The Heroes Guild Of Albion

After the collapse of the Old Kingdom, the remaining population of Albion fell into isolation. Distance bred suspicion, which grew into bloodshed. Soon villagers were doing unspeakable things for fresh water, food or even women of child-bearing age. Whilst mercenaries lived quite happily, selling their sword to the vast paranoid sea of vindictive people. Albion was brought to its knees, edging very close to extinction. Then, out of the East, hope arrived in the most unusual of forms - a bandit, by the name of Nostro.

In his youth, Nostro was a bandit and mercenary, driven by an ambition to leave his mark on the world. He was giant of a man, who was not at ease without sword in his iron grip. However, he was not without a sense of decency, but didn't reach full potential until he met a wise old man named Scythe. He seemed to appear out of nowhere and took a profound interest in Nostro - for he saw something in Nostro, something more than a mere bandit. Nostro, unknowingly, possessed the power that all the Archon's descendants shared. So, Scythe hatched a plan: if he could properly guide Nostro, this bandit could achieve great things. He might even once again unite Albion and undo the damage done by the first Archon's and his children. And so Scythe began to tutor Nostro in how to be a leader of men. And thus the Heroes Guild was founded and still protect Albion to this day.

Following Scythe's counsel, Nostro set about returning security and prosperity to Albion. First, he gathered men and women throughout Albion and established the Guild, where they could train to become real Heroes. Meanwhile Scythe tutored Nostro in the ways of Will. Using his new found power, along with Scythe's sage counsel, Nostro forced peace on the warring people of Albion. Thus, the Guild of Heroes was born. For a time, it seemed that Albion might return to its former greatness, but those hopes were in vain.

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, intended to be a venue in which anyone could settle disputes in public, 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.

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 ideas. 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 and was then buried in Lychfield Graveyard. Scythe disappeared shortly thereafter.

Even with the death of its first leader, however, the Guild continued to thrive and lived on, expanding in both structure and members