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The Legend of Alaric Skywalker

Episode I – The Shadow Kingdom

It is a time of great lawlessness in the galaxy. Twenty-four thousand years before the birth of Luke Skywalker, the ancient Jedi Order has been divided by former Jedi Master XENDOR's conversion to the Dark Side of the Force. The young Galactic Republic has been pushed to its knees by the assault of Xendor's LEGIONS OF LETTOW.

Beneath the eyes of all on the planet Tyramis, young Alaric Skywalker with sword in hand is about to take his first steps into the galaxy at large. The Skywalker legend begins here in the turmoil of the Great Schism…

Chapter 1

Winter was a harsh reminder of the realities of life. Beyond the blooms of spring and the harvests of the fall, the snow and ice drove many animals into southern lands away from the mountains the Keldan people called home. The Keldans were humans, though their legends told of being brought to their new world by a god from the sky. For over a thousand years, the Keldans warred with the Vesuvians to the south and the Rus to the north.

The Keldans were considered barbaric by the Vesuvians who chose to live in the fertile valleys of the south and build great cities. They were good farmers, but also some of the most feared hunters on the planet. A Keldan never died of starvation unless he was lazy. Their skills with the horse and weaponry prevented them from being conquered by their neighbors. Most were content to leave the Keldan tribes in peace, considering them mad barbarians who chose to live where they did.

At least that was the status quo until a Vesuvian king bent on subjugating Keldan tribes so he could conquer the Rus arrived in the Keldan lands. King Romulus V was considered a great warrior among his people and it was even rumored that he held the favor of the dark wizard Set. Survivors of Vesuvian raids told tales of sorcery driving the king's war machine. The Skywalker Tribe was preparing to defend a mountain pass when a scout arrived on horseback to relay the news.

The snow was over a month old and refused to melt. It was difficult to cover tracks in the snow, so Keldan scouts had the advantage and hoped to gain the element of surprise. Chief Balti was still awaiting word from other chieftains of an alliance, but he could not wait any longer. The need to make a stand against the Vesuvians was urgent and could not be postponed. If the mountain pass was not held, the ancestral lands of the Keldan peoples would be laid bare before the invaders.

Balti was a man who stood over two meters tall, broad chested and shouldered. He wore animal skins and crude steel armor forged by the blacksmiths. His steel helmet covered his mane of blond hair. His blue-gray eyes surveyed the pass like a seasoned hunter waiting for the element of surprise. He wore a sword and dagger at his side, but carried a slugthrower in his hands. The secrets of black powder were long known to the Keldans, having been handed to them by their ancestors. Only in drastic moments was the knowledge of black powder ever employed, but every Keldan man knew how to use a slugthrower in case that moment was necessary.

Beside him, his only son and heir Alaric, a young man of eighteen seasons, dismounted his black horse and gazed to the distance. He was a handsome man, larger than his father and stood slightly taller than him. His features were identical, complete with the blond hair and blue-gray eyes. Alaric had command presence like his father Balti, but something was different about him. The medicine man Loric spoke of Alaric's strange intuitive abilities. If Balti had another son, Alaric probably would have trained with Loric.

But Balti's wife was barren, something the chief discovered a year after their marriage. Loric claimed that she would never conceive, but a miracle happened five years later. Alaric was born. Loric spoke of an ancient prophecy handed down to him from medicine men of years past, but Balti cared little for the prophecy and adored his son and watched him grow into the most powerful warrior he ever saw.

"What do you see, son?" Balti asked Alaric. He dismounted his white steed and took his place by his son. Keldans were in hiding in the pass, waiting to ambush oncoming Vesuvians.

"They will not pass," Alaric said to his father. Alaric appeared confident, which soothed Balti's anxieties. "Our scouts told us that this is a small raiding party. They have no wizards with them."

"Then we should win this battle," Balti said to his son. "This pass is all that stands between them and our ancestral lands."

Alaric stared beyond the pass to the southwest, where a Vesuvian fort was rumored to exist. Balti had plans of assaulting the fort once word of an alliance reached his ears and he had the Keldans to lead into battle. Alaric knew that assaulting a Vesuvian fortress was no easy task, but he had scouts in the area. Alaric made his father proud.

"We should take our positions," Balti said to his son. "They will be upon us soon."

