The great stone tower was burning; black smoke seeped into the cold night air. Around town, the news spread: the reign of the Thousand Arms was dead. The barbarians had met their end. Half the town was cheering, while riders returned from north Saronia carrying the wounded in need of dress. Ingus, an able Knight, pulled on the reigns of his stallion with one hand, the beast nayed, while the other held a son of Saronia unconscious to his chest. A throng folk crowded around him plucking the youth from his grip then whisking the prince to the home of a healer.
Several hours passed, the night gave birth to daylight, and as the first glittering beams of light peeked in from the east, the heir of Saronia awoke in a muddled daze. He sat up in a place he didn't recognize. His dreams were racked with the visions of what had transpired.
His name is Prince Alus Restor, son of King Gorn of the Kingdom of Saronia, ruler of the land behind the Great Wall, and home of the fastest airships in the world. The kingdom was mighty and strong until a civil war split the country. The internal strife ended when the belligerent King died and Prince Alus assumed the throne. In their fervor, the rebels had decimated Saronia's airship yards, and in the peaceful years that followed most swords had been turned to plowshares.
At the moment of their weakness, a new enemy struck. Barbarians from the mountains razed the land, and with a blast of powerful magic, demolished the western side of the Great Wall. Almost instantly, the town was overrun with invaders, by day's end the berserker king stood in the throne room of Saronia Castle.
"I am the swordsman of legend," the berserker king declared.
Prince Alus had heard the tale, like any other small boy from his world would have heard storied about the wandering swordsman. A long time ago, a Knight of Saronia, or Falgabard, or Sasune, or a plucky bard from Duster depending where you hear the tale, was lost in the mountains. At its center, the Knight, or bard, found the den of the Dragon King. The Dragon King confessed to eat the explorer and they did fight.
Using all his skill and might, he slit the dragon's belly from end to end, and cleaved its head from its neck. Or, he told the mightiest joke, and the hate filled drake did die when its heart knew laughter. Either or, the victor fashioned armor from its scaly hide and discovered a sword in the monster's belly. When he placed the monster's skull as his helmet, a dark power surged throughout his body. Possessed by the dragon's angry ghost, he stalked the mountains, slaying whatever crossed their path.
It is said that the cursed soul wandered aimlessly in the mountains until he wandered into another unnamed wanderer dressed in red. The stories call him, "The Thousand Arms," a master swordsman and collector of legendary relics. The cursed dragon knight and the mystery man battled mightily, until the man in red, flayed him from his armor, and claimed the cursed sword.
"And this is the legendary sword," the berserker king unsheathed the blood soaked sword he carried. "And these are my Thousand Arms!" he called his gang of vandals.
The highest house of Saronia would have fallen that day, but destiny would not allow it. Prince Alus escaped with the help of the four Warriors of Light, who rushed to his aid.
Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, the prince slipped out of bed intending to go outside and view what remained of Saronia. But when he threw on his cape, he heard a tiny clatter from his bedside table. Curiously, he lifted the upturned tea cup and underneath a tiny girl yelped, "Eep!"
A gnome! Prince Alus had heard of them, too, but he'd never met one in person. A tiny girl with a dress made out of a cloth napkin. The young gnome shied from his sight. "Who are you?" the boy prince asked, he didn't know gnomes lived in Saronia.
Daisy was her name, she told him. All her life, Daisy had lived in Agyrem, the sacred city of gnomes. It had thrived in secret, away from the big people, and safe from monsters behind a protective bubble. The barbarians stumbled onto their hidden city and trampled dozens under their feet. And when that no longer held their interest, they set the city ablaze.
The little folk who escaped the carnage were scatted by the winds, so to speak. And little Daisy had nested in Saronia since.
The young prince and the gnome shared a common plight. With his new friend perched on his shoulder, Alus stepped into the foggy dawn and found the southeastern town of Saronia littered with trash. On the curb, he found a man on the floor, not a corpse but a man snoozing from too much celebrating, reeking of ale and tobacco.
"Prince Alus!" a familiar voiced called, rushing right over. It was the Prince close friend Arc of the Light Warriors. The young prince owed so much to the destined heroes. They had saved his kingdom twice now he remembered.
The children of destiny were visiting Saronia when the walls came tumbling down. Luneth and Ingus, brave warriors, distracted the berserker king's band. The other two Light Warriors readied the Nautilus and the five of them escaped the doomed kingdom.
