A/N: Hi everyone. This is Anomity here with my first story, Torn Asunder! *insert applause here*. This story explores what it'd be like having the war last 10 years, and how the characters would change. Be prepared for a major change in several characters' personality, and a look at the darker side of the story. This chapter is just a simple prologue explaining the grey folk themselves. I urge you to drop a review. So, without further ado;
Prologue
The scattered pieces of information of the grey folk were just insignificant rumours about what they truly once were. They were once the true masters of magic, whom at the simplest command could rain down lightning upon their foes, who could create even the most intricate jewellery, the most finely crafted weapons from mere specks of dust. They were once the kings, the rulers of the world.
Alas, for all their power, at some unidentified point in history, they disappeared. No one knew of what they had become, except for the wisest of dragons, the high elves and the Kull lords; whom protected this piece of information with their lives, taking it to their graves, and completely obliterating all records of magic that the grey folk had possessed; bar one. This was the book of knowledge, a recount that was imprinted into the walls of Doru Araeba, found by none for millennia, through the spirit of a single mourning dragon, the only dragon who survived the backlash suffered from the loss of his rider, the king of the grey folk. In his dying moments, he implanted the single important message that would cause one war to escalate to heights unseen before that time. Magic was sentient.
The grey folk had seen the powers of magic, how it was fickle, and attached itself to beings that it fancied. The grey folk managed to deceive magic, and bind it, with what they called the ancient language. Scholars predicted that this was the reason that they vanished from the face of the earth, that perhaps, in sealing of the powerful force that was magic, they gave up their lives, blood and souls, combining elements of sacrificial, blood, and soul magic.
For at the point of time where the grey folk existed, the beings of Alagaesia were omnipotent. None dared to rage war against one another due to the sheer destruction that they would bring to the island that they existed on. They lived in relative harmony with one another, until they began to breed. They found, that with every generation gone by, the ambient magic within their descendants decreased, and eventually, beings were created who were devoid of magic completely. They were cast out of society, shunned for what they were, for they were abominations.
As time passed, even the mightiest of beings began to age, and slowly they passed on. The knowledge, that to them, was insignificant, such as creating water from nothing, or growing their plants, became the most important things in the lives of the new inhabitants of alagaesia. It is said, that dwarves and humans descended from the grey folk. The different forms of magic, such as necromancy, elemental magic, sacrificial magic, soul magic, from the darkest of magics that completely corrupted ones soul, to the purest of magics, which made the users seem like gods, were lost. They dwindled into a generalized form of magic, tied by the ancient language.
However, the bonds that held magic in its place by the ancient language were slowly weakening. During the era of the wars between men, the bonds had broken down to a point whereby they almost had disappeared. The wild magic that was present due to magic escaping created many powerful individuals, but at the same time limited their powers by the miniscule knowledge that they possessed. But when they would discover their true heritage, when they would discover their mastery, they would be legends.