Introduction

Words From the Circle of All

I depends upon us, of course. Everything does.

Who shall live…who shall die. What is…what was…and what shall be.

Imagine we are hovering above you, as you mortals seem to think we gods do. There is a vast ocean below. Its shores splash against the rocky cliffs of Clangor… the beaches of Manidoth. Where Me' Hein's tree-towers of profane ignorance stand tall and proud; with the illusion of power. With a breath, we could blast the towers; the beaches; the cliffs; the cities of falsity into oblivion. Mortar the mountains into a fine powder, scatter the twisted tombs of false knowledge across the countless planes of hellish glory. Hide them in the far corners of the Abyss.

Now imagine we are standing. The sea hangs upright before us, a sparkling mass of green-blue tapestry stretched across the endless expenses of the heavens. Its white-capped waves fall against the shore. Taunting it yet again. Me'Hein's towers hang like heavenly towers of power. Or so some say. They know nothing of true power. They are weak. With a though, we could release the fullness of the ocean unto its towers, skewering the library of lies and hate from this world; erasing even the faintest memory of its pages of deceit.

I all depends up us you see. The Thirteen. The All. Nothing is certain until we have beheld it and set it into its place upon the world of Mal' Hal'. Until we have placed it above; below…before, or after. This is our world. My world. I mold and shape it to my whims like an artist works with his clay. By our will the sun doth shine, and the moon doth glow. For in life…and most certainly in death, you will appear before our thrones, with naught by a name and a soul. And we will judge you. You are the visitors. We are the masters.

Know the names. Respect the names. Love the names. Fer the names. For we are the Great Ones. We are everything. We are the face behind the mask.

Signed,

THE CIRCLE OF THE ALL

Galicran The Mighty; Lord of Magic; Master of the Council of All

Nec' Tul The Reaper; Lord of Death; Keeper of The Black Book

Yuthgol The Keeper; Lord of Time; Supreme Ruler of the River Styx

Odin The Wise; Lord of Intelligence; The Ever-Watchful Raven.

Cyrik The Dark; Lord of the Night; Master of Murder

Selya the Beautiful; Lady of the Mirror; Queen of Vanity

Shiva the Destroyer; Lady of Chaos; Goddess of the Insane

Hera the Supreme; Lady of the Royal; Sovereign of the Wealthy

Thor the Watchful; Lord of Guardians; Foe of The Revelation

Demeter The Giving; Lady of Earth; The Heart of Nature

Horus-Ra The Bright; Lord of the Sun; The Shining Star

Hecatete The Glowing; Lady of the Moon; The Dark Beauty

Tyr The Even-Handed; Lord of Order; The Blind Justice

Prologue

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Inioch Caliph el Nasser un Draconius. If you are reading this, I am long dead. The worlds separated, the Dark One banished to the realm of fate once again. If I am not mistaken, Yuthgol informed me that this book would be found sometime in the second millennium of you world. This story then, happened are 100,000 years ago in your time. How I miss them all so very much. I am the last one you see, and I write this book in my dieing years. I know that magic will be lost in time, and this will be dismissed as a simple tale for your pleasure. Believe what you will, I am not going to force my beliefs upon you.

You will of course, need some information to understand this story. Every story you ever herd about Dragons, Elves, Gnomes, and Faeries are true! To a certain level at least. I doubt Gnomes would appear in the middle of the night to repair some old fool's shoes. Human are the dominate species upon the planet now I assume. Your would: Earth.

Its not as old as you believe, only two thousand years or so. All of this "Theory of Evolution" Yuthgol informed me of is a load of horse dung. You were created by a force beyond that of even my god, Galicran The Mighty. Your race is originally from another dimension called Mal'Hal, were elves, dwarves, dragons, and all sorts of mortals lived together in peace and harmony. Harmony? That was a but of an overstatement upon my part. Although mostly true that there were little wars in the world, it was only because of my god, Galicran The All. As the most powerful god on the pantheon, he was sort on the unofficial ruler of the world at the time.

