The Great War

The Goddess watched her new world and her new people grow. With Worshippers now, the Void had a face. It had been on the world and gave it's creatures the power of destruction. The Void creatures began to kill. The Goddess saw this and was pleased, for death was a natural cycle.

Finally, the races began to look for others to blame. They wanted blood for the blood of their brothers and sisters. The dwarves and elves began to war and the humans started to fight the other races. The world began to run red with the blood of the people.

The war raged on and on. Many people died, whole races vanished at the hands of others. Trees were uprooted, cities burnt and caverns filled in. All this time the Void creatures began to grow. At every opportunity during the Great War they sought to use their servants to prolong the war.

Peace treaties came and went, yet still the fighting went on until even the tiny children could swing swords. It would take special heroes to stop the fight and it is said this happened on a bloodied battlefield long ago. An elf, a human and a dwarf came together to fight each other on the rim of the Lyonesse forest, they were the last few of their kind. Each of them determined to destroy the other. Each of them filled with vengence and hate. For hundreds of years they had learnt to hate, for hundreds of years the war had raged.

It was the elf, Llanindor who could remember the time before, when they had thrown away peace. The human, Elgarth, and the dwarf Drakenan had grown up fighting, they knew no other way. Together they stood in a small part of the battlefield, right next to the forest with their swords and axes dripping with blood.

It was clear to Llanindor that there could be no victory for anyone and in his heart he had begun to despair. The others too had seen the only path to victory would lie in death. They looked deep at each other and tried to find the will to fight. In that moment of despair they saw from the very corners of their eyes a deep dark creature of the Void. Each of them turned to face it.

Drakenan smiled, at last he had something else to fight apart from elves. He screamed a battle cry and flew at the creature, his axe flailing wildly. Elgarth, considered briefly his options then winked at the elf and flew in with his sword slashing. Llanindor watched for a moment and thought carefully, he knew from experience they would not be able to hurt the creature but somehow their bravery had touched his soul.

He strode towards them and began muttering his spells. He reached over towards the dwarves axe and touched it, it began to glow and hum. Next he reached for the humans sword and touched it, it too began to glow and hum. Now all three were heavily in the fray. Not one of them had noticed the battle behind them had stopped and all were standing watching them fight the Void creature.

This dark foul being was taller than any building, darker than any cave and faster than any animal. Together the three battled against it until finally working together they won.

When the creature fell the three of them looked at each other, each knowing they should now fight but none having the will to do it. Finally, they spoke to each other, each spoke of peace and fighting a greater foe. The Great War ended on the battlefield of Lyonesse forest.