While I slept, my mind was plagued with many visions. I saw a bleak forest, silvery and ashen colored trees lining its edges. Mist played betwixt the trees as though it were a dancer in the moonlight, shrouding the area in mystery. The vision moved upward, and I realized that one of the trees was not a tree, but in fact, a massive beast of stone. Curved horns jutted from its head, and its mouth was lined with many dark and sharp teeth.
Its eyes were closed, the chest barely rising and falling as it took in deep breaths. My vision panned, and suddenly began to dive between the cracks of a massive tree. I took the plunge, as sparks began to play at my vision. Lighting the hollow passageway, they continued in their fervor until it opened into a massive cave. A great wall of flame stood, burning as the only source of light in the darkness. It was awesome and terrifying at the same time.
As I watched, thin, fragile figures began to twist up from the earth. There were at least five of them. They scrambled towards the warmth, coveting it, almost seeming to crave it. Their tiny figures twisted and squirmed, searching through the searing blaze, seemingly unaffected by its heat. My vision flashed several times, each time a small piece of the flame coming to rest in their hands, then sparks. Everything grew dark, and when it became light, there was chaos.
There was a shroud of tattered cloth on the ground, softly cast upon by the light from the spears. It began to rumble and shimmer, rising from the earth. The mound gained mass, substance, and fear as it was revealed to house skeletons. Grimaces and shattered jaw bones peeked out amidst ribcages rotted and whole. A bony hand reached out, its thin fingers withered with decay, and curled upward as a wisp of flame burned brightly.
The massive skull that was covered in the cloak of death and decay simply looked upon the warm flame it its hand. The fingers curled protectively towards it, the small fire hovering above the yellowed bone. Sparks continued to play around it, and the undead figure simply stood, the cloak seeming to shiver with an evil energy. A black hue softly emanated from the unknown menace.
Then, suddenly, my vision flashed to a woman. Her skin was grey, her lips blue, and she had an unreadable expression on her face. In between her two hands, she held another piece of this fire, the light glinting off of her cracked, pockmarked hands. Her hair was long and silver, and fell in slender, web-like tendrils down her hood and robe. The cloth was frayed and had a golden outline along the edges.
As she held the fire aloft, there was a rustling to her left and right. I realized that there were others there as well! All hooded figures, all with their hands up. They coveted the warmth, I could feel. They craved this fire, this source of their life and power, and they gathered in a cult-like circle around the woman. The fire shone brightly, illuminating the small area they rested in, while the fog around them was kept at bay.
After that, a bright column of flame erupted before my eyes. There was a King of some sort, his arms crossed in front of the blaze. There was column after column of featureless, indistinguishable knights that zoomed past, light entering the cave where I had first seen the King. Everything was moving so fast, I had no time to make out his face or his features, only that he wore a crown.
The last thing I saw in the cave was a pair of hands. A small, fluttering bit of the fire burned between them. The hands looked incredibly human, almost similar to my own were I a few years younger. The man slowly stood, his thin yet muscled body cradling the flame to his chest as a mother cradles a newborn to her bosom. Whoever he was, he did not want to lose this life-giving gift that he had been bequeathed.
My view suddenly shifted, expanded out of the cave. What I saw now was a massive battlefield. The great stone beasts, that I now recognized to be dragons, were flying through the air. One such beast, presumably the one I saw in the beginning of my vision, was on the ground, and he opened his mouth, twin sets of teeth stretching as he bellowed his challenge to those who had come to power.
The King that I had mentioned before, his beard gray, held aloft a hand that suddenly blossomed with a fierce lightning. His armor shone silver and reflected the light over the white fur that accented his protective covering. A crown with multiple, uneven spikes adorned his head, and his chestpiece was solid, bearing a depiction of something I did not quite recognize. The bracer on his hand began to spark in tandem with the fearsome power he wielded.
He cast said spear up into the sky, bringing it into contact with a massive stone dragon. A scale broke off, and the beast roared in pain. Other spears quickly joined the fray, and my view of the King expanded until I could see a legion of warriors, all solemn with their faces set. Soon the sky was flooded with spears, more than you could count. They shot skyward with great urgency, seeking targets to destroy.
