The Story of Edric and Sardul
Edric and Sardul were born and grew up in the kingdom of Backbone: Edric in the 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 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, Prince Armin assumed the throne, choosing the name 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 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, 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 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, 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 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 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 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
- 24 Mar 1020 – Edric's second son dies
- 05 Jul 1029 – Sardul becomes King's wizard
- 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
- 12 Mar 1034 – Edric's eldest daughter is killed by bandits
- 07 Feb 1035 – Edric graduates and is given the Longlife spell
- 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 – Prince Armin becomes 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