5
Defined and Defied
Prologue
The mountains known as Jagged Edge stretch for miles. The Ash River flows beside it like an obedient child, and all around the forest surrounds everything. The name of the river is derived form a huge forest fire that happened fifty years ago, the forest was burned to the ground but many ashes were swept into the river by wind, only through years of conservation and determination has the forest been able to survive.
This province is known as the Ravenshelm. This name comes from yet another disaster only this one was far from natural. Two hundred years ago there was a war waged between two rival provinces, the warlord Raven was on one side and King Malachi was on the other. Raven won his battle and now controls the entire Kingdom. Over the years Raven has conquered many territories outside the Kingdom and is now recognised by all, there is no man that doesn't know his name.
Even though Raven rules overall there are still many ruins of ancient cities scattered throughout the land. Some say that several of the ruins are inhabited by humans; others deny this and claim that spirits dwell in them. If this rumour were true then maybe the Kingdom has a hope for it is believed that spirits like the natural order of things and Raven's rule was far from that, if just one leader could unite them then they may stand a chance. This was unlikely however as many have tried over the years to please spirits, some have even risked certain death for uncertain consequences.
The people of The Kingdom are friendly enough; as long as the right words are spoken then everyone can cope with each other. Although recently Raven has introduced a witch-hunt to flush out any opposes to his rule. This has stirred up unrest amongst the people and violence has risen over the past few months. People have been taking advantage of the situation to take care of their troubles, if they don't like a fellow neighbour then they complain and press for conspiracy charges. Everyone's hidden rage seems to be on the surface now and no one feels safe. The cities are awake at all hours just for the sake of security; smiths are raking in a healthy income due to a large weapons demand and everyone now has a weapon and take lessons in armed and unarmed self defence.
The Kingdom has technology far more advanced than any province. Energy fuels are taken from the Earth and turned into pure energy which can be used to fuel anything. The Kingdom's prime income is exporting this energy. Weapons can be tuned and customised to the users' preference to the extent that only he/she may use its full potential. Yet with all this technology the land remains clean, the forests still stand, no motor powered machines are in use.
The landscape is practically medieval and has stayed that way for generations. All buildings are made from basic but durable wood and stone and lifestyles were simple. The only person who didn't live up to these standards was Raven. Raven harvested all the materials he could find to build himself the finest dwelling in the land, over two hundred servants on site and a private security force massing up to at least ten thousand armed guards. His castle sat on the highest peak of Jagged Edge, the peak known as Mist Haven, the castle sits in the cloud and is barely visible, no one has seen the castle up close due to fear of death.
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