Some of the tales of past days deserve to be told even now. Though many stories have changed slightly over the years, there is still truth behind all. These accounts are not known in detail by all people in Avalance, but most do know what one is talking about when things like the Old Kings or the Bone Sorcerer King is named. These are the tales that inspired bedtime stories, myths and legends in Avalance.

The History of Kings

As the art of writing has not been practised for very long, and certainly not from the beginning of time, knowledge of distant ages tends to be full of holes. These stories are the ones that were passed on through oral tradition, bent and twisted by the person reciting them. Only some of these tales have eventually made it onto paper, meaning some of their truths are long lost. However, with all the knowledge that was gathered successfully, there is a story to be told, even if some ends were tied together only in what we currently perceive to be the most natural course.

Legends are often told of the ages of ice that came after the creation of fire. The level of the ocean was thought to have laid meters below the current shorelines, making it possible for people to cross the Ruby Sea in simple boats from Lavarr to the most western shores of Avalance. The first settlers are believed to have travelled from island to island until reaching the shores of what is now called the Evergreen. These are believed to be the first people that inhabited the continent, but only they would have known for sure.

These first peoples, who would become the people of the Old Kings, lived a nomadic lifestyle, travelling from one place to another in search of food and resources. At some point, however, they started settling for long periods of time and influence the land around them. Having no other tribes to compete with, their towns grew fast. Eventually, a large family called Elovyr founded the First City, which would quickly become the crown city when Elovyr proclaimed himself king of Avalance. Because his first name is not known, he is often referred to as the First King or simply Elovyr.

The reign of the Old Kings was prosperous for a few generations, but some people still longed for the freedom they once had. Within the royal family, a rift formed between the king Theoden and his son Ivan. This escalated, resulting in the King's decision to banish his only heir to the north of Avalance, where the ice was slowly receding. Furious, Ivan Elovyr left the city and took the men loyal to him up north, where they found land which had never been seen before because of the ice. They settled in what is now called the Highlands and founded Caer Scion. Ivan forsook his last name to spite his father, taking up Freyr as his new name. He did not, however, give up on his claim to the throne.

Meanwhile the King and his loyal people faced a new danger. The end of the Era of Ice also caused a dramatic rise in sea level, believed to be the curse of Ivan on his father. The floods took the city and its King. His daughter, Asherah Elovyr, managed to flee to the east, with a large group of their people. Here they wandered the wastelands of the Burn and travelled up the Jade Run to find the Blue Moon Spring, where they founded a new city. To thank her for saving them, the people called the new city: Asherah. There had already been people living in the east before they arrived, but any clash between them and the newly arrived people from the First City was avoided by Asherah marrying Salvador Illeon, Lord of what is now called Ashax.

When the world had warmed up, a new group of immigrants arrived from the west. Their ships were more advanced, as they had to cross long stretches of the Ruby Sea before eventually reaching Avalance. These people brought new ideas and traditions with them, amongst these, new forms of metalworking. With Avalance divided between two people who claimed rule over the land, Ivan Freyr in the north and Asherah Illeon in the south, it was easy to take the lush lands of what is now the Evergreen and the Crownlands. These new people found little conflict at first, and the resistance that welled up from the north and the island was no match for a strong united force. While trying to drive off the newcomers, Freyr and Illeon were also in a continuous war with each other. Thus the rule of the Old Kings was ended, when a rich general of the western people, Serlon Yldrin, founded the Iron City and was crowned soon after. The New Kings now started their turbulent rule over Avalance.

Theirs eventually became as prosperous as the Old Kings, only to fall when the bone sorcerer Arenon Yldrin ended their rule by misuse of his magic. The Iron City was laid to ash, as was the line of Yldrin. After came the Dragon Kings of house Aldyr, a reign started by Loran Aldyr, son of king Ellion's sister, and Eleahra Daleros, a dragonrider woman from the west. Their seat of power became Dragonwatch and only once has there been a rebellion against the throne since.

