The Tale of the Swords of the Ancients And Other Blades of Power

A Mythology

By

Kit Rae

Of the Shadow Slayer

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. Vardor’s 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 Luthol’s 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 Lord’s 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).