"Tellinor The Second Age" by Christopher M Cosby

The second age; the world grew and the lands flourish as the vanir tended the gardens, trees and creatures. They made easy their tasked enchanting and imbibing devices and tools with the magic they had learned to master; keeping it in the world, keeping life. They constructed cities, great and small, in which they filled libraries with lore and secrets of the world, craft and art. They build great temples to Eau, as well as the other gods and goddess. Some of these great works survive to the day of this writing.

For a seemingly endless time the vanir stewarded the living things of the land and sea; their lives, though a single breather of the gods, stretched for thousands of seasons. Magic remained strong and the lives of all creatures, man and beast were long; the thread binded all.

According the gods, the age of the vanir was short lived. It was a time of perfect harmony, a frozen portrait that existed in the blink of the eye, but a moment. From that time there is only one recorded name of the vanir that survived into the records of man: Maere, the last queen of the vanir, who succumbed to the will of Akkain.

Both husband and son of Eau, Akkain, the collector of souls, the ruler of Hille, came to his cold throne by a means not to his liking. He being created of magic, he sought also the power of life's breath and would take it from his mother. To Eau he bade, "May you not return to the starts before you give me what is rightfully mine" the power of life so that I too may fill the world." Eau saw his dark mind and his betrayal, his wish to see her death. "Many who eat a little honey are satisfied, but there are those who are unable to refrain. They gorge themselves till they are filled and then vomit. To you shall be given the kingdom of Hille where the spirits of the dead will roam and walk hungry forever and to those who sought their star but were unable to find it." With those words, Akkain's skin began to become aged, his body weakened and he fill from Himel.

As he wandered throughout Tellinor, Akkain looked upon all of Eau's creation and hated all that he saw. Each creature and beast he encountered he felt the need to punish for its existence. Some he stamped the life out of and others he tormented, causing them to forever be separated from sanity. And still others he did unspeakable things, twisting their minds as well as their forms.

Nydina was the newest creation of Eau and had just entered the world. It stood on four mighty legs giving it great height, its back brushing the low boughs of the trees. Akkain watched it, mesmerized by the great sinuous muscle that stretched throughout the body of the great she-cat.

Akkain transformed himself into the likeness of the cat and approached Nydina. "What is your purpose?" he asked. The great head of Nydina turned and said to him "To watch for the one among us and to protect against him." Akkain came close and whispered to the lioness that she had been lied to in order that she would not recognize her true greatness; to consume the flesh of the world" the deer, the horse, the wild beasts of the field and even those that walk on two legs.

These words filled Nydina's head. This was the truth. There could be none higher or mightier than she. She would consume all. It was her purpose. A covetous hunger, a want and a rage filled her. Akkain sensed it. He smelled it. She was his. He lunged and bit her neck drawing blood, tasking her flesh. It filled him with a vaporous lust as they entwined with one another.

From Nydina came two children: Pha, who was born to beauty and grace. She possessed stealth and lynx of the cat in the likeness of a goddess. She was to ascend to Himel and to the stars. The second, Akion, was born to a twisted torture of brutality and savagery. His body was full and ripped with sinew and tendon. From his head grew a thick shag forming his main, his teeth were as daggers and his claws were swords. He was to suffer, his mind a tempest caught between beast and god. He was to know battle.

Akkain's wrath was insatiable. The creatures he encountered, he tormented and bent to his purpose and will. Beast was turned against beast to devour their own kind and one another; those that survived joined his swelling ranks. They fell under his will and his command.

The lands no longer belonged to just the vanir. The Sanctuary became what border and boundaries they were able to protect and hold through barriers of enchantment. Akkain was unable to penetrate them the whole of the vanir equaled his strength so he was thus helpless against them and so he continued to exact his toll from the lands. The trees began to wither and become wild. Sands filled the land in some places and in others the jungles thickened and became home to both those who fled Akkain and those who hunted for him; to creatures who sought The Sanctuary but could not safely enter it and the many beasts, horrible and terrifying, which did not.

Unable to enter The Sanctuary, Akkain send the dark things of the night, whose will he had warped and bent to his own. Many of the vanir perished during the early days and as they did, the enchantments weakened failed and the borders decreased. The people, vanir, man and others, cried out to Eau and she heard them. She responded to the darkened god Kreige who stood at her side. She reluctantly commanded him to go and show them his art and give his aid.

