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==== The Story of Edric and Sardul ====

[[Edric]] and [[Sardul]] were born and grew up in the kingdom of [[Backbone]]:
[[Edric]] in the [[Backbone_city|capital city]] and [[Sardul]] in the city of
[[Thorfram]].  [[Edric]] was the seventh out of nine children in a lower middle-
class family.  [[Sardul]] was the fourth out of five children in an upper lower-
class family.

[[Edric]] met and married his wife [[Tacey]] at the age of fifteen. The
following year (1008), they had their first child: a boy.  By early 1015, they
had another son and two daughters, but in February of that year, their eldest
son died.  [[Edric]] vowed that he would learn the arts of magic so that he
would never again lose a child.  So it was that in October of 1015, [[Edric]]
sought out the archmage [[Elsa]] and asked to be taught the ways of magic.
Seeing [[Edric]], his wife (who was now again very pregnant with what would be
their last child), and their three toddlers, [[Elsa]] immediately accepted them
in.  In the following years, [[Edric]] studied hard and slowly learned the art
of dweomercraft.

Meanwhile, [[Sardul]] was still a teenager leading a free-loader's life in
[[Thorfram]].  Having no true skills, he left at the age of nineteen and took an
apprenticeship with the current Mage of Earth.  Faster than any of his other
students, [[Sardul]] learned the ways of spellcasting so that one year later
(November of 1022), he was given to [[Elsa]] to be trained.  [[Elsa]] was
skeptical at first because [[Sardul]] seemed to have an attitude problem.  Soon,
however, [[Elsa]] realized that [[Sardul]] was truly born to be a wizard.
[[Edric]], meanwhile, had lost his second son at the age of nine years.  This,
coupled with a lack of interest in him from [[Elsa]], made [[Edric]] a rather
morose person and his studied suffered.

By early 1023, [[Edric]] and [[Sardul]] were fast becoming enemies. When
[[Sardul]] married in February of 1024, [[Edric]] and he parted permanently.
[[Edric]], his training still not complete, left for his home and lived a lower
class life for next fourteen years, trying to practice his magic without
[[Elsa]].

[[Sardul]], meanwhile, graduated from [[Elsa]]'s training in July of 1024 and
immediately gained employment with the royal guard in [[Backbone]].  As the
years went by, [[Sardul]] began gaining influence and friends in high places. In
July of 1029, he was promoted to the rank of King's Wizard.

In August of 1033 and again the following March, [[Edric]] was dealt severe
blows when two of his surviving children died.  The first was his youngest
daughter, who died giving birth to [[Edric]]'s first grandchild.  The next was
his youngest daughter, who was killed by bandits at the age of twenty-one.  So
it was that in March of 1034, [[Edric]] returned to [[Elsa]] with his wife to
finish his schooling.  His remaining son had married in 1033 and had a son in
February of 1034.  By 1035, [[Edric]] (who had learned quite a bit on his own)
had finished his schooling and, in February, graduated.

Meanwhile, [[Sardul]] was taking advantage of the neutral king in power and had
fairly well taken over the city for himself. When [[Edric]] graduated in 1035,
[[Sardul]] learned that [[Elsa]] had taught him the [[Longlife]] spell.
[[Sardul]] wanted this spell strongly and was prepared to do anything to get it.
Since he had recently lost all memories of where he hid the ten artifacts of
[[Aurén Ilay]], he was very frustrated and upset.  However, [[Edric]] did not
return to [[Backbone]] for some time and thus [[Sardul]] had no opportunity to
get the spell.

In March of 1038, [[Edric]] finally returned to [[backbone_city|his home city]]
and found it in the iron grip of [[Sardul]].  He was greeted with news that his
youngest grandson had been kidnapped by [[Sardul]]'s guards. [[Sardul]] made it
clear to [[Edric]] that to ransom the child, all he need do is hand over a spell
book with [[Longlife]] in it. [[Edric]] consented, but an over-zealous kidnapper
killed the child never-the-less. [[Edric]] was infuriated and unleashed on
[[Sardul]] a fiery barrage of spells.  In the end, [[Sardul]] was forced to
flee, badly wounded, but eight innocent city guards had been killed in the
crossfire.  When [[Sardul]] recovered from his wounds, he found that a list of
criminal charges had been filed against him and that his job had been given to
[[Edric]].

