Prologue: Cataclysm

The Elven King Moridilas rode his white unicorn Azure to the roots of the great elven tree Yggaloth, the ancient tree of life. The tree rose high up into the dead gray sky.

The trees roots reached all over the world, deep beneath the earth, beneath all the oceans and seas. It's bark hummed with magical energy as it freely shared it with the rest of the world.

    The mad nature god, Veridius, was coming to poison the tree and infect the world with his madness. No mortal man, or dwarf, or elf, or even dragon knew what poisoned his mind. None lived to find out. The very forests themselves surged forth and consumed everyone they could. Not even those in the deserts, tundras, or even deep underground were safe from the xenocidal slaughter that had emptied the world of civilizations.

Azure was barely winded, despite being chased by horrors unleashed by the maddened nature god. As the blonde haired fair skinned elven king dismounted him, his gold mail armor clinking on the ground as he landed, Azure leaned out to nuzzle him.

"Oh Azure, you've been a good steed to me these last seven hundred years..." he said, rubbing the horse's neck underneath his white mane. Azure let out a pleased nicker. He flared his nostrils at the king.

"Oh of course... I wouldn't leave you without giving you one last treat, my dear friend." he said with a half-hearted chuckle.

Reaching into his satchel he pulled a golden apple and held it up to the horse to sniff at. As horses are wont to do, especially Azure, he took the whole thing in his mouth and chewed. It was so juicy, and delicious... golden apples were every unicorn's favorite. Their flavor was slightly sweeter than the red delicious apples that the humans grew on the edges of the Everwood.

The king stroked Azure's neck once more.

"I have to go now, old friend. This world is worth saving... and there is only one way to save it." Moridilas said.

Elves were known for their grace, none more than King Moridilas. It was said that no one has seen him weep, or despair, or even laugh.

Azure was not some common dumb horse from the plains outside the woods. He knew that his rider was bearing the weight of an entire world on his shoulders. Like he was being ridden by the fattest of ogre, but he was a rock. He bore his burden with the courage that only an elf could muster.

Azure gave the king one last nuzzle before Moridilas solemnly stepped toward his doom in that tree.



There was a great droning in the sky... Azure looked up, stumbling back...

There, as tall as the tree was the mad nature god Veridius... four curved, ram like horns on his head, a shaggy beard tangled in knots, two cloven hooves for feet, a robe made of dead, rotted leaves and gnarled twigs. Blackened thorns curled around his body, digging into his eyes. His left arm replaced with a great disgusting tentacle, and his right hand gnarled into a menacing claw.

Growing from his head, from his shoulders, his arm were glowing blood red crystals.

All around him, blackened trees and branches, with red leaves, surged forth toward the tree. Their branches dripping blood.

Azure let out a horrified whinny as he backed away from the roots that crawled their way toward the tree's trunk and crept toward him. He fled into the tree trunk, in a big empty room where the great elegantly carved wooden door closed.

"In the void of stars, even nature will decay!" the god bellowed as it reached out toward the trunk... when suddenly...

the cracks in the trunk began to glow with a faint blue light... that shone brighter and brighter. The nature god went wide eyed and let out a scream louder than thunder as a brilliant flash, brighter than a thousand suns, bathed the world in just pure white light.

There was a loud blast,  with the ambient noises of the arcane, louder than even the horse's thoughts. Louder than ten thousand screams of terror. The entire world was rocked by the energies unleashed, everything that could feel it most assuredly did, just as they surely heard the god's dying scream echo through the heavens and rumble the very stars themselves.

Azure tried to cover his head and ears with his hooves, but could only convulse as the strange arcane energies pulsed through him. The surge in his head made him feel as if his brain was pulsating in his own skull, threatening to rupture his own head!


When the blast receded and the sound stopped, Azure looked over himself... he was now covered, from head to hind in glowing bright blue runic symbols. Every enchantment every placed upon him by elven mages, since foal-hood, resurfaced, glowing bright blue upon his fur. There were other symbols on him, these he had no recognition of. They were neither orcish, nor dwarvish, nor common, and certainly not elven.