The men who threw them were all silver, their armor plated and scalloped. Their headpieces had a slit in the front for both eyes and a gap under the chin. The features of the men could not be distinguished, nor could it be told if women inhabited the armor as well, as the build was distinctly unisex. Silver swords and shields accompanied them, and the horns on the helms blazed aglow with the sudden renewal of their magical assault.
Scale after scale was hewn off of the beasts, and they began to fall, slaking the thirst of the earth with their bodily fluids. Still the Knights renewed their attack, failing to relent even in the face of such gruesome slaughter. The ground was barren, still ashen, and beginning to turn black. Grey clouds hung overhead, and the scent of scorched earth was rampant. There was a deep rumbling sound not too far from the King, where more events began to unfold.
The woman who had been kneeling before had now arisen, and flames burned all around her and the acolytes who followed. I realized she must have been some sort of witch to command the powerful magic that she did. The acolytes all carried a pole or casting implement of some kind, and were waving them around, hewing great firestorms into the land. The ground quickly gave way to burning and the trees soon vanished from the ashen forest.
The undead lord who had risen with his cloak of bones now stood before the dragons that had fallen. His arms raised, I got a glimpse of a large curved sword resting in his bony clutches. His cloak spread wide, and disease and death began to flow from his body, along with the black aura that I had seen. What was left of the dragons on the ground was quickly eroded, their stone chipping away until only flakes remained, carried off by the plagued winds.
After nearly all of the dragons had fallen, I witnessed something that I never thought I would see. An opaque, bloody hand gripped a handful of dragon scales, crushing them with its might. My vision pulled back to reveal another dragon, entirely devoid of scales, its white skin glistening with the blood of its brethren. It reared its head back with a mighty roar, and lightning struck the ground, signifying the end of the stone beasts that once ruled the land.
The scaleless dragon rested upon a gigantic mountain of all the corpses of its previous ancestors, blood, fire, and death running through in rivulets that stained the landscape. Long tendrils, made dark by the blood that coated them, ran along the dragon's back as he continued to cry out into the night. Whether it was a cry of pain or a cry of victory, I couldn't be sure, although the sense of dread in my stomach told me it was elation.
My eyesight turned bright white, and were I conscious I more than likely would have strained, holding a hand to my face. Then I was floating through clouds, and a great mist gave way to reveal a beautiful land. There was a massive circular ring built around it, and three bridges extending into the epicenter of the civilization. Vast towns and rolling forests passed over my eyes.
"Amazing…" I thought to myself. The center of the city was a massive castle, the great spires and towers rising up into the sky like a multi-headed spear. The sheer beauty of the city amazed me, and I found myself nearly breathless. I took it all in, the gentle sloping valleys, the wide stone passages, and the glorious rays of sunlight that shone down upon this place. I wondered how a country so wonderful could turn so dark in what seemed like an instant.
My vision flashed down into the city, amid crumbling ruins and withered trees. A woman knelt down, steep cliffs at her back and ruined stone at her front. She attempted to hold onto a small spark, an ember of the great age that was left, but to no avail. Her robe was disheveled and twisted about her feet, and she knelt over a man, her shoulders slumped in sorrow.
The man was of the same condition I had seen the ragged, pink undead in the Asylum that I had just left. His body has covered in standard silver armor, the pauldrons in battered condition and the body disfigured in some places. As she brushed his eyes closed, a symbol appeared on his neck. A dark circle burned into his flesh, surrounded by a corona of gently moving flames.
The flames moved in a circle, becoming a glowing beacon that obscured all trace of the man and woman. All of the scenes that I had witnessed came flooding back to me, suddenly overwhelming in all of their quickness. I didn't understand for what purpose I had been put here, but I knew one thing for certain: I would find out what had laid waste to this great kingdom, and I would do everything in my power to set it right.
If only I knew at the beginning how foolhardy that mindset was…