Kindle Edition
amazon
Category:
Fantasy
Publisher: Michael Diack
Pages: 208
Copyright: July 24th, 2013
Price: $1.57 (eBook)
Elves and humans must unite and reclaim the lost seven stones of light - before the demonic shadow encloses them.
The deathly Sanghouls have escaped from the Empty Province and, from within their golden dunes, they seek to wipe out all life in Empyria. Unaware of this, the last surviving humans continue going about their daily routine in the city of Nimar. But when the city’s water pool stops refilling, the Nimerians are forced to move into lands of myth and legend.
Only when Prince Viro, an elf of the southern lands, arrives in Nimar do the humans truly understand the threat to their existence. The two races must unite and reclaim the lost seven stones of light – the only weapon that can defeat the demonic shadow enclosing them.
As four of the city’s most talented young men and women, Athmane, Faria, Bayoud and Mary will be critical to Nimar enduring the perils, both natural and unnatural, that await them.
Excerpt
The lands of Empyria are both beautiful and dangerous. A single, giant continent surrounded by a never-ending ocean. The humans in the far north had no idea about the scale of the world and how small a part they played in it. Although they knew they weren’t the only life forms, the tall and imposing Black Mountains protected them from all that lay behind their comfortable, coastal habitat. The low-lying grasslands were the perfect place to live: a temperate climate; clean river water running off the mountains; and an abundance of fruit and wild animals.
Four hundred years ago, a massive underwater tectonic shift changed the lives of humans forever. The ocean rose and its water displaced the humans from their lands, forcing them to flee for the high ground of the Black Mountains and to seek refuge in the dry, desolate and dangerous interior which lay to its south. Before the flood, there were hundreds of human clans. Each was very territorial but the rising water did not discriminate and, migrating over the mountains, the clans came together in three main groups: the Ruzans of the West, the Nimerians of the South and the Birbans of the East. Traversing across the Black Mountains, all three clans were diminished as thousands died to the cold, the wolves, avalanches and rock-falls. But eventually, all three clans successfully traversed the mountain range and, separated by hundreds of kilometres, the humans descended down into the new lands that greeted them and searched for a place to settle.
Naturally, the clans gathered around the first reliable sources of water they could find. The Ruzans thought themselves blessed when they came across a wondrous oasis on the northern edge of the Empty Province – a huge expanse of crescent-shaped sand dunes and perilous patches of quick sand. The Ruzans happily settled on the oasis, its fresh groundwater seeping to the surface in abundance, feeding and sustaining a small forest of palm trees and shrubs. Resourcefully, they managed the wood and began building their new settlement, blissfully unaware of the hundreds of pairs of eyes watching them from within the sands of the nearby dunes.
The Empty Province was inhabited by the most savage, cunning and ruthless creatures to live in Empyria - the Sanghouls. Whilst not the biggest of creatures, what they lacked in height they made up for in claws. They lived exclusively within the dunes, burrowing quickly through the soft sands they mummified their victims and fed on their flesh and blood. Although they could tolerate the outside environment for short periods – never more than an hour, even at night – they needed the sands to protect their delicate skin from the dry heat and wind. Fast and agile in the short time they came above ground, they were lethal and intelligent predators. Channelling the water from the vast underground aquifers beneath the Empty Province, the Sanghouls created the oases in hundreds of locations dotted around the Empty Province to lure in their prey. When the Ruzans arrived, the Sanghouls bided their time and maximized their feeding opportunity. Patiently waiting, they watched on every day and night for one hundred years letting the Ruzans repopulate. And then, in one night, they attacked.
While the Ruzans sat under the stars telling stories, drinking and eating, hundreds of Sanghouls exploded out from the dunes. Killing the strongest males first, the Sanghouls then dragged the men, women and children under the sands and back into their stronghold - The Ruined Temple. This lay at the centre of the Empty Province and was the old home of the demon jester Caxos. Here, they preserved the corpses to feed on for the centuries to come. All two thousand Ruzans were wiped out in less than an hour and the ground they had settled on was forever stained red with their blood.
