There's a battle outside,
And it is ragin',
It'll soon shake your windows,
And rattle your walls,
For the times they are a-changin'.
-Bob Dylan, "The Times They Are A-Changin"
A/N: You can thank D3athrider0908 for making me finally get my lazy self motivated and finish this chapter. See end of chapter for notes.
In the ancient times, magen was as well known to owlkind as the hunting of prey. It was a powerful and effective weapon when wielded correctly, but in the talons of those who didn't know how to use it, or those who wished to use it for dark purposes, it was a devastating and terrifying force of destruction. The only way for owlkind to control it was through the use of various artifacts, and great wars were waged over control of these.
Many lands were rendered uninhabitable by the misuse of magen and these wars. This was the fate of the kingdom of Byrth'gar. It lay to the west of the Nyrth'gar kingdoms, and was a prosperous and wealthy kingdom with many who lived there. The old king died, and his successor, Eridor, was greedy. He used his father's artifact in an attempt to vanquish his enemies. However, he did not know how to use it correctly, and the green fire that burned at the core of the artifact burned not only the enemy, but his own lands and people as well. The fire was said to burn for decades, and when it abated, it left behind a land covered in volcanoes and ash, uninhabitable by all but the most desperate of creatures. It was beyond all hope of returning to its former glory.
It was during these endless wars that a single owl was said to have gone to the top of the highest mountain of the H'rathian chain in the far north, and sent up a prayer to Glaux, or any god that might be listening, to end the wars and banish the magen. It was not Glaux who appeared to him, but Corvus, the god of the crows. He offered a way for the owl to control magen, but for a price. The owl, desperate, agreed. When he came down from the mountain, he was shocked to find that he was now a crossbreed, some sort of owl and crow hybrid. Others of his kind were horrified by what he had done. But, the "crowl" found that he could control the magen without the use of any artifacts.
Over time he learned to control his powers, and refined the studies of what he called nachtmagen. He learned the fyngrot, a way of paralyzing his enemies; the powers of the "half-hags," small , symbiotic creatures who lived in his feathers whose venom had not only toxic but also curative properties; and his one weakness: saltwater. He would go on to found the Knights of Darkness, the Hega'fyndas, which would later be shortened to "Hagsfiends" by those who could not speak Krakish. He was Excilon, the first of his kind. The first hagsfiend...
There was a great battle in times past when the Knights fought a young upstart who had gained control of the Byrth'garian artifact and attempted to use it to vanquish all magic. Hoole had started with noble intentions, but the ember had corrupted him. The hagsfiends had heard of the hatching of the young owl from the prophecies, and knew that if he got ahold of the ember, all would be lost. Darkness would fall over the land, for the ember was not a force of good, but one of an insidious darkness that would consume the bearer slowly, until they completely lost all sense of sanity or nobility. Eridor had finally realized this danger in times past, and had consigned to ember to one of the many volcanoes. He had also worked out a deal with the dire wolves, and they were to guard this last artifact from any who might take it. Hoole did not know of this danger, and he was too proud to recognize it as it consumed him. He only returned the ember to the Sacred Ring when he was in the last few seasons of his life, and then it was only out of a selfish desire to keep others from wielding it.
Legends and stories, if only they were so, the large female Tyto alba who sits looking over the ravine thinks to herself. She is considered to be one of the most beautiful of her species, a gorgeous creature with eyes as black as the darkest night and a face as white as the full moon. She was hatched upon such a night-her first memory is that of the moon as it slid out from the shadow of the Earth and its light first touched upon her facial disk. To look at her, one might say that her face captured the light of the moon itself. She knows however, that her light is, like the moon's, only borrowed. The power she possesses is not her own.
An owl hatched on the night of an eclipse of the full moon such as herself is said to be either blessed to be great in spirit or be consumed by unspeakable evil. Blessed or cursed, they say, with no line in between. But she knows the bitter truth. The Nyrolian owls are all cursed, every last one of them.
