As time grinds slowly forward, a question becomes more and more prevalent in my
thoughts. How has the past shaped the man that I am today?

Much of my early years are lost to me in a cloud of fog, which I just can not
pierce despite my most fervent attempts. But I do vaguely remember my parents,
Brona and Akasha Feyranti, as well as a few other things. Such as the sense of
wonder I felt the first time I saw a squadron of Ur'guard marching down the
streets of Sombre Lane. Perhaps that is why the path I chose in life was so
different from the one my parents had chosen for themselves. The life of ritual
and religious devotion had never appealed to me. It was the blade that calls me,
that beckoned me, and inspired me. I will never forget the pride I felt when I
was accepted in the Ur'guard, at the young age of sixteen. It was as if
everything was right in the world, and I was exactly where I was meant to be
for the rest of my life.

The first decision I made once I was accepted into the Guard was on the style
of fighting I would specialize in and I chose the sword, specifically the style
of wielding two blades simultaneously. Even from the beginning it felt like the
best decision to me, despite the fact that several of my brothers in the guild
recommended bludgeons instead. I just could never understand how a bludgeon
could compare to the elegance and style of a blade.

My early years in the Guard were largely focused on training. I never gave much
thought to what was going on around me in the guild or city. But I single
mindedly focused myself on growing stronger and more knowledgeable. No matter
the area, if I could learn from it, I devoted myself to it. My travels led me
to many locations that I had only heard about, and forced me to face many
creatures that I could only imagine. I heard of battles on Celestia as well in
other places, but I didn't concern myself with them because I didn't feel ready
to commit myself to battle.....until Rockholm.

The incident was sparked because of Serenwilde repeatedly crowning Thoril, and
thus convincing all the dwarven miners that were in Southgard to move to
Rockholm. Southgard at the time was under the sway of Magnagora and the city
eventually became enraged at Serenwilde’s obvious attempts to weaken the
Dominion's ore supply and decided to teach the commune a lesson. The effort was
led by Mordrin with the assistance of a few prominent Geomancers at the time,
such as Veonira and Arilyon, and I decided to assist. We stormed the village
gates in a midnight raid, swiftly slaying the meager resistance that the
dwarves put up, before tainting and melding the terrain to serve us, and
barricading what was left of the gate. Then for many hours we held the village
siege against Serenwilde's attempts to enter and remove us, until finally they
agreed to a ceasefire and a bargain was struck after long discussion among both
organizations' political leaders.

When Thoril and Ethilwen received word of the terms of the agreement, they grew
angry and renounced both Magnagora as well as Serenwilde, which allowed Celest
to convince both villages to follow them instead. The incident angered me
beyond measure, but my anger was never directed towards the politicians who had
reached agreement. No, my anger was reserved only for the foolish dwarves and
the Celestians who benefited from it and that's why I made a decision that
change the course of my life. I decided to teach both of them a lesson without
any assistance and started an aggressive campaign against them. I used the fact
that Celest held sway over both dwarven villages against them, and began to
harrow them at both. Doing hit and runs back and forth on each village, forcing
them to either split their forces or keep shifting back and forth as well. I
engaged them when the odds were not heavily against me, and retreated when they
were, slowly working at their morale with a private war of attrition.

Word of my actions reached the ears of even the Supreme Commander of the
Ur'guard at the time, and I was elevated slightly in rank. Also around that
time, I started to get to know my uncle, Valek, better who was also a member of
the Guard at the time. He began to join me on my excursions, and we became like
brothers despite the age difference between us.

Through him, I also became better acquainted with Arilyon...the first lady of
my life. Even to this day I can not forget her or the way her silver hair
shimmered by midnight's light, though our relationship was turbulent to say the
least. Twice were we engaged, and twice for long periods of time until finally,
I decided to move on, many years after our first meeting.

My association with my uncle also led me to become acquainted with Chade, the
Warlord of Magnagora at the time. So I became more knowledgeable about more of
the inner workings of the city, though at the time I had no aspirations in
delving into the area of city politics. My only goal in life was to eventually
prove myself worthy of becoming the Champion of the Ur'guard. Since martial
matters had always interested me before all else. Events did not exactly go as
planned though..... A few months after my twentieth birthday, I finally
completed all the requirements to become a Marshal of the guild, and around the
same time Torgith, who was the Queen's Own Torturer at the time resigned from
office. Now.....I thought.....was the time to see if I was thought worthy of
being the foremost defender of the interests and lives of the Ur'guard.

Shortly after my contestation though, I received a shock when Chade also
decided to resign because of reasons of his own. But what really shocked me was
that he wanted me to be his successor and before that I had never really given
one thought to leading the city, it was not the path that I thought was best
suited to my talents. Initially, I was very reluctant, especially when I
considered the standard that had been set by Chade. Politics was really an
arena that was largely foreign to me, but eventually I decided to listen to the
advice of many of those who were close to me, and accept the responsibility of
running for political office within the city. I then submitted my resignation
in the Champion contest of the Ur'guard, which was later decided with my uncle
being selected.