After descending from the Black Mountains, the Nimerians found themselves in a central location completely out of sight of the other two clans. The branching arm of the Black Mountains reached well down into the southern lands, obscuring and protecting the Nimerians from the perils of the Empty Province to the west. For the Sanghouls, confined to their dunes, could not pass over the steep mountain range. Following a dried river bed, sourcing pools of water which still remained from the occasional flash flood, the Nimerians eventually came across a reliable source of water; an ancient reservoir of groundwater which pooled up to the surface at the bottom of a craggy outcrop of sandstone and limestone surrounded by lush vegetation and trees. It was around this outcrop that the city of Nimar was founded. Over the following years Nimar began to take shape; a central building called the ‘Sanctum’ was built spiralling upwards and encasing the water pool, while surrounding the city, a rocky outer wall was built for basic defence. Many of the trees were chopped down for building material, but a few of the larger ones were left standing, so as to preserve the natural beauty of the outcrop and provide much welcome greenery to the barren colours of the world around.
The greatest struggle for the Nimerians in the early days was finding food, for the gravel plains and rocky outcrops had sparse offerings. The clan leaders bickered and failed to form an organised community. Eventually, the people rebelled and developed a new system based on the priorities of: defending the people, finding food, constructing buildings and healing the sick. A society based on structure, stability and discipline was formed and it was perfect for them. Thus, when it came to their eighth birthday, the children of Nimar had an important choice to make about which path to take: soldier, hunter, craftsman or doctor. Once the citizens reached 35, the retirement age, it was then their duty to teach the youth and to procreate a new generation so that the cycle would continue. It was a rigorous system, but one that kept the heart of Nimar beating despite the perils that the land threw at it. Over time, the city grew and the population expanded.
Meanwhile, the Birbans of the East were never so fortunate as to even settle on a location and have a chance at a new beginning. Not only did they suffer the heaviest losses of all three clans traversing across the Black Mountains, they were also unable to find a reliable source of water amongst the northeastern gravel plains. They took refuge in the cool, damp caves of the Dunein region. However, the caves were not unoccupied and the great serpent Hilyx did not take kindly to intruders within his lair. A monstrous snake of 50 metres long and a body a metre thick, the Birbans were crushed and eaten. Hilyx returned to his sleep bitterly cursing those who had disturbed him and now filled his swollen belly. He was not the nicest of snakes.
Hilyx was one of three giant beasts which dwelled in Empyria. The other two were the dragon brothers, Gorlyx the Fire Dragon and Brelyx the Ice Dragon. The three creatures were created by the powerful sorceress, the dark elf Mayer, who lived in the crater of the great volcano in the southern lands. Eventually her three ‘pets’ got too big for Mayer and she sent them away to live free, but to return to her should she ever call upon their aid. The dragon brothers flew to the deepest south, in the Emerald Mountain, where they still remain today. Hilyx, however, was not fond of the desert temperatures and he sought refuge in the long, dark caves of the Dunein region. Hilyx was not cold-blooded, created out of the bubbling crater his blood boiled and the constant shedding of his skin was uncomfortable in dry environments. Mayer did not leave the crater, instead, she let her minions explore for her. Tall, pale and immortal, the Ovites were her slaves and they wandered the surrounding land. Each one under her control with their vision connected to her, giving Mayer a huge foresight over the central land and allowing her to quickly collect the ingredients she needed for her potions and dark magic – bones, hearts, and elf blood. However, Mayer had died long before the coming of the humans across the Black Mountains, a sudden ejection from the dormant volcano poisoning her with toxic gases. The snake and the two dragons were free to do as they pleased and her Ovites left to wander the lands unchecked to the present day.
A city of wind-whipped and sun-baked stone, Nimar was the last remaining dwelling of humankind in the land. However, in the 321st year since crossing the Black Mountains, the lasting legacy of Caxos threatened to doom not only the people of Nimar, but all life in Empyria.
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