(A map of the world for this story, the island of Elegar, is at the bottom of this page.)
At the center of a huge island is a mountain, Mount Stelenath. Stelenath is not high, as mountains go, but it is barren and its sides are steep. There is a trail, worn by many feet over many years, that leads almost to the summit. Along the trail, places have been cleared for travelers to rest and refresh themselves, but none of these are large, nor is the trail suitable for wagons. In addition to the effort required to climb the trail, there is always the danger of bandits.
Yet, long ago, thousands of people every year made the climb on the Stelenath trail, and even now, occasional pilgrims still use it, along with tinkers and other merchants.
About three-quarters of the way up the mountain, the trail takes a sharp bend around a ridge and then splits. If one goes to the left, the trail meanders through a series of switchbacks, making a long but easy route to the common destination of pilgrim and merchant. If one goes straight ahead, the trail becomes almost vertical, making a shorter but much more rigorous climb to the dark opening in the mountain that looks like the entrance to a large cave.
So large is this cave mouth that it can be seen for much of the journey up that trail. Twenty men can walk abreast into it, and it is so tall that two houses could be stacked under its ceiling. The sides and ceiling are smooth, but the stone floor is heavily scored. The scoring is from claw marks, for through this cave exits the Twilight Dragon, the dragon which is defeated in the struggle to determine which of the two dragons, red or black, will control the earth and sky for the next 200 years.
On the other side of this cave, which is actually a tunnel, is the immense subterranean cavern where the fight takes place. There, confined by stone, the two dragons decide the fate of the next 200 years, when one will abide in the earth and sky, powerful and free, and the other will be confined, almost powerless, in the deepest places beneath the sea. Each dragon has five talons which are scattered through the world, and three months before the battle is to take place, they call the talons to them. The talons are brought by five humans, for this is the only way they can be collected.
Most of mankind know nothing of this great struggle. The humans chosen to help the two dragons either never return, or, if they do, they do not speak of it. No one knows. Nor does anyone know the names of the dragons, nor what they look like. Most think that this story is a myth, and since the fight between the two takes place only once every 200 years, many generations in human lifetimes, it is not surprising. Those who live near the mountain and feel the ground shake under the dragons' battle believe it to be an earthquake. Yet what the people consider no more than a myth is actually of vital importance to them. For one of these dragons, Steleduil the Black Dragon, feels kindly toward humans, and when he wins and settles into the earth and sky, humans enjoy a period of mild weather, good crops, and little disease. But Nathduil, the Red Dragon, disdains humans; when he wins and banishes Steleduil from the universe, he entertains himself by allowing disease, famine, and natural disasters to decimate the human population.
However, 200 years ago, when the dragons last fought, something different happened. Two of the people chosen by Steleduil were in love with each other, and that changed the battle. When it was waged, Nathduil sought to use their love against them, and thereby weaken Steleduil. However, the opposite happened. The lovers sacrificed their future together, and because they did, Steleduil's power was intensified. Nathduil was furious at the undoing of his plan, and the two dragons fought as they never had before. So great was the upheaval that they burst through the rock over the top of the huge cavern. When Nathduil was defeated and fled, to be sucked under the sea, the cavern was open to the sun and became a valley surrounded by high cliff walls. After the battle, the remaining lover, Johe, stood looking down at that valley for a very long time. Some say years. Then he sat and meditated over what had happened and what he had lost. He never left the valley; that much is known.
Slowly, over time, pilgrims began to come to the valley. The myth about the Dawn Dragon was revived by harpers, who suddenly found many people interested in one of their oldest story-songs. Those people who lived near the mountain saw the effects of the battle first-hand, and some even claimed to have seen the two dragons rising from the mountaintop, entwined in combat. As the myth and stories became more widely known, some people wanted to view the holy place for themselves. There they found Johe, sitting in meditation at the head of the valley, just below the great tunnel's mouth. By the time he was discovered, sun and rain pouring into the newly opened valley was beginning to bring forth life. Across the boulder-strewn floor was a patchy carpet of grass and clumps of saplings.
