecta’s pact with the Beast was, but the Dragons had acted like masters in
her realm ever since.