One day it will end and the Word will be destroyed, because the magic of the Void has always been the stronger of the two. The frailties and weaknesses of Mankind are insurmountable. Those same weaknesses are the strengths the Void will exploit to ensure that destruction. —Findo Gask
ntil recently, we knew very little about the actual events that occurred during the last centuries of the Old World. But our attempts to gather and catalog knowledge from obscure sources have resulted in the discovery of a number of previously unknown manuscripts, both Elven and human. These documents contain new information about the darkest and least known period of human history: the collapse and destruction of the Old World. These fragile pages are all the more surprising because some of them actually date from the time of the Great Wars and the collapse of the Old World civilization. They make up the only surviving written record of a time when the world was in complete chaos, when almost every living creature was more intent on survival than on preserving information for an uncertain future. Yet these unknown authors somehow found a way to preserve their knowledge in the hope that a future generation might discover it. Though incomplete, the manuscripts provide new insights into the mystery of human survival during those dark times and may give scholars a clearer understanding of the forces that led to the collapse. What follows is an attempt to create a tapestry of the final era of a world that is long since lost to us, a world where the Void fought and won ascendance over the Word, and where human- and Elvenkind alike struggled to survive as the world they knew turned to ruin.
—Khyber Elessedil
The struggle between the Word and the Void, good and evil, order and destruction began at the dawn of time and will almost certainly go on until the final end of all things. The Word is the force for life, order, and balance, while the Void is death, chaos, and imbalance. Both seek to control the magic that is the lifeblood of the world. The Word seeks to maintain balance and harmony, the Void to usurp the magic and use it for dominance and destruction.
Throughout most of known history the war has raged, with neither Word nor Void able to gain a clear victory. In the time of Faerie, the Word rose to ascendancy upon the banishment of the demons into the Forbidding. In that time, Elves and creatures of magic joined in the struggle to keep the magic in balance and hold the Void at bay. But humans changed all that. As humans grew in number and began to take over the earth from the creatures of Faerie, the Void saw an opportunity to turn the tide. Unlike the Elves and Faerie creatures, humans were largely blind to the magic around them and unaware of the precarious balance of their world. The Word relied on the strengths of the human heart and will to protect the world, while the Void relied on human frailties, greed, and ignorance to destroy it.
Khyber Elessedil, Elven Princess and Druid.
During the last centuries before the collapse of civilization, only a special few among humankind even knew that magic existed and understood the need to protect the balance. Most believed the world was simply theirs to exploit, an attitude that made them willing pawns for the Void. Those who could have provided guidance, such as the Elves, withdrew into their own hidden enclaves, becoming little more than myth.
The Void used this fertile ground to sow the seeds of destruction, seducing souls already twisted with greed and hatred with promises of unlimited power. The Void nurtured their inner darkness until they rotted within, eventually shedding their humanity entirely to become servants of the Void. These disciples of darkness became demons, front-line generals for the Void.
Though not the same as the dark creatures of Faerie locked within the Forbidding, these demons were all the more dangerous because they came from human stock. They still carried the withered husks of their humanity within them, the better to recognize and corrupt others. They were particularly dangerous because they could use their lost humanity to masquerade as Men and walk undetected among the population. These demons used their understanding of human weaknesses to spread their poison among willing hosts, gradually growing in number over the years as humanity lost faith with itself and compassion for its world.
The promise of unlimited power and the potential of eternal life proved a powerful inducement. But it was a dangerous promise. To gain such power, demons had to sacrifice everything that made them human to embrace the Void. Once pledged, they began to shed their human trappings, rotting from within even as their bodies changed around them. Their baser instincts and darkest desires took over, causing their souls to wither and shrink as all that was good within them died. Eventually, their humanity became nothing but a memory, their withered souls reduced to blackened, dried husks. Any passion for life usually turned to a hatred of those still human.
Findo Gask
Findo Gask may have been the longest-lived demon in human history. Even Gask himself once admitted that he could not remember the century of his turning, much less of his birth. What cannot be disputed is the fact that Findo Gask sowed death, pain, and destruction throughout his life. It was Gask who planned and created slave camps and demon breeding programs during the final days of the Old World. It is speculated that he may have also played a part in inspiring the Spanish Inquisition and the Nazi experimental labs and death camps in previous centuries.
