ForumsArt, Music, and WritingThe Land Of Heloris

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Masterforger
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Masterforger
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Peasant

Afternoon all. I wanna write something, and seeing as this little forum just *waves hand quickly* popped out of my mind, I'll write it here. It's a ongoing story (first post won't be the last) and I think the timeframe I've made up suits Armor Games just fine. It's medieval. but DON'T TAKE MY WORDS FOR GRAINS OF SALT it isn't that historically true. At all. Not even its geography.
I'm putting it here for you guys to enjoy. Feel free to criticize my work, don't worry, I will go insane and kill you all anyway, so ya.


________________Chapter 1_____________________
________________The Village of Tal Mortisfer________________

Tal grew up in a small village twenty miles west of Helio, the capital of Heloris. His father was killed in one of the previous wars against the Hanordor in the north, and the King houses all the children orphaned by war and sends them to villages to become things like farmers, traders, soldiers, craftsmen, Guildsmen, and the whole array of jobs open to a non-orphan.
Tal was charged to a middle-aged Blacksmith, a kind, fatherly figure named Forantclu. He trained Tal not just the ways of metal smithing but also how to wield a sword, a pike, and a bow and crossbow. He was good at all these things, but he preferred using a staff to a pike, and a Longbow to a crossbow.
One day, when Tal was 12, a traveling mage of the Wind-Guild visited their village, to repair some of the wind pump's charms. Tal watched in fascination as the mage sent blue sparks into the inner workings of the primitive turbines, said sparks healing the charms cast there to bring more wind to the sails. Hal asked the mage if he could hold the mage's staff while he ate, since the villagers are always grateful for a mage's passing, and give him food and a place of rest.
The mage smiled under his beard. He was a not that tall man, wearing light blue robes of the Wind Guild. He had a white beard which was trimmed well, and didn't conceal his smiles.
"Only a wizard has the courage to ask a mage to hold his staff," The mage said. "Perhaps boy, the next mage to come here will take you under his wing, eh?" And he gave the staff to Tal.
Tal held it tight for fear of dropping it. It was two heads taller then him, and made of a strong white wood, with blue runes carved into it.
As he griped it, Tal felt a slight pulse where he held it. He could feel the power left on it from the mage.
A mage's staff isn't where his power comes from, but it directs it. A mage without a staff who is fighting will often send his power into his allies as well, and kills on both sides. But a staff helps him direct it at his foes, not just anyone.
Tal gripped the staff and immediately knew what his future should be. He wanted to become a mage in the service of King Roland.
After the mage ate and took back his staff and left, Tal asked Forantclu about becoming a mage.
"Tal, a mage is perhaps the best job for you my boy!" he said, grinning. Tal thought he would disapprove, but quite the contrary. "You shouldn't stay here, cooped up in a forge. You are destined for better than this, with your skill. Tell you what, when another mage comes by our village I'll ask him to take you the the Mage Hall in Helio. People say another war might be acoming, and I would rather see you a proud mage then some conscript."
It was three years until the next mage came. He was an All-mage, wizards who used all forms of magecraft, and were the most powerful. This one was dressed in a deep blue robe, with a bit of gold decor on it. He was very tall, and had a white beard not unlike the previous mage. When Forantclu talked with him, the mage looked at the boy. He nodded to what Forantclu said, and when he finished the mage went over to Tal.
"Tell me, lad. When you held the previous mage's staff, did you feel anything?"
"Yes, sir. I felt a tingle where I held it. I think it was the previous mage's power from where he had left it."
The mage looked at Tal for a long while. He had piercing blue eyes, which were regarding him with a slight amount of awe, as well as kindness. He consulted with Forantclu, who's eyes grew very wide, and very happy.
then the mage turned back to Tal. "Come lad. Pack your things and say farewell, we must hasten to Helio!"

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Masterforger
offline
Masterforger
1,824 posts
Peasant

"Forantclu, thank you so much for taking care of me!"
"Don't thank me, thank the King when you see him, lad! And I promise you that you will see him! You're destined for more than a Smith's boy, Tal, and although your mother fell to disease all those years ago, and your father dies defending his home, you, lad, will carry their legacy. Now, go, become a wizard, and don't come back to me before you can cure that ruddy anvil of falling off whatever i put it on!"
And with that, Tal and Forantclu said their farewells. Tal gathered up a small sack of his small amount of worldly possessions; a fine knife Forantclu made him, bow string for a bow promised to him by the All-mage, who Tal had yet to name, a carved wolf apparently made by his father before he was born, and a few extra items of clothing, none of it above thread-bare.
He joined the All-mage, who was waiting by a cart that one of the village farmers was taking into Helio, and waved to his fellow villagers, hard-worked but content men and women and a few children.
The cart started off with a jolt, and they carried on at such a fast pace it was only about twenty minutes before the simple wood and stone huts that Tal had grown up around were replaced by occasional guard towers in a large valley full of fields.
Tal looked around at the towers which sometimes passed by. They were thin, tall towers with a small round hut or flat battlement-topped upper area, and the larger battlement-topped ones had a pile of wood on them, ready to light should the tower before it spot something.
It took them a short while to reach the Outer Wall of Helio. It was a massive, thick thing that surrounded the Outer Streets of Helio, topped by battlements and pockmarked with arrow loops, with towers at regular intervals. Once they went through the Western Gatehouse, Tal saw only a wide street lines with houses and small stalls.
The houses generally were rather tall, with little rooms sticking off the upper stories, with the tallest room's spire bearing the lapis lazuli-colored flag with gold trim of Helio, and the rest of Heloris.
It took them ten minutes to reach the Inner Wall, and as they came upon it Tal's quiet mage companion began to speak.
"My name is Kit Hefting. As you can tell, I'm an all-mage, but something you may not know is that I'm the King's best mage, and most trusted. I've been looking for an apprentice, because, despite our slowed aging, we mages too die, and I have no family, so I must have a successor to take on my unrecognized, but nonetheless important, name. That is why, Tal, I have chosen you to be trained as a King's all-mage.
"Sadly, I fear war bears down upon us. The northern people have yet to be settled by vast amounts of gold and slaves," said Kit, grimacing. "the King has asked me to head north on an expedition to kill their leader, and subdue the hordes, so I'm compiling a team to help me. Tell me boy, how much do you know of Vikings?"
Tal paled.

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