[Novel] Important Prior-Novel Events: The Demi Liche War - Drakor and Eyoria

[nathanialroyale]

 

Born the second son and heir to the Imperial Royalian Empire in 1286 CC (CC = according to the Camarian Calender,) Drakor Orn Royale was often sent to the borderlands to keep the forces of the Holy Camarian Empire at bay. Gaining the respect of the war fatigued men under his command Drakor spoke to his sister Sirvat who was three years his junior about becoming a Liche. This way Drakor would be able to better aid his men on the battlefield. The siblings decided they would both embrace un-death side by side.

Sirvat became a vampire and stepped back from the world’s stage into the vampire courts of the Menel Swamp. But Drakor could not bow out, his lands needed him, his peoples needed him. Drakor who was already sick and tired of war would be given the throne in year 1321 CC at 35 years of age with his father’s death.

The fighting would stall, stopping if only for a couple of years before starting up once more. Camarians would advance into Royalian lands and wreck havoc before being pushed back. Royalians would advance into Camarian territory and do much the same. The 'Contested Lands' that were the constant sight of bloody warfare was scorched and dead earth. By 1447 CC Drakor had existed for over a century; tired of war and all its consequences he realizes there is but one way to create everlasting peace.

Drakor had a blade forged by the Arch Angel of Annihilation in the Void beyond the world’s edge. Exodus, the sword that was the receptacle of Drakor’s soul was capable of utter obliteration. It could destroy both the body and the soul of any being created from Light.

Drakor had been lead by,"visions of the world’s last battles as he conquered the globe. Drakor saw himself ending wars and pity feuds and being named Emperor of the entire continent. He saw Cor’terrae finally at peace."

But peace did not necessarily mean free or alive.

"Drakor was a man who had lived too long, who had seen too much war and pain, who had witnessed destruction. After so much horror, wouldn’t you want to put an end to it, too?” - Sirvat Royale.

Drakor intended to destroy those who resisted and turn undead the entire world. In doing so this would unify all peoples under his will. No thought, no expression, no life to lose, there would be no need to fight, no want to war.

The Demi Liche had conquered all the human kingdoms by 1480 CC which was nearly a third of the world. But the Elves had taken up arms beside the Jharrikk (Scaled peoples), two species that were not created by Light. A female paladin of the Goddess of Law, Eyoria, came to an understanding with her deity of what she must do to stop Drakor. Fighting side by side with Lady Meiva she lead the Jharrikk against Drakor in the northern passes in 1486 CC.

"You must think your quest is for the benefit of us all, but you are misguided. Turn back now, I have no wish to destroy you Liche. Listen to me! I will not allow you to succeed, no matter the cost. We will both die here this day."

The Meivan paladin turned Drakor’s blade upon himself, and Drakor only laughed for he knew as a Liche he would regenerate so long as his soul was safe within the blade. But Eyoria knew this too and as Drakor’s body failed she pulled back the blade only to plunge Exodus through her own heart.

Piercing the human core, (the heart where the soul resides) of herself, Eyoria gripped Drakor’s crumbling form to her own. Both bodies crumbled to dust leaving only the destructive blade in the desert sands. Eyoria’s soul being of a neutral nature, could not be destroyed by the Void and instead she allowed the Void Blade to capture her essence within it. Enveloping the dark, vengeful soul within her own Eyoria caged Drakor inside Exodus, fighting back his ability to regenerate upon Cor’terrae. Both spirits would be imprisoned within the tainted weapon for eternity.

The blade would be hidden in the eastern mountains of the desert lands within a tomb for Eyoria's companions. But this chamber of the dead would grow tainted over time, a darkness seeping forth that prompted the walling in of the stone casket for nearly five hundred years. There Exodus would remain until Prince Nathanael senses its darkness and contrary to the wishes of his own companions Nathanael takes the sword with them. Nathanael knows that Drakor's soul strangely enough is no longer within the blade at this time as Drefan had gone searching for it. The opening of the novels with Drefan coming out of detox for his opium addiction follows right after that failed endeavour.

Exodus will further taint the boy's corroding soul but offer him the whispered advice of the withering paladin who assists in the adolescents hopes of forgiving Drakor's descendent Drefan instead of destroying him. When asked where Drakor's soul is a weakening Eyoria only speaks cryptically, "The Liche is of no danger to the world on the shoulder of the walker."

The blade will eat what is left of the paladin's essence as Eyoria uses the last of her strength to give this adolescent the knowledge to save not only himself and his world but Drefan as well. So in a manner of speaking Eyoria would go on to save Cor'Terrae from not one maddened by grief liche, but two before the paladin is at last destroyed.