Ct’i opens the Well of Misery

The lizard lords of C’ti were renowned for their mastery of Death magic. Indeed, their Sauromancers had a Death knowledge as deep as most Hangadrotts, a feat not many could claim.

This fascination for Death magic went deep into the C’ti kingdom and the Desert Lion himself had been keen on building armies of once dead beings. So, when C’ti opened the Well of Misery, this was not that much of a surprise. The darkest deeds were at work and the darkest minds behind them.

The Well of Misery was a powerful enchantment that drained all pain and misery from the world. And all of these sufferings, were then transformed into raw Death gems, ready to be used to call upon the forces of Death. However, by draining the sufferings of the world, it also for the most part removed them from the common people and made them happier ! This side effect made that spell felt like a gift to the world and all kingdoms and empires soon saw their economy grow and flourish as more and more people were happy with their lives !

But in the long term, by drawing this magic from the well, C’ti was becoming more and more powerful. Dark deeds indeed, wrapped into a shiny box …

Tien’Chi suddenly becomes a powerful contender

Tien’Chi didn’t look that powerful. An average power amongst the greats of this world. After their conquest of Mictlan, they had grew from weak to average, but still they did not look dangerous.

Their pretender, Grim, was known to be a crone, a very old woman, skinny and ugly, that had spent most of her mortal life to gather magic and grow in power. But her most prominent feature was her ambition. She was ambitious beyond measure, and it was no mistake that she was a pretender to divinity.

And not only ambitious, but also ready for anything to achieve her deeds. Just after C’ti opened the well of Misery, she sent Helheim’s a message stating that she needed help to dispel the malevolent enchantment. But, contrarily to what was believed, that embassy was not a sign of weakness … just another plan of a cunning mind trying to hide her true power.

Indeed, just after that demand news came that she had created an Eternal Pyre. A huge fire that would never stop and from which large quantities of magical Fire gems could be regularly harvested. This made Tien’chi power grow from average to above average. But that was just the beginning.

Only 3 months after setting that pyre, words were told that Grim had also mastered the Lights from the stars. She had indeed managed to build a Stellar Focus, a magical device that, during the nights, focused the light of the stars into a magical converter that made Astral pearls out of it. Given it worked only at night, it was not as rewarding as the Pyre but still, that enchantment was another dangerous achievement on her part.

And almost at the same time, every earth mage felt a tremor from the earth. The Earth herself had suffered a terrible wound, as Grim mages had indeed managed to drill a well so deep that they could tap into one of its artery. Thus they were able to gather the Blood of the earth, a substance of enormous magical power, that could then be used to call upon the forces of Earth magic. The Earth Blood Deep Well was the last of Grim’s infamous lust for power.

And so, in a very short time, Grim’s ambition had become plain and apparent. She intended to become the new Pantokrator and would use any means to do so. Tien’Chi armies would soon grow in power from countless magical creatures and the worse was to be expected from them.

However, Lord Kall saw that it could serve his plans. Indeed, Tien’Chi had a large border with the fearsome undead legions of C’ti … if only these two decided to fight one each other, that would be for the best for Helheim !

Open war between Tien’Chi and Marverni

After Helheim’s agreement with Marverni to share the remnants of the kingdom of Ur, Marverni had gathered a new army to march on the throne of Winter. But … the ambitious Grim had other plans in mind. That throne and the steel ovens were very close to Tien’Chi’s border and, after defeating Mictlan, Tien’Chi armies were eager for new conquests.

So a large army began to march from the north to the throne and they took it from Ur before Marverni armies could reach it. This infuriated the pretender of Marverni, the ignominious fountain of blood, that ordered his armies to chasten the heretics that had taken their legitimate prize.

A huge army made of more than 500 troops, including 400 sacred boars, was gathered and started to march on the enemy fortress and, by the beginning of fall, they were ready to challenge the traitorous enemies.

This situation was perfect for Helheim, with its main enemies fighting each other … however, despite Tien’Chi’s new surge of power, Lord Kall still viewed Marverni as his most dangerous contender and hoped that Tien’Chi would put an halt to the fearsome boar tide …