Baladin: Prologue

 

Prologue

The inky blackness stretches far across the reaches; starlight fills the spaces between the darkness but somehow this does nothing but make the but make the black blacker and colder.  Five figures huddle over a playing board that hovers in the dark, the figures stand beside the board their hands meddling with the game pieces.  Three men and two women, there faces are looking intently at the board before them.  Their heads are distinct and unique among all the beings in the singleverse, but the further down their bodies the less distinct they become until their waists and legs vanish into the darkness obscured by cloaks or robes that seem to meld with the vast inky darkness.  Six places there are around the board, Vile Drogath, whose face is pretty but who only has one eye that mars the effect, his strong muscular build is the epitome of many cultures.  His singular eye sees all the wickedness on the board, and he blesses all murders.  Hestium sits across the board, a picture of grandfatherly kindness emanates in a glow light from his hands face and clothes.  He awards those that uplift the board through acts of charity to others and selflessness.  Xeric, a man of changing appearance, old, young and middle aged.  His clothes change from wealthy silks to metal armour and to rustic sackcloth; he has a crown of leaves upon his brow that changes between flowers, green, fall colours to bare.  His hair though is always raven black and his features are sharp, his gaze settles on disruptions to the cycle of life and blesses those that removes necromancers.  Scoria is settled upon a throne between Xeric and Drogath, her austere dress is crisp and exact, she wears plate that shines with perfection.  She draws her sword only when necessary and always when word that was given is broken, to smit oath breakers and bless oath keepers.  Stromida whose beauty is unsurpassed with wavy hair is in complete disarray.  Her clothes are often only just intact, and she is always enthusiastic about everything and everyone and everything she does she is a whirlwind of action and often chaos.  She blesses those that contribute to the chaos in the world by playing practical jokes.  The space between Drogath and Hestium appears to be empty, but occasionally there is a wave and pieces on the board will move from her direction.  She blesses those who learn and spread knowledge.

The focus shifts from the distant to the specific and centred upon a unlikely hero a failed hero who lost her way and fell between the cracks of society, but who managed to make her way in life between tragedies.