Prelude: The beginning.
One thousand years ago, in the small country of Toltheria, one of the world’s most powerful wizards was reaching a grand old age of ninety nine. His name was Shalan and being a proud and stubborn man, he had learnt magic solely to become the most powerful man in the known world. Upon reaching such power he became arrogant and selfish, refusing to allow others to get close to him and believing he was better than any other man.
His magical powers and prestige earned him a seat in the King’s Royal Court, and very quickly he became the king’s right hand. He remained by the king’s side for over sixty years, and it was only as he reached his nineties that he began to feel his humanity as old age really started to take a toll on him. He had become so attached to his magic he no longer needed to walk around, choosing to levitate between any locations. He could create basic food or water from thin air and control and pick up any object with a simple thought in his mind.
However, magic requires a lot of strength and concentration, and his body was beginning to weaken. One thing he could never do was reverse the effects of aging, and until now, it has never really bothered him. The next year was now very important, he decided he had to find a cure, or he had to find a spell that could fix his aging problems.
Nothing could do it, even his own attempts to cast his own spell failed to make any impact on his age. Eventually he gave up, and sat down staring out of his window, lost in thought to why he should have to die like any other man. Surely he had proved he was greater than anyone else, why else would the king give him the room at the top of the tallest castle tower. He could see the entire kingdom from his window; the fortified city around the castle, the towns in the distance over the large grass fields and the mighty forests that stretched right up to the mountains.
He stared at a dragon flying in the distance, normally it would be cause for alarm, but he simply didn’t care. The large fire dragon flew gracefully for its size, its eyes searching the forest below for prey. They ate everything, especially humans, and unfortified towns and villages were easy targets for a hunting dragon. Dragons were most dangerous because of their size, but also because of their near immunity to magic. Only the most powerful wizards could affect a dragon, and they were few and far between.
It was only as Shalan stared at the Dragon he remembered that Dragons were known for living for thousands of years. What if he could harness the aging properties of a dragon, then he could have another thousand years to find a cure from death. Shalan did not just stop there, as his ideas swarmed his mind, he began getting carried away, and decided to capture a variety of Dragons and steal the best properties he could think of.
Leaving the castle he gathered the help from the five greatest mercenaries in all of Toltheria. Shalan and the mercenaries led by Dumatar Borundis ventured across Toltheria and the greater continent of Carnus in one last attempt to extend Shalans age. Feeling he had little time, and such a power spell to finish with, he captured what he could before taking five dragons to a famous clearing within Toltheria for what would be the greatest spell of his life. With help from the some mercenaries, they pinned the five creatures to the ground in a pentagon shape. The five dragons they had managed to capture were; a Fire Dragon, a Soul Dragon, a Dark Dragon, a Wind Dragon and lastly a Sand Dragon. Shalan opted to take one property from each; health regeneration, telepathy, immunity to disease, telescopic sight the life span of a dragon. As the mercenaries asked for their pay, the wizard pinned them to the ground with magical chains, forcing each of the five men to kneel in front of a dragon.
Unaware of what the wizard had planned the mercenaries were caught off guard and were bound before they could do anything about it. Shalan laughed, his dream of a longer life was finally coming true. First, the men would become vessels for the powers, ensuring that each of the powers were not volatile to the human body, then Shalan would harvest the powers for himself.
Reaching up in the air, Shalan chanted, his hands glowed and sparks filled the air around the clearing. The men shouted in resistance, and the dragons roared as they fought to free themselves. Then a large lightening strike ripped down from the skies and into the hands of Shalan, each dragon collapsed dead and a glowing mist ripped from their chests before flying into the surrounding mercenaries. Each of the men remained alive and Shalan laughed with delight as his spell began to work.
However, with one final lightening strike Shalan screamed in pain and the five mercenaries were lifted from the ground and sent flying into the surrounding trees. A loud clap of thunder roared over the land and a white light ripped out of Shalan’s body, turning him into a bloody mist.
Shalan was never seen again, and each of the mercenaries was scarred across their right cheek for the rest of their lives. Returning to the King, the powerless Mercenaries told the king what had happened to Shalan, the supposed greatest wizard in history. It is now believed that no man can ever extend his life beyond its capability and Shalan’s books with his spells remain encased in an honorary tomb in the small town of Solonce near the east coast of Toltheria.
It is now legend over Toltheria that Shalan’s Spirit is still searching for the descendants of the mercenaries to steal back the powers that they received. The five mercenaries stayed close for many years after the incident believing he would return to finish the job. Passing the knowledge down through their generations it was finally decided to split the group, only the family line of Dumatar Borundis retained the knowledge. While the remaining blood lines separated with no knowledge of each other, in hope that if Shalan would ever return, he would not be able to find them.
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