You see, even the most evil of gods knew what love feels like, for they love their worshippers. The world was extremely religious, that it was rare to see a priest that didn't have some political power. I remember when a high priest of Nec'Tul The Reaper was the King in an Underdark (underground) city! The fact he destroyed the city and sacrificed all citizens to his god is besides the point. The reason it is NOT in harmony and in balance between good and evil is because on the very nature of the gods. Their awesome presence upon the world would tear it apart at its seams. At the end of this tale, The Great Force Beyond The Gods I mentioned before lifted all the humans out of Mal'Hal, and placed then in the new world. It called the world Earth. The elves and other creatures continued to live, and now are in a sort of parallel universe to your own. Accoreding to my resources, you stay within the same technological and scientific (whatever science may be…it was much too confusing for me to understand) era. With one exception. Humans never were very keen on magic. I believe sometime in what u know as the 1100's mages and their practices began to die out. A shame really…

Where to begin? You would expect the book I write as I die to be about my life. This is not the case, however. I played a larger role then some, yes. What…who you really should know about was indeed a fine man. Not perfect, but he was good, caring, and loving. An evil force known as Asmodes el Vic Narculis un Zebidia was once a kind and caring angel in the Inter-Planar Congress. He was handsome, and powerful. His ambition drove him into evil deed, and Raziel The Watcher (king as absolute sovereign of all the heavens) cast him down unto hell. Asmodeus grew in power quickly, and within a decade he took over the Hell's and launched an attack upon his hold home, slaying his family in the wake. He almost won the battle for control of everything, if it wasn't for an Angel called Ziathessi un Celvaka gul Quenya, who lead the battle in the name one Galicran the Magnificent, banishing him unto the Realm of Fate, where he was kept in bondage for nearly 500 hundred years.

This is a story of love, loss, evil, and death. But most of all, it is the story of one man's drive for revenge.

Chapter One

~The Abomination called Ryu~

Behold, The Mighty One said, It has begun

An elf sat in the top branches of The Great Oak playing his flute. The tune was soft and soothing, like the starry sky above him. His voice was gentle, but had a small trace of a great power hiding itself. Though he appeared very young, his green eyes looked ancient, as if they had seen horrors that no mortal could imagine. By human standards, he was quite old, but to elves, he was still a young adult. For one as young as he, or as he appeared to be, he held a great power in the arcane arts. Ryu, as some people called him, (for they did not know his TrueName) is not a character easily understood. The elf was about five and a half feet tall, wearing purple robes, with glossy black trimming, his long silver hair fell to his knees, his skin was slightly darker then that of other of his race.

This particular elf had an usual personality. He was extremely short tempered, untrusting of strangers, and showed no mercy to his enemies. He wasn't evil, but had a nasty habit an obliterating entire city blocks when angered. To his friends, he was the kindest, most compassionate person they would ever meet. But his feelings never surpassed a friendship…well perhaps for one person.

Poking his head out from the top of the tree, he looked around. Every other tree was at least fifty feet below him. A normal human would see nothing, but his elven eyes could see even in total darkness. This was no help. As for as his eye could see, there was endless forest. He continued to play. He played so long that the sun was almost fully risen over the horizon. In the world of Malhal, the night was 14 hours, twilight was 6 for dawn and dusk. Day only lasted four short hours, and the elf preferred it that way.

No one dared to disturb Ryu, for they awed at his power and greatness. They didn't know his weakness, however. They didn't know of the internal battle between himself and the his true self. They didn't know of his memories of hate and murder. They were clueless of the disease he hosted, one that ate away at him emotions making him colder and crueler by the day.

The tune he played became dark and gloomy. It was a piece he had created himself, named "Vengeance". In the beginning of the song, everything was calm and soothing. Complex, but content. A mirror image of his childhood, which seeped away from him at age 26, age 2 and a half in human years. He was a mage, a minstrel, and a priest, in that order. His combined the arcane Magick of sorcerers (also called The Aura) and the divine Magic of the gods (known as The Gift), to create a power within the very notes of every song. Some soothed the soul with a calming rhythm. Others scared enemies away with a vicious balled of hate, which is what the song "Vengeance" now sounded like.

