The Tale of the Swords of the
Ancients And Other Blades of Power
A Mythology
By
Kit Rae
After the banishment of
the Dark One, his only son, Vardor, came to power and created the Shadow Army,
creatures that were invisible to mortal men. VardorŐs Shadows spread throughout
Ammon and conquered many of the great kingdoms. The kingdom of Lumenia now held
the sword Luciendar, which was the only known defense against the Shadows, but
they had no king to wield it. When hope seemed lost and it appeared as if
Vardor would triumph in his scheme to control the world, Prince Luthol,
commander of the armies of the Kingdom of Deylund in the Great Realm, called
for aid from an ancient and powerful lamia, Morgolien. She was mother to
LutholŐs father, the lost king, Almaeth. Almaeth held in his power one of the
Swords of the Ancients, Cinthorc, a talisman of the realm of Deylund for almost
four thousand years. Many years earlier Almaeth had banished Morgolien from
Deylund for practicing the dark arts and using witchcraft to force her will
upon the throne, and she secretly used the sword Cinthorc for evil purpose.
Since her exile she had become a mighty sorceress and created the vile city of
Nokomis, in the Eastern lands of the realm of Deylindor, populated by many that
practiced the black arts. It was there that she had begun to create her own
enchanted blades, like unto those created by the Ancients, but with far less
power. King Almaeth later left Deylund with Cinthorc on a quest to find the
sword of power, Anathar, but he was lost in the
realm of Dagorlund and never returned.
Hoping
that she would aid him, Luthol sent word to the lamia begging for aid and
Morgolien agreed to assist, for a price. She required that after she granted
Luthol his request, he then use his great resources to find Cinthorc, one of
the Ten Swords, and surrender it to her. Luthol, knowing that the great sword
would only come to evil in her hands, agreed to send a quest party to find it,
for he felt at ends and without choice. Morgolien then created for Luthol the Shadow Slayer, a blade
enchanted with part of her power; and its hilt was fashioned by her blacksmiths
in the shape of the Orwenoch, horrid creatures so feared in Ammon that no one
had uttered their name in over a thousand years. They were the original
dwellers of the underworld of Lokonia, and had been defeated by the Ancient
Ones long ago with the Ten Swords. The serpentine blade of the Shadow Slayer
was formed in the shape of the forked tongue of Orwenoch. When blood from one
of the Shadow beasts touched the blade it would call forth the spirit of the
Orwenoch to destroy any creature whose veins flowed with that blood. Morgolien,
who was greatly weakened by the creation of the blade, informed that the
Orwenoch would remain corporeal until every last Barumen of the Shadow Army lay
slain, and then retreat back into the darkness from whence they came, which was
the Neverworld.
Luthol took the blade and it gave him the power to see all as the
Qrwenoch did and he found the Shadow Army encamped on the shores of the east.
Wielding the Shadow Slayer, Luthol drew first blood upon attacking the
encampment; and when that vile blood touched its blade the hoard of the
Orwenoch appeared, a thousand strong. The beasts were armored with ribbed
plates like bone, walked on four great legs with the forepaws ending in large,
hooked talons, and their great horned heads were studded with six piercing
eyes. Protruding from their lower bodies were many whip like tentacles that
could subdue and strangle their prey. Resembling some giant twisted insect or
sea beast from the depths, they could only be seen in the moonless night by the
red reflection of their multiple eyes, which shone in the dark. Vile and
terrible creatures, they were relentless and unmerciful in their utter
destruction of the Shadow LordŐs army, and when all of the enemy lay slain
across the shores of Deylund, hewn in many pieces, the Orwenoch did not retreat
back to the Neverworld. Instead they remained, demanding that Luthol take them
across the sea to the land of Dagorlund where the Shadows had been spawned.
The
Tale of the Swords of the Ancients and Other Blades of Power and its previous versions, The
Swords of the Ancients and its abridged excerpts, and other forms, are ©1997 and ©2005 by Kit
Rae. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any other form, or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, computer networking, or
otherwise without prior permission in writing by the copyright holder(s).