Shadowhearth The falgorian chronicles

Origin
1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-91-8080-623-7
Verlag: BoD - Books on Demand
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, Band 1, 440 Seiten

Reihe: The falgorian chronicles

The cult of darkness is rising, and Falgoria is engulfed in flames. A realm divided, filled with intrigue and mystery. Will the cult achieve its victory, or will the domains manage to hold back the forces of darkness? The final moments are at hand. The wheels of fate have been set into motion. The storm is seen over the horizon, the pieces have been moved, and now is the time for the final part of their plan to reveal itself. Follow several legends and learn of their role in the crucial years that followed.

I am a new author interested in writing for most of my life. I see the stories inside my mind and try to get them down onto paper. I have many more stories but not enough time to complete them. I grew up reading stories watching movies, and playing role-playing games. I hope that someday I can inspire others, as other writers have inspired me as I was growing up. Never give up on your dreams, and with your imagination, there are no limits. Nothing is impossible, only different levels of hard.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Shadowhearth, Michael

Leseproben

Bergona: The light of the plains

Our tale, however, begins after this merging, after the wars had been laid to rest, after the times of peace. On the outskirts of the great river Reard, separating the Karden’s with the Berdan. Running along the entirety of the Falgorian countryside. In the center of the Khardos region lay the village of Bergona, with a population of four thousand six hundred and thirty-two merry souls. Oh, make that four thousand six hundred and thirty-three. More than half of those were farmers. Only two hundred and forty-seven of the ones remaining were soldiers. And this last one, newborn and full of life, was a young boy.

That fate had just only started to spin its web. And where it would lead him, none could have foreseen. But before his tale can be told, the history of this small town should become more transparent. Bergona was, at its beginning, nothing more than a land of half-barren ground, founded upon the dead center of the fields which held the first battles against the undead armies during the fall of the Usurper. The ground beneath had been infected with a sickly green mist. Dark green and yellow pulsation bulged from the trees, and small water-filled lakes blooming with life were left barren to hold no fish. Its water turned dark and full of crimson. This land of Khardos is most known for being the site where the blood treaty was created and signed.

This land was bestowed upon the champions and heroes who wished to let go of their arms and armor after those horrible oframs fighting the undead. Those who wanted a fresh start were the only ones entrusted to try and heal the land. And so many took up a shovel, rake, or whatever else fancied them and spent their days home with their families. Or perhaps started their pursuit of one after long oframs of constant battle.

Taking many oframs, the small encampment of tents grew, and with the corruption being fought back step by step, crops began to once again sprout from the ground. Growing more extensive as the lands seemed to fight off the corruption itself. Help came from distant villages and towns. As they, too, had taken their fair share of the corruption. Decimating many of their lives and produce, they knew their hardships. The Council in the capital sought the aid of its allies, who were more than willing to aid them in driving back the corruption.

The dwarves cut and mined the stone, shaping the ground for the settlements and helping create a better foundation, all while creating a sustainable mine for the settlement to draw materials for its expansion. And at the same time, they sought out the source of the corruption that kept fighting back their efforts to remove it. Trying to find out what made the land barren from below. Just as the dwarves came to their aid, so did some southern elven inhabitants. As they lived close by in the forests to the south of Bergona, they felt it was a good gesture of friendship since they had been on good terms with the settlers for a long time. It was greatly appreciated.

With their affinity with nature and magic and their extraordinary skills to communicate with flowers and animals, they started with nature’s aid to drive back and purge the dark corruption, making grass slowly begin to grow. And as they spent many oframs trying to cleanse the lakes around the settlement, fish started returning to the rivers and lakes as soon as they turned transparent. And from here on, it was only a matter of time until Bergona started flourishíng. Its relations with their neighbors of dwarves and elves benefited all, as Bergona shared their fish and crops freely with their friends who had helped them so much. They received further aid from the elves and decided to plant a new forest next to bergona, just outside the farmlands to the northwest, in honor of the elves. Feeling that the dwarves wouldn’t get left out, the settlers of Bergona proposed that a tunnel could be created linking the significant capital of the dwarves to Bergona.

