Author's note: This is a little story I've wanted to do for some time now; hopefully, even all you people who've never heard of The Battle for Wesnoth will find this story interesting. It will be somewhat more serious than my other works, the Rising Storm books, but it should be fun nonetheless.

Also, here is a link to a map of Wesnoth; I suggest that you load it up while you read, just to give you an idea of what's going on. Thank you for your time; constructive criticisms are welcome.

wiki dot Wesnoth dot org/Geography_of_Wesnoth


Excerpt: Royal Wesnothian Archives

Author: Unknown

Date of entry: 938 AF


This is the story of... well, we'll get to that in a minute.

The primary purpose of this record is to keep future generations of Magi from falling into the trap of ignorance. Considering recent events however, I must also consider the possibility that this may be read by those unfamiliar with Wesnothian history and lore. Therefore I shall provide a 'brief' introduction; in other words, there will be nothing brief about it. Even if you think you know all there is to know about Wesnoth, you might consider reading this prologue anyway; you might learn some things you never knew. If it's just too much to take in however, don't worry. I'll refresh you on the important points as they come up in the story.

Speaking of the story, it takes place on a planet much like Earth, known as Irdya, which remains to this day at the technological level of Earth's Medieval Age. More specifically, our story takes place in a Human kingdom known as Wesnoth. However, the story really begins two-hundred years before the kingdom of Wesnoth was founded, when the humans living on an island known as The Green Isle were attacked by the Lich-Lords. Ancient beings possessing powerful Necromantic magic, who had fled from a continent to the far west.

After a long and bloody war with the Isle-Folk, the Lich-Lords were defeated once again and forced almost to extinction. Defeat did not sit well with them however, and in a fit of desperation they opened a magic portal to the homeland of the Orcs. A vaguely humanoid race, but far stronger and more resilient than the race of men, and with highly warlike dispositions.

In no time the Green Isle was completely overrun with Orcs, and the King of the Isle-Folk, Haldric the First, was forced to abandon the Isle as lost and lead his people in a mass evacuation to a major continent to the South-East.

When the settlers arrived on the Great Continent, they were immediately greeted by the two races currently inhabiting it. The Elves, a tall and graceful race with an affinity for nature, and possessing powerful magic in addition to super-human strength and dexterity. And the Dwarves, a short but incredibly strong race which lived mainly in underground tunnels.

The Elves and Dwarves were currently at odds with each other, and neither side trusted the newly landed humans. However Haldric eventually proved his worth to the elven high council, the Ka'lian, and they granted the human settlers a plot of land on which to live. After a member of the Ka'lian referred to the humans as 'West-Northians' because of the direction from which they came to the Great Continent, Haldric founded a new Human kingdom and dubbed it 'Wesnoth'.

The Kingdom of Wesnoth grew and prospered for nearly eighteen-hundred years, until the arrogance of the human king at that time led to him commanding the Mages, men and women who studied the art of magic, to raise an artificial second and third sun into the sky to lengthen the days and shorten the nights.

The creation of the second sun, Naia, was an unprecedented success. When the Mages tried to raise the third sun into the sky however, they failed and the third sun crashed down onto Weldyn, the capital city of Wesnoth. This, and the events that followed, would later be referred to as 'The Fall'. The pivotal point in Wesnothian history around which we measure our years; Before the Fall, and After the Fall.

The impact of the third sun caused a massive cataclysm which nearly destroyed all life on the Great Continent. That, coupled with the merciless rays of the twin suns which still remained, reduced the entire continent to a barren wasteland. The sentient races were reduced to fighting among each other for what few natural resources still remained. However, after centuries of the ceaseless struggle for survival, the few remaining human Mages finally devised a way to remove the second sun from the sky. This heralded in an era of restoration all across the Great Continent, as the scorched earth slowly began to turn green again.

It took another two centuries but, between the Mages and Elven spell-casters, Wesnoth and surrounding lands were eventually restored to their former glory. During that time old alliances were renewed and strengthened, but not all returned to the way it had been. The new Wesnoth would eventually become just as great a kingdom as its predecessor but the Fall had changed its face forever, and not entirely for the worse.

