Tales of Albion Part I: Fragments of the Old Kingdom
Reign of the Court
Legend has it that, when the world was young, Albion was a peaceful land full of tranquility and beauty. Then three came from the Void: the Knight, the Queen, and the Jack of Blades. They coveted Albion and demanded that all men bow down before them.
When the people refused, the Court burned Albion until the earth turned black and the sky was thick with smoke. Then the Court demanded obedience again, only to be refused a second time. This time the Court lifted the sea into the sky and flooded the world.
A third time the Court demanded that men worship them, promising peace and an end to the misery. Those who survived still refused. So the Court twisted their minds until brother slew brother, parents abandoned their children, and friend turned against friend.
Finally, the people of Albion bowed to the Court. They and their descendants toiled to raise monuments to those who came from the Void.
Birth of William Black
In the days when the people still suffered under the Court's cruelty, a humble blacksmith and his wife had a boy. They named him William Black, and he would become the key to saving Albion.
Little is known about William's youth. As a grown man, he amazed others with the powers of his mind, by which he was able to protect his village and perform feats that a dozen other men could not equal. These acts came to be celebrated as the "Powers of Will."
William grew obsessed with the Court, determined to find a way to overthrow it. One night, while consulting a mysterious tome, he was suddenly transported from Albion into the Void. Here he met Jack, who sat on a throne surrounded by ghastly figures. Jack tried to enslave William with the powers of an ornate sword, but William fought back and managed to steal the sword before escaping the netherworld.
Back in Albion, the sword spoke to William. It called itself the Sword of Aeons, and it promised to help him defeat the Court - but only if William offered his soul in bondage.
With the Sword of Aeons, William set off to find the Court.
Fall of the Court
William scaled the peak of Ruon, Albion's highest mountain, and challenged the Court to combat. The Knight of Blades appeared first, and, wielding the Sword of Aeons, William destroyed him completely.
Next the Jack of Blades appeared. They fiercely struck at one another until William broke Jack's body. Some say that Jack was not truly slain, and that his soul escaped to the Void.
The Queen of Blades was the last to face William. For weeks their battle raged across Albion. Mountains were raised and valleys were formed by their mighty blows. At last, William slew the Queen and freed the people from their yoke. They acclaimed William, who now took the title Archon, as their king.
Rise of Albion
Once he had vanquished the Court, the Archon set his mind to unifying Albion into a great kingdom. His powers of Will were so great that it seemed the world reshaped itself in accordance with his wishes. Cities were built in a week's time, and marvelous machines were constructed that ran on Will alone. Through a thousand years of peace, Albion reigned as the greatest center of commerce and philosophy the world had ever known.
But without an enemy to vanquish, the Archon's children grew petty and cruel. They called themselves Heroes and used their powers of Will to terrorize the people. A younger Archon might have stopped them, but his battle with the Queen and his time in the Void had infected his body and mind with a wasting illness. Faced with this decay, William wrapped his body in golden mail and a royal blue cloak before vanishing.
Thus began the corruption of the Kingdom.
Fall of the Kingdom
When the Archon vanished, Albion descended into chaos. Three out of every four people were slain in the wars or died from disease or starvation. Meanwhile, the Archon's many descendants vied for power.
These new rulers were not as kind or wise as the first. Each new Archon, fearful of a coup, brought fresh tyranny to Albion. A massive wall was constructed around the city, to keep citizens in and beasts and undesirables out.
The Archons' personal guard, who were encased in armor from birth, enforced their harsh decrees: no citizens were allowed out after nightfall, every citizen must appear when an alarm bell sounded, and any who opposed the Archon's rule were killed along with their families. The people witnessed these cruelties from behind masks that signaled their status while concealing their fear.
When the Kingdom had grown to its greatest extent, the Archon demanded that an immense tower be built to focus Will. Just after it was completed, the sky was filled with a sudden bright light, and all Albion shook. In the morning the tower was gone and the Old Kingdom lay in ruins. All its people were gone except for those who lived beyond the walls.
Darkest Times
After the fall of the Old Kingdom, the few villages that survived the destruction of the Spire fell into isolation. Distance bred suspicion, which grew into bloodshed. Villagers fought for food, land, livestock, and fresh water. Soon, they were fighting even over women of child-bearing age.
