The Age of Struggle

pening the portals between the two worlds, the enemy let loose his horrific army led by Madrook Na’han, the Prince of Terror. It was said that Madrook was his masters creature, part of his flesh, part of his mind. He fulfilled the will of his master unquestioned, as if he was it himself, and his aim was to conquer Illarion at all costs, to capture all resources there. His path was covered with darkness.

The battle against this foe was not great, it was disastrous. Years upon years the Gods and the Races of Illarion fought against this army of monsters and not few lost their lifes for the freedom of Illarion. But it was becoming obvious that one day the enemy would eventually succeed as he was still in control of the portals to the other world. After three consecutive decades of battle the enemy could still summon an endless number of minions supporting his cause, and slowly, drained the resources of Illarion.

Realizing that their recourses were by far inferior compared to the enemy, the Gods made a bolt attempt to finally decide the outcome of this epic battle. The portals were the source of the strength of the enemy, without a connection to the other world their army would be without support, and easily destroyed.

While a great army of the God's remaining forces, led by Brágon and Malachin, attacked the main forces of the enemy, Moshran led a small group of well chosen mortals to the back of their armies, in an attempt to destroy the portals. With him walked Ronagan, for secret operations were his nature. But unexpected, Madrook Na’han did not lead the troops on the battlefield himself. He was approaching the portals, and just turned around to face Moshran as they arrived. Ronagan started to fight his escort, and distracted them, while Moshran fought Madrook himself.

t is said, that this battle took many hours. Both of them fought without mercy. No single being was able to come closer as pure flashes of energy were unleashed, and the force they fought with was devastating. After a seemingly endless time the Prince of Terror was gaining the upper hand in this struggle. Moshran was retreating step after step, more on the brink of flight than to resist any longer. As Madrook Na’han saw this, his roar of laughter could be heard from afar. If that was all they could bring up, than this world would be his soon. For a quick victory, he dropped his shield, grabbed his huge sword with both hands, and raised it for the last fatal blow. This was the moment Moshran was waiting for. Not as exhausted as he pretended to be, he charged and dealt a mortal blow. The Prince of Terror cursed him with the last strength he could master: “Thus it not ends! You are doomed in your attempt to save this world !” Not listening to the words of his enemy, Moshran beheaded him in one single stroke. The corpse itself fell to the ground, but the evil power which kept him alive, much more than should ever be used to keep a powerful Avatar fulfilling his masters deeds, and which had filled every ounce of his being, leaked out and exploded in a great blast of energy engulfing Moshran. It burned him, and marked him for eternity. He had won the battle, but for what price?

As now the portals were unguarded, the Elder Gods performed a difficult ritual to seal them. They succeeded, much easier than thought before, because there was none resisting them on the other side. But this task still drained a lot of their energy.

The Gods tried to heal Moshran's wounds inflicted by the blast of Madrook Na’han's death, but failed in this attempt. The vileness and the evil stench of the wounds were too great to be healed completely. The outer appearance of the once fair looking Moshran changed. His skin was covered with badly healed wounds and scars. His face was misshaped taking aback in disgust those who looked at him.

The remaining army of monsters was without leadership, and was destroyed eventually. Only few of the evil creatures escaped, hiding in far away places or deep inside the earth.

In great joy the mortals and the Gods celebrated their victory, only Moshran left them as he felt no joy but only emptiness. But he didn’t leave without taking with him the armour and the sword of Madrook Na’han, which was taken from his body. It belonged to him, so he thought, as his price was the highest to pay.

Thus ends the Age of Struggle and begins the Age of Concord.