The Eternal Winter Saga

 By Matthew Knight and Gordon Burchell

Edited by Daniel Siceloff

 

 

Prologue

 

FAR BEYOND the reality of mortals, deep in the realm of fantasy resides Eternal Winter, The Realm of Ereyth…

In ancient times, before the world was divided, before the reign of dark magic… All was ruled by the God Ereyth and the Goddess Sarna.  It was then that the world was at peace.  Nature flourished and all creatures of the earth lived in harmonious tranquility.  Together with their tremendous power, love, and wisdom of the ages, the God and Goddess created many wondrous and great things.  For as long as Ereyth and Sarna ruled together as one, nothing could threaten this peaceful realm.  For many eons the world remained in joyful serenity and all was fair and good.

There came a time, however, when some of these beings they created began to learn of magic and sorcery.  Many of their magical arts were used for good, and Ereyth and Sarna rejoiced in the glory of their creation.  But then, some of the wizards and sorcerers turned to dark magic and began creating arcane spells of evil and destruction. 

The most powerful of these wizards was Voraxia.  Through much dark knowledge and evil wizardry, Voraxia gained more and more power as time went on.  Eventually coming to God-like status, he sought to unleash chaos throughout the world.  Voraxia desired the beautiful Goddess Sarna and despised Ereyth.  In his malice, he held much hateful resentment toward the great God…for Sarna and Ereyth had been deeply in love since before the beginning of time.  As long as they reigned together, chaos would never rule. 

At the climax of his rise to power, Voraxia summoned the deepest magic he could conjure. With this, he cast an evil spell which split the world into two realms.  With his extreme power, he violently stormed the heavens and tore the God and Goddess away from one another.  With his magic he banished Ereyth to one half of the world, never to be united with Sarna again.  This would become Eternal Winter, The Realm of Ereyth.  Voraxia then cast a spell which condemned this realm to forever dwell in snow and ice.  In Eternal Winter’s wastelands, he released evil creatures and dark mages who used their sorcery to spread terror across the land.  Many of the good wizards and clerics attempted to reverse the spell and melt the everlasting ice tormenting the world…but none succeeded.  Horrors lurking in the world continually threatened the peace of all whom inhabited the frozen realm.  Bound by the spell, Ereyth remained powerless as long as Eternal Winter reigned.

Voraxia then banished the Goddess Sarna to the other half of the world, separated from Ereyth.  This realm would come to be known as The Unknown Lands of Sarna.  These lands were never to be looked upon by any of the beings created by Ereyth and Sarna.  For these creatures, which Voraxia loathed, were condemned to suffer in Eternal Winter for all time. In her realm, Sarna was free to create and rule as she pleased.  For after his complete rise to total Godliness, The dark wizard planned to rule beside her.  She would belong to him and the world would know the true power of Voraxia!

It was then that Voraxia created The Castle Shadowgate.  This was an evil castle between dimensions which served as a gateway between the two realms.  Inhabited by demons and other horrid creatures of chaos, only those who possessed extreme dark magical powers could cross over through the Shadowgate.  Many of the good wizards of Ereyth’s realm were torn from their world and transformed into dark mages and sentenced to forever dwell in the castle, guarding the dimensional gateway for all eternity.

Voraxia’s final and most Sinister creation was the ultimate incarnation of evil.  This horrible monster was The Nightmare Phantasm.  Made of pure chaos-energy, the Phantasm was an enormous being.  It was the largest and most powerful to ever exist.  Its purpose was to continuously manifest evil and spread terror in The Realm of Ereyth.  Voraxia constructed a great fortress beyond the northern mountain ranges in Sarna’s realm to hold the mighty creature.  What he did not expect was that his perverse creation was so powerful he wouldn’t be able to control it.  The Nightmare Phantasm eventually devoured Voraxia, vanquishing the ancient wizard from existence.

And so, Voraxia was destroyed…But the devastating impact of his corrupt influence and evil deeds would remain.  The world was divided and the great God and Goddess hopelessly separated.  The Realm of Ereyth under the spell of Eternal Winter, and the beautiful Realm of Sarna unknown and unreachable to all.  The Nightmare Phantasm still lived, and at its leisure would release evil into the world.  It seemed that all was doomed and the end was near…     

 Unless one would set forth an epic turn of events to alter the fate of the world…one from The Realm of Ereyeth…The Land of Eternal Winter.