Best known for his “preacher” guise, Gask liked to look frail. As an old man, wearing a wide-brimmed hat dressed all in black and carrying a large black leather book, looking much like a preacher from earlier times, he easily gained access to his victims. In the time before the Great Wars, he was never seen without that special book. Most who saw him believed he clutched a revered religious book. But Gask’s only religion was that of the Void. And the large black leather-bound tome was the Book of Names, a talisman of death that magically recorded the names of his victims as they died, allowing him to savor the memory of their deaths.
Unlike most who embraced the Void, Gask did not become a demon for reasons of passion, but because of a driving curiosity. Wickedly brilliant, he liked to experiment—preferably on live subjects. He wanted the unlimited time and power that service to the Void would give him so that he could indulge his curiosity. His cool, calculating mind and his immunity to the passions that drove others were probably responsible for both his success and his lengthy survival. He wanted to know how things worked, what drove humans to the edge, and how they died. Eventually, he wanted to know how to make demons out of children. After years of experimentation and untold thousands of victims, his breeding program proved horrifically successful.
Gask was more than a scientist. As a tactician, he led the armies of once-men and demons that eventually overran the American continent.
Findo Gask was also a ruthless opponent of the Word, earning a reputation for hunting down and killing Knights of the Word.
Once its servants were transformed, the Void required only that they survive while following their dark nature. For most, that nature included working toward the complete destruction and eradication of the human race—satisfying their own base desires along the way. Thus would the Void triumph over the Word and demonkind inherit the earth.
Demons are able to take on any form they desire, but they often remain surprisingly connected to their human origins, choosing to appear human. In most cases, demons choose a human form that will allow them to blend in with their intended prey. But some choose that form simply because they cannot totally forsake the very humanity they despise. Some have claimed that they find themselves inexplicably longing for human companionship while being driven at the same time to destroy those humans. This dichotomy, when paired with the demonic inclination to indulge in excess, may be responsible for the tendency of many demons to self-destruct early in their “careers.”
For most demons, time is required to build the new body, or shell, that will contain their blackened essence. The process usually begins as the original body starts to rot away. Unlike that original body, the shell is simply a container and disguise; it can be damaged or destroyed without killing the demon inside. So long as the central essence remains intact, the demon simply discards the ruined shell, goes into hiding for a time—sometimes months—and creates a new one. Such destruction probably causes pain for the demon—though many demons enjoy pain—and certainly creates a hardship by forcing the creature to go to ground while it grows the new body. But the process does not kill. The only way to kill a demon is to destroy the vile blackened husk encased within the body. Too many so-called demon hunters failed to kill their foe because they succeeded in destroying the demon’s body but did not notice the winged essence escaping.
For some demons, however, the loss of a shell is simply a minor irritation. These rare shape-shifting demons have the ability to grow a body within moments instead of days or months. They can change form almost at will, becoming anyone or anything. Many of these shape-shifters use this ability to infiltrate sensitive areas without causing suspicion. They simply kill someone who has access and take his or her place. Some of them have been known to remain undiscovered for years. Some may never have been discovered. Shape-shifters often use a separate, more bestial, form when they hunt. The speed of their transformation allows them to explore their desires, often turning themselves into fearsome killing machines dredged from the darkest part of their warped imaginations.
The Ur’droch
The ur’droch was a type of rare demon that lacked a solid form. While most demons adopted human bodies or the forms of fearsome predators, the ur’droch chose to avoid any particular form at all. Existing as an indefinable shadow that could climb or hang on any surface, it could become part of the darkness, waiting to attack unsuspecting prey. A shadow creature shunned even by other demons, the ur’droch preferred a solitary existence, lurking in dark corners or hidden crevices. It never spoke, avoiding contact with others, even other demons. Yet with the ability to sprout teeth or claws at need, the ur’droch was particularly deadly. Its amorphous nature helped to make it virtually indestructible. Since most demons chose their forms based on their human desires or lives, it is difficult to imagine what forces could have driven the human beneath the ur’droch to sink so far from its origins.