The elf put his flute away, and jumped from the branches. A cold chill ran down his spine, and the elf spun around and drew his magical sword, Bane. A magnificent blade was an understatement. Powerfully magical, the blade was made of adamantine, and coated with gold. Upon it were many symbols and words in the language of the Archons, or angels. The hilt was that of a fiendish looking dragon's head, with the blade protruding out of its mouth. The enchantments upon the sword made it more valuable then an entire castle. With a word, the sword could make itself burn acid, flash with flames, shock with thunder, or freeze them with a blast of artic power, damaging the enemy even more. The blade also allowed Ryu to absorb a small amount of magic, allowing him to use the magic against his enemy. The most deadly…and evil, of the magic within the steel, was it ability to suck the soul of whomever it has killed. Not allowing the person to pass on, but live in eternal torture.

Nothing was there. It was the mage's paranoia that caused the sudden reaction, and nothing more. Ryu walked, aimlessly, and without direction for a long time, fiddling with the different tunes upon his flute, and sending waves of different emotions down his spine that had nothing to do with his boredom. The stars winkled with beauty that the mage now left unappreciated, and the trees whispered to each other as the 'abomination' passes by them.

Ryu stopped suddenly. There was an opening in the brush. As he stared down it the opening became longer, and wider, an uneven trail appeared. He knew what such a sign meant. Ogmaha, a powerful spirit of the forest and a prophet of the god of elves, was summoning his presence. The abomination turned, and walked slowly down the path, purposely stepping upon any small creature he could find in hopes of annoying Ogmaha. A large clearing could been see up ahead, with many humanoid and fey creatures at its center. All of which were druids.

As Ryu appeared through the mist, many of the druids looked up at him in annoyance…or fear. Ryu's coming to the grove never ended in anything pleasant, as he tried so hard to avoid it at any cost. "The tree-lovers", as Ryu commonly called them, wore simple, light clothing. Most commonly made of bear or deer hide. There were few, however that wore long, ceremonial, and decretive robes. One of such leaders smiled sarcastically as Ryu approached, her elderly face bright with annoyance and her usually kind green eyes looked as if they were going swallow him whole.

"Every time you come unto our grove, Ogmaha ends up screaming and yelling. I wonder why in all the nine hells why he continues to ask for your aid." The old woman said, with a croak to her voice.

"Can you cackle for me? I always thought you could do that when you were an ugly old hag." Ryu spat in aggitation, yet his voice still maintained a hint of some greater power, some higher wisdom.

"Manners, young abomination, manners. You must learn to watch whom you speak to in that tone of yours."

"Is Arwem here? She is much more interesting to talk to." Ryu said, changing the subject before he really got annoyed. "Much more pleasant to the eye as well." He added as a not-so-afterthought

As in an answer to his question, a radiantly beautiful elf stepped out of one of the prayer circles. She hair fell in golden locks to her shoulders, her eyes glowed radiantly green, and freckles covered her face. With a seductive wink at Ryu as she walked over, the Mage couldn't help notice the way her body curved. She had the look of a good-girl-gone-slut. She was shorter by Ryu then about a head and a half, and wore simple clothing, but nothing like the druids however. Her green silk shirt fitted her body comfortably, and simple hide pants covered her legs. Ryu knew she wasn't one of the tree-huggers. Something inside him told him that she had been summoned as well.

"Hello Ryu." Arwen said, giving him a hug in a slightly more then friendly way.

"This is a sacred grove to Avlar The Forest Master. Take you fraternizing somewhere else!" The druid said, pursing her lips. Ryu had affection for Arwen only as a friend, and nothing more. That's all he would admit to at least. This didn't make him stop her from caressing of his backside as she embraced him nevertheless.

"Quiet Rose, just take me to Ogmaha so I can get this over with." Ryu said, but this time without the annoyance. The elderly woman (apparently named Rose), sighed and walked with her back turned towards an oak tree. With out stopping, she walked right into it, Ryu and Arwen followed.