The Stone and the Flame

In the years before the Third War of Reality, a girl was born in a far flung, rural region of one of the ancient human kingdoms.  From almost the moment she could walk, her deep red hair attracted the attentions of the people near parents' farm.  She explored the forests near her home incessently.

Before she was very old, her brother was born.  Even as an infant, he was large.  The bond between them was instantaneous.  By the time the boy could walk, his sister was taking him on her adventures.

Both siblings developed a stubborn streak as they grew, often taking on difficult tasks and refusing to give them up until completed.  For her creativity and inquisitiveness, the girl was often called the Flame, for fire has often been the companion of inspiration and wisdom.  The boy, who had grown sturdy and large to match his stubborness, was called the Stone, for few things are more steadfast than rock.

Together they worked their parents' farm, far from the politics and pressures of the Human kingdoms.  Still, their mother told them stories of how one day a War would come and reshape the very Reality of their lives.

In the last days before the War, an army began to rise from within the lands of the Humans and the Fae.  It carried allegiance to no one land, but honored them all.  Led by the Great Sorceress and the Child of Light, the force was the Watchtower, the army founded by the Heroes of the past two Wars for Reality.  They called to all the citizens of the lands they crossed, asking for those who would pledge themselves to maintain the balance of reality, not raising up one race over the others.

Having been told of the War and the exploits of the Watchtower time and again, the girl called the Flame and her brother called the Stone left their home and their safety to pledge themselves to the cause of the Artifacts of Fate.

And so, like so many of their generation far across the Human and Fae lands, they went to War.

The Dark Fae

Long ago, before the Second War for Reality, there was a movement within the young Fae to better understand the Undead.  They began to examine their innate connection to life and Magic.  Some among Fae society spoke out against their study, but the prevailing belief was that more knowledge of the enemy could only help the Fae in their efforts to protect Reality as it was.  They moved into a great fortress on the edge of the border between Fae and Undead lands and set to their research.

The young Fae, convinced they needed to examine their subjects from all angles and captured several Undead, ranging from weak individuals to a powerful commander.  The young Fae, who had begun calling themselves the Kilandrans, tested the captive Undead.  They pushed the limits of their prisoners, and sought the source of their connection with death.

None know just what the Kilandrans discovered, but the results of it were clear.  They tapped the powers of the Undead, and as a group fell out of communication with their fellows.  The fortress they had claimed for their own fell silent with the doors barred.  Suddenly, it descended into chaos.  Strange lights appeared throughout the fortress.  The laws of Reality seemed to flow awkwardly from the normal into twisted half-truths.  Sounds of battle and madness echoed into the nearby forests.  And then the doors opened.

From it emerged a group that still appeared Fae, but tainted with chaotic energies.  They seemed to have mastered them, appearing calm and focused.  But they were cold in a way their fellows rarely were.  There was a sense about them of restrained rage and joy.  The Fae welcomed their fellows back into their society, but watched them closely.  As a result, the Kilandrans began to use a second epithet: the Dark Fae.

As the Second War neared, the second generation of Dark Fae rose and neared the age at which they would join the forces that would fight alongside the rest of the Fae nation against the Brutes and Undead.  Each of them, at almost the same time, went mad.  They lashed out at all others around them, warping and twisting the world and their allies.  The Fae wanted them killed, but the elder Dark Fae drove them into exile.  Months it stretched on.  A year.  Two.

And then they returned, like their forefathers, restored to sanity.  The second generation of Dark Fae were the first to describe this period of madness as being Berserker.  The Fae had come to realize that this state was a natural state of progression of the Dark Fae's life cycle.  During the years-long Second War of Reality, the third generation of Dark Fae came of age and their Beserker state was used as a weapon against the Undead, Brutes, and Kobolds to great effect.  It had a mighty impact upon the Fae's Human allies, as well, with some learning to enter a fugue state similar to that of the Dark Fae's Beserker state, creating their own berserkers.

From then on, the Dark Fae were an integral part of the forces of the Artifacts of Fate, often working closely with She that Wields the Shadows.

The Artifacts

What? This isn't a piece of a novel, it's just some short story! What's going on here?

Before there was the War for Reality, there was no need for great generals.  Certainly generals arose; the fighting between Brutes, Undead, outside invaders, and the Human-Fae Alliance gave many commanders the experience they needed to lead their troops competently and with honor.  But the prize of the War changed all this so great was the power it provided.  But the Alliance was outnumbered by the Brutes and the Undead, who reproduced easily and rapidly, and matured into fighting ability with haste.