The first of the Undying

The first stories of death magic in Avalance are very dark and twisted. These old tales speak of a bone sorcerer Lord in the Northern Reach, experimenting on the people who lived under his protection. His ambitions far outreached his ability to control dead flesh and bones. What Darrin Wynter really wanted, was to control the living. The task proved to be harder than expected, for the living have a mind of their own. To gain control over them, Darrin would have to break their will. Most of the time this resulted in the death of his test subjects.

There was one that lived, although the price for life was high. The experiments had turned him mad, the runes that were carved into his flesh turned to ink on his skin as a reminder of his cursed existence. The creature turned on its creator and fed on his blood, ending the experiments. Yet the damage had already been done. It was blood he craved. No water, no food. He preferred the dark, could not be killed like a normal human and did not age. Later, the trait of immortality would be the reason why these cursed humans would be called the Undying.

The first Undying lived in solitude for many years, only seeking the company of men when his thirst needed to be quenched. Other than the brand and the sharp fangs, he did not look any different from the living. At some point, however, the curse was passed, by branding another, reciting the lines of the old bone sorcerer. Why the first Undying chose to make a second is a detail that was lost in time. Some say he wished for company, others simply state he was mad and wished his fate upon the living. The result was the same. The creation of another Undying.

How many were turned is unknown, as is much about them. Some of them refused to feed on human blood, thinking that the lack there-off would turn them weak and eventually kill them. However, the Undying were not named that way for nothing. The story of the first ones that refused is a tragic tale. As the days passed, their brands pulsed, growing, as to remind them of what they had to do. They slowly lost their humanity, turning more beast-like, until eventually, they hit the final stage. Undying in the final stage turn into monsters, losing their human appearance as well as their control. Their mind remains somewhere deep inside the creature, trapped for all eternity, waiting for some force of greater magic to end their suffering.

While the Undying are rare, they spread throughout Avalance. However, most of them in the final stage, roam the lands near the place of the origin of the first Undying, at the Northern Reach of the Iron Ridge. Because of this, the mountainous area was renamed as the Cursed Reach, which is in this day and age often the subject of ghost stories and a place only the brave dare to explore.

The Bone Sorcerer King

After House Yldrin proclaimed themselves rulers of Avalance, there were many prosperous years to come. While the earlier kings tended to wed daughters of the current High Houses of Avalance or other families which held important positions in the realm, their descendants acquired a taste for more exotic looks and stories. When the rule of the New Kings was already firmly established, the necessity of strategic marriages became less important, allowing a few kings to choose out of love or desire.

One of these fortunate kings was Ellion Yldrin, who completely fell for the mysterious Fereah Naerar, a bone witch from Lavarr. At the time, death magic was not as well known to the lands of Avalance, as goes for the possible consequences, other than that of the story of the Undying. It did not take long for Ellion to persuade Fereah to marry him and become the queen of Avalance. Together they had a total of four children, of which two were boys and two girls.

Their heir, the oldest son called Arenon, did not have an upbringing different from the other royal children. Only when his mother found out he was a bone sorcerer, did she start to teach him the art of her magic. Arenon had a talent for bringing dead things to life, but under his mother's guidance, his powers were kept at bay. When Arenon came of age, he married Taryne Hearston, which was as much a marriage of love as his father's to Fereah. Together they had two sons, Aren and Adarys.

While king Ellion did not foresee any danger in his heir practising this dark magic, there were others that worried in his stead. So much so that when king Ellion died of an unknown illness, and his wife Fereah soon thereafter, the people started to voice their disapproval of the Bone Sorcerer king, Arenon Yldrin and his young family. The new King still had the support of most of the High Houses of Avalance, but when both House Freyr and Illeon openly announced war against the throne and threatened his people, he did not think twice to use his powers to his advantage. Without his mother, no one stopped him from raising an army of undead soldiers from the ground. At first those loyal to the crown cheered, seeing how this dark magic could be used in their favour. None of those cheers were long-lived, however.