From the Kingdom of Sasune, the Prince beseeched their king for aid. The King of Sasune granted him soldiers, and the Prince allied himself with the Vikings and Dwarves. Two smaller airships were built, and the Light Warriors agreed to help Prince Alus reclaim his land. In short order, they swept across the kingdom with dwarves and soldiers and tamed beasts, destroying the barbarians stronghold, the Dragoon Tower.
Arc, the orphan from the village of Ur, was surprised to see the prince awake at the first sign of light. Last night the barbarians answered the threat to their power with the most underhanded of tools, bombs of poison gas. The young prince inhaled a lungful, before falling to the ground; burning pain seemed to spread from his nose, throat, and chest. The healers and chemist had done their jobs correctly. Alus tried to hide it, but the poison had left him weak as a kitten. Although formidable with a sword and spells, right now the prince would not be able to defend the gnome perched on his shoulder, let alone his kingdom.
Arc shared his mage's staff with the young prince as a walking stick and they toured the town. The northern part of Saronia had suffered the most. The barbarians sacked the western town, conquered the castle, and made a fortress out of Dragoon Tower. The people in the southern part of the kingdom were made servants, made to pay tribute to the berserker king, or have their town razed.
The prince, Arc, and Daisy wandered the early morning streets of Saronia. It was quiet compared to the night before. The rush of battle, the aftermath, and the sudden spontaneous celebration, all blurred together in the Light Warrior's mind, but now the townsfolk were resting, redressing the wounded, or regretting a gallon of ale and three pounds of roasted boar. Because when can you find boar for less than 17 Gil per pound?
The trio spotted Refia, another Warrior of Light, and a Monster Tamer. Controlling wild beasts is a dangerous job, so it's no surprise the destined woman would not shy away from the task. To reclaim the kingdom of Saronia, they used Gigas, giant man-beasts, to relentlessly pursue the barbarians. Gigas are strong and simple, so long as they're not hungry, they won't cause trouble.
One Gigas was strewn about the floor like the drunk Prince Alus had seen moments earlier. It snored loudly and often, with the rhythm of a saw cutting a tree. It ignored Refia's kicking, rolling over to continue sleeping and snoring louder. Arc knew this beast.
On their way to Saronia, Arc passed by the hold of the ship where the gigas were held. The other beasts were asleep, but not this infuriating one. The pathetic giant poked its fingers from behind the steel bars. "That's a pretty ring you've got there," it spoke. Certain monsters can speak, but a Gigas won't say much besides "I'm hungry," or "I want that." "Give me it," it said.
The Light Warrior declined, but it persisted. "You see, that ring belongs to my mother," it tried, "I'll grant you three wishes for that ring." It was a terrible liar. With a wave of a wand, Arc put the giant to sleep for the remainder of the trip.
Knowing this beast, with the wave of his wand, the skilled mage of the Light Warriors summoned a blast of fire. The flames dissipated as they crashed against the giant's skin, like spells often do, but it hit the beast with a force to jar it from its slumber.
It awoke with both arms swinging, and the Light Warriors and their companions leapt back instinctively. Refia cracked her whip at the beast, and after a moment its anger subsided. The gigas eyes glanced back and forth, recognizing where it was. It spotted Refia, whip at the ready, and emptied its gullet in front of her, almost intentionally it would seem. Almost a barrel's worth of ale poured out from behind the giant's masked face. Because when can you find ale for less than 2 Gil a pint?
As the monster's puddle of sick steamed in the morning air, Arc finally got a good look at this one. Unlike a normal gigas, this one had great horns growing out the sides of its head, but no wings, and its skin was a chalky red color. Then, behind the red scarf covering its head, Arc could swear it was smiling, happy with what it had done.
The beast's eyes stared hungrily at the rod clutched in Arc's hand, "Won't you give me that ring?" it asked.
"Quiet, you!" the Monster Tamer cracked her whip, when out of the morning fog, the clip-clop of horse's hooves steadily approached.
A blonde warrior graced its saddle, Ingus, Knight of Sasune and Warrior of Light, had rode down from the north with troubling news. Much of northeastern Saronia had been destroyed in the fire of Dragoon Tower while the last of the barbarians had been chased out. Part of the castle had been destroyed, he informed them, and a field of bodies was slaughtered not far from the castle gates.