Johe could never be brought to talk about the dragons or almost anything else. He was not mute, for he spoke when he had the need, but he could not be drawn into any conversation about the dragons or what happened when they fought. He was almost dead from starvation and exposure when he was found, so a group of the pilgrims stayed to care for him, and these eventually became the priests and priestesses of Stelenath. According to his tombstone, Johe died 50 years after the Dawn Dragon took over the world (although many doubt the truth of such a long life), and by then he had become renowned for his wisdom. It was said that he had the gift of prophecy, that he could read people's thoughts, and that he knew the history of an object just by touching it. He never left the place where he settled, for there, he said, he could hear her, his lost love, speaking to him from the stones.
During his life, others came to the valley to learn from him, and not all left. Before he died, his view over the valley was one of small villages and farms. Johe thought that it was folly to settle in a valley which would inevitably be laid waste by the titanic struggle of the two dragons, but he rarely spoke of it.
The stream of pilgrims, whose feet wore the trail to the tunnel, were soon realized to be easy victims, and bandits began to prey on them. Some also succumbed on the trail to weariness, thirst or hunger, or accidents. A few years after Johe's shrine was founded, the Stelenath priests and priestesses chose the hardiest, strongest, and best trained from amongst themselves and created a group to help the pilgrims, and, later, the merchants who came to trade with those who settled in the valley. The Stelenath Rangers had many different kinds of people in their ranks – soldiers, builders, cooks, laborers, and craftsmen. The Rangers created resting places along the trail, some just a flat, sheltered place to camp, some with buildings in which the travelers could stay in relative comfort. Some of the many springs of Mount Stelenath were diverted to provide water for the travelers and their beasts. Physician monks cured their ills. Soldier monks guarded the trail from bandits and thieves. No tolls were ever extracted for these services, only donations requested for the shrine when the travelers reached their destination, yet so grateful were most pilgrims that the shrine never lacked for needed funds.
At the shrine, the priests taught the wisdom of Johe and the story of his life. They also collected all the songs and stories about the great battle, not just the one which Johe witnessed, but all the others back to the dawn of time. They maintained the trail and the tunnel, as well as the shrine itself. Other than that, they grew much of their own food, made most of what they required, and lived solitary, contemplative lives. In the valley itself, far below the shrine, the villages thrived, but they did not expand much beyond what they achieved during Johe's lifetime, as few people wanted to come to the mountain, or stay in the mountain, and live so far from the luxuries and pleasures of the rest of the world.
Now, the 200 year cycle is about to renew. There are signs. Not all of the knowledge passed down from Johe is known to harpers and scholars. The signs were told only to the first priests, along with other arcane lore, such as the existence of the talons, and then passed down only amongst the priests.
The dragons communicate, briefly, with only the Prime Talon, mostly to tell them what needs to be done. This is primarily to go forth and gather the rest of the Talons to make The Fist. The Fist can only be made when each Talon has his or her talisman; then the talismans are given to the dragon by sacrificing one of the Talons, that Talon being designated the Reach. The sacrifice is done at a tube in the mountain, which the Reach jumps into, and at the bottom of which he/she becomes part of the dragon. The dragon can then fight with all the skills, experience, and will of the Talons, in addition to his own.
A map of Elegar (with the locations of the Talons):
Key:
Jagged brown lines are mountains, humpy green lines are foothills. Green spray paint indicates areas of rolling hills, yellow is for areas of flat land (mostly farmland), and olive green is for marshland. I don't indicate forests, because those are scattered throughout all the areas. So, too, are rivers and streams - I included the one near Ironhall just for reference, and the one from the lake in the south because it's particularly wide. The only lakes I've included are the huge ones (the smallest is about 20 miles long).
The brown lines which circle the island are the King's Roads, well-built roads meant for merchant and military travel primarily, built by the king (or rather, his engineers) nearly twenty years ago. Many trunk roads lead to the King's Roads, but I didn't include them either. I didn't feel like drawing all day long - I procrastinated a whole morning just doing this much!
Black stars and red stars are, of course, the location of the Black and Red Talons.