December 4th 14628 of the solar calendar
The circumstances obligates me, Myorain, chamberlain of king Chellïn, to hold this diary as an account of our actions and our efforts during this difficult time.
So that any noble and honorific person can come and help us by finding this writing, I will dedicate this first page to the description of our state and its context.
The state of Rohnrin is a splendid nation. Free of wars, hungers and plagues since at least a dozen generations, our people is flourishing. The king Chellïn is loved by all, he is the legitimate descendant of Kéléro who by himself vanquished the powerful dark mage “Harkon le sombre”, servant of the lost awakening. His kindness and his benevolence are unmatched. His decisions like those of his father and of the father of his, always offered prosperity to Rohnrin. The strength of Rohnrin lays in its wheat culture and its iron exportation from the mines that our ancestors excavated. The bargaining at our borders enacted peace and wealth for every neighbor nation as well as for our own.
Alas, It seems that the bad fate struck us. A strange scourge is spreading on our land, bringing out the violence and evil from Men and animals; they decimate the population, the cattle and the crops… Its origin is uncertain, and the scourge did not strike in any limitrophe land. To say so, we do not know anything about this plague and how to fight it. The population of our beautiful country decreases faster and faster. The disease is even affecting the royal family of Rohnrin…
December 6th 14628 of the solar calendar
Princess Selcia, unique daughter to Chellïn, is dead. The king has no heir to his throne and his state is worsening by the day… If the disease does not end him, his sorrow might and his whole bloodline will be lost!
We cannot wait any longer, the expedition will go tomorrow. I’ll carry the king’s sword, “Fenrir” with me. He ceded it to me so that its power protects us. We will ride to the north. We will save our king.
December 7th 14628 of the solar calendar
Only half of the men came, the other half did not answer the call. I fear that the scourge took the best of them, too.
We crossed the land to reach the northern borders with bitterness. Under a freezing snow that has been falling for days, we saw the corpses of some unfortunates. Some of us would occasionally stop to mourn.
December 8th 14628 of the solar calendar
We left the country and entered Saïrin. Saïrin is a country with which we have good relations. We achieved to reach the first village and consulted with its chief to gather informations or help from a healer. Because of the unknown nature of this scourge, we did not receive any help as I feared. We resumed our travel to the east.
December 13th 14628 of the solar calendar
We crossed two villages and a town without making progress in our quest. The healers do not know about this disease, but they believe they could recognize it if they saw an infected body. I alas carried no sick person in fear it would slow us down, I now regret it.
December 14th 14628 of the solar calendar
We arrived in a village resting at the feet of the Elchéols. On this long chain of mountains were born numerous legends and an academy of Dahäl forgotten arts. We firstly addressed the chief, who, as all the others, told us to meet the healer. Thanks to the remains of Tristan, he recognized the disease. At last, a glimpse of light!
He described to us the monstrosity that hit us: a weapon from the ancient times, destined to eradicate entire peoples. Alas, the remedy was not in his possession. Only time vanquishes this plague, when every victim has fallen. And so I pleaded with him to find a cure, because none of our sickness was dispensable, especially our king.
He then gave us his advice: reach Eolorion, town of mages, to plead help from the Dahäl masters, the ones who already had to fight this scourge in the past.
But he stifled our hopes, explaining that the travel from here to Eolorion was long, so much that it was estimated in weeks of walking. This way, we would be coming back to our country far too late.
Also came his second advice, which he shared hesitantly. There was a shrine, hidden in the mountain, forgotten by all, in which was an object allowing to create miracles by whom wields it. But the legend also says that it was cursed…
We did not have a choice, so many lives depended on us. Tomorrow at sunset, we will leave for this forgotten shrine, accompanied by the healer who proposed himself generously as a guide. May he be blessed.
December 20th 14628 of the solar calendar
The climbing was slow, the cold bites us, I now use our liedge’s sword, Fenrir, to protect us from the freezing winds whipping our blood. But the fatigue and the summits abases our crew. We will need more than a little bit of magic to go through this obstacle.
In this early afternoon, we lost one more man. A snowdrift broke under his feet, he fell from the heights and broke his bones. May he be in peace, we do not have the strength, nor the courage to bury him. He will stay here, by the eternal cold of Elcheols’s summits.
December 21th 14628 of the solar calendar
It was this evening that we arrived at our objective: the forgotten shrine. Our guide entered the shrine nervously. He is scared, like if the scourge was gazing upon us, but nothing reaches here besides coldness. The shrine has a central and round room in which’s middle raises a throne where a skeleton lays; it also has an altar facing one of the exits. The place, large enough to accomodate a hundred or people, protects well from the wind. We made a fire with old pieces of furniture scattered around the shrine. Rations were getting low; by luck, some raptors fly in the area. We’ll only have to down two of them to prepare a meal.
