Prologue

No one lives now who can remember how it came to be. The legend has been passed down from father to son, mother to daughter. Through the years the tales have been altered and rearranged. Only whispers of the truth remain woven through the tangled tapestry. At the heart of the tales lies what was once a great land. Stretched across the world lay a vast land where the people lived in peace and prosperity under a wise and noble king. Those whose can still remember called it Umbar. For over a hundred years, King Telencar and his sons and grandsons ruled over Umbar. It was not until the throne came to Mihel, the last of Telencar's line, that the land fell to despair. Honor, loyalty, purity of the heart, these values which had been held most sacred by Telencar's legacy had failed to bestow themselves on Mihel. Seeking only power for himself, Mihel ruled over his people with an iron fist, forcing them into slavery to work only for the betterment of himself. But there were those that fought back. The peasant farmer Ranier led the people in a revolt and took the throne from Mihel. The people demanded Mihel's death, but Ranier decided that to live in disgrace was a far worse punishment. He banished Mihel to the farthest corner of Umbar where the dethroned king would live out the remainder of his days alone and in despair. Had Ranier known the strife that would be caused by his actions he might have acted different. Unable to follow a leader who had granted mercy to a tyrant the land was thrown into war and chaos. Brother against brother. Father against son. For sixty-five years, war raged, and they fought for dominance. It was on the seventh day of the eighth month in the sixty sixth year of this conflict when it happened. The ground shook and lightning crashed and in an instant the land, once so vast, was split apart as though the gods themselves has broken it with a hammer. The great land that was Umbar was now split into several islands. Some were large and some were small. Some were rich and fertile while others were barren of anything that grows. Those that survived the Great Earth Shake were left to begin again. While many islands prospered others were abandoned by their inhabitants to seek life elsewhere. It is on one such island that our story begins...