She is descended from the adopted daughter of the hagsfiend Ygryk, the only survivor of a once mighty race. There were many in the old times who had fought bravely, such as the Great Sky Dragon, Penryck, who was said to be as mighty a warrior as Excilon himself, and Kreeth, the old genius of the Ice Narrows. Kreeth had always loved to experiment, and knew many ways of harnessing nachtmagen that others never dreamed of. She also loved to create new life, such as the "puffowl," a half puffin and half owl, who was by all accounts, a lovely and charming creature.
Nyra is a proud owl, and proud of her heritage. Her distant ancestor was a Barn Owl who was blessed by Ygryk for offering her and her mate shelter when they fled to the southern reaches of the Forest Kingdom of Tyto many years ago to escape the terrible persecution that Hoole had brought down upon their peoples. Hagsfiends and Barn Owl kind alike were massacred even after the war, in a time when owls would turn upon each other out of fear. Nyra knows the stigma that most owls even now have against her kind, a relic of times past that the Guardians have done their best to foster.
She sits at the top of a tree on the side of a deep and narrow ravine, a place almost indistinguishable from the rest of the forest. This place is only the newest in a long line of places that the Tytonic Union of Pure Ones have called home. Even from her earliest days, Nyra recalls moving, and lots of it. A dry, rattling cough can be heard from further down in the valley. It is the High Tyto, the General of the Pure Ones' army. He is old, for a Barn Owl, and has been showing signs of his great age more than ever now. His feathers are almost all pure white, and he can barely fly. He can no longer hunt, but he still insists upon flying out every day and inspecting the troops and young recruits, as well as talking and listening to them. When he finally does go to meet the Grand Tyto Most Pure, he will be sorely missed.
Almost all young owls are inducted into the ranks of the troops. The military atmosphere of the group is both a relic of Nyra's militant ancestors, and one of necessity. It is much easier to pack up and move the large group when everyone knows exactly what they are supposed to do, and does it with military precision and efficiency. Even the camp followers, the owls who are not in the army such as the old ones, the mates, and the very young, all know their place and exactly what to do in certain situations. It has been drilled in them since hatching, and it is what has kept the Pure Ones alive and free for so long.
Many Pure Ones do have a stigma against other owlkind, and it stems from a long-ago conflict when Barn Owls and their kin allied with those against Hoole and lost. The Barn Owls had mostly fled to the far reaches of the south, and their numbers had dropped dramatically. Her ancestors were the ones who welcomed the last hagsfiend and her mate with open wings, and had been "blessed" by their kindness. Ygryk, who was weak and dying from her long flight, had worked one last great bit of magic, and made it so the Nyrolian Owls were so affected by the eclipse of the full moon. The details themselves are unclear, but the Ygryk told her ancestor that the spirit of the hagsfiends' magic would live within the Nyrolian owls, and would reveal itself when it was needed most. Shortly after, she breathed her last due to her exhaustion and horrific injuries. Her mate Pleek was not far behind her. The Nyrolian owls were never sure the true extent of how the hagsfiends' magic affected them, or quite what Ygryk had meant, but they did notice some changes. The burden rests upon their wings, and with the shrinking of their family, the Guardians have grown in power.
Nyra herself is old, much, much older than any normal one of her species. Nyrolian owls will often live up to five times longer than normal owls, and Nyra herself has seen three High Tytos come and go. Hearing the old High Tyto's cough again, it appears that soon she will have seen four. Her family has slowly shrunk over the generations, until it was only her and her two brothers remaining. Both of her brothers had been killed in raids, leaving her as the last of her line. Unless she takes a mate and hatches a chick, she will die the last.
Greater and Lesser Sooties shoot across the ravine, as they mostly serve as messengers and errand runners. Grass Owls and Masked Owls are often on guard duty, and have other duties as well. Barn Owls make up the bulk of the army. The so-called "ladder of pureness" that other owls often accuse them of does exist but not for the reasons the outsiders think it does. Barn Owls tend to be larger and heavier that the other species of Barn Owls, and the Sooties tend to be the smallest. Therefore, it only makes sense that the larger Barn Owls are the heavy fighters and the smaller owls are messengers and light strike forces. And this is also part of the image of their group that has been crafted over the years, a combination of both the information (and misinformation) that they have fed the common owls, and the propaganda program the Guardians have come out with.