Even though I had been personally selected as successor by the current Warlord,
I never allowed myself to assume that it was a certainty that I would be chosen
by the city itself. Instead of worrying about the results of the election
though, I focused on passing the time with a game that has always interested
me, chess. It is really a beautiful game, so simple at first glance but so
complex with a closer examination. Even now, I still love the game, despite the
fact that I still have much to learn about it. Matter of fact, it was actually
during a match between me and my uncle that the election ended and the results
were written for all to see.

It is actually somewhat bemusing to me now to think about the fact that I
became responsible for an entire city at the mere age of twenty. But at the
same time, even then, my dedication to the city that had nurtured me was firm
as a rock. There was never any sacrifice that I felt was too much for
Magnagora, and there still isn't.

Looking back at some of my early political decisions also bemuses me sometimes.
The first being the Abandonment Act, which was inspired by two reasons, one
political and the other personal. For many months, there had been numerous
citizens who proudly acknowledged the fact that they were planning to abandon
the city as soon as movement to either of the lost cities was possible. The
type of situational loyalty that their proclamations engendered annoyed me on a
very deep level, mainly because of my own feelings of pride and devotion towards
Magnagora. There was also the fact that one of their chief advocates had been
also working extensively on bringing the guild of the Geomancers under his
complete control. So with the advice and consent of the Council, I dealt with
the situation by imposing a yearly tax of ten thousand gold sovereigns upon
them. If they were going to enjoy the protection and power of the Dominion, it
was my opinion that they might as well pay for it. I guess now it can be said
that the law was successful in the sense that not even two years from its
enactment the Rakona family's influence on the Geomancers was largely
eliminated. But I wish now that I had found a less heavy handed method of
dealing with the situation.

Also there was the issue with Furloch, but I should start from the beginning on
that matter. Furloch was the servant of Daganev, who at one time had been the
Dominion's Minister of Trade. Generally he was Daganev's shadow and it was him
who did most of Daganev's scribe work. Perhaps that is why Chade chose him as
Daganev's successor. After my election, I kept him on, because he was extremely
talented and seemed dedicated to assisting the city. Even now though, I wonder
how I misjudged the little bastard so thoroughly..... As Minister of Trade, he
had access to all the commodities that they city held as well as the gold made
from their purchase. He then used that access to embezzle small amounts of
funds off and on until finally he grew fearful of being caught and stole our
whole stock of commodities. The rage I felt when I heard what he had done can
not be adequately explained in mere words, but my response was swift. The
blade was my justice, and I applied it judiciously into the jugular of his
furry little throat. Then called for the rest of the city to do likewise, we
hunted him everywhere he ran, even sent our younger warriors after him when he
attempted to hide with Newton. We applied pressure also to Celest and
Serenwilde to make sure that he would not be safe even in their domain. No
mercy, no quarter, no forgiveness was given......nor will it ever be.

Then there was the taint experiment....perhaps though it can be said now that
our objective was a little too ambitious even from the start. We desired to
harness the taint to the point where we could actually so thoroughly taint
members of the despicable Elfen race that a new race would be born. Initially
most of the council thought it would take us decades if not centuries to be
successful. But when we sought advice from Lord Fain on the matter, He returned
to us in a month and told us that the possibility existed now. Though, we had to
conduct an experiment beforehand on a race that most of us could not care less
about, the fae. There were conditions though, three actually. First of all we
had to slay the Moon Avatars and feed them to Gorgulu, then we had to
extinguish the Flame of Glinshari, and finally we had to bring live fae to
Gorgulu while the Flame was down.

Initially, after learning about what had to be done, it was the decision of the
Iron Council that we would not commit ourselves to this course for the time
being. So that we could study the various means of success extensively and
strike decisively to accomplish our objectives quickly, and without warning.
Unfortunately though, that was not the way things panned out. A lot of things
happened in the beginning that largely set the course for how long and
exhausting this conflict would be in the end. Such as the ritual that Lord
Raezon conducted on Nil, with some Serenwilders in attendance, the premature
resurrection of Crow by a citizen of Magnagora, and the slaying of my fiancée
in Glomdoring.

In hindsight, I’ve realized that I could have handled those situations
better. By lying about the significance of the ritual, disavowing the citizen
who raised Crow as a rogue while attempting to making amends to Serenwilde, and
waiting for a more opportune time to exact my vengeance upon those who had dared
to harm what was mine. But at the time, I was much more hotheaded than I am now
and I allowed my rage to consume me as I rushed into the depths of Glomdoring
to drench my blades in Serenwilder blood.

Now committed to this conflict, planning began in earnest about how our
objectives could be accomplished. We focused first on White Hart, and
eventually realized that both methods of slaying him were fraught with risk. So
we shifted to the Moon Avatars, and struck at them at an opportune time, slaying
them all within short order. Then we fed their corpses to Gorgulu and watched as
their heads sprouted from his body, showing the clear evidence that their power
was now imbued within him.

After that, we shifted our focus back to White Hart, which was the most
difficult of the tasks. At that point, we had finally everything about the Crow
rituals