Carl Babcock
Back in the days before the Great Dwarondian schism, the elves ruled everything south o’ the mountains of the north, west o’ the Rising Talon, and east of the Gorgonic swamps. In this time, the Elves divided themselves as the Forested: who ruled the wooded lands to the south, and the Landed: who ruled the hills and plains to the north. Both lived as one body of Elven kind: peaceful and harmonic. But as the bards say, “harmony is fleeting,”, for the great dragon Dwarond did emerge from the Rising Talon and twisted the Forested into his puppets. The Empire of the Ashen was born in the shadows of his wings and war was brought to the Landed. Battles were fought, and the Ashen seemed to have victory in their grasps. The Landed leaders gathered at the meeting of the three rivers. The heads of clans agreed that surrender was the wisest course. All except for the lone chieftess known as Kgship (Kraigship in the human script). Kgship stood alone on the grounds of combat and continuing the war. The war, she believed, had to be won, for an Ashen victory would be the end of the Landed. They would be exterminated or twisted and warped like the Forested. Denied and ignored by her peers, she left the summit in a fit of rage. Later in the evening when the moon was high, a being in black approached her. It stood as a man, but seemed to have the sense of something far more destructive. His skin gaunt and tight upon his bones, and his night black eyes were deeply sunken.
“Be thee death come to take me?” she bellowed raising her axes to the figure.
“Thou death will come for you, but the time has not yet come. I come to thee to propose a deal.” His voice rang hollow and cold, a winter’s gale.
“Why would I deal with you phantom?” Kgship spat.
“Because I may hold your people’s victory in my midst.” He chuckled, sounding like gravel grinding amidst bones.
“You have my ears shade.” She lowered her weapons
“I can bestow upon you and yours the power to beat back the Ashen.”
“And what would the price for such a treasure be?” Her brow stiffened
“The survival of your people not enough? History remembering you as the leader that turned the war?”
But Kgship did not find any thrill in the fame. She wanted only the survival of her people, “Done!” was the answer she spoke.
His smile widened, reflecting the chill of death, “Then this deal is sealed.” The winds picked up and she felt a burning at her very soul. And with that the shade had vanished.
In the morn the beams of the sun burned her flesh and her appetite soared to heights. Her men had to drag her from her tent and back to the summit of clans. Again they spent hours debating while men and women died at the hands of the enemy. Kgship’s blood boiled until she burst from her seat and bellowed a challenge of combat to end the debates once and for all.
Chief Ghorgar rose and accepted the challenge. They met on the fighting grounds, with weapons in hands. They traded blows and circled each other. Her blood bubbling with each strike, every parry. She could hear the beating of her opponent’s heart and those of all circled around to watch the duel. Her hunger flared. Ghorgar landed a few good blows and Kgship’s weapons flew from her grip.
Her vision went red and as she charged Ghorgar with her bare hands, striking in fury. Her blows struck like that of a great mace. With unnatural strength, Kgship picked the wounded Ghorgar up and threw him around like a wolf pup. Blood was spilt as Ghorgar reeled from her latest barrage. The scent reached Kgship’s nose and her blows began to land with more fury leaving Ghorgar nothing more than a bloody pulp. With the speed of lightning, her teeth sank into his neck as she drained him dry.
The spectators looked on in dismay. The priest rushed in and tore her from Ghorgar who fell to the ground a lifeless husk. A sense of calm and tranquility surged through Kgship, but also one of might and strength. Immense power.
She shrugged off the priest like swatting a fly and spoke to the onlookers, “I have been visited by a shade of the divine, and the power to crush the Ashen once and for all has been granted to me!” She raised a fist in a stance of defiance. Her blood flowed down and into the lips of now dead Ghorgar. The corpse stirred and rose, its wounds healing. All eyes were on the two combatants. Gone were all thoughts of dread and horror. They were replaced with something Kgship thought all but dead among her people…hope! Lives could truly be saved with this gift bestowed upon her.
And thus the shade’s blessing was spread throughout the Landed and the balance of the war shifted. The Landers pushed back the Ashen and triumphed amongst the rest of the war. But the hunger persisted, the light of the sun still burning more and more. All those affected by the shade’s blessing had started to form more pronounced under canines, their skin darkening to the color of the blood they now craved.
Kgship the Mighty Mother was forlorn at the state her people were now in. Gone were the noble Landed Elves, replaced with these feral animals. The priests had abandoned the worship of the old, and replaced her as their peoples divine.
“But are your people not saved from death at the hands of the Ashen?” The voice of the shade interjected from over her shoulder.
“Yes, but was this price worth this outcome…our deal does not seem to have been fully fair, for we are no better than the bloodthirsty Ashen that I had sought to protect my people from.” She spat, her voice akin to steel, “I beseech you to name thy self, shade, so I may know the name of that that has betrayed my kind.”
“Have you not already figured out my identity, little elf?” The shade relishing the anguish he has caused as if this was all some game to him, “Would you not expect anything less from Giemor, Lord of the Pit and Master of Death?”
“Take back your blessing, you vile manipulative skeleton!” Kgship screamed, weapon coiled to strike the shade.
“The deal was made. I granted you and your kin the power to save yourselves and beat back the Ashen. I have fulfilled my end of the bargain. And, now little elf, the time has come for your end to be collected. I require your services in my domain. You shall serve me and enforce my rule in the Pit of the Dead…”
Radiant light flashes and a new specter joins them, all a glow with the light of its entrance, “Kgship, though you submitted to evil and blindly struck a bargain with death itself, your intentions to protect and save your people were heard by the divine.”
“Azune! Leave us! This deal has already been struck and my end has yet to be collected. Her time in this realm has ended, and I with dominion over death do receive her. The deal she made with me must be resolved!”
“My dear Giemor,” the shade of light exclaimed, “this is why I have come, Kgship has been chosen to join our ranks as divine in the Outer Planes.”
“And who already worships her as divine?”
“Why her people that you have corrupted with your curse! They have chosen to follow their ‘Mighty Mother.’”
“But surely…”
“Enough Giemor! Gytha and Fjorv have already spoken and the others have come to agreement!”
“My lord Azune, though I am honored by this anointment, I have made this deal and must see it resolved!” Kgship interjected.
“If that is your decision, then I do not have the power to force you otherwise. Your divinity has already been sealed, but I will allow you to go with Giemor to his domain. You shall not serve him but merely enforce balance from there in all realms.”
And thus, the Orcs were created and Kgship, the Mighty Mother, rose to divinity, but the great evil of vampirism was also created.