Cleansing and Sacrifice The Legend of the Lute of Saint Dira

The World was in flames. Civilisation was not through Hell yet. As the Second Uprising began, Rethren found itself burned by demons, though not Chained; they were lesser only by name. The Castle burned once again and prophets spoke of a warrior who would cleans the lands, though at a great cost to himself. This prophecy was wrong. A woman, a healer and a bard appeared at Dagfar, to take on the lesser demon by herself. No one knew where she had come from, she was simply there. She picked up her lute and sang as the fires rolled around her. The demon fell in love with her, and begged for her to join him at the helm of a new Kingdom. The demon took the form of a young man to tempt her, and so she was. Drawn into his arms they embraced, and took forth to a new Kingdom. As they lay together in bed, the woman, Dira plunged a dagger into the Demon, causing him to roar with pain. This was no physical pain, but the emotion this demon felt overwhelmed him and he died of a broken heart.
As Dira stood on the balcony of the Castle, she was met by boo’s and hatred, the people feeling that she had left them. She cried out stating this was not true, and the Gods appeared to support this. They gave their word and a promise that as long as Dira’s lute remained in the Court, then demons would leave the land forever. Dira obtained the title of Saint and left with the Gods to never return to this land.

Writer’s notes: It appears as if this story comes off as fake, most stories of the Gods are. Somehow I can’t shake the feeling that this is not the only reference to Dira’s life. Legends speak of a Journal she kept, if I could find that, I could find out the Lute’s secrets and maybe it’s location.
Details on the notebook place it somewhere in the Kanderian Mountains Monastery, though monks have always been slow to give up their secrets, I must go appeal to them.

The First Years of the First Age: The Fall of Rethren

As the Arch Demons fell Rethren built himself a kingdom. He stood here and ruled until his assassination by a political rival. He was a corrupt leader, selling his own people to slavery in barbaric lands that were still recovering from demonic rule. Scholars made great strides in these first few years, copying what was left in the Demons’ ruin. This should have guaranteed the Rethren Empire a place in the heavens themselves, but for their leader. He spent the treasuries of Rethren on drink and lustful endevors, importing consorts and whores for his own pleasure. Soon the people revolted and threw down the shackles of their oppressor. His name has been stricken from the records and no one to this day knows the name of the man who brought down the Empire.

The spring after the First Revolution, the quickly rising Yetereth Empire stormed the borders in hordes, slaughtering the poorly managed Rethren armies and claiming it as a province of its great new power. The people of Rethren would be subjected to the will of this powerful empire for many generations to come.

Blood Rituals

Magic, or as it’s definition see it as, does not exist in this world. What does exist is a series of laws passed down by the Gods themselves. These are used through ancient scrolls and rituals which have the Gods’ touch on them. One section of these are the Blood Rituals, a dark and evil art set forward by the Creator of Demons: Jerith. Jerith believed that if one was willing to give up a piece of himself to the Gods, then he should be entitled to a reward. From this came the Blood Rituals of Power, allowing the Arch Demons to bind their enemies, and enslave them to further their own gains. Such knowledge has been lost in this age, though some carefully conceal what they know, seeing that this might save them another day.

The Chained

The Chained were once known as the Arch Demons. They ruled the known world before the time of the First Age. Humans then were as simple as any other animal. They were wild game, livestock, and simple slaughter. This continued until The Unification. This was the one time in history Ledre ever united under one flag. Humans, led by the High King Rethren, hence the name of the province now bearing it, confronted the Hordes of Arch Demons at the Plains of Harrowing. It was here, that Rethren, sacrificed his eldest son, to invoke a blood ritual, whose history is older than the demons even recall. In this ritual the demonic powers that kept the Arch Demons bound to their bodies were severed, binding the souls to the Royal Blood instead. This should have been an unbinding contract with the Gods, however this has not been the case.

Battle of Grethorin

And so we fought, not for money or for glory, but for our families and homeland we wanted our children to see. We wanted to look up from the heav’ns to see our children’s children playing in the streets of Dagfar, in the waters of Hurreson, and in the Harmonic Woods. This was our dream, and we would achieve it, though not in my life time I believe

The Battle of Grethorin was the final battle in the War of Freedoms for the people of Retheren as they fought the Tyranny of the Yetereth Empire.  Though outnumbered a battalion of 6000 men fought off the armies resting only when the roads were so clogged of dead that the Yeterethians could not pass.  The legends say they fought for a week straight without respite, drinking their sweat and the blood of their enemies.  This terrified the armies of the Yetereth, but for Retherens, it was simple survival, they would fight to the death for their homelands and it was on this battlefield during the few respites, that the Poetry of the Damned began to appear for the first time

My Child I yearn to see thee
The black clouds of death and greed
We fight for mercy, apathy and freedom
We will die in this place
And we will be forgotten
By those who did love us
And By those who spat on us
We are the Damned
-Anonymous-

The crude poems inspired the people still in cities to rally towards their troops, the men; young and old took up their arms.  The women worked for the men, and the courage of the people of Retheren drove them off and in the 125^th year of the 2nd Age.  Retheren had their home, and have maintained until the 3rd Age

Map: Rethern

Map: Ledre