For the first time in millennia, the people of Wesnoth chose their new King by democratic processes. A former desert ranger by the name of Dyrcen, who had led raids into the desert to find food for the people during last years of the Fall. He cared deeply for his fellow man and he was much loved by all for his bravery and compassion. He had a long and prosperous reign, and led Wesnoth into a new Golden Age. Every King of Wesnoth after him has striven to uphold his legacy of kindness towards all.

But there were more striking changes made during the Fall. The study of Magic had advanced by leaps and bounds in many fields, and Mages were discovered to be a genetically different species than humans. This discovery eventually led to the Mages separating themselves from humans and establishing new communities of their own. They set up a High Council of their own to rule them and became a Vassal State, independent but still under the jurisdiction of Wesnoth. The king didn't try to stop them, for obvious reasons, and the arrangement has held since then with only slight modifications to the terms.

Among other notable changes are the discovery of, and alliance with, the Drakes. Lesser cousins of Dragons and resembling them greatly, except that Drakes stand on two legs and walk as humans do. Hailing from an island to the South of the Great Continent, they pushed North to combat overpopulation and received a less than warm welcome from the Wesnothians. After a few years of tenuous truce however Wesnoth agreed to let the Drakes join the Alliance of the Free Races, which at that point contained Elves, Dwarves, and humans.

Another new race was the DĂșnedain, an especially hardy race of humans who fled from the west after their former home, a large island, sank as a result of the Fall. Arriving on the Great Continent during the peak of the Fall, they made their home in the high Northern Mountains and thrived in the harsh conditions. They rarely came down from the mountains except to ask to be left alone and, since the DĂșnedain were highly skilled and dangerous warriors, Wesnoth happily complied.

Now, you might be wondering, what exactly is magic? The truth of the matter is that this question has taken scholars their entire lives to unravel, and I do not have time to explain it here. What I will say is this. There is an extra-dimensional energy coursing throughout all of reality, known as the Mana Field. If you have trouble visualizing this, think 'The Force'. Now, certain species of beings can sense, and interact with the Mana Field. Mages use their bodies and minds as conduits for Mana Energy, channelling it into the physical world and using it to reshape reality around them to their liking.

If you think that this is too much power for any individual to possess, you would be forgiven. However, magic is not as easy as it seems at first glance. The first rule of magic, that every novice has hammered into his head on the first day at any academy of magic. Magic always has a price.

With the exception of some exotic spells, the price of magic is usually exacted from the caster's body in the form of energy. When Mana passes through a mage's body to enter the physical world, the sheer amount of energy passing through the caster's body all at once puts immense strain on the caster's Aura.

Aura is basically the energy of life itself, all living organisms have it. Some creatures, even humans with the proper training, can see and manipulate their own Aura or even another's. This energy usually takes on a bright blue color to the naked eye. However, to one trained in its use, a person's Aura glows different colors in accordance to that person's emotions.

I will likely discuss Mana and Aura in more detail later, but for now I hope that you have a rough idea of what they both are. The reason I brought up the subject of Aura in the first place is that magical and Auric energies do not mix well. The two energies resonate on completely different wavelengths, so when they meet in their raw forms they repel one another. Almost always the Mana forces it's way through the caster's Aura, but during this process a fraction of the caster's Aura is chipped away. You can probably guess why this is dangerous. If your life-force is completely expended, you die. Painfully.

When a Mage becomes more attuned to the Mana Field their Aura also begins to resonate better with Mana. The strain decreases and the Mage can channel more Mana at once, and thus can cast more powerful spells. However if a Mage tries to channel too much Mana, the strain between Aura and Mana can literally burn him to ashes.

If you've survived this far, you now know more about the history of Wesnoth, and magic, than most Wesnothian children learn in school. However this prologue has still only covered what you need to know up front to understand this story. I will flesh out specific topics more as the story progresses, to help you keep up. Equipped with this knowledge feel free to progress to the beginning of the story, where a young Mage-boy is running for his life.