Of the Death's Head Dagger

In the Fourth Age of the world the Ancient One named Evruc fathered dozens of children from his many unions with mortal women in the western lands of Dagorlund. Though unknown to him until later, this brood was bestowed with his gift of immortality and had skills beyond those of mortals. Each of these immortals had a unique power of sorcery, usually uniquely different from one another. They bred amongst each other for several generations before the Evruc became aware of their strange skills. Thence, in the Fifth Age, he saught them out and befriended them. He soon became their leader and master, for he understood them better than any mortal; and he perceived that they could be used to aid in his designs to rule over all of Ammon. Together they created the city of Nasnandos in Dagorlund, where all of like kind gathered. Evruc trained his sorcerers and developed their skills for war. He also bred into them a hatred for mortal Men and Elves, who named him the Dark One and cursed him. Never in this time did he reveal to them that he was their father, nor that he was one of the Ancients, creators of all life in the world of Ammon.

Soon the Dark One had an army of captains skilled in the arts of necromancy to command his soldiers. Each of his batallions was commanded by a master sorcerer, and each company within those battalions was staffed by one of lesser power. Of all these immortal sorcerers in service to the army of the Dark One, the master sorcerer Valegil was the most instrumental and valuable in his war against mortals. When Valegil was young the Dark One trained and refined his skills for a specific purpose. He excelled in controlling the air and winds, so he was called to bring forth the rains, fog, or snow before battle to hinder the opposing forces.

When Valegil became a master sorcerer and second lieutenant to the Dark One, he was given a special talisman from his master to increase his power. This was a dagger he named Death’s Head. Evruc told that the blade was forged by the Elves in ancient days and was bestowed with special enchantments. Although he refused to tell Valegil who it was made for and to what purpose, Valegil suspected it was one of the Blades of Chaos from the Third Age. He would never know this, but it was in fact the first of those blades to be forged, and the one used by the Uldurin named Cathuktol to slay the Ancient One, Olthken. Olthken was the emissary of the Ancients to all mortals, and his death was the first time an Ancient had been slain by a mortal; An event that would forever change the relationship between the creators and thier creations. The dagger was given to the race of the Uldurin for that purpose by Evruc, who was later condemned and cast out of the order of the Ancients. Thereafter, Evruc mounted the skull of Olthken on his war standard as a warning to his brethren, and in later years the skull was used as the standard for his army.

The original stone grip of the Death’s Head dagger had long ago been replaced by one of leather-wrapped wood. The steel guard was crafted in the shape of the infinity symbol, representing the ever lasting creation of the Ancients, the world of Ammon. The original pommel was wrought with the face of the Anath, creator of the universe, but Evruc had it reshaped long ago into a distorted and heinous representation of the skull of Olthken.

With this dagger Valegil’s power increased tenfold. He could darken the skies and bring forth a dense red fog to engulf the battlefield. Wielding the dagger, Valegil enchanted the fog so that to his forces it was invisible, but the forces of the enemy were hindered by it. This gave his side a tremendous advantage on the battlefield, and the ensuing war became known as the Red War. Valegil himself would transform into a fast-moving, blood-red mist to rush upon his prey. When his blade would appear out of the mist Valegil became visible, and his prey felt the deathly prick of the steel between their ribs.

The army of the Dark One swept across Deylindor and into Lumenia, where they conquered and killed the king. When the Dark One was injured and beaten back at Castel, Valegil took command of the Army in his stead. Soon after the Dark One was healed, and he returned to wage war upon Deylund City and the Mithrodin army led by the great Mithrodin master Kethol Av Torketal. In the end Kethol was slain by Valegil, but the Dark One was also brought down, and his forces defeated. Near the end of the fray Velegil came out of his mist and stabbed his evil blade into the chest of the Mithrodin warrior Enethia, daughter of Kethol, and leader of the company charged to kill The Dark One.To his surprise, as she died, her body and the dagger vanished instantly into the red veil of mist, disappearing from this world. His talisman gone, Valegil’s fog thence weakened and the Mithrodin came upon them, bringing Valegil and his soldiers to their end. No one knew what became of the Death’s Head dagger, or what fate took Enethia from the world.

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,©2005, ©2008, and ©2012 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). Avoloch is a trademark of Kit Rae.