"I saw it! I saw it!" Daisy chirped. The Light Warriors turned to the gnome perched on Alus shoulder as she recanted what she saw last night.
An average person might think of a gnome like a tiny human, but gnomes have one skill above the big people. To survive in the wild world, where a house cat can seem as mighty as a dragon, and a girl like her can be crushed underfoot as easily as her namesake, the gnomes learned to commune with the animals. When it seemed the town was once again a war zone, Daisy fled her home, the walls of the healer's house, on the back of a crow she had befriended.
They flew towards the castle. No one would disturb her on the northern wall of Saronia, the land adjacent was too small and flat to plant an army on. It came at the price of terrible loneliness and hardship, though, with not another person around to steal a crumb or grain of wheat, except in the cavernous castle packed with barbarians.
As they neared the castle, the gates flew open, and a swarm of warriors spilled out. The attack on Dragoon Tower had prompted the Berserker King to send his Thousands Arms. With the young prince's forces pinched between the Thousand Arms and the barbarians of the fortress, the Berserker King would wipe the Restor bloodline from history. From on high, the tiny girl watched the unrelenting horde pile on top of the monsters in their paths and dismembers them as efficiently as a swarm of ants dissect a beetle, until a lone giant stood against the wave of murderers.
The horned gigas rubbed the ruby buckle he kept hidden in his trousers, and with a flash of light, it stood transformed in a strange red garb with eight arms and a weapon in each hand. The gnome could not believe her tiny eyes. Then, with one hand, the mysterious giant wielded a strange, curved sword as large as a man, and with one swings a powerful gale blasted across the battlefield ripping warriors to pieces. From one moment to the next, the field was covered in a carpet of blood, and the red garbed giant strode towards the castle.
While a shock washed over the Light Warriors, the crafty giant snatched up the young prince of Saronia. Indeed this was the massacrer of men, clutching Alus with one arm and holding his mouth shut with a second, and palming the talkative gnome in another. "Give me that ring, and I'll grant you three wishes," it extended its fourth hand.
With their weapons drawn, the two Light Warriors didn't believe it, while Arc considered its offer. They had vanquished monsters from the edge of creation, yet they shouldn't risk coming this far to have the prince suffer needlessly. Arc pulled the ring off his finger, dangling it before the giant.
"I killed the false king, killed his army," he slowly lowered his captive, "and I'll return the prince to you."
Prince Alus scurried from the giant's side, while the multi-armed warrior plucked the ring from the Light Warrior's hand. "Hazzah!" it cried over the glittering thing, and before Ingus could take a crack at its head with his sword, the red garbed giant vanished like a puff of smoke in the morning air.
He reappeared in the plains north of Saronia. The mysterious giant stared at his new treasure. A human ring could never fit his fingers, instead he added another bead to the chain of them hanging from his neck. He had taken so many rings from heroes that he'd forgotten what value he placed in them, and started snatching them from habit.
"Jotun! Jotun!" the tiny girl cried. The stranger had forgotten his second captive. If for a man, a gnome is the size of a mouse, in the giant's grip, Daisy appeared to be smaller than an acorn. Despite their different sizes, the wanderer's honed senses could still catch her desperate cries, "Jotun! Lift me up!"
The stranger lifted his hand close to his face, while Daisy climbed from his palm and on to the tip of his finger. From her point of view, his was like the face of the moon, gigantic, no matter how far away.
"King of Beasts," she pleaded, "why did you involve yourself with the problems of mankind?"
The red garb concealed most of its face, save a gap for his eyes and splotches of red and white warpaint she could spot surrounding them. Its eyes were blank and white with no irises in them, so a being such as it seemed to stare at everything that fell in its gaze. The gnomes revered and worshiped these Kings of Beasts who embodied the power of nature: living floods, sentient blizzards, and before her eyes, a God of Swords.
"That tyrant was using my name," the giant responded. "He could have ruined my reputation." The mysterious giant pulled a blade from his invisible arsenal, "I'm the Thousands Arms, and this is the sword of legend," he lifted an immaculate sword with a bronze-rimmed hand guard, and the shape of a dragon's head at the end of the handle. "Tatsumasa," it was called. "So, I dethroned him. For my own sake. And the sake of the Light Warriors."
Daisy was in awe of the giant. He had dispatched the usurper on a whim, and painted the ground with blood with a stroke of his sword. Certainly, it's the benevolence of a god, where even heroes of destiny do not compare. "Your worship, please, have mercy." She pleaded, "Spare me from being grime between your fingers."
