The Story

Then suddenly the forces of evil began to unite. What was once a few dozen scattered bands of orcs suddenly became a united, well-equipped, and well- trained army of orcs. In one day trolls took over an entire section of hills, decimating the castle that had ruled there. Dragons were seen flying over castles besieged by great armies of hobgoblins, kobolds, orcs, and other evil creatures. In three weeks, only a dozen feudal castles remained. And there was no great leader to unite them.

It was then that fate brought two great men to the doors of the most fortified castle still standing. They asked to be shown to the lord of the castle, which was granted. When they met with the lord they proclaimed that they had been infiltrating the forces of evil in order to determine their strengths and weaknesses, and were willing to lead all the men available onto the battlefield to decimate them.

The lord laughed at them and said he would spare no men in such a foolish venture. He said such a quest would leave all the castles undefended and helpless. He went so far as to proclaim that the two men were actually agents of the evil forces who were working to lead all the remaining able- bodied men to a devious trap.

The two men stood silent for a time. One, an incredibly huge person, towered a full 9 feet in height and had biceps bigger than most men's heads. He wore black, spiked armor, and carried a huge two-handed black sword on his back that stretched six feet in length. He wore a black helmet that hid his features, but his proportions gave him away as no ordinary man. His companion was suspicious as well. He was not a large man like his companion, being only some 5 feet tall. But he wore black robes and carried a black staff, and had on a black cloak with a hood that hid his face entirely. The smaller man seemed to have an aura about him that made the entire area around him very dim, making it hard to see him. They stood silent for such a time that the lord said his own intelligence had simply stunned them to silence, invoking mirth among the two dozen guards in the chamber.

Suddenly the larger man spoke. "I am Allereb, King of the Ogres," he thundered, and ripped off his helmet to reveal the tusks so common to his people.

As all the guards drew their weapons, he boomed, "My people were asked to join the armies of the evil ones many months ago. I saw through their plots and nasty schemes to the heart of their proposal: they wanted to use the strength of my people to help them with their plans, and were hoping to take advantage of our limited intelligence to that end. Fortunately, I was their King, and I refused them, seeing that within a month almost all of us would have been assigned to suicide squads." The lord told the guards to hold back a moment, now intruiged, as he had heard that the ogres had been decimated by the evil forces, but had not understood why.

"Within a day they returned, with all their armies at their backs. We were surrounded, outnumbered, and ill-trained. MY ENTIRE PEOPLE WERE WIPED OUT IN A DAY, AND YOU SIT THERE AND DARE TO CALL ME A TRAITOR!" he thundered. "We came to help you survive the coming onslaught, and receive only mistrust and accusations. Be damned, then!" and with that Allereb and his companion turned to leave.

"A touching story," said the lord of the castle. "One I might actually be inclined to believe, but that says nothing of your friend here. While you are certainly the largest ogre I have ever seen, King Allereb, you cannot expect me to believe your friend here is the smallest ogre ever born." The guards chuckled, and the two stopped at the doors.

"I, too, came to help your people survive the forces of the evil ones. They are a vast army now, and you cannot withstand them. Since you merely scorn at us and mock us, you can fight them on your own. When they have forced you to extinction, it will be us laughing at you."

With that, the two men left.

A month passed, and 4 more castles fell to the evil armies, including the one that had mocked Malice and Allereb so foolishly. Word of their offer had spread to other castles and scouts were sent to find the two to implore their aid. It took another month to find them, and by then 3 more castles had fallen. There were five left.

Malice and Allereb met with the lords of the five castles and stated their plan. Some finer points were worked out and the plan was agreed upon.

The following day, Malice and Allereb said fairwell to each other and parted ways. Allereb headed west and Malice east. With them went 50 soldiers each to ensure their safety. After a week of travel, the Solar Eclipse came to pass, and Malice and Allereb began their work.

Allereb in the west quaffed a potion of dragon's blood. Not meant for mortals, the potion poisoned him as it infused him with power. Allereb grew to almost 90 feet tall before the potion was done, and then he began glowing. He took his sword, almost 60 feet in length now, and smote it upon the ground. The earth shook violently and a huge crack appeared in the ground. Allereb struck the earth again, and the crack widened and grew deeper. Allereb struck it once more and his sword shattered. The crack began to spread north and south, forming a great rift that stretched thousands of miles. Then Allereb stood on the east side of the rift and grabbed the west side, and heaved. Infused with the strength of the great dragons, Allereb was able to lift the entire west side of the rift slowly, foot by foot. When he had created a cliff almost a hundred feet tall, he grabbed it at the bottom and lifted it even higher. He did this for hours and hours. When sunset came, he began to shrink again, and the cliff was a thousand feet tall. His escort came rushing over to him when he was normal-sized again, and saw that the potion had mortally poisoned him. There was nothing they could do. One of them held Allereb's hand as he died. Allereb said:

"You must build a great wall between this cliff and the mountains to the east."

