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The dawn of evil

The sun was sinking slowly that day, almost as if it were reluctant to cast its gaze away from the kingdom. Crisp frost clung to the shadows, the last birds of the season hurried south across the autumn sky crying their defiance at the coming winter.

An ermine scampered away as I approached the snare I had set. Too smart for my simple trap, she'd taken the bait with her when she left. I didn't mind the little thief winning that day; I preferred the white coat she would be wearing by the next moon anyway. I set about reconstructing my trap, chuckling at her cunning as I went about my work.

It was then that the land beneath me began to groan and crack. At first in my fear and confusion I thought the mother was laughing with me at the rogue who'd stolen my bait, but then I felt her pain echo through my chest, pressure in my lungs, my body mimicked hers. I could feel her tearing deep within, a column of white fire shot up to the sky with a howling scream of fury, all hell was breaking loose... literally.

A great fissure had been rent into the feet of the mountains. Legions of the damned came pouring out like black puss from a festering wound. Shattered maladies of men, faces afflicted with cruel rotting sneers, dead feet pounding the ground, they swarmed fourth killing all in their path. Tall spindly demons that we now know as Vehgri hefted their wickedly barbed greatswords and shrieked their fury adding dark magicks to the onslaught. Naught but destruction lay behind them as they went, but the fallen did not find peace, this army of death recruited them, their corpses rose from the ground and joined the forces of evil. So grew the army of the shadow, so ended the empire of Ka.

That was four years ago, though it seems like a lifetime. Ka was once a place of beauty; peace reigned for centuries before the coming of the shadow, all that is but a fading memory now, for we are the children of darkness.

I remember returning to the monastery late into the evening of the attack. All was in ruins, all of my bretheren missing. As I stood surveying the destruction of my world a single guilt-ridden thought echoed around my mind; As a novice I was required to do whatever I was told by the brothers. I had angered brother Malachi that morning and he had sent me to check on the snares in the deeper parts of the forest. I remember his words well; "Don't come back until you've checked all of the snares", I didn't. I had run in panic from the horde, I don't know if I was too fast or simply too insignificant for them to notice but I didn't wait to find out. Instead of running to the monastery I ran deep into the woods, away from my brothers, leaving them to cope without any warning.

So began my cowardice. I existed day to day, running like a frightened animal. I hid by night in the hollows of trees, and ran on in an exhausted stupor by day. I ate what I could find, somtimes I managed to catch small animals, often I was so hungry that I didn't wait to cook them, sometimes I didn't even wait for them to die before I tasted their pink flesh... It wasn't long before the forest faded behind me and the first signs of civilization loomed ahead. I emerged into the fertile lowlands of Southern Ka, here I found villages, most of them devoid of life, some with survivors, all of them destroyed. I found companions in these villages and small holdings, all of us cowards, none of us has chosen to resist the army of darkness.

A dozen of us made it to the relative safety of Southhold. Southhold is tucked away in the southern reaches of Ka, and was the only fiefdom to maintain control of it's borders during the attack. Some say the lords of Southhold dealt with the devil and employed those skilled in the black arts in order to save themselves. I have yet to see evidence of devilry for myself.