[[Edric]] had graciously accepted the King's offer of the position of King's
Wizard, but had vowed never again to use his spells' destructive potential as he
had against [[Sardul]].  His grandson and eight guards were dead because of him,
so he taught himself the patience that he is so remembered for now.

[[Sardul]], meanwhile, retired to a castle of his own construction in the
mountains near [[Bearly]].  [[Edric]] and he would not meet again for twelve
years, when, in November of 1050, [[Sardul]] tried to kill [[Edric]], but failed
when [[Edric]] fled.  In June of 1068, the king of [[Backbone]] died and one of
[[Edric]]'s true friends, [[scardore|Prince Armin]] assumed the throne, choosing
the name [[scardore|Scardore VI]].  Two years later, in April of 1070,
[[Sardul]] ambushed [[Edric]] as he travelled, but again he made his way free.
This time, though, he was gravely wounded and only [[tacey|his wife]]'s skill as
a healer brought him back to health.

The fued between [[Edric]] and [[Sardul]] slowly faded away after then and
little was heard of [[Sardul]].  [[Edric]], meanwhile, was appointed the Mage of
Fire when the previous mage, Almroth, was killed by assassins in April of 1080.
All this time, [[Sardul]] was fortifying his castle and making friends
throughout the world. By 1090, he had amassed an enormous army of orcs and on
December 11th, this army successfully attacked and took over the city of
[[Bearly]].  By now, [[Sardul]] was dreaming revenge and his army continued
downriver until, on January 27th, 1091, [[backbone_city|the capital city]] was
attacked. One of [[Sardul]]'s new friends, the two-headed dragon, [[Kragnor]],
at this point attacked [[Edric]]'s castle.  Knowing full well that [[Sardul]]'s
attacks were entirely because of him, [[Edric]] was outraged and decided that he
should attack.  [[Edric]] used a great portion of his power and spells in
battling [[Kragnor]], and succeeded in wounding the enormous beast, sending it
fleeing south out of town, after crashing into his tower. [[Edric]] then used
his psionics to transform himself into a bird and he flew out to the battlefield
seeking [[Sardul]].  In bird form, he swooped down on [[Sardul]] and landed
nearby.  The spell battle was swift, simultaneous, and still largely unknown,
for [[Edric]] never divulged what curses were said.  All that is known is that
both wizards cast powerful spells and the result was that [[Edric]] dropped dead
and [[Sardul]] dropped unconcious.  Actually, though, [[Edric]] had performed a
complete soul transfer and this had so surprised [[Sardul]] that [[Edric]]'s
soul became the more powerful.

With [[Sardul]] gone, his army lost morale and scattered within two days.
However, four months later, on April 15th, [[Sardul]]'s soul fought up from
inside and took control for eight minutes. Finding himself with access to
fragments to [[Sardul]]'s memory, [[Edric]] was able to piece together enough
information about [[Aurén Ilay]]'s artifacts to devise a method of extracting
[[Sardul]]'s soul from his own.

On July 23, 1091, Sardul's wife, [[Thalna]], tried to kill [[Edric]], but failed
and so [[Edric]] told her all about the soul transfer. [[Thalna]] made her
escape, and began to work on her own way to retrieve her husband alive.

By September 9, [[Thalna]] had learned of the ten artifacts and had communed
that a [[good party|group of adventurers]] ([[Sorgul]], [[Sly]], [[Ozzie]], and
[[Rana]]) were tracking them down.  On December 15, [[Thalna]]'s son,
[[Congal]], was met and killed by the adventurers.  [[Edric]] witnessed the
battle and appeared.  He explained to them most of what he knew and they agreed
to help him.