Raising his army might have been a draining but an otherwise easy task for Arenon, keeping his mind from being corrupted by the dark, was not. He had never experienced the possible costs of death magic before because his mother had made sure he did not use too much of his power while training. Now, with a whole army raised, the doors of his mind were wide open, inviting. The darkness willingly seeped in, twisting and shaping, until Arenon could not think clearly any more. Soon he turned on the people around him, his advisors and the High Houses that helped him rule the kingdom. The people, some still sceptical of his dark exotic magic, were easy to turn on him. The more resilience he met, the crueller he became.

Every fallen enemy added a soldier to his army. Arenon soon ruled from a palace that was no longer inhabited by the living, the people having fled the capital city in fear of the ever-growing number of corpses walking around. His young wife Taryne and their two sons were one of the last to leave, along with his remaining family members. The High Houses, who had all declared war against the King in open rebellion, found themselves at a dead end. Fighting Arenon only served to increase his army, as he controlled everything that was slain. On the other hand, the King's madness caused him to be extremely aggressive, meaning leaving him to slowly wither away on his throne was no option.

Word of the situation in the Kingdom of Avalance travelled far. The initial attack by the Houses Freyr and Illeon had first brought the stories of the Bone Sorcerer King to distant shores. The madness of the King was a weakness to be exploited. While some opted to take Avalance by force, there were others making a more subtle approach. A relatively powerful dragonrider family of the west, sent one of their daughters, Eleahra Daleros, to Avalance. Along with one of their fire breathing dragons.

Eleahra offered her help to the High Houses, in exchange for the hand of the new King. While reluctant to place their trust in a stranger and even more to be indebted to her, the people of Avalance saw most of their other options crushed by Arenon and his army. When Eleahra displayed the power of dragonfire on a small part of the undead army, the High Houses knew that the fire would be strong enough to turn Arenon's reign to ash.

Eleahra and her dragon Sunchaser had the advantage. Arenon's army was tied to the ground, and as the only dragons to have set foot in Avalance were the beasts of legends, the Iron City did not have any defences to ward them off effectively. Bone-chilling shrieks rose up from the city as flames engulfed the streets and corpses were turned to ash. The fire burned all but stone, causing the whole city to be ablaze with dragonfire. Arenon soon had nothing left to raise from the dead, because all bodies had been burned to ash. When Eleahra found the King, he looked all but dead himself. White as a ghost, his hair greyed and his eyes a pure black. She ended his life with a knife to the heart and he died on his throne, the crown still on his head.

With Arenon dead and the city in ruins, the question rose of who the new king should be. While Arenon had a brother, as well as two sons, none of the High Houses were willing to risk a new bone sorcerer ruler. It was Loran Aldyr, the eldest son of Cayra, old king Ellion's sister, who claimed the rights to the throne. Supported by his mother as well as his brother Eddin and sister Celesse, Loran also got the approval of the High Houses. His blood had not mixed with that of the bone witch, making him the safest candidate, even though boys from the women's side of the family line were rarely chosen as heir to the throne.

To eliminate the biggest threat to his future reign, Loran had Arenon's wife Taryne and his two sons Aren and Adarys killed. Illirios, Arenon's brother, tried to flee but was caught by knights loyal to Loran and executed as well. Only Nesaya and Aerella, Arenon's sisters, were spared. They were exiled from Avalance and send to Lavarr on a ship. As was promised, when Loran Aldyr was crowned king, he took Eleahra Daleros as his wife. The two oversaw the founding of the city of Dragonwatch, leaving the old city to be called The City of Ash, and with them began the reign of dragons and Dragon Kings in Avalance.

Nesaya and Aerella were never sighted in the realm again. However, the stories go that most of the bone witches and sorcerers that live in the Kingdom nowadays are descendant from them.