Of Times Forgotten...

It is important to note here that the Scions of Baal’morda were not, until much later, an invasion force that swept across the world. Instead, they had chosen more subtle means. Some would go on to become governors and magistrates in far off lands. Some were the seers and sorcerers who gave counsel to the kings of Sosaria’s many city-states. But wherever they went, the Affliction followed. And so, over the next thirty years, the Scions of Baal’morda made their way throughout the realm, infecting and feeding on the innocent. Smaller villages, like Minoc and Paws, were the first to experience the Affliction. But most were unaware of the nature of the illness. As the Affliction spread, the healers of the land found themselves helpless to aide the sick. Those were the years of the great plague, when whole families were consumed by the debilitating sickness. The entire continent turned to the Sacred Order of the Ankh — an order of healers and paladins who were renown for their restorative powers and ability to combat the undead. They traveled the land, tending to the sick, and ridding rural regions of the undead that had arisen with more frequency since the coming of the Scions.

But there was a fatal flaw in the Scions’ conquest. For each new soul that fell to the Affliction, more strength was required to gather the essence provided. And exerting that strength only caused them to use up valuable essence. The more they received, the more they needed. And so their conquests continued. And the Affliction rampaged across Sosaria. Eventually the Scions realized that the life force possessed by humans was not sufficient to sustain them. Something more powerful was required. For a time, they experimented with the dragons and wyrms that dwelt in the bowels of the land — but the effort proved too costly, for the power they expended in order to defeat the things made the effort only marginally effective.

And so it was that the Scion Mord’chaal, disguised as a soothsayer named Alarien who had gained the ear of Lord Devenmoor of Vesper, made his greatest discovery... the existence of the elves. He was told of the elves’ legendary longevity, and how their essence was brimming with magical energy. And how Mord’chaal lusted for that essence! They would be difficult to find — the elves had become more reclusive in recent years, eager to distance themselves from the plague that ravaged the human populations. But the hunger was great, and the Scion would stop at nothing to find them.

It was nearly a year later when a small village of elves hidden near Vesper became the first of their kind to become acquainted with the Scions. Mord’chaal led a force of undead into the small glade — a tactic that had not been used by the Scions since they had marched on Ocllo years before. Using the strength of numbers, and an array of Daemonic magic, he surrounded and overcame the elves. Imprisoning the survivors, he used his dark mana to corrupt them. Feeding upon their life was the greatest satisfaction he had ever known. He felt certain that he could have fed on them for an eternity. He had no way of knowing that the elves, with a nature far different than men, would not be twisted and remain his food. Had Mord’chaal seen the signs he would have known that the dark mana was not truly draining them, but changing them. They would not have provided him sustenance for long. But his attention was elsewhere. He sent word to his two most trusted allies, Mord’entaril and Mord’varek. He held the elves for nearly a month, until the others arrived.

But his waiting was to be his downfall. As fate would have it, a woodsman that had resided near the elven community for years witnessed both the attack and the continued presence of the undead. The news he brought to the city of Vesper, which reached the ears of Paladins of the Ankh, would begin the slow unraveling of three decades of building and planning by the Scions of Baal’morda.