(( Just a quickie. as always: All works created by me for this site, including literary works, musical works - including any accompanying words, dramatic works - including any accompanying music, pictorial, graphic, motion pictures and other audiovisual works and or sound recordings are © 2006 Patrick Hester. All rights reserved. ))


With the Breaking of the World, came a time of unprecedented hatred and war between the races as old wounds were reopened and new ones were created.

Humans, ever distrustful of that which they did not understand, blamed the Elves and their use of Magiks, while the Fey creatures - Faerie and Troll, Ogre and Pixie, blamed the Dwarves and their endless delving beneath the very earth for treasure within the living rock, accusing them of waking the World Dragon, causing the upheaval going on above.

Mountains rose where once there was lush farmland, forests became vast wastelands where toxic fumes sprang from the earth and filled the air with a murky haze, great rifts and chasms opened up from the earth and swallowed whole lands and fiefdoms, and mountains quiet and majestic spewed forth liquid fire and great plumes of ash and soot.

Famine came quickly as lands once rich for farming were devastated by terrible out of season storms, winds and rains pelted crops or snow and ice froze them. Droughts in other areas killed not only the crops in the field, but the livestock as well. Many began taking what they wanted, and thus the wars began.

Tensions were already high. Humans felt that the Elves were hoarding and hiding food in their forests, so they attacked to take it from them. Elves fought back, refusing to be bullied into handing over what little they had left. Dwarves locked their great stone gates and were not seen again for nearly four hundred years while the other races fought bitterly for what scraps they could find.

...and throughout it all, the Druids knew the real reason for the Breaking of the World.

Their tower in the frozen tundra known as Alcaz'ara'liet stood untouched by the turmoil and upheaval of the world around them. For centuries it had been a refuge for those seeking Enlightenment and Peace through the Balance. Once you came to the great blackened oak doors of the tower and passed beneath the visage of the Founder smiling down upon you, arms wide and open, you no longer belonged to the world outside, nor owed allegiance to the race of your birth.

From that moment on, you were a Druid.

Sanctuary was a bastion, a place of neutrality where the races could come and have their disputes mediated by the wise and impartial Druids. Little did any know a darker purpose was being conceived. It grew in the soured heart of one Druid, who infected other's with his cause as he saw princes and kings parade through the hallowed halls in their fine clothes and wearing jewels and gems adorned in gold and silver. Lust filled his heart, lust for riches and power.

Never did those who came to Sanctuary seeking guidance and help bow down to their betters, and he decided that they should not only bow down before their betters, they should let the Druids rule them all, for were not the Druids wiser even than kings if kings had to come to them for help?!

And so he hatched his plots and his schemes, taking unto him those who he knew he could corrupt and control to his own purposes, and together they devised the Breaking of the World, so all the races would have to turn to the Druids for guidance, and he would at last be able to rule them all....