N-DieD: SM Chronicles: Wolvesfang Book 1 The Last Pup

Prologue

            Long, long ago…

…in the birth of the World, the Tall-barefolk and Gods came in the beginning, and made homes and dwellings for themselves side-by-side. The Gods lived in the shadow of the trees, beneath the rippling seas, and high in the wild skies. The Tall-barefolk, who had long ago tossed aside the primal ways of the Old Kingdoms, lived in their tall, shiny towers and loud, bustling cities of industry and capitalism.

Though the Gods and Tall-barefolk lived near one another, there was the inescfapable truth that neither side were allied with each other. In fact, each side was always at odds.

The Gods of the Old Kingdoms and their kin saw nature and life for the most precious thing of all, a thing that was needed to survive and thrive for not only themselves, but the world that gave them their very lives. To protect nature and life was to preserve themselves and all that would come after them, and give thanks to the world which sustained them.

The Tall-barefolk had a different viewpoint. The world was a thing to be conquered, to discover everything that there was to the world, and to become more powerful than anyone else. They always sought to expand their tall, black-clouded civilizations and build over where the Old Kingdoms stood, taking away the homes of the Gods and the kin.

Though the Gods’ and kin were constantly threatened by the Tall-barefolk’s desire for expansion, they held one advantage that the Tall-barefolk did not have, nor did they know of.

Magic.

There had been a time when the Tall-barefolk also used this ancient art, but as industrialism flourished, the art of Magic became extinct among them and slipped into myth and legend as nothing more than a creation of the imagination and story-telling.

Among the Gods and the kin, however, it remained an ever-present art that could be used both as a tool of survival or a means of entertainment and mischief. But as in every tale, where there was goodness and light, there was also darkness, and both sides were ever present in magic as well.

While Magic began as an art of Light, many would come forth to misuse it, and so the Dark Magics were born. And as the Dark Magics spawned and tainted those who dared to delve into them, so too did  those of the Light, even some of the Gods, fall, and give birth to the dark creatures that all mortal’s feared.

Demons.

Light and Dark would then clash, and the whole world would be enveloped in War and Chaos.

The Gods and Demons fought one another, their kin dragged into the War alongside them, choosing sides and killing one another mercilessly. The Tall-barefolk, afraid for themselves that they would be destroyed by the powerful Magic’s of either side, began their own assault with their machines.

When at last the War came to a halt, all sides had suffered great losses, and many had succumbed to death. The land in which the battles were fought suffered great losses in both the Old Kingdom and the human cities. Ultimately, the Demons were defeated and exiled from the World to another land far from both Gods, kin, and the Tall-barefolk.

The Old Kingdom grew back over time, in some places to its former glory, while some places were too scarred or damaged during the War for the forests and lush plains to grow back at all.

The Tall-barefolk went to rebuild their cities and civilizations, but countless of their kind were lost and their kind were diminished in number. Many old cities lay in ruin, abandoned and avoided, rumored to be homes to Demons and malevolent phantoms left over from the War.

The realm of the Demons was unknown, but none ventured to ever find the dark place.

For a long time after the War, a hard-won peace fell over the World, watched over by the Gods…

…until many of the Gods’ began to disappear.