"Eh?" the red garbed titan stared puzzled at the tip of his finger.
"All my life I prayed to the altar of the King of Beasts. Show me your mercy, and I'll be your humble servant."
The horned giant with chalky red skin couldn't comprehend the tiny girl's worship. He had wandered across worlds, been an ally, an enemy, a guardian, and many things in between, but nothing he had done merited the adoration. Still, the life of a wanderer is a solitary one, and he had learned, a life of solitary wandering is best when accompanied by others.
"Fair enough," the giant answered, and from under his magic robes, he pulled a locket the size of a grown man's fist. Its insides were lined with flower petals, and made a fitting seat for his tiny companion. A hole in the amulet's front let Daisy peek out her face from behind the tightly clamped door. The giant placed the locket around his neck to have her close by.
For the ordinary folk, giving yourself up to a giant might seem like a strange thing to do. But for Daisy, she didn't see a monster; she saw one of her God staring down at her. He had spared her life, and she was ascending to where the gods walk. "My name is Daisy, your worshipfulness. Priestess of Agyrem. Until it was destroyed by the barbarians. Who you soundly smote."
"Smote him?" the mysterious giant could almost laugh at calling the grisly nature of what he did a lofty word like "Smote." After dismembering the band of barbarians the false king had sent, the legendary swordsman impaled the pretender on the true sword of the Dragon King. As the berserker king bleed out, the true warrior recounted the tale of the cursed knight.
At time before the great walls of Saronia, Reznor, youngest son of his town's chieftain, was source of the villa's collected woe. Saronia was not yet united, and the people lived in warring city-states. Where in his own villa, they sang of Reznor's valor, the other future states of Saronia spoke of his barbarism. But as the age progressed, the accumulated scars of battle weighed heavily on all of Saronia. An era of peace would follow, and from those seeds of peace, a nation would be born.
Reznor, arrogant warrior, spiteful of peace, determined to never let his sword go to rust, vowed to slay the Dragon King, so that his name might be remembered throughout the ages. Exiling himself, the warrior headed into the mountains. High up in the snow covered hills, where no man ought to trod, he found a nest of dragon eggs. Mercilessly, the exiled swordsman destroyed the nest, then hid in its rubble.
When the Dragon King returned and found his young in pieces, Reznor leapt from his hiding place, and severed its head without warning. The angry ghost of Bahamut cursed the warrior and trapped him in a nightmarish armor made from the dragon's bones. For ten years, Reznor was damned to wander the mountain domain of the Dragon King, and each time he happened upon a man he could not resist to kill him. So, the cursed warrior's infamy grew.
Until the day the mysterious giant crossed his path. With care, the red giant tore the armor from the weary wanderer's body. At last free from Bahamut's curse, Reznor fell to his knees before the giant and thanked him for his benevolence. Reznor returned to Saronia a changed man. Infamy had garnered for the warrior nothing more than a trail of corpses. His isolation in the mountains taught him the value of his fellow man. Reznor would discover that a person's deeds need not be of conquest to be remembered, as certain as he would not forget his savior.
"I go by many names," the giant finally spoke, "But where I'm from, I'm named Gilgamesh, little one."
"Lord Gilgamesh, I exist on your mercy, oh, worshipful one." The gnome continued to praise him. She couldn't see from the pendant where she rested, but the tiny girl's adoration brought a smile behind the wanderer's red garb.
The ancient man of mystery plucked another sword from his invisible armory, the strange curved sword with the wide blade. With a twist of his wrist, he cut a hole in the air.
Daisy peered into the empty blackness, where the gods walk, she assumed. And the God of Swords wandered out of the world leaving Saronia behind.
When the red garbed giant freed the cursed warrior, the spirit of the Dragon King rose up and spoke, "Thank you for freeing me. I placed all my hate into that curse that I became trapped myself along with that detestable human. No amount of wrath can bring back my hatchlings. I understand that now."
Bahamut towered over the God of Swords, he looked down at the "I'll thank you again, Gilgamesh. You had no reason to come to my aid. You are one of us. But you are not like us. You cannot exist across the multiple planes of the universe like we do. I hear you are on a voyage home. So, it's only fair to warn you, ExDeath has returned. If you still wish to journey home, in the coming battle, you can count me on your side."