The Runes
Before the Time of Man, the Gods of the Blue Mist greeted the four worlds with their wisdom in the shape of eight runes. All over land and sea, Truth, Strength, Fire, Peace, Righteousness, Good Fortune, Memory and Forgiveness would serve great purpose to all living beings.
For millennia, these runes were protected by the eight sages summoned by the Gods. The world of Gandaroth was concealed in peace and prosperity.
But greed and malice did not allow the great plan to carry on for long. The Dark Council, lusting the infinite power of the stones, called out the Great Demons from Ancient Times, opening portals linked to the netherworld, Tormentia.
These foul spectres haunted the world seeking to steal the runes from Man, and ultimately, from universal order.
Chaos and destruction emerged and spread across the four worlds. The search for the runes became a mission of blood and death. Weary of the horrible fate in the hands of the Demons, the eight sages decided to hide the mystical stones where they could never be found ever again. They also agreed to take their own lives so that their secret would never be revealed.
Each sage travelled for years, facing endless dangers and trusting no one. The path was of sacrifice and solitude. Eventually, one by one, the runes were hidden and lost for eternity as their lawful protectors kept their oath and killed themselves before anyone could get their hands on them.
All, but one; Regrus, the tall sage from the North, decided to use his rune, the Stone of Forgiveness, and face the dark entities in an epic but tragic duel. All alone and completely defenceless, Regrus was defeated by the evil demons and forced to hand them his rune.
His personal battle was lost. Filled with self-hatred, Regrus swiftly sank in the realm of bitterness and madness. The dark gods laughed and took the virtue of forgiveness with them, impoverishing the high values of Man.
After this, the World's fate was never safe again. The dark forces increased in power and would show no mercy in finding the remaining seven gems...
From History to Myth
Was it all but a mystical tale? Most people seem to believe so. After all, centuries had passed since the legend of Gandaroth and the fall of Regrus, the once keeper of the Rune of Forgiveness. Many battles were fought; generations of mighty kings ruled the lands and life eventually took its natural course.
As time went by, the tale of the Runes fell into oblivion and History gradually became folklore.
And folklore was used to teach why Forgiveness is so difficult to attain and why Man should endure in hardships to conquer this value.
From Myth to Truth
But the strange events and cataclysms which occurred in the realm of Gandaroth since the loss of the stone were left with no easy explanation. How was it possible to conceive the great plague that cursed the lands from the grand capital Tollfold all the way to the edges of Notherdum? What to say about the massive invasion of the Orcs across Blotan Sea reaching as far as Kestenlande? And what really happened in Doomaris, once the peaceful religious capital of Hargam, where thousands of people vanished in a horrific tremor that shook the earth and unleashing a fog so sinister that the skies were tainted with darkness for over two years?
One man seemed to believe that the tale of the Runes was no myth after all. Juvens, the Red Wizard, gathered with the council of the White Path in the Tower of Kelmund and shared his thoughts on the cataclysms. He said that when the sages who hid the magical stones killed themselves so that no one would find their locations, they released a mystical beam of energy. That energy somehow stayed in the place where the stones were hidden.
Before anyone could interrupt Juvens and his dubious narrative, the wizard continued and told of how the energy generated by the sages in their fatal hour was invisible and imperceptible to the common man but not indifferent to special beings. In fact, over the centuries, this energy had inadvertently touched many men and women giving them the power to have visions of the lost runes and making them accidental prophets. But how would this speculation explain the disasters that scared Gandaroth? Juvens waited for the inevitable question and unveiled the horrible truth: to ensure that the runes could be found, Azmaroom, the Evil Lord of Tormentia, created a series of portals that would open every time someone would have a vision of the stones. And once opened, the portals would unleash the Great Demons to seek the unfortunate seer and to find the rune.
That is why, the Red Wizard concluded, all these disasters have happened and will continue to, every time one these prophets has a vision of the stones.