Through Kriege the vanir trained the protectors of The Sanctuary, the paladins of the temples. With Spear and shield they battled and sent back the terrors unleashed upon them; foul and winged both those that walked upon two legs clad in shoddy armor of their own making and wielding crude weapons. When once every spear and shield had been wetted The Sanctuary once again was safe and the borders were secure. They remained so until the reign of Maere.

Maere was born in into the bloodline of the queens. She grew up in solace and was trained in both magci and combat. Her reign began early and she was still a child of tender years when she took the seat of power, never having known the dangers, terrors and battles of generations past. She knew not of what dangers lay outside The Sanctuary. She was innocent. She was to be the last queen of the vanir.

As she grew, Maere often ventured beyond the protective enchantments of The Sanctuary. And it was during the time of her Coming of Age that she wandered on a night of exploration further than ever before. She traveled beyond the rim and beyond Ash Mountain where there is a path that descends into the valley below where there is the land where the souls of the once living walk. A blighted land bleak of hope. There she met Akkain.

There was no other creature that he could have desired so. She walked with a pureness with a life so strong; her life, a more powerful force than ever he had yet to find in all of Tellinor. To have her would increase him. With wetted mouth he came upon her taking her by surprise and seized her. Taking fetid soul in hand he smeared her face and filled her mouth. Into her ear he hissed, "You will be the harbinger, my messenger, my queen!" Black veins glowed like water over her milky skin staining every the whites of her eyes. "You have tasked the dead; to the land of the dead and to me you now belong. Of the land of the living, there you may never return." She suffered to take the breath of life as immortal blood began to flow through her veins. Her mind and body were an excited horror. Her voice pierced the night so that there was not a thing living or dead, not a created thing that did not quail as Akkain consummated his queen.

In the depths of sleep where children wander in their dreads close o the land of the dead they hear the echoed screams of Maere. Mothers and fathers, forgetful of their own childhood dreads, tell them they have nothing to fear that it is only a nightmare.

With their queen gone, so also home left the vanir and The Sanctuary. As time passed the enchantments weakened and the vanir that remained strong in the faith did their utmost to keep them but each day more and more left The Sanctuary; each day more to do for those who stayed and continued in the ways of knowledge and magic. Those that left, the memory of who they were and what they did and for why they fought too quickly faded from their memory. They remember only that they had fought and it is that which remained strong in their blood and in their minds.

Without life there is no magic. With water, ash and fire, Akkain formed his creation; crude and rough made fro the purpose of battle. He clad armor upon it. Gave it shield, spear and bow; but to give it life, this was beyond his skills in both spells and enchantments. Life required the magic and will of Eau. And so with his own blood that he cut from his arm, he drained from him life and magic and his creation came to be.

As the thing drew its first breath, it left out a how of pain and torment that pierced the world. The ground trembled and shoof under its empty ethereal scream. It raged and thrashed. Nothing could clam it for it had not spirit, no soul. No magic within it. And in its emptiness it shrieked and cried in a hollow yearning that needed to be filled.

In desperation to save his price and blood, Akkain forced the beast upon his queen to lay with her. With whip he chaperoned the couple leaving raw the stripped flesh of his unholy betrothed. When all was complete, the beast fell and died giving up the breath of life. In a smolder the body returned to ash and stained the ground indelible. The winds blew and carried the ash into the world spreading it and where it fell, twisted and foul things grew.

Maere, weakened and scorched, lay as near death that any immortal could be. Too weakened to move, she would soon perish. This Akkain was unwilling to allow. He would not lose the prize that now filled her belly. From his arm he cut deeply once more and drained the life, blood and magic into her wretched mouth returning her to life, filling her with a hunger and thirst even as it restored her to strength and immortal life.

From Maere three children entered the world: creatures of pain, insatiable in thirst for blood and fear, two sisters and a bother known only by the names of The Fierce, The Black and The Wicked and in their immortal bodies runs immortal blood. They are known as The Three and are seen upon great black steeds near the land of the dead. They find the weak and the children of the faithless and bind them in blood and feed upon the young; mortal became immortal and the ranks of Akkain's army grew.

As Akkain's influence spread throughout the lands of Tellinor, the race of the vanir diminished and the race of men increased.