THE LAND OF ZIRCONYXThe land of Zirconyx has a history.Strange, wonderful, and very very long,as histories get. Most of it is unwritten, passedon in songs and legends rather than books,changing by the season.However, singers and scribes all agreethat the world used to be far larger than itis today. Its many climates offered life tothousands of different species, man and beast,plant and animal, even rock brought to life bythe magic coursing through the earth. Thereare still old maps that show some of thoseplaces, but they are lost to us now. Lost in themist.It started under the rule of King Napadorithe Fair. Life was decent. Hard-workingpeasant farmed the fields and hauled in thecrops, knights and paladins fought in colorfultournaments, and powerful garrisons servedto placate the more unruly of King Napadori’ssubjects.In his thirty-sixth year, King Napadoriwas unhorsed in a tourney by some namelesshedge knight, struck in the head by his opponent’slance; after that, he was a changed man.Plagued by migraines during the day andterrible nightmares at night, there was no safeplace for his mind to hide. The sickness lefthim a jittering, paranoid wreck. His eyes sawshadows and knives in every corner. Publicexecutions of the ‘traitors’ became a daily occurrence.Napadori’s once-loyal subjects tooktheir lessons to heart.Soon enough, Napadori was insistingthat entire armies were being rallied justbeyond his borders by Zirconyx’s neighbors.He ordered his court wizards to scry to thevery Edge of the World, searching for hisenemies. But the closer they got to the Edge,the more their magical visions clouded over.Their scrying glasses would crack, and theircrystal balls would shatter. That had neverhappened before.Napadori cursed them for oathbreakersand incompetents, and dismissed all the wizardsfrom court, banishing them back to theirgreat library in the Glow Mountains.Entire armies of explorers surged forthfrom Napadori’s ancestral castle, but only2 © 2004-2010 <strong>Chivalry</strong> <strong>Games</strong>
a handful ever returned. Scarred men, andbroken, half-mad with fear. The stories blewacross Zirconyx like a cold wind. A thick,terrible mist had swallowed the neighboringkingdoms and empires, all helpless to stop it.It was said to flay the flesh right off a man’sbones; armored or naked, it made no difference.Cold shapes moved through the haze,killing as they faded in and out of sight.When the stories reached them, thebanished wizards came running back to court.The fog they called Erebus was closing in onZirconyx like a tightening noose. The Kingignored them, calling his entire army to thefield, all but the outlying garrisons made upof ‘unreliable’ local troops. He rode out witha column of his best knights, out past the bordersof the kingdom, and wasn’t heard fromfor three hundred years. The crown passed tohis heir, a more decent man, but the banishedwizards chose to remain in exile.Slowly, Erebus covered Zirconyx’soutlying provinces, driving hordes of refugeesbefore it -- peasants and foreigners andcreatures and worse. As a last resort, thewizards, the scholars, the necromancers andthe spellweavers of Zirconyx all set aside theirdifferences for one great purpose, joining theirpower together to weave the greatest magicalspell in history. Day and night they worked,forging raw magic into a great shimmeringdome of protection surrounding what was leftof the kingdom. A spell powerful enough tohold the mist at bay.When they were done, the wizardsreturned to court to bring their news beforethe royal family, only to be stymied by whatthey found. The entire royal family had disappeared.The serving staff had run off in terror.Once turned up, they claimed that KingNapadori had returned at the head of a host ofdead men, and gone down, deep into the bowelsof the castle. There were things lurkingdown there, it was said, and a great doorwaybetween dimensions hidden somewherebelow.The wizardsfled back tothe Glow Mountainsto consultthe Archmage,leaving Zirconyxin chaos. Thekingdom waswithout a king.With the royalfamily gone,that left no oneto succeed to the crown, and the people hadno one to turn to for protection. Leaderlessarmies fell apart or pledged their swords tothe lords and ladies of Zirconyx, rising to fillthe power vacuum. They each raised theirbanners and put forth their diluted claims tothe crown.The Archmage intervened before a civilwar could erupt, declaring a truce for as longas it took to investigate the mystery at theroyal castle. In that, at least, the lords couldagree. Then they uncovered the Seal Stone.The legendary doorway was there, blockedup by Napadori, and the Seal Stone bore onemad inscription scribbled into the rock by theold king himself. “The power is mine -- Napadori,master of dimensions -- to open the Sealis to open the gates of Death.”That decided the issue. It was worthgoing to war over this ‘<strong>Chaostle</strong>’. The first tosecure the doorway would control the castle,the kingdom, and -- perhaps -- power beyondtheir wildest dreams.It’s up to you to decide. Who will rule?Who will claim the mysterious power of the<strong>Chaostle</strong>?© 2004-2010 <strong>Chivalry</strong> <strong>Games</strong> 3
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