Once upon a time, in a far off land, there lived a wise and noble princess. Realizing she could not live forever, the princess created a successor to rule her people after she had perished. At sunset, the princess descended to her laboratory and fashioned the perfect heir. It wasn't until he was given life that she realized her creation had gone terribly wrong.
The princess had not given him the ability to love.
Hoping to be rid of her failure, the princess sent her creation to a far away land. Abandoned, the fiend was left to rot.
Many years passed before she saw him again. In a time of war, the princess left her kingdom to tend to her scattered people. Upon her return, she found her creation. The monster had taken siege, claiming that he had the divine right to rule. It was, after all, the reason for his creation.
The princess used her army to send him away once more, but it would not be the last she saw of him.
Within thirty full moons, the fiend had returned. Isolated as ever, he watched the citizens with rising curiosity. Lurking in the shadows, the fiend attempted to understand the ways of the people. When the princess caught news of this invasion, she sent out her guards.
The monster was dragged into grand hall, awaiting his immanent banishment. The princess, being fair and just, saw the error in her ways. Sending the monster away would no longer suffice, deciding instead on another course.
Handpicking three obedient citizens, the princess provided her creation with a purpose. She built the fiend a castle not too far from her land, so she could keep an eye on him. There, her successor was left to rule his elect.
Within months of his leadership, the princess heard news of hardships in the kingdom. Upon penetrating the castle walls, she discovered her elect citizens beaten and without spirit. The princess brought her people back to her land, later sought her twisted creation.
In his castle, the creature awaited her return. He had been angered over the loss of his citizens, but the princess had come prepared. In her journey, she had realized her creation unable to rule inferiors. It was time she gave him an equal.
On the floor of the throne room, the princess created a second being. This creature was nearly identical to the first, but with one discrepancy. This new creature was given a soul; he was able to love.
Her new creation was a success. After all these years of solitude, the fiend was jubilant to find a being similar to himself. He need not fit in with the citizens; he had someone who understood him. And for a short time, the two lived in harmony.
The princess left the kingdom and did not return for many years. She had thought danger no longer lay within her two sole creations, but she had no inkling of the knowledge of the second. For he knew one thing the other did not: how to create life.
After a short era of peace, news of an unfamiliar, yet merciless army reached the princess' ears. Two bordering kingdoms had already been destroyed, their dignitaries forced to step down. No one knew of what lineage the invaders belonged to, just that they were like demons, deformed and bloodthirsty.
In her time of need, the princess sent two of her knights to seek assistance from her abandoned creations. Upon arriving at their castle, the knights discovered a terrible fate. Half-beings were cluttered everywhere, no room on the floor to stand. Some of the creatures did not have eyes, their bodies mangled and distorted.
It was truly a horrible sight.
The knights brought word back to the princess. They told of how her creation's kingdom had been overthrown. In haste, she rode toward the castle.
Pushing her way through the suffering half-lings, the princess went to search for her own creations. Down, deep below the cold earth, she found her heir and her second creation. They were locked away behind bars, starved to the bone.
She instructed her knights to push past the guards in effort to free them, but the original creation stopped them. He told the princess the story of his people. Each starving, deformed being, was created by him. He alone, with the knowledge obtained from the second creation, had made an army of creatures sharing his DNA. The first round had been fine, finally he had the subjects he so desired, but her heartless creation was greedy. He wanted legions of follows under his command, so he creaed more life than he could accommodate. To protect their supplies and resources from their legions, they had locked themselves away in the dungeon.
Her heir's deformed creations were the ones sacking the surrounding kingdoms; they had created an army larger than her own. Her hair issued a warning to the princess. If she was to intervene, there would be war between their people.
The princess returned home and braced her army. She did not wish to put her people though war, but had no choice. The enemy may have an advantage in numbers, but they were weak in structure.
As it was inevitable, war commenced. Many of the princess' people faced death, but so did the entirety of the enemy army. Her kingdom was left tired and resource- less, but their honor had been upheld.
The princess rode to the enemy castle to assassinate her wretched creations, but found only the remainder of the deformities. Evaluating the strength of the remainders, the princess left the demons alone. Instead, she searched for her heir and second creation.
It took many nights, but finally the princess caught up with her monster. Her intention was to behead both criminals, but fate changed her path. She was left with a decision: destroy the only source of authority of the remaining demons, or leave criminals at large.
Being a noble princess, she did what was best for the defenseless people. She appointed her heir and second creation the ruler of their remaining deformities, but forbade them from unnaturally creating life.
And so the peace was restored.
The princess kept a closer eye on the kingdom after that, visiting often as a foreign dignitary. Still, her heir was an unnatural and unloving being. The second creation, knowing of love, attempted to calm the princess' heir. His guidance helped the heir in just treatment of the citizens. Once again, the kingdom was no longer in peril.
The second creation settled down and fathered a child with one of the mutations. He loved his son and planned for him to become the next ruler of the kingdom. As the boy grew, the princess' heir began to resent him. He feared the second creations son would overthrow them both, so one night; he slit the child's throat.
The second creation was filled with rage when he got news of his son's death. He had known of the fiend's distain for the child, fully aware of who had committed the atrocity.
The second creation gathered his composure and prepared to take revenge for his son. A member of the heir's guards caught news of the second creations plan, alerting his master. When the second creation prepared to assonate the original, he was met by dagger. The heir stabbed and distorted his body, not killing him, but destroying whatever "equality" the creations had left.
Like so many years before with the princess' elect, the heir had complete control. Without love, the heir was violent and cruel. The princess' hands on the kingdom had for long been absent, allowing the heir to take dominance over the remaining halflings.
Every citizen was forced to wear a collar, identifying them as lesser. They were unable to own goods other than what they had been provided, and forced to stay within the confines of the city. To insure this, the heir built grand walls about the perimeter, keeping the world out and his people in.
The second creation was alive, but barley. He knew he needed to stop the heir's reign, but none of the citizens were educated or powerful enough to overcome their position. His answer came in the form of a nine year old child. The boy called Nullam spero, or "hope" in Latin, was the only way to save the people. The second creation believed that only a creature from the DNA of the heir could truly overthrow him, Nullam spero was the only boy that was genetically capable to stand up to the monster. His deformities were lesser, his mental capacity larger, and his gift of hope and goodness was greater than any other the second creation had ever seen.
At the break of midnight, the second creation snuck Nullam spero to the outer wall. He released the boy out in hopes of him finding an outside land to educate him. The second creation hoped the boy can be taught to live with love, and someday come back to save the people. The only way of gaining hope, was sending it away. So, Nullam Spero was released into the night.
Upon hearing the news of the boys escape, the princess' heir sought out the creation he once considered an equal. Devouring his body whole, the monster shows its true wickedness. With no knowledge of the boys' potential or escape, the people are present in misery. The monster is left to rule, but it had been foretold that one day he will be overthrown.