Seeking to combine the Fae's ability to tap Magic instinctively and the Human's ability to learn and grow far beyond their first interactions with the world, the Alliance worked tirelessly to forge a general who would be a master sorcerer, a child of both light and shadow, gifted with a great strategic mind and immense power.  This general would be dubbed the Artifact of Fate, a warrior who could lead the Alliance in their times of trial and in the face of overwhelming odds.  But their first attempt failed.

With time running out and no chance to complete the project as originally intended, the Alliance determined to split the powers of the Artifact into three vessels.  The first would be the Child of Light, a magical force with a mind for strategy.  The second would be the Great Sorceress, full of knowledge and able to tap into the hearts and minds of her followers.  The third would be She that Wields the Shadows, a master of subterfuge and the darker aspects of Magic.  This Trinity would be the new Artifacts of Fate, each holding a smaller amount of the power that was intended to be bound into the original Artifact.

This time, the attempt was successful.  Three leaders arose instead of one, bound intimately to one another.  The struck out, driving back the overwhelming forces of first the Brutes and then the Undead.  They pushed until they won, and then, task completed, they debated what changes they should make to Creation as a result of their victory.

Ultimately, though, the wisdom of the Great Sorceress won out.  They restored the world to the state it had been in before the War.  They did not punish the Brutes or Undead, as some advocated.  They did not elevate the Humans or Fae, as others demanded.  They simply left the world as it was.  To do otherwise, they reasoned, would be to take value from the world that had created them.

Time and again, the War would come.  Time and again, the Artifacts would rise, reborn into the world to defend their people against those who would destroy them.  They remained bound to one another, friends, siblings, spouses through the eons.

The Heroes

In war, men and women are tested. Some collapse.  Some hold steady.  Others rise to notable levels and become heroes.  In the War of Reality, these Heroes could rise a point at which they become bound to Fate.

The first heroes rose in the wake of the appearance of the Artifacts of Fate in the First War of Reality.  These Heroes were a small, elite group.  They turned the tide in several key battles, driving back attacks by the Brutes and Undead time and again.

Like the Artifacts, the Heroes became bound to Fate, spun out into the world in times of need.  By the time the Second War of Reality dawned, the Heroes had lived hundreds of lives, fighting one another and the forces which would threaten their world.  It was almost bot enough.

The Kobolds were summoned by the Brutes shortly into the War. They subsumed the Brutes and cut a savage path into the world.  They consumed, driving deep into Fae lands and corrupting their essence.  Brute bands, fleeing the fall of their bretheren, stormed into human lands.

A beautiful and powerful Fae queen took up the cause after her sister was lost and a great city destroyed.  Gathering a cadre of heroes, set made war upon the Kobolds, killing droves of the canine-like humanoids.

Other groups of Heroes formed bands which hunted the rogue Brutes, ceasing their efforts to rape and pillage in human lands.  When the Child of Light fell, these Heroes rallied to the Great Sorceress and decided the outcome of the War.  New members joined their ranks and a few faded away, but as a group they remained vital.

Once more the Heroes were bound to lives of meaning time and again.  When the Third War of Reality began, they were a highly skilled force.  The War was a difficult one, though.  The Kobolds had completely supplanted the Brutes, and children of that which was Unformed roamed freely in the darker forests of the world.

Many of the Heroes fell.  When the Child of Light fell as well, they were too few to turn the tide in favor of the Great Sorceress.  Some work with She that Wields the Shadows to destablize the Undead.  Some departed to create the defenses which would preserve the Island Home.  Others rallied to service of a haughty Prince.  Those who remained worked at the behest of the Great Sorceress to protect the people and re-unify their peers.

Ultimately, their efforts were not enough.  The Prince changed reality to his whims.  Since that time the Heroes remained the agents of Fate.  They have fought across many nations, still driven to defend their people.  Many have fallen, never to rise.  Others have fought their bond to Fate.  And some have embraced their role despite the fact that their reality is gone and the one which replaced it rings hollow.

These Heroes have fought the Devouring Mother.  They have inspired the tales of gods and heroes.  They have fought great battles and discovered new knowledge.  And in the times to come, they will be needed.