We all need a good night of rest.
December 22th 14628 of the solar calendar
Sleepiness left our crew pretty late today. The skeleton resting on the throne is charcoal-burnt by the cold. Its head is topped with a crown of gray stone, itself covered with ancient and unknown symbols… In the shrine lay some precious objects, gold plated and adorned with gems, but none of us has the strength or the will to carry them.
What an astonishing sensation! I am confused, neither the cold nor the tiredness tear me down anymore. Everything is so different…
Earlier the healer and I, had examined the crowned corpse. I believe I noticed in his behavior that he recognized the symbols and that his distrust towards this place doubled. He even seemed to face a certain panic and refused to touch the skeleton or its ornament. Dedicating myself, I took the crown and placed it on my head.
And here I am, reborn, rediscovering the world surrounding me with a whole new eye, orienting my mind to details which were yore tiny and uninteresting.
This almost made me forget the goal of our mission.
Finally, a miracle happened: when approaching Tristan’s body, which we managed to carry until there, I felt something new. I did almost nothing else than put my hands over its corpse and close my eyes. Then, Tristan straightened abruptly and opened his eyes. The whole crew froze during long seconds. The young Emhé, friend of Tristan, then pronounced his name with tearing eyes. Tristan began to shake and turned towards him with a confused look. He left his coffin to sit on the ground. The poor man questioned about where he was and what was happening without any interruption nor expectations of an answer. Strangely, I did not feel surprised, I just rejoiced I discovered such a power.
Tristan came back to life. After a few hours his skin turned back to a more vivid color and the wound left by his suicide disappeared. He spoke normally, and even better, he did not show any sign of the disease anymore.
He came back, even happy, and the others recognized him. Alas, I feel the fear in them towards me. Particularly from the healer from whom it took a moment before I could talk to again.
December 23th 14628 of the solar calendar
We left the shrine this morning. Moved by a remarkably new hope, every man was better, even those who couldn’t breath in a week. During the trip, we found the corpse of the second deceased and as everyone expected it, I gave life back to him. The descent will be much faster than the climbing…
December 25th 14628 of the solar calendar
We separated from the guide once back at the village where we initially met him, we promised mountains of rewards for his precious help, but he refused. Even more than this, he pleaded with us to excuse him, fearing the curse affecting the crown and the future of our kingdom. He then implored us to put it back to its place once our nation would be saved. He still did not seem reassured. We had to leave him this way, hurried by our quest and conscious of his warnings.
December 31th 14629 of the solar calendar
The royal family succumbed during our expedition, but fortunately and thanks to the crown, I made them all come back. This week, I went through the kingdom to reproduce this miracle on anyone that the scourge took, and also brought back the cattles. I do not feel any tiredness while using this power, and will henceforth not stop to restore the peace of before.
January 26th 14629 of the solar calendar
It’s a disaster, I don’t understand! Why are they doing this? And I am absolutely unable to calm them down! Things are worse than before: they all die and I can’t keep them alive! The deceased attack the living, and then, collapse! The resurrection of the royal family and of its subjects only brought back the country’s peace for a feeble time! Why did I attempt to bring back the old dead, they are uncontrollable…
I see the part of humanity they had before their end, but it seems erased, bleak. A suffering and an infinite sorrow haunts them; some even plead me to stop. The country is destroyed, I endure alone, a unique survivor of this war between the deceased and the livings. Even if I selected those I brought back, nothing changed from it, they all end up killing themselves. I cannot recognize our king, by three times I gave him life back until he attacked me with a violent sword strike and did to himself what he did to his subjects.
I deceived. Rohnrin is no more.
May 16th 14629 of the solar calendar
It is now time to resume the writing of my journey, I, Myorain, previously chamberlain to the king Chellïn, lord of the land of Rohnrin. Two months have passed since the definitive downfall of my nation, and even though grief and solitude remain my only companions, the power I pride myself with keeps awakening my curiosity and cultivates within me the soul of a scientist, or of a mage.
The rumor says that the neighboring nations erected high walls to isolate what is left of Rohnrin. Nothing will fix my country now. The guilt afflicts me.
The people I meet are all afraid of me, I think… Could I be emanating an aura of grief from this culpability or the sadness of my solitude?
