The Tale of the Swords of the
Ancients And Other Blades of Power
A Mythology
By
Kit Rae
Of Anathros
and Valermos, the fifth and sixth swords
In the ten
thousand and eighty second year of the Fifth Age, Luthol, prince of Deylund in
the Great Realm and leader of the forces allied against the Shadow Army of
Vardor, called for his great navy ships to transport the hoard of the Orwenoch
to the Western shores of Dagorlund, as they had demanded of him. Luthol had
brought the Orwenoch forth from the Neverworld by the power of the enchanted
Shadow Slayer blade, to use their strength in battle against VardorŐs sinister
soldiers. The Orwenoch fought relentlessly until all of the Barumen had
perished from the Great Realm and now craved to defeat the larger Shadow Army
across the sea in the ShadowŐs homeland of Dagorlund; and this was also the
domain of their master, the Lord of the Shadows, Vardor. The Orwenoch desired
to destroy all of the Barumen bloodline, and Luthol had no choice but to do as
the they commanded for fear of their wrath, which was the greatest in all of
Ammon; and he set sail with them and a great part of his cavalry and infantry
for the West. Unbeknownst to Luthol, the Orwenoch quest to destroy the Barumen
bloodline stemmed from a long standing grievance against the Dark One, VardorŐs
father, whom had betrayed the Orwenoch long ago at the end of the Fifth Age,
nearly ten thousand years earlier. The Orwenoch had allied with the Dark One to
defeat the Ancients in a great battle, but the Ancients prevailed and captured
the Dark One; and he betrayed the Orwenoch hiding place to them, resulting in
the their ultimate banishment to the Neverworld, where they had thereafter been
imprisoned. Now they greatly desired revenge against all whom descended from the
Dark One, to destroy all of his creations; and in this way they were more an
ally to Luthol than he knew. This was unclear to him because the Orwenoch had
no spoken language, but conversed rather by thought, and Luthol could perceive
only the will and not the reason.
The journey was long and LutholŐs men were anxious and
feared the creatures that they harbored in their ships, as occasionally some
men had disappeared in the night and were thought to have been devoured. The
fleet reached the isle of Kelledros, Northeast of Dagorlund, and encamped on
the Western shore facing that Dark Realm. In the night the Orwenoch swam the
sea under the strait to take the fortified coast of Dagorlund by surprise, and
Luthol sent his fleet to follow. His soldiers reached the shore and thereupon
they found the host of the Shadow Army was all but overcome by the Orwenoch,
and Luthol burned the enemyŐs war ships and brought down the watchtowers. Now
Luthol and his men were charged with courage, for they deemed that their force was
as strong as the Shadows, and foresaw VardorŐs downfall.
Aluen, after recieving her vision from Vaelen, returned to
the Elves in the East of Ulaine with the remnants of her Mithrodin company; and
she convinced them that it was now the time to attack the Uldurin, who had been
weakened by their loss of the Umethar, and remove the sword Anathros from the throne. She told of the vision and
how Anathros must be used in the coming war against the Shadow Army. Utilizing
the UmetharŐs power to create doors, Aluen opened a passage between Elven
villages and the Temple of the Anath in the Eldriun Mountains. When all of the
forces of the Elves were assembled there they made an assault upon the Uldurin
ice city from the rocky mountains to the North where it was least protected and
broke through the confines of its frozen outer walls. Aluen sent her sailing
vessel, the Rocinante, and all of Elven ships they could muster to feint an
assault on the Southern coast of the kingdom, and thus all of the Uldurin
forces were on the wrong side of the city when it was attacked. The Uldurin
king, who dared not use the destructive power of Anathros within the city
walls, was soon overwhelmed and cast down from the throne by Aluen, and his
encircled troops surrendered to the Elves. Aluen took possession of Anathros
and used its power to bring down the icy walls of the city. The sword was
elegant in design, with engraved runes in the blade telling of its powers, and
a wire wrapped and polished hilt whose cross guard folded to point towards the
blade tip when its power was focused. Thence the city was secured and the Elves
praised the Mithrodin and gave Aluen a company of twenty Elven foot soldiers
and archers; and Aluen hastily departed with her forces in the Rocinante for
Dagorlund.
LutholŐs forces marched for weeks through the Kilgoriun
mountain pass to Annundos, where Vardor held his armies in great fortresses and
in the center was his command post, Morgadurin, the black tower. The army was
assailed many times in the pass, but prevailed in each battle due to the might
of the Orwenoch, until they came at last to the mouth of Annundos; and there
they were overwhelmed by the Shadow Army, ten thousand strong, which issued
forth from the bowels of the earth, and among them were many Baelin. The
Orwenoch crushed their front line and drove through the confines of the iron
gates into Annundos where LutholŐs forces came to the fortresses surrounding
the black tower, but they were protected by a magic wall, unseen to the eye.
Luthol called for his Master of Blades, the keeper of his enchanted talismans,
and the master brought forth LutholŐs Spirit Dagger,
and with it Luthol stabbed the wall and the spirits within the blade shattered
the barrier, thus allowing LutholŐs army to attack the battlements. The hosts
of both armies suffered great losses, but LutholŐs forces had all but won the
battle when a cavalry, clad in black armor and flanked by a score of Baelin,
rode forth from the great arched passages in the foot of the black tower to the
front lines. Leading the cavalry were Vardor and his six generals, and the
wizard Navros, who kept the besiegers at bay by casting a spell around his
companions.
