The New Guilds
One breezy morning in Elysium, a dwarf wandered into the Plaza of Seasons and demanded: “Take me to your Senate!”
In Ysallyra, the Sentinel of the Woods accosted a couple of passers-by, saying: “Something is rotten along the Way of Earth.”
And in the piratical town of Baresh, a man of savage demeanour and the bearing of a knight turned upon two crafters who had approached him, one hand on his sword…
With that, groups of warriors, negotiators and scholars from every realm embarked upon separate quests that would each lead to their own city gaining new fame; new power; a new breath of life. The Elysian Senate gathered its might and rode to war in the burning sands of the Arinoch Desert. The secretive clans of Ysallyra delved deep into the caverns beneath their shadowy forest. The Masters of Golgonath turned to their city’s ancient past and reached out for powers long-forgotten, yet still as potent as the first day they awoke.
One by one, these efforts bore rich fruit. At the edge of Arinoch, Elysium’s forces routed the slavers of Lymr, freeing their erstwhile captives – prospectors of Monadh-Dach, who had been seized by the nomads as they sought out new riches in the desert sands. The High King of the dwarves rewarded their assistance with knowledge, sending his master runesmith to found a new guild in Elysium – and thus the Runesmiths came into being.
In Ysallyra, long-lost caverns came once more to the light of day, a warren of magic and mystery overtaken by monstrous beasts of shadow. As the creatures fell one by one to the blades of the clan warriors, so the original inhabitants of the caverns emerged – the Shamans whose magic had long protected Ysallyra. Recognising the need for their knowledge to be passed on rather than kept buried, the earth mages agreed to take on new pupils – and so the Shamans came at last to their rightful place among the clans.
In Golgonath, a disaffected templar approached the Masters of the city, urging them to seek greater power still than what they already wielded. The ancient pact of the demonic realm and the Underworld surged once more to the forefront: once again a gate was opened for the greatest inhabitants of Bralnok’s fiery realm to reach into this plane. One by one, the ambitious, the chaotic, the savage, grasped the power thus offered, yielding their souls in exchange with a willingness bordering on glee – and thus the Black Legion was born.
What will the future of these young and untried forces be? The hope they each represent for their realms is an inchoate thing, tangible yet formless, incandescent with the future yet overshadowed by the baggage of the past. Only time will tell, as one by one the new guilds and their members settle into place as interwoven components of the ongoing, unending story that is – Akanbar.
