Author's Note: Welcome to the prologue! I hope you enjoy it. I apologize if it's a bit lacking in detail but it's been a long time since I've sat down to write something and not had a set length it needed to be. It'll get better as I go on. Also, I tried to make this as accurate to the Forgotten Realms Campaign Settings as I could, but since it is based off of something that I came up with entirely on my own, there's bound to be inaccurate parts and if you find them and you point them out, I'll try to correct them- so long as they don't mess with the integrity of the story that is.
Anyways, read and enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Forgotten Realms or any part of it. The only thing I get from this is entertainment.
Prologue
He awoke with a splitting pain in his head, the worst headache he could remember from his entire life. He had been particularly prone to headaches as a child, and was no stranger to the throbbing pain they brought. This one was different. It was much more painful, yet it had an openness that he couldn't describe. He felt as if his consciousness was extended, like he was more aware and more awake then he had ever been. Even if his body felt like he had died, his mind felt very much alive.
The headache began to fade and the openness, that blissful sense of connection to one's self, began to expand until he felt that his mind could engulf the entire realm. It was unsettling and strange, but at the same time made him feel powerful- something he had never known.
Ordelieus opened his dark eyes, gingerly pushed his light brown hair from his face, and pushed himself up on arms that could barely support his weight, shaking all the while, to take in his surroundings. He was high up in a tower made entirely out of glass. The floor beneath him, the walls, the ceiling, and even the other levels visible underneath him where made entirely of the hardest glass he had ever seen. It was old- definitely older than his 36 years- that was certain, and yet it was strong. It seemed almost like the fine metal that dwarves crafted their weapons out of. It even rippled as if it had be folded back onto itself hundreds of times.
Ordelieus stood up carefully, his normally strong soldier's limbs still weary and stumbled over to the grim covered glass that made up wall of the circular room he was in. He pulled his sleeve over his hand and scrubbed a small circle clean and peered out.
The tower was in the center of a large, foul looking marsh. Plants grew wild and uncontrolled from years without hands to cut them back. They had invaded the entire area, right up to the base of the tower where they were steadily making their climb up the sides.
Ordelieus had no idea where he could be or how he had gotten there. The last thing he could remember was talking to a strange man on his way back to his modest home at the end of another long shift on the guard walls in Surkh. The man had had a strange charisma about him, and Ordelieus had followed him into a dark building against his better judgment. Even now he found it odd how easily the man had convinced him to follow.
And now he was here. He cursed himself silently, hoping his wife and children would be okay until he found his way back from where ever he was…
And then he was no longer concerned with them. A greater purpose had taken complete hold of his mind, body, and soul. He had been given a purpose and a new life. A plan formed in his mind, completely without his bidding but he knew that it was his mission to see it carried out to the very end. Renewed strength flowed through his body and he walked to the glass stairs and started his way down, running his hands along the walls as he went.
The grim and dirt of years of neglect fell off the walls to the floor and flowed behind him as he descended the glass spiral staircase to the bottom floor and went out the only door. Ordelieus turned and looked at his work. The tower looked back at him, translucent and perfectly clean, small amounts of dirt still flowing out of it into the marsh behind him. He admired his work. The tower stood glistening in the light as only glass could, catching it and reflecting it off of the many facets along the walls.
Ordelieus smiled, pleased that he had been reborn with such ability. He turned to survey the rest of his newfound kingdom. In the small clearing there where more towers and buildings of glass, all just as filthy as the one he had restored. That had to be corrected.
He moved to the nearest one, clearing the area around it as he went. He pushed the plants back, clearing a path, and ripped up the ones that were too stubborn, all without lifting a finger.
The building was a low, long one that proved to be a barracks capable of holding nearly one hundred soldiers. It had run down and ancient furnishings inside it as well as what looked to be a crude cooking area.
Ordelieus looked at it all with disdain. Nothing but the buildings themselves were worthy of the glory that he would build here. It would all have to be replaced.
Behind the first barracks was several others, all of about the same size, that Ordelieus cleaned in sort order. Along with the barracks, he found a stable, inn, observatory, and several homes- all entirely of glass. He cleaned them all. Just as he was about to call the job done, he found what he had hoped for.
Set off to the side, far from the rest of the buildings, was a large palace made entirely of glass. It rose up nearly as tall as the watch tower he had awoken in and was twice as grand. Large towers rose up from its four corners and flying buttresses of glass supported its massive weight. There was a moat around it, created naturally by the marsh, with a glass draw bridge that had not been lowered in many years. Even the housing of the draw bridge was grand and elegant.
Ordelieus frowned. How could he claim his palace if he could not reach it?
The answer came to him as if it had been written in his mind all along. He reached out with his thoughts, just the same as he had when cleansing the buildings, and forced the drawbridge down. The old chains groaned and grinded as the bridge lowered, but they held strong. He then crossed it- cleaning as he went- and walked into his palace.
