Merlin's League - 6th Century
After the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe became embroiled in utter chaos. While the continent's previous regime had countless abuses over its tenure, it also brought order and stability to the entire region. After its fall, the lands west of Byzantine became overrun by vicious warlords slaughtering each other for scraps, trying to carve out their own empire. With little systems to punish wrongdoers, cruel and hedonistic soldiers raided and pillaged with impunity. The ordinary people struggled constantly to survive in this savage world, constantly having to worry about getting their crops stolen, their women taken, or themselves killed. And all of that isn't even to mention the various monstrous threats to life there were for the common folk, once kept at bay by mighty roman warriors now free to torment humanity as they pleased, from the brutal giants and ogres of the fields to the cruel fae and gremlins of the forests.
Indeed, in all this horror and madness there was only one place of hope: the shining kingdom of Camelot. Forged in blood by the virtuous King Arthur and the wise sorcerer Merlin, these two united all of Briton under one prosperous banner, finally bringing peace and security to a land often ravaged by war. Not only that, but they also gathered a glorious company of heroes bound in honor and chivalry that would be known all throughout time as the Knights of the Round Table. While their exploits were epic and well documented elsewhere, their duty bound them only to Briton itself, and not to the various other lands surrounding them that desperately needed heroic intervention. Merlin, while born of demons, did not have the heart of one, and asked King Arthur for permission to assemble a mighty League to combat foreign foes to one day help make all lands as safe as Camelot.
The kind-hearted Arthur immediately accepted, and Merlin got straight to work. He quickly gathered the following four warriors for this assembly:
- Sir Gawain of Arthur's Court. Feeling he needed at least one of the Round Table for his League, Merlin thought the best candidate was Gawain not only due to his skill in the field of battles wielding the sacred dual blades known as Galatine, but mostly for his being pure of heart. In the eyes of many he was everything a knight should be: loyal, compassionate, friendly, courageous, a friend to the young, defender of the weak and poor, and whose mannerisms made many a woman swoon on sight.
- Norse Prince Valiant, a former squire and current friend of Gawain. Wielding the powerful Singing Sword Flamberge, forged by the Lady of the Lake as she did Exacluiltur, Valiant had been traveling all across the known world and even beyond it. Always seeking adventure and to prove his worth as a knight, he ultimately wishes to return to his homeland of Thule to reclaim it for his father. While loyal to his friends and loved ones, literally willing to cross the entire globe for them, he was also known to be among the most brutal and merciless of the knights associated with Arthur.
- King of the Wilderwest, Hiccup Haddock the First. Known as the Dragon Whisperer, Hiccup had peacefully ended a centuries long war between his nordic people and the northern dragonic swarms after befriending an ancient dragon named Wodensfang. Now riding upon a massive and majestic Silver Phantom, Hiccup knew violence was often necessary in these dark times but always tried to find a peaceful solution first.
- The legendary leader of the Storm Geats Beowulf. Known for his supernatural durability and strength, he's able to rip off a giants limbs with just his bare hands, this monster hunter was boisterous and boastful but also highly honorable. He already won great renown in killing the fiendish Grendel and his mother among countless other ravenous beasts, and was excited to be part of a group that promised him even more action.
While Valiants brutality and Hiccups near pacifism lead to some friction within the group, especially with each other, they otherwise had similar enough personalities and goals that all of them mostly got along swimmingly, especially when they partake in merry feasts of mead and meat or focused on their shared loves of adventure and protecting the innocent. Leading them personally under the codename M, so that Camelot's enemies wouldn't know its second greatest protector was missing from King Arthur's side, Merlin and his League journeyed not only across Europe, but all the way to uncharted lands in their efforts to battle injustice.
- They made the first contact since the fall of Rome with several foreign lands, such as the Abbasid Caliphate, whose partnership would be crucial helpful in an apocalyptic future mission. They also helped repel a Hun invasion from the rest of Asia with the help of a vaguely feminine Chinese soldier, and even stopped the spider god Anansi when he traveled to northern Africa to find new flavors of human to trick and devour.