"I agree," Alaric commented. "Let us make haste."

Within the hour, Balti could see the raiding party approaching the mountain pass. The Vesuvians could not have brought more than thirty men on horseback. It would be a quick an easy battle for the Keldans. Balti shouldered his slugthrower. Alaric was already doing the same. Balti took a moment to observe his son to seek any signs that they were in danger. Alaric's face was as hard as iron, unmoving and solid.

When the raiding party was coming through the mountain pass, their leader, a man on a black horse wearing the dark armor of the Vesuvians stopped them. Balti knew the man felt something was amiss and he was more than happy to oblige his suspicions. The chieftain took the first shot, hitting the man in the neck and dropping him from his horse.

The Vesuvians immediately panicked as they sought to discover the source of the sniper. A volley of slugs from the hidden Keldans began raining down upon the raiders. Horses and soldiers fell to the snow, staining it red with their blood. Many horses ran away from the battle after losing their riders, either heading back towards the Vesuvian fort to the southwest or galloping into the ancestral lands of the Keldans where they would become prizes of war.

Balti and Alaric led a chorus of battle cries as the slaughter of the Vesuvian invaders continued. Some Vesuvians managed to kill some Keldans with lucky shots. One of the slugs bounced near Balti's head and embedded itself in the rock and snow. He swore and cut the offender down with his slugthrower. Only one Vesuvian managed to ride his horse out of the mountain pass, returning to the southwest.

"Woe to all you who invade the sacred lands!" Balti screamed, earning a chorus of cheers from his people.

The Vesuvian fortress protected the river, which would permit supplies to arrive once it was no longer frozen. A small community had formed within the protection of the fortress for those brave enough to endure the cruel winters of northern Tyramis. Blacksmiths, gunsmiths and others were needed to maintain an invading army. Supplies from the south were due. Many Vesuvian soldiers once supplemented on local game, but it was becoming scarce.

King Romulus and his white steed traveled through the fortress. He was a reasonably tall man of just below two meters and it was rumored that Keldan blood flowed through his veins due to his features. However, he had brown hair and green eyes common to the Vesuvian people.

Romulus wore the dark armor of his comrades and was considered one of the greatest swordsmen of his age. The only distinguishing factor was the crest of his family, a golden dragon in a shield, on his chest plate. He rode into battle with his soldiers, winning over the common enlisted man with his bravery. Even before he made acquaintance with the Dark Jedi from beyond Tyramis, Romulus was a feared warrior king who subjugated the southern lands and ended the pirate threat to his seaports.

A dark skinned man in a black robe rode beside King Romulus. He was Set, former Jedi Master from the land of Thebes to the east of Vesuvius and disciple of the Dark Lord Xendor. He was triumvir with Xendor and Arden Lyn and one of the most feared men in the galaxy. The return to his homeworld was driven by a desire to acquire the lost Jewels of Tython which rested somewhere in the ancestral Keldan lands. For that reason, Thebes allied with Vesuvius, a move that unnerved many in the king's court.

Set was pleased to know that the ambition of the Vesuvian king was easy to manipulate to his advantage. Xendor was winning the war against the Republic and the Jedi and the Jewels of Tython would give him the edge he needed to overcome his enemies.

Black armored soldiers on patrol passed by the king and his dark companion. The fort was bustling with activity as snowflakes began to fall from the sky. Snow was alien to Set's desert home, though he encountered it as a Jedi on Tython when he was a boy. The Keldans were more suited to winter combat than the Vesuvian invaders, but King Romulus made sure that his soldiers had the appropriate wool clothing for winter warfare. Combined with Set's command over the Force, the campaign was a massive success.

Set looked to his left to see a scout on a brown horse galloping towards the king. Romulus held out his hand, recognizing the young man from the small scout party that he detached to investigate different mountain paths.

The scout stopped his horse as he pulled up beside his king. "King Romulus, the Keldans ambushed us," the scout reported. "I am the only survivor. There must have been hundreds of them firing on us from the mountain pass to the northeast."

"The Keldans have been fighting more ferociously every day," the king told the soldier. "Thank you for your information. Your comrades did not die in vain."

"You're welcome, my king," the scout said to Romulus.

