-
ᛋᚳᚫᛏᛖᚱᚹᛠᚱᛞ
It is a time of war. Or was. We’re not sure if it’s still going on. During the fighting, the king ordered the deployment of our final defense, the Glittering Shield (Scild Glisnende - ᛋᚳᛁᛚᛞ ᚷᛚᛁᛋᚾᛖᚾᛞᛖ). But the king’s archmage suddenly collapsed, right as the ritual was to begin, and an apprentice had taken his place. There wasn’t time to delay; they had to hope that it would go as planned. It did not go as planned. Though the apprentice survived, the king and most of the other mages were killed instantly as cracks in the magic exploded. When his vision returned, the apprentice saw the devastation: whole sections of the capital city turned to rubble, and everyone around him slain. But the Shield was in place. It was plain to see just by looking up, a shimmer in the sky. The land was safe, for now.
Parts of it, at least. The rebounding magic had created bubbles of shielded areas around the land. A third of the capital was shielded, along with parts of the surrounding countryside and several outlying towns and villages (or parts of them, in some cases). Eventually, the apprentice found a way to make Travel Stones, so that those inside the shield could walk from one shielded area to another directly, without having to pass through the barrier and risk potential enemy attack outside. But they are few. Very few, at least for now. The remainder of the guard and the soldiers assigned to the capital have organized patrols and periodic escorts, but each shielded community is largely cut off from the others.
One of the difficulties is that, while the Glittering Shield leaves the sky relatively clear and visible, a flaw in the casting made it so that the land outside is darkened severely to those on or near the ground. It was supposed to be created such that anything inside the Shield was obscured to those outside, but the fracturing of the Shield caused the obscurity to affect those inside it as well. Only from above is the intended one-way visibility intact. So we do not know if there are enemies camped just outside without poking our noses into danger.
But we are safe inside, for now. The Glittering Shield prevents our enemies or their agents from passing through. Simply touching the shield causes all but the strongest of them to turn to ash instantly, and even the strongest would be destroyed with prolonged contact. For now. While the magic holds. Given that it is already flawed, we do not know how much longer it will last.
The vast bulk of the king’s army, possibly under command of his son or daughter (or both), the Prince/Princess (figure out names), is still out there somewhere, unaccounted for. We haven’t dared venture outside the shield for long enough to go searching for them, and they haven’t found us or tried to make contact. But we still encounter bands of enemies now and again, so we know they’re probably not all dead yet. The war is either still going on, or it’s not. If it’s not, then either the army can’t get back to us, or they lost, and it’s just a long wait now until the Shield fails...
Meanwhile, ripples in the fabric of reality made from the disturbance of the botched Shield will still occasionally create brief portals to and from other places, other worlds. But those coming through are often...changed. -
Group Toolbar Menu
