The alternate history of the EPOCH OF WAR… The current age is referred to by many as “the Time of Troubles”, and is measured in the years after the coming of Aubec of Malador and extending the rule of law and order, ushering in the age of ‘The Young Kingdoms’.
Time Keeping: Originally the Melnibonean Year (MY); reckoning by the time the empire counts. After the empire’s peak time, the Lormyrian Year, after Aubec of Malador, or Young Kingdoms reckoning marked the years after the after the “fall” of the Bright Empire.
It is nine years after Elric ascended the throne of Melnibone. In the beginning, Elric wandered the Young Kingdoms (just as in the books), returning to find his hateful> cousin, Yrkoon the Usurper (as he is known now), sitting upon the throne of Melnibone in his stead. Unable to enter his own nation, and trapped by Dharjorian mercenaries aboard a hired craft, he is aided by the Count Baldhead to escape the ship. Yrkoon begins his descent into madness and chaos and calls forth aid from the Lord of the Deep, Pyray. The lords of chaos are happy to see their one-time chosen returning to the fold. Yrkoon sends a vengeful storm to drown Elric before he can find a way to return. Adrift south of his birth isle, Elric must call upon the aid of the lord of the water elementals, Straasha. The Count and he are spared their watery grave by the power of the Ring of Kings, they are deposited upon Sorcerers Isle. Elric must scour the Isle for more of the sorcerous drugs which sustain his vitality. Nearly dead, the count watches over him while he regains his strength. Elric wakens a young dragon and returns to the Isle of Melnibone, to The Princess Tower in Imryr. In a mighty battle, Elric, his dragon and the count fight nigh unto death. Trapped in the tower, Elric vows revenge no matter the cost.
In his dreams, his father appears, leading through the maze of the vast library of tomes and grimoires. Amongst them Elric finds Yrkoons work, and realizes that he has brought forth one of the terrible blades of legend, Mournblade. Elric uses the remainder of his life sustaining drugs to propel him through the sorcerous work of summoning its twin, Stormbringer. By the time Yrkoon has breached the defenses of Elrics young dragon, none of his men remain. Pulsing with the power of a dead dragon, Yrkoon chases Elric to Sorcerers Tower, searching for his feeble cousin. Elric and Stormbringer await at the top of the tower, where Elric uses the last of his power to call upon Laasa to give him power. Stormbringer raises itself skyward in Elric’s hand as jagged lances of lightning strike it time and time again, Elrics flesh blisters with the power of elemental energy and his muscles and brain are afire as Strombringer channels the energy into Elric. Eyes blazing with a white fury, Elric and Yrkoon clash atop the tower. The sky above Melnibone shrieks with the air rending screams of the two blades, stones and mortar are blasted away in the power of Elric rage and Yrkoons madness. The winds howl and clouds pour down rain throughout the duration of their battle. For hours they fight atop the tower, until the cloak of night falls and beyond. Elric loses an eye and his unnatural strength begins to fail him though, and his albino weakness weighs upon him like lead block. Count Baldhead has watched from the chambers below and begins to see his new friends strength gradually fade. In a vain attempt to come to his rescue, he is impaled upon Stormbringers blade. For the first time Elric sees the doom of the sorcerous blades as he watched the life and very soul of friend feed his own strength through the demonic blade. Renewed with energy supplied by his hellish blade, Elric struck down Yrkoon, flinging his body and blade over the tower’s edge. Yrkoons body is swept away by the winds, into the rocks and the foaming sea. Mournblade is lost in the crashing waves, though Straasha himself gathered up the blade.
Elric spent a full year in isolation, isolating his nation with him. The nations of the Young Kingdoms felt they had seen the last of the Bright Empire. Pan Tang fully embraced chaos and began to build a vast navy and troop contingent, relying on the rabid warriors of Pikarayd for their main line troops. All across the Young Kingdoms, nations prepared to go to war. The once great threat of the Bright Empire returning to life seemed remote at best, and the more powerful nations had already made machinations towards their neighbors territory. The first to move was Pan Tang.
The Pan Tagians crushed the proud navy of Tarkesh and set troops on its shore. The world held its breath while Tarkesh fought for its freedom. After nearly a year, the Tarkeshians had flung the Pan Tagians back to the sea, their own sorcery a mystery but enough to neutralize Pan Tang. By the end of the second year, Tarkesh had rebuilt half its navy and constantly menaced the Pan Tagians. The sorcerers of Pan Tang called to their dark lords, and the Chaos Fleet sailed the high waters again, a festering sore to the lord of elementals, Straasha. The Pan Tagians crushed the rebuilt navy of Tarkesh, and withdrew their troops, giving up the losing land war.