- They battled countless warlords of the Goths, Huns and Saxons as well as ferocious monsters across the world, from roaming hordes of beastly ogres to rampaging dragons from the frozen north. Their war against the giants was so thorough due to the damage they were causing humanity that most of the behemoths either fled to the Blazing World or into elaborate sky kingdoms hidden in the clouds to be forgotten until a mischievous young man named Jack uncovered them over a millenia later.
- They also dealt with magical creatures in more diplomatic ways, which was greatly helped by Merlins diplomatic acumen, Gawain's charisma, and Hiccup's empathy. They settled gambling disputes between leshy, got trolls legitimate jobs collecting government taxes, and helped Hiccup and his people tame many of the dragons they battled instead of slaying them. Merlin himself personally visited the court of King Oberon of the Fae and convinced him to put a tighter leash on the types of "pranks" his people could pull on humans. While there, he seemingly struck up a friendly rapport with Queen Titania, much to Oberon's chagrin.
- Their most consistent foe was undoubtedly the wicked sorceress Morgana le Fey, who attempted a countless number of plans to take Camelots throne, from turning all of King Arthur's court to stone, turning Merlin's pet demon Etrigan against him, and even using a magic treehouse to manipulate the time stream. These missions most of all were what lead to King Arthur personally knighting all the heroes in this company who weren't already part of his court.
However, among all their exploits their greatest triumph was when an ancient cult of dark fae and unholy witches, who to this day remained unidentified, resurrected the Black Foe Morgoth, a powerful and demonic dark lord from times immemorial. He immediately rallied the fiendish monstrous forces of Europe to his side and began a rampage across Europe that brought such devastation never seen again until the Black Death nearly a millennium later. Merlins reputation and influence managed to help him convince countless leaders to lend their aid in constructing a grand army with troops from the Asian, Arabic, European, Northern African, and magical worlds together to combat this nearly unprecedented evil.
However, Merlin knew this would not be enough, as Morgoth's dark magic was too powerful to be defeated by even him at his full power. Thus, he withdrew his League from the front lines and gave them a crucially important but seemingly impossible task: to find the Seal of Solomon, a divine symbol gifted to the wise sorcerer King Solomon by God himself over a millennia ago to seal away destructive djinn. After an arduous and perilous journey across many different lands, that seal was finally discovered due to the critical help of Arabian scholars, whose culture seemed to know the most about the king's mystic past. With the symbol in hand, the League returned to the battlefield and after a climatic and epic confrontation, Gawain ultimately sealed Morgoth away in a golden ring as Solomon did to so many spirits before.
Merlin locked the ring away in a secure location only he knew of, and all the lands celebrated the defeat of such a great evil. However, right when all seemed right in the world, Merlin vanished without a trace. No matter where the Knights of the Round Table or his League looked, Merlin was completely gone. Without his guidance, Camelot quickly fell to ruin due to the machinations of Arthur's son Mordred and disputes between Arthur and his former best friend Lancelot. Those who did not perish attempting to keep Camelot together went their separate ways after Arthur was taken away to Avalon, as with him went the hope of ever rebuilding what was once a majestic and glorious kingdom built on justice and chivalry. However, that does not mean people wouldn't try, as not two centuries later a new sorcerer bearing Merlin's name would attempt to once again fight for the values Camelot, and her grandfather, once stood for.
Final Fates
Sir Gawain was one of the knights who died defending Camelot, being driven through by a man he once called his friend, Sir Lancelot. Prince Valiant returned to adventuring after mourning his oldest friend, eventually retaking Thule and reestablishing his father as king there. He also married Aleta Queen of the Misty Isles and had five children, who continued his legacy of adventure and warfare. Hiccup merely returned to his kingdom to rule over it justly, maintaining a celebrated harmony between dragon and human until it was broken by Grimbeard the Ghastly centuries later. Beowulf would become the King of Yates after all other successors tragically perished. He ruled peacefully for 50 years until he died at the hands of a rampaging dragon. While long forgotten today, the League was the epitome of legend during its tenure, rivaled only by the Round Table itself in terms of remarkable feats and good accomplished.