The front doors had to be forced open, but Ordelieus was more than capable of letting himself in. The main hall that was revealed to him after those filthy glass doors swung open was the most grand he had even seen. Even the castle in Surkh couldn't compare. But, then again, nothing would be as grand as his palace. He walked room to room, cleaning and exploring as he went. There were servants quarters- which would need to be filled, a grand kitchen, a marvelous dining room that could sit well over a hundred guests, an exquisite library, hundreds of rooms for guests from neighboring kingdoms, a dungeon, and the quarters for the royal family, which proved to be spacious and elaborate. The entire palace was decorated with reds and golds- though they hardly looked it anymore. Ordelieus had the entire building memorized after one round trip, but he made several more just to make sure he hadn't missed a single detail. Of course, he hadn't.
This would do well, it would all do well. He needed only to fill it with subjects and servants to run it- that was the first step after all.
Ordelieus had spent many hours in the palace by the time he returned to the king's quarters- his quarters- to rest before starting the next phase of his plan. He sat down on the shabby but recently cleaned bed, it marvelously held his weight, and fell into a deep meditative state, his strength returning all the while.
When Ordelieus awoke, he immediately went into the library that he had found on the fourth floor of his palace. It was still dark out, but he wouldn't need the light from the sun to read. That was something he was certain of, another thing that seemed to make no sense, but fit perfectly with who he had become.
He hadn't spent much time in the library, just long enough to clean it, so he wasn't sure if it even held the item that he was looking for, but it was worth a try. He started on the rightmost wall and walked slowly around, scanning the ancient tomes for what he needed. It took him nearly an hour before he was standing in front of a book shelf filled with scrolls.
Perfect. He focused for a moment on the medium-sized table he had seen on the other side of the room and it slide across the floor to come to a stop just behind him.
He took the scrolls out one by one, gently unrolling them and reading them, then discarding the incorrect ones onto the waiting table. The scrolls were fascinating. Each one was filled with ancient magic. Each one radiated a power that was unbelievable. How could such treasures have remained hidden for so long? Ordelieus made a mental note to study the scrolls intensely once his plan had progressed farther.
After several hours of searching the scrolls he found what he was looking for. He summoned a chair from across the room and sat down on it at the table he had called earlier. He gently pushed the other scrolls to the side and unrolled the scroll to its full length on the table.
It was a map unlike any he had ever seen. It had such detail that it could only have been elven made, elven made over the course of a century. It had faded considerably, but the details that it contained were still unmatched by any map he had ever laid eyes on. He marveled at it for quite some time, taking in all the bends to the rivers that had been so meticulously drawn. Once he was certain that it was accurate, having studied the area that was drawn of his former home, he searched for some indication on the map that would give him an idea of where he was.
There could be no doubt. Ordelieus had awoken in the center of the Farsea Marshes. The city he had found had had a name once, but it had long ago been worn away by time. No matter, he was going to give it a more fitting name at any rate. The Farsea Marshes were located in what would certainly prove to be a complicated location. There was no easy way in, which made it very defendable, but there was also no easy way out. To the northeast were the Stonelands, a harsh desert bordered on the north by the vast and dangerous Saiyaddar Desert and the south by the Stonehorn Mountains. To the east of his marsh were the Sunset Mountains, and to the south, another marsh.
But there was a river. That was the one shining hope for Ordelieus' plan. The river started in the marshes and flowed all the way into the Dragonmere. It was common knowledge that civilizations always popped up along the sides of rivers, taking advantage of the irrigation, easy travel, and fishing possibilities, so it was likely that if one simply followed a river, one would find people.
And people were exactly what Ordelieus needed. He smirked to himself, stuffed the map into his belt, and marched out of the palace to the river head, well on his way to seeing this stage his plan come to fruitation.
Over the course of the next three fortnights, Ordelieus followed along the eastern bank of the river, searching for some sign of civilization. The river flowed out of the Farsea Marshes, across open grasslands, into the second marsh- named the Marsh of Tun on the map, and across more grasslands alongside the Stonehorn Mountains.
The entire trip was uneventful. Food was as easy to come by as lifting a fish from the river, which provided plenty of fresh, cool water as well. Danger seemed to avoid him all together. At several points during the trip, Ordelieus caught sight of an orc patrol, but something about him seemed to keep them away. This aggravated him to no end, since he was longing for something to test the extent of his strength and all opportunities seemed to avoid him all together.
Just as he was about to give up, back track, and risk wandering across open ground looking for a small village, Ordelieus caught sight of a bridge crossing the river on the horizon. Hope flittered back into his chest. Bridges like that one, a graceful stone arch, were expensive to build, a clear sign that he was approaching a fairly large town.
By nightfall he had reached the bridge and crossed it and the city was fast approaching to the southwest. From what he could see, it had high wall of stone and as he drew closer he could see guards marching along the top with torches held high to ward off the night.
Ordelieus retreated from the road a bit, finding a glen of trees in which to pass the night. Getting into this town by night would most likely be impossible for a strange man traveling alone with no wears to trade. So he would wait until dawn, and he would plot.