Taking advantage of the lack of sea support and the decrease of military might in the north, Jharkor invaded Shazaar – they are in league with Pan Tang…
Lormyr rises from its sleep – Lormyr crusades once again, taking the port of Doz-Kham and launching a massive attempt to “reclaim” Shazaar in the name of its sovereign leaders who have fled and (coerced) to Lormyr. In a high temple, in a sacred site in Shazaar, the high temple of Arioch is razed to fuel sorcery to bring Donblas to the Young Kingdoms once again.
Melnibone arises from its sleep. Dragons used to blockade the south of Shazaar, as Melnibone fears for its safety from the forces of law and chaos alike. From the Dreaming City comes a declaration of war against the “upstart” Pan Tang. Once again the golden Battle Barges of Melnibone sail the seas of the west, pursuing the navy of Pan Tang supported by ships built in the Purple Towns in secret. After months of search and destroy, the combined Melnibonean fleet meets its enemy in a pitched battle and shatters the combined forces of the chaos lord Pyray’s Chaos Fleet and Pan Tang. Nearly half of the Pan Tagian fleet is sunk. No prisoners are taken, and Elric himself leads the attack, swinging his hell blade. Melnibone too loses half its navy, including 4 of its irreplaceable golden Battle Barges, and many that survived cannot be fully repaired. The Melniboneans retreat to secrecy once again, though claim the western seas as their territory – finding a new found partnership with humans for trade, and sending aid and merchants to the shores of the western lands, especially Shazaar.
Pan Tang nurses her wounds and the nations of the Young Kingdoms spend years preparing their fleets and armies for the inevitable clash coming. Melnibone has awakened from many centuries of slumber, and Elric will do nothing to quiet one side or another – it plays into his plans. The citizens of Melnibone are roused, and Elric means to see this is permanent. He has arranged the gradual destruction and embargo against the dream drugs of his people. Vast slaves are offered in sacrifice to the Elemental Lords and Chaos Lords. The chaos Lords mostly ignore it, from what they consider as a race long past its prime, focussing on their competitors the Pan Tagians.
His subtlety has gone undetected. He has chosen this time to announce the wedding to his dead cousin’s sister, Cymoril after 2 years in wait. A nearly full populace of Melnibone turns out for the pageantry. Elric announces to his people his return to the old ways of his forefathers. Thousands of slaves die in sacrifice, turning the harbor waters crimson. He also dictates a series of progresses he intends. He gifts Dyvim Slorm, his kinsman, with Mournblade, and makes his family inheritors of the high priesthood of Straasha, as it he who found the blade in the dangerous cliff waters of the island.
To his kinsman Errym he gifts another blade, Thorncrown and Sorrowedge to Phyltas, commander of the slave army of Melnibone. Melnibone, says Elric, needs no aid from near sighted, base, fickle fancied demogogues that call themselves Chaos Lords. Elric rejects the rule of chaos, and embraces the Lords of the Elements and begins a deep study of the Beast Lords. A new breeding program for the dragons is instituted, and a High Temple to Kakataal is built near the Dragon Caves on Sorcerer’s Isle. Straasha’s temple will be built in the harbor caves of the Dreaming City itself. Laasa’s temple will be built amidst a new tower, the tallest tower to ever be raised in Melnibone, and a project which will take years. Grom’s temple will be built away from others, and amidst the solitude of the far end of the Island.
Elric’s political policy is one of the cultivation of good relations. Personally, he has worked with the family of count Baldhead to cultivate relations with the Purple Towns. Gold buys a lot of forgetfulness, as old enmity is put aside and the Purple Towns announces itself as the sole trading partner to Melnibone. Melnibone issues an official declaration of boundaries and territories made claim to (mostly islands, but a few of the western shores to start with), and a warning of war against those who interfere with their re-acquisition and administration of said territories. It also issues an official writ of condemnation of Pan Tang.
Elric’s vision of a world of resources and rich trade, of which his people and select partners are at the center of, of prosperity and plentiful sacrifice, is slowly coming to fruition. Only global war stands in his way, and he begins his foray into politics… the world waits… the fires of dragons lance the skies, the roar of the surf echoes of the Dreaming City, the shriek of the gale is heard whistling between the new shinning towers that rise out of the surf between Sorcerer’s Isle and the Dragon Isle. And the screams of sacrificed slaves echo across the isles – the elemental lords are strong again and have a powerful ally. At night, the luminescent purplish Ragelight of the elemental lords is seen streaming into the heavens – a beacon to those who would take the bright world they are laying their stake on.
The forces of Law react – making threats, the forces of chaos react – making threats, other reactions include death threats, warnings of war, sorcerous threats, trade threats, and rumors of Arioch and his fellow lords displeasure and vow of revenge. Elric has truly set the world against him… or has he? What are his plans? Who are his true enemies? Its anyone’s guess as you enter the Epoch of War.
Many things are changing and the once-savage lands to the east are being settled. The isolated cultures are feeling the impact of of culture chock as the western nations look beyond their own small domains now that they believe Melnibone is no longer the tyrant she once was.