"You are dismissed," Romulus told the scout. "Get yourself a hot meal and some rest."

The scout rode towards the stables, leaving Set alone with the king. "He and his scouts failed you," he commented.

"We will not discuss this here, wizard," Romulus said sharply to the Dark Jedi. "If you wish to criticize the way I treat my soldiers, then you will do so in private where my men cannot hear you."

Set scowled at Romulus. He was a good man despite his thirst for blood and conquest. He was the sort of king that commanded the respect of his soldiers and subjects. It was a weakness Set despised, but he was forced to collaborate with the man at the present time. Xendor was planning a major offensive and needed most of his troops. As far as Xendor was concerned, Tyramis was a backwater world in the grand scheme of the war.

"If that is what you wish," Set told the king. "But be careful that you do not treat your soldiers too well or they will go soft." Set took his horse away from Romulus, leaving the Vesuvian king speechless.

Alaric slept in his tent at the Skywalker encampment, but he did not rest well. Sweat collected on his forehead despite the bitter cold of the winter night. Sweat was a dangerous thing as it could threaten hypothermia, which killed more men in the winter than wolves. It was not the fault of young Alaric, but it was a dream.

In his dream, Alaric walked through his village. Huts and tents were in flames and smoldering ash littered the ground alongside slain Keldans. The Skywalker village was within the ancestral lands and its destruction meant the invaders had come. The tattered Vesuvian banner hung from a pole, a golden dragon ensnared in a shield, but something else was there. Beside the Vesuvian banner hung another one of a snake devouring its own tail, one he recognized to be the banner of Thebes. He gripped the hilt of his sword tightly and screamed at the heavens.

Alaric awoke with a start, panting. It was not the first dream of its kind he ever had. The first were of his mother before her sudden death. He wiped the sweat from his brown and rubbed it on the bearskin blanket before he pulled the blanket from his body. He quickly donned his tunic and sat quietly for a few minutes. He needed to return to the village to speak to Loric about his dream, but he could not abandon his father in his time of need.

Despite this, Alaric knew he was due for a vision quest, one every young Keldan male took when he came of adult age. He never took one due to the necessities of war and Balti's demands that Alaric remain by his side during the campaign. Alaric realized he could use the necessity of the vision quest as a reason to get his father to permit him to return to the village. It was only a day's ride to his village, but Alaric could make it home faster than most riders. He was one of the best horsemen in his tribe.

At daybreak, Alaric emerged from his tent in heavier clothing. The campfires were still going and warriors were already performing their daily tasks. Alaric found his father in the chief's tent. Balti smiled at his son and beckoned him to enter.

"Come, my son," Balti said. "Did you sleep well?"

"I did not," Alaric said to his father before he sat across from the chief. "I had a vision of our village's destruction."

"A dream?" Balti asked his son, his cheerful mood suddenly overcome by dread. "I remember you told me of one before your mother died."

Alaric sighed. "I cannot stay, father," he told him.

Balti glared at his son. "I will not have my son leave like a coward!" he growled. "We have time to fortify our position here before the spring when the Vesuvians will attack us. The tribes will be allied against the threat by then. You must stay here to help me."

"I have yet to take my vision quest," Alaric told him. "I am three months overdue. You promised Loric I would return. I also need Loric's help to understand this dream. It greatly disturbs me, father."

Balti's demeanor softened before he sighed. "I did make that promise," he said. "You performed to well at the Gorgoron Pass before the snow fell that I was compelled to ask you to remain with us. Then you led our men against the raiding party that assaulted the Sunrider Tribe before the outer forests fell. You are a great warrior, Alaric. The men will follow you to the gates of hell."

"If it is your wish that I remain, I will," Alaric said.

Balti held up his left hand. "Go," he said to his son. "What good is this war to preserve our people if we surrender our traditions?"

Alaric stood and gazed down at his father. "I will return," he said. "I promise."

"May the gods be with you, my son," Balti said.

"And with you," Alaric said before he exited the tent. The young man inhaled the cool morning air before he sought his horse. He was determined to reach the village and speak to Loric. If there was one rumor that was spoken about the medicine man, it was that he never slept. There would be no time constraints for his visit.

Alaric mounted his black horse and commanded it to move towards the north. His village was one day's ride away and Alaric was determined to make it in record time.