One of the soldiers replied, "You are delirious, King Allereb, there are no mountains in the east. The closest mountains are many, many leagues to the south."

Allereb replied with a slight smile, "There will be mountains in the east, soon. There will be mountains. Now leave me, all of you, to die in peace."

The 50 men who had escorted Allereb rushed off to begin work on the wall. One of them returned much later to bury the fallen King, but no body was ever found. But the potion container was there, and had somehow been magically refilled. The soldier grabbed it and returned to the others.

In the east, Malice began chanting as soon as the sun rose. He chanted for hours upon hours, never ceasing his concentration. When noon came, he took his staff and struck it upon the ground. The ground to the east of him began to buckle and shake. He struck it again, and huge sheets of rock thrust their way through to the surface. He struck it a third time, and his staff shattered, and the ground began to rise sharply, and spread north and south. Malice fell to his knees and continued chanting til sundown, at which time the spell consumed him. To the east there was now a towering mountain range that spread north and south for thousands of miles.

One of Malice's escorts spoke up. "Archmage Malice, why are you dying? Was the spell not successful?"

Malice replied, "Aye, it was successful. The Gods have forbidden mortals to cast such spells long ago, so I must pay for it with my life."

The escort stood silent for a time, lost as to what they should do. "What are we to do when you are gone, Archmage Malice? A mountain range will not save us!" a terrified soldier said.

"You must build a wall from these mountains to the cliff in the west," Malice whispered.

"But there is no cliff in the west," the solider cried.

"There is now," Malice said. "Now leave me to die in peace."

The 50 soldiers rushed off to begin work on a wall. Later one of them returned to bury Malice, but no body could be discovered. Only a small pick was left, and this was taken back to the others.

When the people had discovered the news they were crushed. The cliff to the east and mountains to the west now blocked their only two means of escape if they had chose to flee. A lord came forward and said, "Archmage Malice and King Allereb left us two potent items with which we can build a wall connectin the Cliff and the Mountains. One of us must drink half of the potion and use the pick to carve great blocks of stone out of the mountains, but it cannot be done by just one man. I need some volunteers to quaff portions of the remaining potion to help build the wall. It is likely whoever quaffs any portion of the potion will perish, so decide carefully." There was no delay in the response; all 50 of the men who escorted Allereb raised their hands, as did all 50 men who had escorted Malice. "Your bravery fills me with pride, the lord said. "I will quaff half of the potion to carve stones from the mountains."

And so it was done. All imbibers of the potion grew enormously tall, and the lord who had drunk half of it grew even taller. He carved huge rocks out of the mountain range and the others carried the blocks of stone to the constructions sites. In a week, 1000 miles of foundations had been laid (during which time the evil army was trying to regroup after having been caught in the area where Malice's mountains were raised), and in another week the wall was thirty feet high, and in another the wall was complete, a full 100 feet high now.

When it was done, all of the imbibers began to shrink again, but only the lord perished. All the others took a vow to guard the wall from the forces of evil with their newfound strength, in order to keep civilization and mankind alive. These 100 men and women became known as the Guardians, and their vow has kept them from ever needing sleep, and they no longer age.

Not much was known of the fate of the evil armies. Some say they were split completely by the mountains and the cliff, unable to form a cohesive military force afterwards, and thus unable to propose any threat to the Wall. Others say they swore they saw two black-clad giants roving the lands south of the wall laying waste to the evil forces wherever they were found. Still others say evil ones turned on each other when no common enemy was available and thusly destroyed themselves. To this day it remains a mystery. What is known, is that a great storm arose out of the mountains one day, and a similar one from above the cliff, and these two storms were so potent and devastating, lasting over a month each, that when they were gone nothing was left of the world south of the Wall but a vast desolation. It seemed the world was safe, and a city was erected in honor of the two. Now mankind works together to keep the peace. The cliff on the west, the ocean to the north, the mountains to the east, and the Wall to the south all act as great barriers to any evil force ever posing a threat to civilization like that again. But recently....

But recently some strange things have been happening. A huge whirlpool has formed in the middle of the ocean. The city of thalos, still thriving in the east past the mountains, seems to have disappeared entirely. No scouts sent there have returned. Guardians have reported sightings of large bands of creatures roaming through the desolation south of the wall. Worst of all, priests of the land have been having visions of great portals opening up to other worlds, allowing terrible beings of horrible origins to roam about the world. Indeed, the amount of reports of people encountering evil creatures they have never seen before has risen to an almost ridiculous level. Guardians suggest that people travel in groups for safety, to fly the skies only during the day, and to never, never....

never venture south of the Wall.