The demonic transformation also brings power and, for most, access to magic. Each demon has different abilities, often dependent on the person each once was. Most develop the ability to warp perceptions and cloud the minds of their victims. Many can kill or wound with a touch. Some can do it with a look. In the centuries immediately preceding the Great Wars, demons focused their efforts on manipulating humanity’s own baser instincts, sometimes subtly swaying those already susceptible to suggestion to make damaging choices. After the wars, all attempts at subtlety were abandoned in favor of blatant destruction.
The Word, too, chose champions, recruiting warriors strong of heart and soul who were willing to pledge their lives to protect the world and defeat the forces of the Void. These men and women, Knights of the Word, were always fewer in number than the demons. But they made up for this in dedication and valor, each willing to make any sacrifice to protect the balance and keep the demons at bay. Usually chosen from the best and bravest warriors of their day, these Knights were given only one weapon, a magic staff that served as both talisman and weapon. That staff and their own courage were all that stood between them and their enemies.
Unlike demons, who could evolve from once-men or be recruited by other demons, Knights could only be created by the Word at the hands of the Lady who was its voice. Once Knights embraced the Lady, they were bound forever to their charge. Only she could grant release.
To Become a Knight
Before the Great Wars, the Word summoned its chosen Knights by calling them to Betwys-y-Coed in Wales, to a place called the Fairy Glen. There, those deemed worthy often came upon strange sights. John Ross met a fisherman enjoying the waters of the glen, only to find that this angler was much more than he seemed. A former Knight of the Word, he was Owain Glyndwr, a Welsh Knight dead several hundred years at the time—and John’s remote ancestor.
The ceremony always took place at night, the only time the fairies come out. The Lady, always ageless, ethereal, and beautiful beyond human imagining, personally met her Knights, told them of the need, and accepted their service with an embrace.
In later years when the Void held sway, the Lady met her Knights solely in dreams, though she was still accompanied by her trusted fisherman warrior
The Rune Staff of the Knights of the Word
Knights of the Word are charged with great responsibility and given great magic to accomplish their tasks. The rune staff they carry is both the symbol of their office and the source of their great magic. Appearing at rest to be nothing more than a highly polished black walnut walking stick, the staff is unique to each Knight, answering only the touch of its owner. Once the magic is summoned, the silver runes etched into the staff pulse and glow with power.
Most Knights lived a solitary, nomadic existence, fighting demons by day and haunted by their dreams at night. The dreams were a part of Knighthood. In the centuries before the Fall, Knights lived and fought in two worlds: the present when awake, and the future while they slept. In both, the Knights fought a never-ending battle against the forces of the Void, but in the dreams they were forced to face the future world of their failures. The devastation of that future was both a horrific reminder of the price of failure, and a source of vital information for their success in the present. The events they were forced to endure in the future could always be avoided or postponed by actions in the present. Both present and future were real, though the future followed no set time line and could change as events in the present unfolded. Knights often died in their dreams, sometimes more than once.
Honor Roll of the Knights of the Word
Throughout history, many Knights have proven themselves in battle for the Word. While all have been worthy, a few have earned a reputation and honor beyond those of their peers.
Owain Glyndwr forsook the needs of his countrymen to serve the Lady, and now has the honor of serving at her right hand for eternity.
John Ross, once crippled for trying to reject the staff, went on to save Nest Freemark from falling prey to demonic influences. He gave his life protecting the gypsy morph from Findo Gask.
Angel Perez overcame her childhood in the broken barrio of Los Angeles to rescue thousands of children and serve as protector to the Elves of Cintra.
Logan Tom, Knight of the Word.
Logan Tom saved thousands from imprisonment in slave camps and became the protector of Hawk, the gypsy morph, and his chosen family.
Unfortunately, there was a price to pay for living in both present and future at once. The magic of the staff worked in Knights’ dreams only if it had not been exhausted in the present. If Knights were forced to summon their magic in the present, they’d have to spend an entire night of dreaming in the future without any means of defense. This tended to make Knights very careful about expending magic, as the suffering they endured in the future felt very real, for all that it left no lasting physical effects.
Some faltered under the intense pressure of battling demons night and day. These Knights became potential prizes for the servants of the Void, who immediately sought to turn them to the Void through treachery and deceit. Once turned, Knights of the Word are dangerous opponents, for their magic is just as powerful working for the demons as against them. Only a few Knights have fallen to the lure of the dark, and most of those lived only long enough to regret it.