News of this small village of Bergona and its unique way of bringing the races together reached the ears of the rulers of these great nations. This, however, the Council quickly put a stop to. The Burdawln delegation of three Council members was picked from the three oldest noble families. The ancient dwarven King with his Queen and two sons. The elven Queen and her only child, her daughter. The elven King disappeared before the gathering to a place unknown.

The village was brimming with life and joy. Laughter and festivities were made to honor the great guests that had arrived. For several days the royal entourages remained, mostly talking and planning for the continued friendship between their nations. And once the fourth day was about to end, they all reached agreeable ends and began to part ways back to their respective kingdoms. But before they left, they all gave a special gift to the village. The Dwarven King announced that the ground forever is blessed by the stone. It would remain rich and fertile.

And so his stone shapers crafted magical rocks and placed them in the fields. The Burdawln delegation appointed this town a center of enlightenment and spirituality for the Burdawln kingdom and should be protected. And commanded the generals to begin preparations to construct a permanent military presence in the area to keep the exceptional people and the lands safe. The Elven Queen, with a slight weary-eyed look on her face, not noticeable unless you were looking significantly, very closely, softly proclaimed.

“The animals and rivers shall always know of your friendship with our people. And as such, I will leave a small token of the elves to keep inside the heart of the village. And should the ground become dry, the air stale, the rivers close off, or heat overcome you, rain shall pour from the skies, animals will come to your aid, and fish will give themselves to your hooks.”

A small girl walked out from behind her father. He could not stop her as she stepped forward and looked at the elven Queen, making sure to bow her head and look at the Queen’s feet. And slowly asked her.

“Please don’t make fish or other animals die for me. I like animals. They are cute and furry, and I only try to eat carrots.”

The Elven Queen bowed down, took the little girl’s hands in her own, and softly said.

“All life returns to the earth, and all living things eat. Flowers eat the land’s magic and drink the water from the rivers. Animals eat other animals to grow bigger and stronger. This is the way of life. Your heart is a pure little one, and this settlement, soon a beacon of hope and enlightenment, as it was proclaimed, is the perfect place for you to make a difference.”

And the Queen stood back up and took a step back. The little girl quickly bowed, almost falling over, before running back behind her father. That was, at this point, sweating profusely.

“I will make this land bountiful for farming so that no animals will have to die needlessly if you choose it.”

They looked around the room at the little girl, whom the Queen was now slightly smiling towards. That was then. Twenty-one oframs, four months, and seven days later. Bergona had become a forgotten memory in the minds of the nations. Having gotten other problems to focus on, they switched focus from the gathering place of the countries. Alliances had slowly started to be forgotten, aid stopped coming, and Bergona was left to fend for itself. But the inhabitants didn’t mind that much. The next generation learned to live by what they had and to be happy with what they could get. Only the older generation knew what it was like during the golden days. During the recent twenty oframs, several wars have been fought over Falgoria.

Many did not like the way the Council was leading Falgoria. Both men and women from Bergona and neighboring villages had gone to war, being conscripted into wars for money and power. Not to protect the borders and to save towns from raiders and their ilk. The ground around Bergona was becoming more barren and less fertile as oframs passed during the war. Corruption had begun to seep back over the oframs and had claimed much of the outer fields. The gift of the elves held back much of the corruption advances, but it had been destroyed in a raid on the town several oframs before, or so everyone believed. The only thing remaining to battle the corruption, where the militia. The border army controlling this side of the Burdawln lands, whose commanding officer lived, oversaw the borders from the command center on the eastern side of Bergona. These men needed to gain experience or magical know-how to battle corruption effectively. And any request to send for aid was denied. The Council feared losing power and held their magic users close to the capital.

Present-day, on the 10th of Solfer, during Edoth in 1375, 1375 oframs after the Rise of the Falgorian Empire, the sun was high in the sky. The farmers were out in their fields, working harder and harder to meet their quota to stock up enough supplies to survive the winter that was coming. Each villager with their own way of providing for the village. Fishermen who helped keep the town supplied all ofram around and the bakers that produced the bread they ate. And so on. As it was a farming village, there was little need for the coin, except for the occasional equipment. Expanding the town happened only a few times when outside interests were interested in the resources that could be procured there.

Much of the trade made here was used in the form of wheat, corn, carrots, cabbages, fish, meats, and the like, mainly for food, but some outsiders took the...