On April 17, 1093, the group returned to [[Edric]]'s castle with nine of the ten
artifacts.  [[Karelia]] then appeared with the tenth and [[Tacey]] performed the
ceremony to free [[Edric]] of his extra soul. In the end, though, [[Sardul]]'s
soul became housed in the artifacts, [[Edric]]'s soul went into a special
receptacle he had created for this purpose, and [[Melchar]] (a wizard housed in
the artifacts, unknown to all participants) fled in [[Edric]]'s body, with all
ten artifacts. [[Edric]] was able to create a new body for himself, but he vowed
that he would retrieve all ten of the artifacts and destroy them while
[[Sardul]] was still within them.  The next day, a shadow of evil descended over
the [[Lowland]] kingdom, which would later prove to be a threat far worse than
[[Sardul]].

The following June 16th, [[Ozzie]], it was found, had been geased by [[Pelham]],
the quiet wizard, to kill [[Edric]].  [[Ozzie]], however chose death rather than
carry out the geas.  The will of [[Hades]], however, was what had placed the
geas on [[Ozzie]] and when it failed, the god made a small appearance in the
form of a swirling storm within [[Edric]]'s castle.  [[Sorgul]], knowing not who
he was dealing with, attempted to psionically dominate the manifestation and
succeeded. [[Sorgul]] immediately ordered [[Hades]] to release [[Ozzie]]'s geas
and then [[Hades]] appeared in person.  [[Tacey]], fearing for all of their
safety, summoned her deity: [[Aphrodite]].  Thus, it was that two greater
deities confronted each other in the city of [[Backbone]] on June 16, 1093.
Immediately, a storm cloud rolled overhead and a bolt of lightning pierced
[[Edric]]'s castle dispersing both deities.  Later attempts to fix the holes
from this bolt have all failed.

On July 21, [[Hades]] trapped [[Sorgul]] with a Deck of Many Things and
corrupted him into the thirteenth [[demonwraith]].  [[Sly]], meanwhile, returned
to [[Edric]] with three of the ten (having gone to [[Melchar]]'s castle) and
gave him the sword of Dana.  On December 23, 1093, [[Edric]] destroyed the
sword, which due to the effect on the seven artifacts that [[Melchar]] still
had, alerted [[Thalna]] to his intentions.

[[Thalna]], on December 22, 1093 had made a deal with [[Solgar]] (the converted
[[Sorgul]]) to ambush [[Melchar]].  The plan worked and on December 24,
[[Melchar]] was turned to stone.  [[Solgar]] then retrieved the pieces of
[[Melchar]]'s statue which [[Thalna]] had smashed and had [[Pelham]] return them
to their natural form.  On September 2, 1094, [[Edric]] enlisted the aid of a
Ki-Rin and confronted [[Solgar]]. [[Thalna]], meanwhile, had been watching
[[Edric]] very carefully and took advantage of the moment to retrieve as many of
the artifacts as she could. [[Edric]] convinced [[Solgar]] to hand over several
while [[Thalna]], unknown even to [[Edric]], stealthily removed the Dagger of
Larinday from [[Solgar]]'s belt.  She then tried to kill [[Edric]] and failed.
The Ki-Rin told her to surrender and when she didn't, he killed her with a bolt
of lightning.  [[Edric]] then let the Ki-Rin destroy the dagger (as being
crushed under its hoof was the only way to destroy it).

For the next several months, [[Edric]] used his most powerful magic to find the
means of destroying the five artifacts he had. By April 6, 1095, the cloak, the
robe, the clasp, and both rings had been destroyed.  For the next three years,
[[Edric]] use his magic as best he could to hold his kingdom outside the
encroaching shadow of evil from [[Lowland]].  On November 22, 1098, though, his
liege and best friend, [[scardore|King Scardore VI]], fell in battle with the
[[Dark Mage]]'s [[demonwraiths]].  [[Edric]] and [[Tacey]] fled the fallen
kingdom while their comrade, [[Lamar]], saved their lives by preventing the
[[demonwraiths]] from reaching the two.  [[Lamar]] also was killed in the
battle.

