Guild Wars

Malik's Tale

In tales such as these, you are always told of the valiant hero facing impossible odds to save his kingdom, enduring hordes of demons, armies of monsters and eventually facing the big bad guy in a dramatic fight to the death.

Well fortunately for you, this is not that kind of a story.

And so we begin…two years ago in Ascalon City…

A young necromancer, Malik Blackstorm, sat in the grass just outside of the grand Ascalon City, looking into the sky.

"Sigh…I wish I didn't have to join the freakin' Vanguard, don't know why my parents are making me do this."

He stood up and walked back into town and was greeted by his friend, Thru Gillo.

"Hey Malik, what's on the agenda for today?"

"Today is the day I'm supposed to enter the Academy to become part of the Vanguard."

"Really? I thought you had one more week."

"They moved it forward."

Seeing that his friend didn't want to be bothered, Thru headed off after saying good-bye.

Malik stood there for a while. "Well, guess I might as well get this over with…"

As he walked toward the Academy entrance, he was greeted by Armin Saberlin, one of the trainers at the Academy.

"Hail Malik! Come over here, I must speak with you."

Malik gritted his teeth and sighed but reluctantly walked over to him. "Yeah? Whaddaya want Saberlin, I'm busy right now."

"You are busy thinking about getting into the academy aren't you? I don't blame you, you are only 16, that's a young age to be attending the Academy."

"Not like I've got much choice…"

"Yes I heard of your parents forcing you to join. It is because your father was in the Vanguard too, right?"

"If this is all you're going to talk about, I'm leaving."

"No, no! I've heard that a master necromancer named Verata recently showed up in town. I was thinking, before you get into the Academy it might be a good idea to see if he can train you in anything."

"Verata huh? I guess I can look into it…if I'm gonna have to be in this dump for the next two years I might as well try to get a head-start on my training."

"Good. Look just outside the city, he was supposedly going out for a little while so that's probably where he is."

"Fine. Later…"

Malik walked back outside of town and saw a man with blood red necromancer armor talking to someone. The man finished talking with the person then turned toward Malik.

"Uh…can I help you?"

"Are you the one they call Verata?"

"Yeah, my name is Verata. Why?"

"I was told you could train me a little in the art of necromancy."

Verata sighed and looked up into the sky. "So, another person wanting to train in necromancy huh? Do you know how dangerous it is to train in the dark arts? You'll just end up dying like the rest of the people I've tried to train. Go home and become a Mesmer or something."

Malik grinned. "You'd be very surprised. I'm not just some kid ya know…"

Verata gave him a blank look then laughed, "Ha! And what makes you think you're any different from any other people I've trained?"

"This!"

Malik thrust his hand forward, and a ball of darkness appeared.

He shot it out at Verata. The necromancer put up his arms in defense, but it wasn't enough and the blast knocked him off his feet.

Verata stood up, looked at Malik and smiled and said, "Wow…That was pretty good kid. It appears you already have some experience in the dark arcane arts. All right, I'll train you, but just remember, if don't take this seriously there's a good chance the dark energy could kill you. Do you understand?"

Malik gave him a stern look. "I already know the dangers necromancy possesses. Rest assured I'm very serious about this."

"Alright then, let's begin."