"Elves of the Northern Vale" Prologue

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     The Grimfang Mountains were a cold and forbidding range bordering the northern most reaches of the Tundra

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     The Grimfang Mountains were a cold and forbidding range bordering the northern most reaches of the Tundra. Their expanse swept for hundreds of miles beginning at the upper end of the Tallspine Mountains and marching west, almost into the cold waters of the Northern Sea. Above the Grimfangs lay a frozen and all but lifeless land. It was a realm of snow and ice as deep as any ocean that covered all the way to the top of the world. It was rumored to be habited by the fabled Ice Wryms, the only creature capable of living in such lands. This frozen expanse was also home to the last vestiges of an ancient evil magic. It was the Kingdom of the malevolent Fell Ice.

     Many times in the past had the Ice attacked from the north and began its slow advance to cover the world, freezing and killing every thing standing in its way. And every time has the Sun, guardian and protector of the earth, fought the Ice in battles that have lasted thousands upon thousands of turns. Always has the Sun won out and forced the cold evil to retreat back to its frozen realm. The battle between the Ice and the Sun was a war that has endured for eons, ever since the formation of the globe. With neither ever the victor.

     White Magic flowed strong over the world in those times before this last battle of the Fell Ice and the Sun. It was an ally to the Sun and aided in holding back the deadly cold in an effort to protect life and keep the lands warm just a bit longer. Yet, as happened so many times before in the life of the earth, the Ice slowly attacked the borders with great pressure and breached the battle lines. It once again held the advantage in the struggle and made its slow descent from out of it's frozen realm and down into the northlands on its drive to kill the world. For that is what the Fell Ice was, a destroyer of worlds. It's frozen victims could be seen in the night's sky as shinning pinpoints of light stretching across the heavens, intermingled amongst the stars.

     This time the White Magic was made to suffer for giving aid to the Sun in this last battle. The Fell Ice sent from the top of the world its mightiest soldiers, the Glaciers, as large as any mountain. They made their slow crawl southwards enveloping, crushing and freezing everything in their path. There was nothing to stand against them. These vast soldiers of the Ice stripped the lands of the White Magic as they went, but try as they might, they could not destroy it. They could only weaken it as they made their slow charge, turning it into a shade of what it once was. The most monstrous act the glaciers performed on the world was to tear huge rents deep into the earth. This let loose an ancient evil that had been imprisoned for ages. The dreaded Black Magic.

     The creatures of the world did their best to survive in this epic struggle, for that was all they could do. The forces were too great for any to take part in. Whole races and many species of animals, plants and trees were killed by the freeze, their kind never to be seen again. Some races began a long migration to stay ahead of the cold as they constantly looked for warmer lands. One race, strong in the White Magic, stayed behind secluded in mighty fortresses. Fortified by the Magic the Ice was trying to destroy they applied their will and incessantly did battle against the evil cold. For thousands of turns fraught with much hardship and many sacrifices they fought until the Fell Ice eventually subsided.

     Many of the people and animals who chose to flee the advancing cold made their home in the south lands, never to return to the north again. Some lived as nomads until the Fell Ice retreated and made their way back to the home of their ancestors, but they were much changed from those ancestors of old. Most of the magical creatures of the lands had to learn how to live in a world now stripped of the White Magic. Before the Ice the magic had flowed freely about the land for those who were able to use it. Now the magic had to be called upon, enticed or sought out for use, unless of course one was born with it, such as the Elves.

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Thanks for reading, more to come!               Tony

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