For the next several years, [[Edric]] and [[Tacey]] lived in a small castle
given to them by [[galin|King Galin]], the boy king of [[Rota]], successor to
[carina|Queen Carina II]].  The queen had been killed on June 14, 1097 by
[[Solgar]] and her husband, [[Vyner]], had ruled as [[Galin]]'s guardian.  On
December 29, 1103, [[Vyner]] was assassinated and the king's trust was given to
the [[Clipster|Baron Clipster Gylian]]. [[Clipster]] was power-hungry to the
extreme and the rapid decline of [[Rota]] from monarchy to dictatorship
followed.

On May 28, 1104, [[Edric]] was approached by a young woman named [[Rathwyn]] who
had been a pupil and adopted daughter of [[Sorgul]]'s before his demise.
[[Rathwyn]] had learned that [[Solgar]] had been imprisoned by the [[Dark Mage]]
and had a plan to restore life to him and return him to [[Sorgul]].  The
following day, [[Edric]] went to [[Sly]]'s castle on [[Lendore|Lendore Island]]
and cast a //Freedom// spell to release [[Solgar]].  Then, in a quick battle,
[[Rathwyn]] resurrected him, and [[Sly]] placed the helm of Demarest on his head
to convert him to good.  The shock of the resurrection incapacitated [[Solgar]]
and the two easily subdued him.  Within a day, [[Solgar]]'s alignment was forced
back to good and [[Sorgul]] again lived. [[Edric]] then took the Helm back with
him to his castle, feeling that it would be best to separate the remaining three
artifacts.

The rest you know.

==== Timeline ====

  * 04 Sep 0992 -- [[Melchar]] born
  * 29 Oct 0992 -- [[Tacey]] is born
  * 22 Dec 0992 -- [[Edric]] is born
  * 25 Mar 1007 -- [[Edric]] and [[Tacey]] are married
  * 17 Feb 1015 -- [[Edric]]'s eldest son dies; [[Edric]] vows to study magic
  * 23 Oct 1015 -- [[Edric]] seeks out archmage [[Elsa]]
  * 24 Mar 1020 -- [[Edric]]'s second son dies
  * 24 Nov 1022 -- [[Sardul]] is sent to [[Elsa]] by the mage of Earth
  * 05 Feb 1024 -- [[Edric]] leaves [[Elsa]]
  * 14 Feb 1024 -- [[Sardul]] and [[Thalna]] are married
  * 15 Jul 1024 -- [[Sardul]] completes [[Elsa]]'s training
  * 05 Jul 1029 -- [[Sardul]] becomes King's wizard
  * 16 Jan 1031 -- [[Melchar]] begins working for [[Sardul]]
  * 22 Aug 1033 -- [[Edric]]'s second daughter dies in childbirth
  * 16 Oct 1033 -- [[Melchar]] is killed, after finding [[Aurén Ilay]]'s artifacts
  * 22 Feb 1034 -- [[Edric]]'s second grandson is born
  * 31 Mar 1034 -- [[Edric]] returns to [[Elsa]]
  * 12 Mar 1034 -- [[Edric]]'s eldest daughter is killed by bandits
  * 07 Feb 1035 -- [[Edric]] graduates and is given the Longlife spell
  * 18 Mar 1038 -- [[Sardul]] kidnaps [[Edric]]'s youngest grandson
  * 19 Mar 1038 -- [[Edric]] returns to Backbone to give [[Sardul]] Longlife
  * 20 Mar 1038 -- The boy is killed; [[Edric]] and [[Sardul]] battle
  * 22 Mar 1038 -- [[Edric]] becomes King's wizard
  * 14 Jan 1043 -- [[Melchar]]'s only son is married
  * 29 Jun 1056 -- [[Elarion]] is born
  * 19 Jun 1068 -- [[scardore|Prince Armin]] becomes [[scardore|King Scardore VI]]
  * 26 Nov 1078 -- [[Elarion]] kills her husband on their wedding night
  * 12 Apr 1080 -- Almroth killed by assassins; [[Edric]] becomes a mage
  * 09 Sep 1090 -- [[Elarion]] uncovers the first clue to the artifacts
  * 22 Dec 1090 -- The [[Good Party]] kills [[Elarion]]; gets the first clue

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