back to their original seating positions. After the council had taken their seats the elder mage spoke again. “These three objects only work when they are given to their possessor by the council of seven here in the magical city of Kurlam, if they are stolen by another or not together in their trinity no piece shall work. They have an ancient spell on them that prevents their misuse, however once given they cannot be taken away or their power turned off. The three are one and the one are three. At this time it is given to the new grand headmaster Varias to speak and inform the council of his initial plans as leader of the magical lands’ schools.”
Varias stood completely straight, draped in the blood red robe of the magical ancients he began to speak. “Dearest council, today you have presented me with what I have sought my entire life. Being presented with the robe of the magical ancients, the ring of judgment and the staff of creation is more than I had ever dreamed. I thank you graciously for giving me the three most powerful implements in the magical lands. I shall use them wisely, starting now.” Varias tapped the staff of creation on the ground and the ring of judgment began to glow a ghastly red. The robe of the magical ancients began to move and flutter unaided by any wind. There was a sudden loud crackle in the air overhead, a sound of thunder and lightning indoors. A dark cloud appeared near the top of the domed ceiling in the chamber of the council of magic. The electrical crackling sound grew louder; the black cloud grew larger covering the ceiling, the ring glowed an ever brighter red.
“What is the meaning of this Varias!” Screamed Xon the elder center mage as he stood up trying to raise his voice above the crackling, Varias was by this time levitating four feet off of the ground. The cloud now covered the ceiling and half of the room; it appeared more like smoke than a cloud, thick and black. The crackling overhead was deafening. The levitating Varias chose that moment to speak, but the voice was different, deeper and somehow more aware yet distant.
“I have lived among you as Varias for hundreds of your years, biding my time until you would adorn me with the three objects needed for my desires. I thank you council for handing me the keys to your world without as much as a fight.” There was a sudden explosion sound that came from within the black cloud on the ceiling. This dispersed the darkness of the smoky black cloud all over the room for a moment concealing all vision. The council of magic’s seven magi cowered under their table as they were without their staffs. Even if they had their magical tools, there was now nothing that could be done against a magician wearing all three of the gifted sacred magical objects. When the fog cleared they began peeking out from under the table only to see a terrible sight. Where Varias had stood, now stood another creature, a human if you will, so frightening looking and incomprehensible from the Varias they knew that the center elder mage Xon was speechless.
Standing, more along the lines of floating in the center of the chamber there stood a blood red figure with empty black nothingness for a face. At least twelve feet tall, adorned in the robe of the magical ancients which seemed to grow and shrink in direct proportion to the creature’s size. The robe swam about the massive figure, less as a piece of clothing and more as a part of the creature itself. Where there should have been a hand with the ring of judgment on it, there was only a bright dot a sickening color of red against the emptiness of the hand, pulsating to some unseen rhythm. Where the staff of creation should have been when held, instead there was only a solid black line, seeming to come directly out of the hideous redness of the glow surrounding this creature? The center mage Xon managed to speak… “wwwhat are you?” there was a low rumble and a hiss, the sound a steam engine makes before exploding. Instead there came a voice, the likes of which the seven had never heard.
“I am the light of knowledge, come to cover the darkness your narrow mind has projected upon the world.” With every word spoken, each of the seven members of the council of magic felt as if they were being squeezed by a giant unseen hand. “I am the gathering dark, the chill you fight to keep at bay, the fog on your window. You simple magi, you cannot ignore the deep well of magical darkness for centuries, pretending only your weak magical schools of elemental magic are the true way without paying for your ignorance. I have come to collect upon your ignorance; I am called by the name Lordin within your magical books. Names and labels however, are irrelevant; if you insist, I prefer to be known simply as your coming destruction.” The seven magi were looking at him; all of them were now turning purple from being squeezed by Lordin’s invisible hand. Several had already been crushed to death. The elder mage managed to squeeze out one pathetic… “Why?”…
“That question is the definition of hypocritical ignorance, your destruction allows for my creation of course,” Lordin told the dying center mage. “Now, I am done with you, no more wasting what you call time answering worthless words from a meaningless corpse.” After that the elder center mage and any other magi still alive were crushed to death by the unseen hand of Lordin. The only sound after that was the horrifying laughter of Lordin followed by the crackle of thunder. Then the room was empty, except for the dead bodies and wreckage left behind. There were no witnesses left alive to report what happened. No alarm, no warning, no calls for help from backup armies would be sent out. Lordin now possessed all the power he needed to begin bringing the darkest of magic to a world that has known nothing but standard schools of elemental magic. Places of light and learning. The magical city of Kurlam and the surrounding lands were completely unprepared for Lordin’s invasion of dark magic. Not only were there no defenses against this evil, but not even one call or alarm had been sent out to warn of his impending arrival because he had murdered all the senior mages on the council of magic before they could do so.
Lordin was a creature of dark magic so ancient, he had been forgotten even in the myths of the magical lands. Eons of peaceful magic instruction with no evil in the world, no dark magic to defend against had created a defenseless world, even though they possessed offensive elemental magic knowledge. Though they study the various magical disciplines, there is no working knowledge of defense or even true magical warfare. Long ago, Lordin took a chance and decided to move into this reality from shadow. When you do that, you must exist as a powerless shadow in our world unless you can find a way through magic to regain yourself. From a pit of living shadow Lordin was brought into the world by consuming light itself, this was so long ago the concept of time had not been created. Moving from age to age as a shadow, powerless to intervene, Lordin could at first only observe. Lordin learned all there was to know of the people within the magical lands through observation. He saw the naivety, the gullibility in their kind and trusting hearts and he hatched a plan to exploit these feelings. Such is the advantage of being an immortal being; you can enact plans you know will take hundreds if not thousands of years to carry out without regard to time. Lordin knew in the diminished shadow form he was currently in due to being cast into this reality through shadow he could never achieve his dark magical goals. Lordin is wise and understands well a simple concept, the present is all that matters, Lordin knew he could only emerge as his true self by possessing the three magic items from Kurlam. Simply possessing the three, the robe, the ring and the staff does not in itself allow the items to be used. The three items must be given to the recipient magi freely by the council of seven from Kurlam, in order for their power to be released.
Lordin knew this from observation, so when a homeless, unknown drunkard wandered too close to the edge of a bridge one night the shadow of Lordin gave him an extra push into the water. Once dead Lordin used all his remaining energy and strength to possess and then reanimate the drowned corpse. Thus was born fire master Varias many hundreds of years ago. Since the man had been a vagrant with no family, no one within the magical city of Kurlam had seen him before. He began to visit and tell people he was from a non magical village far to the south and had been forced to come north to seek protection and further training within the magical lands as he showed certain magical tendenci
es with fire. It didn’t take long for the people of Kurlam to accept Varias as one of their own. Everyone was astonished at his magical progress. He quickly moved from a novice to a junior master, faster than anyone had before, absorbing all the knowledge he was shown and applying his spells with a master’s precision. Lordin was willing to play Varias for as long as it took to get what he needed, the present is all that matters. He had spent so long observing in shadow form observing, that being Varias was nothing less than second nature. It took everything Lordin had in his shadow being to reanimate the body of the dead vagrant that night, there could be no switching of bodies. Lordin could not leave; he was now trapped like every other human, in their own body. The only way to attain his former glory and form so he can begin to carry out his plans was to be given the three great magical objects of infinite power. They alone would allow him to access the dark pools of magical energy he needed to begin ushering in his plans. Time and patience are all that would be required. Lordin,