I am helpless at the fact that coldness fills anything surrounding me. Without even knowing who I am, they know where I come from, and those few who dare speak to me – and which aren’t crazy – call me “King Myorain”. I loathe this title, for I am not worthy of it. They do so to refer to the crown I wear sometimes on my head, and sometimes on my belt.
Anyway, I still have a promise to keep: I must return to the forgotten shrine, in the mountains.
May 24th 14629 of the solar calendar
The journey to the shrine was hard. The healer which once served as a guide was no longer in the village when I came. No villager dared tell me what happened to him… My look is worsening, I now resemble more of a ghost than a king. My name, my reputation, they follow me and people whisper this name wherever I arrive.
I do not eat anymore these days, I do not feel the need of it and feel no fatigue from this either.
The shrine is as calm as the first time we came. I found the remains of the firecamp we made to warm us up. So I kept my promise, the artifact returned at the forgotten shrine. But I am not yet ready to let it go completely. There are still things I need to try, or I should say, to experiment. I will then note all of my observations in this very diary.
May 27th 14629 of the solar calendar
The task is harder than I expected; I was not born a man of science and by so, I have the feeling a lot of things pass before my inexperienced eye.
Either way, here are the results:
I no longer need the body of a deceased to make him come back. His spirit, however, dissipates faster than it takes to word it…
I brought life back to the skeleton laying on the throne, first holder of the stone crown. The degraded state of his corporal envelope did not allow him any movement. I sensed he was alive, and an emotion came from him: mockery towards me. Then nothing, silence, leading to its disappearance; he turned to dust… Oh what a terrible fate that afflicts me, he by far would have been the most precious help I could find. From this mockery, I understand it is by no means useful to bring him back again: he won’t help me…
May 31th 14629 of the solar calendar
Today while sounding the Ether’s deepness, I had a strange encounter. A being so dark that it damped my perception so much I was unable to read it. I decided to bring him back to light to observe it. Resuscitated, I examined my finding: its spirit is intact, contrary to every previous experimentation I did. No dilution seems to have happened to him. Even when bodiless, its spirit kept its whole. I see it as a transparent mass, dark, with no distinct shape and asleep.
I wonder if it is visible to all or if it is nothing but a mere product of my imagination…
A few hours have passed since its resurrection. It seems to be gaining some sort of shape: what I recognized as a kind of huge animal soon became a man of impressive stature; a black skeleton, bigger than the one previously sitting on the throne.
I asked him a series of questions, without receiving any answer.
I must rest, It had been three days since I had last slept.
June 1st 14629 of the solar calendar:
It seems that I am only talented for mistakes…
The being persisted, unconscious, and my patience for its awakening reached its end. I achieved, by miracle, to enter his mind. Then as I was asking for his name, a terrific sound grumbled, screeching in an astonishing silence a word: “Tyanth”. I repeated this word before I got expelled from his mind. Back to light, I observed a dark aura growing around its bones, as well as reddish glows in place of its empty eye sockets.
He spoke his first words, weak as a whisper and his sayings, which I was unable to interpret, engraved themselves in my mind: “A kèkrad dréad éther, thug Iléther. Thal nion ô lil odel Tyanth, a lil Umbra Tyanth”.
Its voice raised, inducing an unprecedented dismay in my soul, repeating louder “Umbra Tyanth”.
Weather abruptly changed outside, switching to a terrible blizzard. Still confused and stunned, I watched it start to move up to me and raise an arm, ready to strike a hit that I only parried thanks to my liedge’s sword. From this failure and my imposture, the dark being ran to the shrine’s exit and threw himself off the cliff.
I must go and see if the fall got the best of him.
Umbra Tyanth, so is his name.
June 19th 14630 of the solar calendar
The hunt took long: more than a year. I however managed to vanquish the beast. Umbra Tyanth killed a number of innocents on its rampage, a number I could not bring back. I still don’t know its origin, but the souls of its victims do not join the Ether.
My hunt ended in an old underground structure, under a forest, Firone of the lands of Eärndhel.
Unable to end him, I confined it and sealed the entrance as a crypt.
A powerful Dahäl master could maybe annihilate it, but my humble opinion is that none would dare.
Besides, the power of Fenrir was of great help…
My final journey to return to the shrine concluded. I rested. I do not recall to have slept during this year of hunt.
The meaning of the symbols ornating the crown finally appears to me, I don’t know how. It would be something close to:
Die in thy terror and relive
Chosen of Ultimate Error
For Angband will see no Ether
My mistakes afflict me. I need a rest, a long rest. So then I hid Fenrir to protect it during my sleep. I am so worn out…