Mercenaries sold their swords to the highest bidder and fought in a series of petty squabbles. If the mercenaries didn't like the price being offered, they extracted payment by threatening the villagers.
But this was not the darkest time for Albion. The Fallow Wars, an age of darkness and blood, would bring Albion to the edge of extinction.
World's End
Human scavengers poked through the ruins of the Old Kingdom. What they found they did not understand, and priceless artifacts were cast aside or traded as trinkets. Finally the forest grew over the ruins, and it was as if the rich heritage of Old Albion had never been. The population dwindled, and those who survived would awaken each day to a darker world.
It seemed there was no safe haven. Hope faded as bandits stole and murdered with impunity. The people, starving, scoured the land for food and fresh water, but as the years passed there was less of each to find. Crazed prophets preached that the end of the world was at hand.
Then, out of the east, hope arrived in the most unexpected form. A bandit and mercenary by the name of Nostro came forth, pledging to bring peace and prosperity to Albion.
Rise of Nostro
In his youth, Nostro was a bandit and a mercenary driven by an ambition to leave his mark on the world. He was not without a sense of decency, but he did not reach his full potential until he met a wise old man named Scythe. Scythe was a wraith of a man, wizened and stern. He carried an ornate sword and shrouded himself in a tattered blue cloak that hid tarnished golden armor. He seemingly appeared out of nowhere and took a profound interest in Nostro.
Scythe saw in Nostro something more than a mere bandit. He sensed that Nostro unknowingly possessed the power that all the Archon's descendants shared. Scythe hatched a plan: if he could properly guide Nostro, this bandit could achieve great things. He might even unite Albion and undo the damage done by the first Archon and his children.
And so Scythe began to teach Nostro how to be a leader of men.
Albion Reborn
Following Scythe's counsel, Nostro set about returning security and prosperity to Albion.
First, he gathered men and women from throughout Albion and founded a Guild where they could train to become true Heroes. Meanwhile Scythe tutored Nostro in the ways of the Will. Using his new-found power, along with Scythe's sage counsel, Nostro gathered an army and forced peace on the warring peoples of Albion.
For a time, it seemed that Albion might return to its former greatness. Those hopes were in vain.
Fall of Nostro
While the Guild was taking shape, Nostro commissioned a number of other great creations. One was the Witchwood Arena, intended to be a venue in which anyone could settle disputes in public. At the same time, Nostro's smiths forged a sword known as the Tears of Avo, patterned on reports of the Sword of Aeons, which had been lost with the Archon's disappearance.
Despite Scythe's teachings, Nostro increasingly fell under the sway of a power-hungry courtesan named Magdalena. In time, she corrupted Nostro to the point where the Arena was debased into a source of popular entertainment and the Heroes' Guild became nothing more than a house of mercenaries driven by lust for profit and fame.
These developments disgusted Scythe, who could only watch as Nostro and the Guild fell into disrepute. Finally he vanished, leaving Nostro to his fate.
Death of Nostro
Near the end of his life, Nostro could finally see how power had corrupted him, and how far short he had fallen of his youthful ideals. By then his followers and even his wife had long since abandoned him. Isolated, he was easy prey for an assassin who slipped poison into his food.
Nostro knew that he was dying. He called out for Scythe, and his old mentor came to sit vigil with him in his final hours. Scythe with warm affection of the good things Nostro had done in his life. Finally, at peace with himself, Nostro died with the dawn's first light.
Scythe disappeared shortly thereafter. Some say that, to this day, he wanders Albion alone, seeking another who bears the power to restore Albion to greatness.
Aftermath
After Nostro's death, Albion continued to grow and thrive, as did the Heroes' Guild.
The Guild came to be led by a succession of Will users, who individually varied from well-meaning to cruel in their intentions. The Guild itself adopted a simple code: complete the quest to the letter, ask for payment up front, and obey the local law enforcement unless a Hero is on a quest. The Heroes who graduated from the Guild were at times admired and feared by the populace they served.
As for Magdalena, she went on to wed a series of husbands. Her children used their mother's connection to Nostro to establish hereditary power for themselves over Bowerstone.