O’olish Amaneh
Shaman, warrior, and prophet, O’olish Amaneh was the last known survivor of the Sinnissippi Indians. Known as Two Bears, Amaneh was born in Springfield, Illinois. One of three children born to the last of the pure-blood Sinnissippi descendants, Two Bears lost his father to drink when he was a young man. His mother died of a broken heart soon after. His brother was killed in a fall from a construction site in New York City, and his sister died from a drug overdose alone on the streets of Chicago, leaving him the last of a forgotten tribe.
Two Bears fought during the Vietnam War as a LURP, serving on long-range reconnaissance patrols deep into enemy territory. A ruthless and skilled fighter, he was credited with many verified enemy kills, and even more rumored. Some say he killed so often that for him the line between life and death became blurred, leaving him able to move back and forth between the worlds of the living and the dead. Some say he died in the jungles of Southeast Asia and that it was his ghost that returned home. What is known is that he returned from the war changed: unafraid of death, but forever altered by its close embrace. After the war, he almost never removed his military jacket and unit patches.
Two Bears became a shaman while serving in Vietnam, claiming that his powers were revealed to him during the war’s madness. He used his shamanic powers to connect with the spirits of his people and to help others in need of guidance or knowledge. But his connection to magic extended far beyond his shamanic skills, for O’olish Amaneh also became a servant of the Word. Something more than a Knight, he never bore a staff of his own, though he handled many. Serving as the Lady’s emissary and enforcer, O’olish Amaneh placed each new staff in the hands of its Knight, and recovered each staff once its time was done. He also prevented Knights of the Word from giving up their charge or falling to the Void, using deadly force if necessary.
There is no record of Two Bears’s death. He was last seen just before the final destruction of the Old World, during the collapse more than 150 years after his birth, still wearing his Vietnam jacket.
Most Knights, however, did not falter. They found ways to use what they had gleaned from their dreams of the future to push that future back. For hundreds of years, the Knights succeeded in keeping the demons from taking control of the world, though they never managed to defeat them completely. Then, in the time known as the twentieth century by Old World reckoning, things began to change. Pollution from human factories and machines began to damage the earth. Conflicts that had previously been limited to a single region took on global proportions. And humans, almost certainly aided by demonic machinations, created weapons capable of destroying the planet. The Void slowly gained power as more and more people gave in to their baser natures, becoming fodder for demons.
Of course most people knew nothing of the battle that raged around them, even those drawn into the conflict as victims or pawns. Blind to magic in all but its most extreme applications, they simply went about their lives completely unaware of either demons or Knights. But there were exceptions: people who were born with magic or who came from a culture that had embraced the magic with the old ways.
Certain tribal cultures, like those of American Indians and Tibetan monks, recognized magic and understood the need to protect the world and its wild places. Some individuals even fought for the Word either as or alongside its paladins.
One such tribe, the Sinnissippi Indians, protected a large swath of the land known as Illinois along the Rock River Valley. Their territory included one of the oldest forests in that region, also one of the old sources of earth magic. For centuries, they lived as one with the land and the forest creatures. But in time they, too, lost focus and began to turn away. Despite their dedication to the land and its magic, they fell prey to the ravages of their own flaws, eventually dispersing until nothing was left of the tribe but their name and their dead. The name was reduced to a sign on a city park.
The last surviving member of this lost tribe, O’olish Amaneh, became a servant of the Word. It is only through his words, passed down from those who knew him, that his people are remembered.
There were also rare cases of individuals born into magic. This talent was usually hereditary, as in the case of the Freemarks of Hopewell, Illinois. In this family, the ability was passed through the women, though not always in a direct line. The first of the women known to have had the use of magic was Gwendolyn Wills, followed by her daughter Caroline Glynn, then Caroline’s grandniece Opal Anders, then her niece Evelyn Freemark, Evelyn’s daughter Caitlin Freemark, and her daughter Nest Freemark. The gifted Freemark women joined with the local sylvan to protect the ancient forest nearby and keep stable the balance of the magic. It was one of the few cases in the last centuries of the Old World in which humans and forest creatures joined forces to work for the good of the world.
