Chapter 17.1: Sword Saints of the North

An army marched in echoing lockstep across a battered landscape of crimson sands and a sparsely clouded violet night. Appearing as drifting shadows and moving over the smouldering battlements and still crumbling walls of what one may someday come to call a ruin.

All that followed the darkened figure at the peak of the march moved in unison, accompanied by the shuffling plates of beaten armour worn down by ceaseless battles, though such conflicts would have rendered these arms tarnished by all manner of bolts and blades, some strange and vile magic held it together.

Still, they marched on, travelling under the cover of night, their presence giving rise to a song that could be heard from miles away. The sorrowful tones unsettled even those nearing the Blood Belt's border with the common folk shuddering through restless sleep, while night after night the Pheeldring Mountains that separate the West from the North would echo the terrors that felt as though they dwelled just beyond their peaks.

The resounding melody of a firm knock went unattended for a few moments before the onyx and gold-inlaid doors swung open into a vast hall filled to both ends with gilded knights.

The black hoods that veiled their eyes blended with the dark uniform of the house they valiantly served. Their pride and strength resounded as fiercly as the golden dragons biting at each other's tails and forming a ring marking their uniforms.

Those that stood closest to the end of the corridor formed by the knights in waiting had golden scales etched into their hoods, standing opposite one another, with four on each side, standing as pairs on each step.

"The Gilded Dragons have now arrived my lord, all members of the Audrake Family may now enter"

Serving the Sword King, Dammarung Alphareg Tfeeldring.

Below him are four knights carrying the honoured title of 'Sword Saint' only bestowed upon the strongest swordsmen in the land. Since the title only falls to four warriors, the current wielder has the responsibility of finding a successor.

The Arrant Saint of Midnight: Dorian Glass.

The Vaunted Saint of Dawn: Garet Lionhart.

The Guilded Saint of Twilight: Kaerwyn Audrake.

The Dragon Saint of the Night: Tsuiseki Oto.

Aside from the powers of the World Walkers, the Sword Saints are considered the strongest swordsmen on the continent.

Easily viewed as the greatest of the Northern Realm's powers. With the lands to the east having the Silverhorns and in the Middle Realms there being the growing nation of men, beasts and monsters alike. It's this very nation that news of the World Walker Winter sought that was said to serve under the guise of the Dragon Saint.

With the support of His Majesty Dammarung, He could undertake the most gruelling of tasks in search of his greatest foe. In return, his deeds would earn him status and affluence.

The Northern Kingdom of Pheeldaron was founded eight thousand years ago, with the movement of a single clan of humans led by five fledgling heroes. Having received guidance and strength from what they came to worship as their patron Goddess, a divine being that blessed the heroes who sought a way to end the bloodshed experienced by their people at the hands of the Beast God.

Who chose to use the much weaker humans as a means to strengthen those that call him their patron. A massacre that has ranged on for all of twelve thousand years. It's this ongoing strife that was almost responsible for the systematic extinction of the entire race.

But by the grace of Goddess Pheela, these heroes took up her mission in exchange for freeing their people from their never-ending cycle of death, The five heroes led the surviving masses beyond the impassable Pheeldring Mountains where the new kingdom would be started.

Ruled by their chosen King, and defended by the four heroes that chose to protect their people and their King, taking on the monikers of Saints.

Because of their blood-drenched history, the kingdom places an emphasis on strengthening its people, with the founding moral being:

"Being of mortal blood does not mean we are bound to mortally fear. That weakness is not a burden but a choice, one unfit for our people"

As such, there is a deep drive for all members of society to be capable in their efforts to contribute to Pheeldaron. This has made them one of the most powerful nations on the continent despite being composed of almost entirely humans.

Though time to hold onto the triumphs of the past is only afforded to children and historians. Those responsible for the future of the kingdom have the reality of the growing dangers ever present.

From across the Glass Sea, the movement of the unsettled soil upon the Red Continent, which was once seeded by the rains of a bloody battle, began to writhe on the cruel orders of a singular being.