"What happened? What are these things in my head? These voices..."

Azure slowly stood up and looked just outside the tree. everything as far as the eye could see had been reduced to swirling, glistening ash, the great tree had been blown into fragments that were now suspended in mid air under a sparkling purple sky. The blackened trees, along with the rest of the forest, were nowhere to be seen. As he looked over the splintered, blasted tree, a single thought entered his mind...

"Moridilas!"

He galloped into the the now open door. All around, chunks of wood and charred bodies were suspended in zero gravity. The dying elves cried out in pain, many attempting to speak and pray in their last moments to comfort those around. Bright blue and pink sparkles rose from them, as if they were being broken down by the energies, being sucked into the bright sun-like orb of energy that now made up the tree's ceiling (since the old one was completely annihilated.)  Without even thinking...

"Moridilas! Moridilas!" he shouted.

He stood, surprised... what happened to him? Why was he able to speak... and think? He shook his head. No, it mattered not right now. He had to find Moridilas. Without the king, how would the elves survive? How would *he* survive?

He heard a cough coming from a nearby chamber... he galloped as fast as he could to the source...

There, in the chamber, was a massive shattered crystal. Amidst the shards, a charred elf, still clearly alive. Azure immediately recognized the armor he wore... it was Moridilas!

Azure ran up to him. The once beautiful, fair-skinned, blonde elf was now charred and bald, his skin flaking off into the magical dust... he looked up at Azure and smiled at him.

"We did it, Azure... we saved the world." Moridilas said with a cough.

"Moridilas! What happened?" Azure asked.

Moridilas cocked his head...

"I must be going mad, close to death... I swear I just heard you talk..." he chuckled, then coughed, reaching up to rub Azure's chin.

"I did talk, Moridilas! You are no more mad than I am, now please, tell me what happened here."

"The mad god wanted the tree of life... so we gave it to him... overloaded with the magic only the elves can muster." he said, followed by a violent coughing fit.

"We took him with us to the realms of death, Azure... and we left you behind... I'm sorry."

"Left me behind? But you're here now! Come on, Moridilas! Ride on me once more, we'll find one of those healers!" Azure' said, nudging Moridilas with his snout.

Moridilas chuckled. "You were always more than a mount, Azure, you were a good friend... no... I'm beyond help..."

"No! You are not beyond help, I can save you! I will save you!" Azure's voice cracked.

"Azure... Azure... it must be. The elven kingdom is yours now... find your people, and go to the Great Library of Lorthilania..."

"You'll go to the library of Lorthilania, Moridilas! Do not abandon me!" he said, nuzzling against Moridilas' face.

"Shh.... find your people... take them to Lorthilania... find the Book of Gods..."

"What is a book?!" Azure pleaded, tears streaming from his blue eyes.

"Take my bag... I am too weak to lift it... the key to the library is inside."

Azure shook his head.

"Get up, Moridilas... please!"

the elven king reached out with his hand to pet his old friend once more before it flaked away into the singularity of magical energy.

Azure lay down on the crystals next to the king, nuzzling him, doing his best to keep back the tears.

"Promise me, Azure... promise me you will rebuild..."

"I don't know how."

"You will find a way, old friend... now promise me..."

"I promise, Moridilas..."

"Thank you..."

Moridilas wrapped his arm around the horse in a hug, holding him tightly even as he slowly vaporized to join the Arcane Singularity. In that place, Azure was alone. the only sound being the dwindling cries of the dying, but the humming of the shattered crystal.

The satchel lay on the ground... the only thing not destroyed... Using his horn, he slowly picked up the bag and let the strap slide over his neck. Wearing the bag like a necklace... he had to find a way to open it with hooves... that would come later...

"Find your people," he had said... his people? The other unicorns? Did they even survive the cataclysm? If elves were felled by the magical energies they themselves had unleashed, what hope does anything else have?

Azure trotted out of the room, turning back to look upon the crystals where his rider, the great king of the elves, breathed his last...

"I promise..." he said, continuing his trot out into the blasted elven lands.