The Sylvans
Sylvans were a Race of forest creature whose origins date to the time of Faerie. Born in pods, they were usually only six inches tall and looked like animated dolls made of leaves and sticks. Each sylvan spent its life protecting the magical balance of the woodland or wild area into which it was born, usually with the help of an owl assistant. In rare cases, as with the sylvan known as Pick—who protected Sinnissippi Park of Hopewell, Illinois—they had assistance from people or Elves who were also aware of the magic.
Sylvans became extinct during the Great Wars when so many creatures died with the destruction of the world.
The Maentwrog
An old Indian legend tells of the year madness and sorrow found the Sinnissippi. It was the year the maentwrog chose to feed in the Rock River Valley. The creature, a huge mass of powerful sinew and wicked claws, was one of only a handful that had originated thousands of years earlier in the time of Faerie. No one knows why the maentwrog came to the river valley, though some say it must have been sleeping deep in the forest, possibly for hundreds of years, until the smell of the Sinnissippi people awakened it and drew it forth to feed. The creature had an appetite not for flesh and blood, but for souls. It rampaged through the forest and into the villages, preying on humans and animals alike. It did not kill them, though. Rather, it tore their souls out of their bodies while they still lived. It feasted on those souls, leaving their bodies hollow and their minds consumed by madness.
Tribe members sent their best warriors against the beast, knowing it had to be stopped, but they could not kill it. The maentwrog was a ruthless raver, a berserker bent on destruction, but it was not a mindless beast. It hunted with skill and cunning, outwitting and defeating the bravest and strongest warriors. The shamans of the Sinnissippi realized the creature could be stopped only with magic. They also knew they lacked the power to kill it. They would have to find another way.
On a bright moonlit night when the magic was strong, all the medicine men and women gathered their might together in the depth of the ancient forest and wove a trap for the maentwrog. To bring out the creature, one of their own offered it the soul of a shaman. The maentwrog came forth, unable to resist the temptation of such a soul. But before it could devour him, the shaman sacrificed himself to close the trap, sealing the creature inside the living wood of an oak born of earth and blood magic.
For hundreds of years the legend of the white oak passed down through the medicine men and women to their children, and through the sylvans of the forest to one another. But eventually the Sinnissippi and the legend passed from the memory of Man. Only the tree and the monster it held remained, mute testament to the forgotten shaman who gave his life to keep the maentwrog locked away. For many years, only the sylvan guardian and the ghosts of the Sinnissippi knew the truth.
The great white oak died when a demon released the maentwrog with its own blood magic. But the maentwrog did not survive long, falling to the stronger magic of John Ross, Knight of the Word.
But such talent also tended to bring unwanted attention from the servants of the Void. Some of the Freemark women discovered themselves interacting with demons as the Void sought either to control their magic or to render them ineffective.
The most famous of these women was Nest Freemark, who joined forces with both a sylvan and a Knight of the Word to fight demons. She is credited with giving life and permanent form to the legendary gypsy morph. Named for the wife and mother of Welsh and English kings, Nest was the sixth and last of the talented Freemark women, heir to a tradition of magic and responsibility. But she was also unique in that she carried not only her mother’s magic but also that of her father, who was a demon of the Void. Her mother, Caitlin Freemark, died as a result of that demon’s treachery. Nest’s unusual heritage made her a valuable asset to either Word or Void. She had to choose her path and learn to fight for that choice at the age of fourteen. She was aided in her battle by John Ross, and by Wraith, her guardian demon-hound. But Wraith, though born of demon magic, had been changed by Evelyn Freemark’s human magic into something much greater. His dual nature gave him the ability to save Nest from her demon-father once she made her choice to stand on the side of the Word.
The Gypsy Morph
Gypsy morphs are extremely rare magical beings formed of shards of loose, wild magic that come together in the ether. A morph had the potential of becoming a weapon of incredible power. But a morph’s wild magic is rare and unstable and can only hold together for a short time—a month at most—before breaking apart again. If the morph can find a form that suits it, it can last longer, taking on at least the life span of the thing or person it becomes. Each morph is unique, its magic like no other. Wild magic, such as morphs are made of, is unpredictable, with the potential to become either good or evil. Unlike most creatures, morphs are not created by the Word, but are a consequence of other creations and energies. A morph comes into being because the world is the way it is, full of various magics and the consequences of using them.
