Thule - On the Steps of the Throne - An Introduction

[Ravenhurst ST]

"I want to hear a story!"

"Yes , I do too, Tell us the one about the dragon!"

"It wasnt  a dragon , dragons have wings, dummy."

"No tell us about the lady thief who always gets away"

The two adults (not counting the servants and guards of course) looked across the throne room at the three small children playing at the foot of the ornate chair. The taller of the two men, King Ablam Torre of Arrgonee was tall, dark and fit for a man of middle age. His companion was much much older but for all his white hair and age seemed very well fit also. Indeed the old man the Grande Scribe of the Kingdom had served this King, his father and his fathers father and was one of the Kings most trusted advisers. And despite his advanced age had only recently returned from another, and his last, Journey from that far off land that had consumed his life.

"Not now children perhaps later once we are finished" The king couldn't help but smile at his children.

"I don't know your majesty, I recall a young prince who was fond of my stories and would never take no for an answer. Besides these problems will not be solved in a day, and I have some new stories to tell from my last journey. Let us take an hour to relax, let me share a story you will not believe but which i assure you is true."

The King smiled and nodded taking his seat on the throne his children gathered around him on the short steps, while a cushioned seat was brought for the Scribe and set before the throne.

The old man brushed his beard thoughtfully.

"You have all heard the stories I have learned over the years of that far far land.Many i have recorded in the scrolls and many have been read to you children. But I have been gone from the kingdom since a year after you," He indicate the oldest a boy of about 10, "Davi, were born. I have come home on recently and I have new stories to tell. Even your father the king has not heard these."

The scribes rich powerful voice has captured the children and even the King leans forward his attention rapt on the old man.

"As you know our Kingdom was settled in the glorious past and we became powerful and wise but we also were cautioned by the wise men of the day not to reach beyond our grasp. For that way would lead to the downfall such as met Atlantis. Now everyone knows the tale of Mighty Atlantis, how their magic and science allowed them to rule an empire which touched even our shores. How this Mighty nation flourished for over one thousand years before their pride drew the ire of the gods and in anger they crushed them entirely in a single day, sinking their continent under the waves of the great ocean which to this day bears their name."

He pauses noticing that even the servants and guards are under his spell and he hadn't even gotten to the story.

"Atlantis had touched every shore even we have parts of their language incorporated into ours. The science of navigation was taught to the world by Atlantis and has remain unchanged for centuries. But even today there are those who believe that Atlantis is a myth, a story created to scare children make people proud to belong to a grate heritage. I don't know why, perhaps it is just the nature of man to tear down that which was once great but is no more."

Abruptly , dramatically he stands.

"Atlantis sank beneath the wave over 400 years ago, it's existence all but wiped from the face of the earth. the gods in their anger even burned to location of the fabled land from maps and charts. But there were still in those days men who knew where it had lain where its mighty ports opened to the ocean and it's ships had sailed forth from. But with time that knowledge faded and once that was gone the legends grew. But this is not a tale of Atlantis. No this is a tale of a place that few had ever heard of, a place that even Atlantis could not conquer, but like Atlantis a place which soon will be no more."

With a gesture a servant brings wine to wet the scribes throat.

"Some sixty years ago King Edbarom the third, your great father, became enchanted with he legend of Atlantis. Some soothsayer had placed a bug in his ear that he was related to those who had ruled Atlantis and thus was the heir." The Children gasp at this revelation."No, no, the soothsayer was false her lies disproved in some small part by myself but that is a different tale for another day. Suffice to say the King wanted proof and he wanted to find the lost land of Atlantis. And so a trio of ships were commissioned and I was assigned to one of them. I was trained as a warrior but a horse threw me and my leg was shattered. While it healed it left me with a terrible limp and I could no longer serve as a soldier. But I would make  a good historian to record the journey. I will not recount that story but we sail around the wold had many hardships, two of the ships were lost, and even the third eventually sank but not before we found ourselves rescued by strange people whom none of us had ever seen before. I being a scholar Knew some snippets of old Atlantean and recognized some of those words in their tongue so I spoke to them in that lost language. and to my surprise they responded for to them it was not a lost tongue but rather their common language."

He looks at each of the children and then the king.

"We had Discovered Thule"

He sits back upon the cushioned chair

"Thule is a forbidding place it lies far to the north of where Atlantis rests beneath the waves a great continent rising from the sea. I's shore inhospitable cliffs except in one place where a great city , Quodeth lay. But even i who have lived there use the word city and civilization warily for the people of Thule arr savage Barbarians and those who pretend to be Civilized on play at masking their true nature. Even the Elves and Dwarves of this Savage place are not like those which once walked among men in the lands we know. Oh Yes," he spies the looks of astonishment o the young faces at eh mention of the fae races,"but these elves and dwarves bear little resemblance as you will see."

He sit up Straight.

"I could go on and on about the history for I have journeyed there 4 times in my life and lived among them. I it a savage bloody world is Thule. Home to monsters and things that have long since vanished in time in the other parts of the world. There are things in Thule which should never be mentioned. Horrors which will freeze the blood even of Kings. But Thule has its heroes too, many of of them And I promised you a story so I will tell you a story. This is a story about some of the greatest heroes to ever walk in Thule, but it is a story of the days before they were heroes. It is a bloody tale, one of murder and dark sorcery. ANd in truth some of those heroes do some of the evil deeds but that is Thule very seldom are things Black and White. No let us start, our story begins in Quodeth...