They have only just moved to this area, and the construction on the hollows in the cliffs has been going along spectacularly since they had brought in Chickcharney and his specialized group of Bahamian Barn Owls, Tyto pollens. There are several very rare Tytos here, which include the Bay Owls, the Ashy-faced Owls and the Red Owls as well as the Bahamian Barns. The Bahamian Barns are perhaps the rarest, being considered all but extinct, and except for their small group, Nyra knows of no other. These large, flightless owls are even more efficient at moving earth than the most productive Burrowing Owl, and they are always the ones who have contributed to creating the Pure Ones' hideouts. Without them, the Pure Ones would never be able to throw up and tear down their settlements as quickly as they do, nor would they be able to hide underground either. One of Nyra's aides, Sasha, is a Oriental Bay Owl, Phodilus badius, and her kind come from the far southern islands. Even though they are much smaller than their larger Tyto cousins, and they have strange ear tuft-like projections on their head, no one doubts they have the heart of a true Tyto. Not only do they share the same black eyes and white heart shaped face, they also are just as proud of their lineage and fight just as fiercely as the largest Tyto alba. Nyra has never doubted their worth, and she never will.
The most pressing issue on her mind is who will replace the High Tyto when he is gone. There is no one who possesses the drive, the sheer ferocity that is needed to hold such a position of power. There is no one with the rage that is needed to be the High Tyto. The Pure Ones equate rage with courage. They know it is a powerful emotion, one that with the right training and focus, can be forged into one of the most fearsome weapons an owl can possess. It can drive an owl to do extraordinary things. Nyra has become almost desperate to find someone that possesses this drive-for while the High Tyto may be the military leader of the Pure Ones, it is she who really runs the entirety of the group.
A small group of new recruits are drilling under the tutelage of old Kup, a Masked Owl who is jokingly said to be older than Glaux himself. Even Nyra doesn't know his true age-he was old when he first joined the Pure Ones, and that was many, many seasons ago. He does know his fighting though, and he trains good recruits. One of the young owls catches her eye. He seems to fight with a skill and grace that the others lack, a born warrior-which is extremely rare, especially in these times. Having recently joined up, he claims that the Guardians killed his family. While he did show up covered in blood, Nyra doubts that this is all to his story. She knows that there is more that the young owl is not telling them, but she will not pry. The Pure Ones do not look at an owl's past. All they care about is an owl's actions in the present, and the future.
Nyra's attention is abruptly drawn towards Sasha, who is indicating that Chickcharney wishes to speak with her. The great owl pauses, and then launches herself out of the fir. She will ponder this young owl some other day; perhaps with the right training, he will make a decent officer. However, other things occupy her mind. The most pressing has nothing to do with the Pure Ones, but with the curse she carries.
The new recruits look up as the beautiful female soars away. They are all in awe of her, and most all of them secretly wish that she might consider giving one of them the honor of becoming her mate. One dark colored young Barn Owl looks up at her, and, like Skench, Nyra's gaze briefly meets his for a moment. However, unlike his brother's dead eyes, this young owl's eyes are alive. They burn with the force of a raging inferno. He is ready to fight, and has rage deep within his gizzard. The times are changing, and war is coming, soon.
A/N-This chapter was a beast to write simply because I had to figure out a way to fit the hagsfiends into semi-canon, make it believable, and, of course, make them not evil. And I'm still not happy with this chapter. One more intro chapter, and then I hope to get into more of a story/plotline. Next chapter is Orlando, and I'm still not sure how to work him it yet.
And if you are wondering about the Oriental Bay Owl, the Ashy-Faced Owl, or Tyto pollens, check out wikipedia. They all do (or did) exist, and the Bay Owls are pretty awesome-definitely worth a look, and I think Lasky should have included them. And no, I have no idea if Barn Owls are larger than other species of Tyto.
And if you caught the reference to another fandom here, have an imaginary internet cookie.