A morph first materializes in a shimmer of lights, a collection of glowing motes. It can be caught only with a magical, gossamer light net designed to be attracted to the morph and close about it on its own, sealing it in. Morphs begin to change immediately after their appearance. Unfortunately, such changes attract demons by affecting power lines in the earth. At first morphs change very rapidly from one thing to the next. After a time, the number and frequency of changes diminish. During this process morphs are self-sustaining, needing no external food or drink.
While demons are drawn to morphs, they can recognize them only when they are actively using their magic. There have been only a handful of occasions in the course of history in which the servants of either the Word or the Void managed to find a way to both capture and unlock the magic of a morph. Stories of gypsy morphs are the stuff of legends whispered in awe.
The last known morph appeared approximately eighty years before the Great Wars. It was captured and protected by John Ross, and eventually unlocked by Nest Freemark. It used its last transformation to become her unborn child. Sometime in adolescence the boy disappeared, only to return decades later as the street child known as Hawk, carrying both the wild magic of the morph and the combined demon–human magic that was Nest Freemark’s legacy.
Hawk, unaware that he was either gypsy morph or Nest Freemark’s son, became the leader of the Ghosts, a tribe of street children, and shared with them his dream of leading them all to a safe future.
Tatterdemalions
Tatterdemalions are magical creatures having the appearance of waif-like children with unusually large eyes. Largely insubstantial, they are made of air and the coalescing memories and dreams of dead children. They are born fully grown and do not age, but live only a short time. Most tatterdemalions take on the aspects of the children who formed them, becoming something of those youngsters themselves, but they can never achieve real substance. They can access some of the memories of which they are made, but they have no memories of their own.
Tatterdemalions come together mostly by chance, wander about like ghosts, and then fade. It is magic that shapes and binds them for the short time they exist, and when the magic can no longer hold them together, the memories and dreams simply scatter into the wind and the child-like creature dissipates to nothing.
Despite their incredibly fragile and short-lived nature, they are among the few Faerie creatures to survive the unbalancing of magic by the demons. Tatterdemalions usually serve as messengers for the Word, able to travel anywhere in the world on the back of the wind.
Demons cannot hide from a tatterdemalion, who can sense demon-stink, or demon presence, as well as recognize those the demon has touched or claimed. While this is an invaluable ability, it also makes tatterdemalions prime targets for demons. This, combined with their very short life spans and extreme vulnerability, leaves them in a constant state of fear. Yet most are amazingly courageous, often giving their all-too-brief lives to protect others.
Following in her grandmother’s footsteps, Nest used her gift to assist the local sylvan in caring for the old-growth forest, one of the last ancient places of magic in the land of America. She was also a gifted athlete, an Olympic champion runner in middle-distance events, setting records that stood for many years. It is not known whether her great talent was simply a natural gift or whether it was related to her inborn magic.
Her greatest accomplishment, however, was in unlocking the secret of the gypsy morph, the being that was the key to salvation for both human and Elven Races. The gypsy morph became her unborn child in its final transformation. She gave birth to the boy it became, creating a legacy of human, demon, and wild magic never previously known to exist.
Even years after her death, Nest’s magic continued to protect those she loved. The bones of her left hand became the magic talisman that guided and protected her son in his new incarnation as Hawk.
Unfortunately, people like Nest and her family, who understood the importance of the precarious balance of the world, were too few and the demons in the world too many. Global warming and pollution caused by human carelessness began to change the planet. Animosities among races, religions, and political bodies grew into bitter hatred and finally into open conflict. Eventually, as the world grew more and more hostile, order began to break down and the countries of the world turned against one another in the greatest holocaust since the demons of the Forbidding ran free. Nuclear weapons, biological weapons, poison gas, and all manner of explosives devastated entire continents. Governments failed; famine and disease spread. Technologies of all kinds became useless with the loss of power grids and communications arrays. Satellite systems broke down as the complexes designed to monitor them were destroyed, and the world slid into barbarism and chaos. Eventually the balance tipped in favor of the Void, leaving most of humanity struggling to stay alive as demons led once-men in a bloody rampage across the planet.