A/N: Well, welcome to the reboot of Outsider. I lost my muse on the original, and after reviewing it, I see why:
My main OC was a creeper, and I was also way too far into my "Gary-Stu" phase. I mean, I like the idea of an overpowered guy stomping through an army, but for the love of god, WHAT was I THINKING with the original?
Also, my big-baddie I introduced? You don't even want to know what BS I had in mind for him originally.
Anyway, please enjoy the awesome that is…
Fate of Kingdoms
(Book 1 of the Outsider trilogy)
Arendelle was at war.
It actually had been, essentially, since the Great Freeze- although the open warfare only came about in the last year or so. Weasel-town, angry with the cut trade with Arendelle, had decided to take the matter further. For months, they tried tactic after tactic to try to get the Queen to open up negotiations, but were rebuffed at every turn with firm denial. After a year of trying this failed tactic, they turned to another, darker method.
Assassination.
Attempts became the norm rather than the exception for a great while, yet the attentiveness and sheer determination of the Royal Guard deterred over half of the attempts, and the Queen herself dealt with the remainder with insulting ease. Weasel-town kept at it, believing that eventually one would get lucky.
They were right, but didn't get the outcome they wanted. The Princess, not the Queen, was wounded in the attempt, and the Assassin was caught- frozen solid except for his head, without access to his suicide kit. He was interrogated, and unfortunately for Weasel-Town, the Council of Arendelle declared war.
Not the Queen, but the council. This meant that the coming war became private- no allies were to aid either side, lest they be attacked by the others for breaching the rules of the war.
Arendelle had nothing to fear from this; they had strong allies in Corona and Berk, while Weasel-town, due to their backstabbing politics, had only a few smaller nations behind them.
Therefore, Weasel-town decided to pull a fast one. A massive armada was launched from their shores, and Arendelle set themselves for a blockade against a similar sized force.
The ships never arrived; the spies that are a distasteful, but integral, part of any government missed the fact that the fleet, while disguised outwardly as warships, were in fact troopships.
They landed upland of Arendelle, and marched on the city.
Two and a half years after Arendelle gained Elsa as Queen, they were ready to be overrun by an invading army.
They were desperate; incredibly so…
And this is where our story begins; with one, simple, question born of desperation.
"Grand Pabbie, is there anything that can help Arendelle survive?!"
….
"Yes, Queen Elsa, but it is a gamble and a weight I would not council unless we are truly desperate."
"Please, I must save my people- I care nothing for myself in this."
"… Alright. I will tell you the story about the origin of the Judge, and you shall make your decision."
It is said that at the beginning of time, the first God appeared; the one known as Onæ. From his imagination, the first two Worlds came into being- the world of Gods and the world of Men. In his thoughts, the first of the new gods came into being, all parts of his essence given form.
Færl, the God of impulse and fire.
Zeloist, the Goddess of control and ice.
Likaan, the God of Body and Matter-
And Jelsok, the God of Mind and Aether.
These four spent untold eons simply discovering what they could do and simply doing whatever struck their fancy, in turns laying waste to their world and restoring it to unreal beauty and harmony. Finally, after an eternity, they discovered the world of Men, and took a keen interest.
Zeloist, always the aloof one, simply decided to create a home for herself in this new place- one at the top of the world, and soon after arriving, made another for the other Gods, that one being at the bottom.
Jelsok, the one God who felt like he could connect with the 'lesser beings' went among them, gifting the young race of Man with the power of clear thought and granting them souls, that indefinable something that drives true life.
Færl, being the hotheaded one, also took an interest in the young race of man, and gave them the gift of fire and drive, enabling them to move from being apes towards building a much greater fate for themselves.
Jelsok and Færl, both having done what interested them, returned to the World of the Gods to resume their antics there, with Zeloist following them after curbing the more base impulses of man with the gift of self-control to offset the wild ambition that Færl had thrust upon their minds.
However, Likaan was far more enamored with the race of man than the others, and sought to create more diversity, more variety in the world, and therefore created the other races, pulling traits from Man in unequal quantities for them.
He first created the Trolls, the Stonekin. He pulled from his own power, and gave the rock itself life and movement. Upon them, he bestowed the largest gift of Love of any race besides the Humans, but at the cost of Control of their fears.
Second, he created the Zepheyr, the Airkin. From his own power, he shaped the winds and gave them Drive and Souls- but no Control, making them the race that eternally devotes itself- even to this day- to keeping the world itself alive, for what survives without air?
Third, and in most tales last, he created the Dragons, the Firekin. From his own power, he bound fire and rock into shapes of wings and scales, granting them the most odd mixture of traits- A Love for Gold, an affinity towards Fire, with great, inquisitive Minds and Drive to match… but no Soul or much Control at all.
Most retellings of the origin leave off here- but I, as one of the oldest trolls alive, know of the final race.
Fourth, and his most telling gift, he created a race. Not from existing things in the world, but sprung from his own Power, forever weakening himself in the action. He created this race with all the gifts of man in equal amounts, with two odd differences- their Drive was towards the balancing of the world, making it their purpose to enforce it.
And their final gift? Control. The gift of Zeloist ran so incredibly strong in them that it mixed with his own severed power, making this race more physically powerful than any other- easily able to dominate the other races, if they so choose.
And yet, they would have the Love to feel for others, the Drive to act on it, the clear thought to plan, and the Soul to help them be more than their parts.
They were known as the Judges, and there are only ever five.
Onæ, most of his being back on one world, began to reawaken, pulling Likaan back to the world of the gods, none of them to be seen again. But, I digress.
Every generation, one Judge could be summoned from the æther by a leader of a Race, to resolve conflict between them or other races. Each time they were summoned, their minds were wiped clean, all the better to live and learn alongside the other races and fix the imbalance. When they would die, from battle or natural causes, their memories were restored, and they returned to the æther.
For the first age and a half, they were summoned a few times, mostly to mediate minor disputes or small squabbles over resources.
That didn't last. Soon, Judges were being summoned every decade to protect the world from the one race without enough control to curb their impulses. Dragons were over-running the others, and time after time the Judges stopped it.
Until one clever dragon, using all his intellect and drive, created a way to permanently kill Judges.
The first three were murdered brutally, but not before leaving a warning for the fourth and fifth, enabling them to rally the races and finally eliminate the dragons altogether. The dragons you hear about now? They are nothing more than pale ripples of their origins; they are mere beasts to what the original race was before the last Judges felled them.
But even this victory was not without a price. The fourth was ended by the last Dragon, never to return to the æther. Saddened beyond the limits of his sanity, the fifth gave one last ultimatum to the world before leaving.
"I will help in dire need- it is my nature. But do not take me for a gentle change- I am the last Judge; the final Tribunal. I will enforce the balance wherever I am needed."
"Without mercy or regret."
This was over a millennium ago; for the race of Man, they might as well have never existed. For us Tolls, they are a legend- except for me. I was there when he issued his last words, and I know how you can summon him to judge your situation… but you may not like his ruling.
Elsa was silent for hours after hearing this tale, thinking and panicking over what was upon her people's doorstep, and wondering if she could unleash something so ancient as a Judge upon the world.
Finally, she headed back to the Troll enclave.
She had made her decision; she would live with the consequences.
"Grand Pabbie, teach me how to summon the final Judge."