Vardor was wrathful upon seeing that the Orwenoch had indeed
returned, and he rode to the nearest one and demanded a parlay, at which point
the Orwenoch horde ceased the battle and surrounded VardorŐs cavalry, closing
through NavrosŐ magic barrier. Vardor, upon witnessing this, knew then that the
Orwenoch were not flesh and blood, but spirits called forth from the Neverworld
as he had surmised. He withdrew his sword Valermos,
the sword of fire, from its scabbard and held it aloft and its rune-covered
blade turned black and burst into flame. The black hilt was adorned with the
shape of the fire scarab and the symbol of the eternal sun was engraved in its
pommel. Valermos was one of the Swords of the Ancients, and among its many
powers was the ability to command creatures that served the fires of hell and
those in spirit form. Vardor cast its power upon the Orwenoch and, against
their will, he became their new master; and they turned against the forces of
Luthol causing a great part of his troops to perish. Luthol, surmising that to
continue the battle was now hopeless, called his army to retreat back to the
mountain pass, but the Orwenoch followed.
In the harrowing days that ensued LutholŐs army reached
their ships at the strait of Kelledros, but less than half of their numbers
remained as the others had been overcome and had perished in the pass. The way
was long and the soldiers were weary of battle, but the Orwenoch were soon upon
them once again. Only a handful of ships survived the onslaught to reach the
isle beyond the strait, but ere long the enemy would follow. LutholŐs generals,
out of desperation, tried to seize the Shadow Slayer from his possession to
break its blade, thus ending the spell and sending the Orwenoch back to the
Neverworld; but Luthol refused and he was slain. The traitors broke the
talisman but its destruction only caused the dread beasts to be free of the
NeverworldŐs grasp. At this time AluenŐs ship reached the isle of Kelledros,
guided by VaelenŐs vision, and she saw from afar the retreating vessels and
followed them. Upon reaching the shore of the isle she learned of LutholŐs demise
and the coming hoard of the Orwenoch, who were now visibly crossing the waters.
She persuaded one ships company of mariners and foot soldiers that all hope was
not lost, for she held the Umethar and it had the power to bring those slain
back to life, and they followed her. The two ships sailed twenty leagues North
to the bay of Ilmarin, while the Orwenoch reached the isle of Kelledros behind
them and thereupon slaughtered the remainder of LutholŐs scattered men.
Aluen and her troops journeyed Southeast by the Atoror
River, North of Annundos, and then by foot made way South to the mountain pass
where the main host of LutholŐs forces had perished. At length they found a
company of Barumen in the midst of burying LutholŐs dead troops in great pits
and gathering their weapons. Aluen, by invoking the power of the sword
Anathros, caused the earth to tremble and open, revealing the dead, and then by
UmetharŐs magic she bestowed them with life; but they came back not as the
living, but as the undead. UmetharŐs power had dwindled in the ages since its
creation and it could not make them entirely whole again. The Barumen fled at
the sight of the dead arisen and Aluen commanded her undead soldiers to take up
arms and follow in the name of Luthol, and they obeyed. Thence they marched on
to Annundos.
Vardor had retreated into Morgadurin, his black tower, after
sending the Orwenoch, his generals, and the sorcerer Navros to pursue LutholŐs
retreating army through the pass thirteen days afore. His Shadow Army of ten thousand
had been all but massacred and only his personal guard, cavalry, and a
multitude of Baelin hidden in the caverns below the fortresses remained. Thus
his forces were unprepared when AluenŐs army of the undead besieged his
strongholds in the night; and he called his Baelin forth from the caverns but
it was too late, for Aluen used Anathros to collapse those dark tunnels and
crushed the Baelin within. The vanguard of the undead then assailed the black
tower guard and AluenŐs company set upon the Barumen soldiers streaming from
its five black mouths. But Aluen herself entered one of those mouths of
Morgadurin alone, seeking Vardor, and the Barumen guard fled from the sight of
her, for she had the tattooed markings of the Mithrodin, signs of her great adeptness
in combat. Therewith she discovered Vardor in his great lower hall waiting, for
through his dark powers he sensed her and the sword she possessed. His sword
Valermos blazed with fire and he assailed Aluen, and the most fierce battle in
all of Ammon was fought, but Aluen was the greater skilled of the two and she
disarmed Vardor and beheaded him with Anathros. Thus the Shadow Lord, bane of
mortals, was at last rid from Ammon.
The sorcerer Navros, upon returning to Annundos with his
company of Orwenoch from the battles to the East, spied the attack and hastened
by horseback to the black tower to protect his master, but he was too late; for
Aluen emerged from one of its mouths holding VardorŐs severed head high. The
Orwenoch were free of his command and the remains of the Shadow Army lost all
hope at the this sight, but Navros did not, and he cast a spell of blindness
upon Aluen and rode her down with his armored steed. Before AluenŐs forces
could aid, he took Valermos from her and escaped through the Western Mountain
pass into the dark wastes of Nasnandos.
Aluen regained her sight and was healed after a time and her
company repaired what ships of the great fleet still remained seaworthy. The
Orwenoch claimed dominance in Annundos and warned the mortals to leave its
lands and never return. Thence the company made the long journey back to the
shores of Deylund, bringing with them the army of the undead; and those souls
were at last put to rest in the earth of their homeland. The Great Realm had
peace once again but all evil was not cleansed from the land and darkness was
growing in the East.
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).