Artorous
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 Revised and updated History of the Paladins Part II
History of the Paladins Part II
I, my squire Elfling, and a small paladin force joined the future leaders of the rangers and divisions of knights and some of their followers to investigate the strength of Aratari. It was great indeed, and we had no hope of holding the land against them should they invade full force or even half force. The kingdoms of the realm of Taurendor needed to be built up. I gathered mostly snow, mountain, and sylvan or wood elves together to form a force of paladin elven rangers. We wore mostly green and white, although the snow elves among the force some times still wore blue and white and the grey elves wore grey and silver and the night elves black and gold with green tunics. All wore some gold. A white star was our symbol for the star in the west that would be the sign of the coming of the full forces of the paladins of the isles in the distant future to usher in the prophesied golden age of Millennia for a thousand years upon Taurendor. It would be a golden age of peace, joy, brotherhood, justice, grace, mercy, and compassion.
In the meantime, we made an alliance to guard the remaining twin tree of life with the rangers of Taloth Galidor and turned back the wild and reckless mercenaries of Sukinar. A great champion emerged among us to lead Taurendor as its king. He began to gather armies to himself and seemed wise, intelligent, honorable, and certainly powerful enough to lead us, and so he did into Aratari. However, evil took hold of the heart of the traitor black knights of Aratari and an unspeakable tragedy occurred that darkened the heart of the great champion and Mordarth, the shadow realm, was born. However, paladins continued to hope that the champion’s heart would be changed, and the hearts of his loyal subjects, by the golden lights of Millennia. They hoped that he might be brought to their secret fortresses of the Isles of Westmost Avalon to pass between the twin trees of salvation and receive the complete healing that the warrior’s grievously wounded heart and soul needed and later eternal life in the undying lands of the eternal realms of glory that the paladins knew of.
Sukinar followed into the shadow realm of Mordarth. The great champion gained even more power and dread. Some even rumored his power was unwittingly strengthened by the dark arts of the dark elves underneath the sylvan woods, but it is not known for certain. He wore a fang mask for taming dragons. Dwarves and gnomes came forth in the mountains of Mordarth. It was a rocky and mostly barren land full of volcanoes, fire and smoke. Some say it had caves and passages that led to the underworld of the drow and demon lords. The great fortress of shadow was built there across the iron gate bridge of heavy metal teeth over the moats of lava and fire. The great champion became known as the Dread Lord Specter. The color of his dark soldiers, of which there were many, and even orcs from time to time among their ranks, was black and sometimes red. The armies of the dread lord spread fear and domination over the sylvan lands and butchered all elves of light that remained and fairy folk declaring them “tree huggers” and “animal lovers” and soft, weak, sex and romantically-crazed lovers of living things.
They overwhelmed the combined forces of the rangers of Taloth Galidor and the paladins of Westmost Avalon and took them by surprise and cut down and burned the surface tree of life which brought a terrible cold, fierce winter upon the lands of Taurendor as it collapsed one day across the battle field as a sign of death. For many years it was always winter in Taurendor, but never Christmas outside of the small camp of the paladins and a few others. Some of the rangers were more into Hannakuh. The paladins tried vainly to influence the heart of the dark lord of Mordarth and turn back his forces or turn them to the golden lights of Westmost Avalon and the hope of a Millennia golden age. But the effort seemed to prove vain. The dark soldiers only scoffed as the dark soldiers attempted to slaughter and mock all paladins and even tried to turn them against one another--dividing and conquering.
During these winters new armies came from the north and west and fought the power of Mordarth. There was the Malevolous Insomnium. However, one of their chief fighters, Thanos, or “Death” was quickly put down in a dual with the Dread Lord Specter. Frothgar and Rog and the barbarians of the Rogin fought against the dark soldiers, but though brave and eager, they were not armored or trained and organized enough to match the might of Mordarth. Rog even joined the ranks of the dark soldiers for a time as a Ura-Kih orc.
I departed after the loss of the Emerald Lady, to whom I was betrothed, with many of the remaining elves, although not all, to Avalon. However, I left one of my best fighters, Quixote, who was eager, although overzealous at times, to carry on with his squire Sanchi and a small band of paladins such as Foodoo, Queztel, Black Watch, Black Star, Sinha, Valor and Vallas, Highlander and others to continue the resistance against the domination of Mordarth. Quixote and Devaryn suffered similar losses to that of Specter’s in those days. Quixote lost the lady of the blue sapphires as well, but the loss was not as great as Mordarth’s ruler, and so Quixote and Devaryn continued in the paths of lawful good and neutrality. A new force of rangers began in the central lands of Taurendor called the rangers of Dregoth who were not as honorable as the rangers of Taloth Galidor had been.
Other kingdoms and units came and went. There were the green knights of Chestershire who helped fight off an invading force of Kutrigori from Aratari. There was also the House Black Axe that fought with Taurendor in a major invasion of Aratari in which they took on the mighty Romans of Aratari led by the powerful Roman Emperor Dominus. Before this time, Quixote and the paladins befriended and fought with Graymail and the Guard of Aratari on several occasions. Also, some of the Taurendorians were enamoured with the attractive women of Gestiguiste, and Talon and Nedryk were among those that became divided in their loyalties between Gestiguiste / Aratari and Taurendor. One even betrayed Taurendor at the first great battle of Ragnorok the paladins fought in and the traitor converted the Malevolous Insomnium of the north into an outpost of Gestiguiste for a time. The treacherous one was chastened, but forgiven by Magistrate Devaryn and the other leaders of Taurendor. Taurendor never was successfully united under on king. The rangers known as the Sheinar appeared and grew great and mighty to even being able to challenge and overpower the strength of Mordarth. The Sheinar matched the once great numbers of Mordarth.
A great champion appeared from Aratari around those days. It was Owen, the former King of Gwenydd. The mighty Owen came in like a shining white knight of justice whom the paladins were immediately drawn to as a potential champion to defeat the Dread Lord Specter in battle and end the dominion of the shadow realms. The paladins had met other holy warriors such as Hadrian and the descendants of Charlemagne of Aratari. However, the paladins were a weakened force at the time and Quixote was overzealous again. At first Owen tried to establish a noble and sacred Knighthood of Taurendor that helped to improve the fighting skills of Taurendorians. Owen eventually joined the forces of Mordarth. However, having been a noble king, he became a strong and noble influence among the Mordarthians so that even their battle colors changed to that of mostly royal purple and black like the violet eyes and dark skin of the dark elf king Morgoss and his queen Morgotha that had ruled beneath the surface long ago.
Gestiguiste sent a major invasion force again. However, Taurendor was temporarily united there at the southern shore line with strength to match it. Then the mysterious four riders of the Apocalypse appeared like a sign of doom to the black knights of Aratari. The black knights of Aratari were defeated and driven back. However, in a second assault to drive the black knights into the Southron Sea, Gestiguiste proved their valor and power and turned the forces of Taurendor back so that the black knights of the south could leave of their own accord and time of choosing.
Meanwhile, Owen’s joint leadership with Specter continued to change the character and nature of Mordarth, but too late to save the remaining seedling from the surface twin tree of life. The northern alliance and the rangers vainly attempted to rescue the last symbol of immortality from the hands of the Mordarthians. Though Mordarth lost the battle in the north to the Sheinar and were banished back to Mordarth in the south-east, they burned the seedling, and all in Taurendor, except the elves, lost their immortality. The tree ents suffered greatest and began to diminish in number and might. Meanwhile, the words of Owen were proving true. The Sheinar were growing great in number, might, and with it pride and vain glory and self-seeking, even to the point of betraying the trust of the paladins and the Rogin. They had become too strong and proud for even Mordarth to defeat in its weakened condition.
Respectfully submitted-
XP~ Sagi the Magi of the elven paladin rangers of Westmost Avalon
May the golden lights of Millennia draw all heavenward
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