Chapter 1

      Long ago, before even the oldest elves were considered old, demons and angels traveled between their plane and ours freely, doing as they pleased. Most of these creatures were minions to one god or another, doing their deity’s bidding so that none of the gods had need to walk the earth except in the rarest of cases. However, every decade or so, a demon became overly powerful and his god banished him to earth. Upon arrival the demon would usually find a semi-secluded area of forest located near a large town or on a well traveled path and begin wreaking havoc on all that lived near him until some knights got lucky and killed him. One demon throughout history has earned a reputation for breaking away from the norm. His name is Bain, and his story is worthy of hearing.

      After his god banished him to earth, he wandered far and wide in search of a suitable home. Finally, after a considerable amount of searching, he finally found his home, set back in the very rough and rugged Korl Mountains in the west. He chose particularly the mountain Adzak, for it was the new home of the dwarf lord Thrak and was a powerful fortress. But because Thrak had just taken up residence in the mountain there were not nearly enough dwarves to protect it. Upon Bain’s arrival the furious dwarves fought long and hard to drive him away and leave them in peace. Try as they might however, they were no match for the demon and were quickly overcome. Bain was surprisingly intelligent for a demon though, and he realized that if he killed all of the dwarves, no one would know of his power, so he permitted a few to leave and tell others what had happened. Those that he killed he resurrected into undead guards for his mighty fortress.

      Soon word had spread across the entire continent of Siduz of the terrible creature living in the Korl Mountains. Not long after, armies of dwarves from across the continent were marching towards the mountains to reclaim their land and get revenge for the deaths of their brethren. Of course, being stubborn as dwarves always are, each army refused to acknowledge that they should join forces, and instead ascended the mountains separately even when they met at the base together. Separate as they were they were nothing more than a slight annoyance, and after the first army came through and was wiped out Bain did not even need to come out and fight, for he had more than enough undead warriors to guard his fortress. He continued casting some magic from within his fortress, as he preferred magic to combat anyway; it put him in less danger. Soon the remaining three armies realized that they needed to go up as one force, but even three dwarven armies could not stand up to the might Bain had so quickly assembled. But again, Bain let a few from each army leave and word of his power spread to all corners of the world.

      No one realized what he was doing. He was furious for being banished by his god for being “too powerful.” He knew the gods feared him, and he planned to give them a real reason for that fear. He planned on raising an army to challenge the gods themselves, for then he would show them true power and extract his revenge for being banished. By ruthlessly slaughtering the armies that challenged him he got many well-trained warriors to furnish his army. And by letting a few live, he insured that a steady stream of soldiers would be coming. If they didn’t, well, Bain would just have to slaughter a few villages from a few kingdoms and soon a bloodlust for his head would begin again. This is exactly what happened, although it took a few months for people to forget what he had done and believe he was no longer a threat. Throughout that time more and more had come, and they all had fallen. Finally, the armies seemed to end, and no one bothered Bain for a good long while. Eventually Bain grew bored, and realized that he did not yet have near the strength to challenge the Hallowed Gates or even the weakest of the gods.
      
      So one night, he descended from his mountain fortress and spent a week roaming across Siduz to the human kingdom of Mordin. Avoiding the outer districts all together, he traveled to the inner districts in which more nobles lived. In a matter of no more than twenty minutes he had destroyed the entire regime of the district’s patrol and it took only ten more minutes to raze the entire district. He then began traveling back towards his mountain stopping at the kingdoms of Loril, Ralssef, Sicnarf, and Kelifert on the way. In each of these kingdoms he performed the same trick he did at Mordin; attack the inner city nobles and leave the inner area nothing more than a smoldering heap. He arrived at his mountain just more than two weeks after he had left. As he climbed to the peak of his mountain to view the surrounding area, he was quite pleased at what he saw. Throughout the entire continent of Siduz the sparkle of cooking fires could be seen from the peak on which he stood. His ploy had worked perfectly; he now had at least five kingdoms worth of armies to destroy, resurrect and control, and there was no way of knowing how many of them had called upon their allies to help. Bain laughed to himself as we walked back to his fortress, for he had successfully lured out many kingdoms’ armies, and soon, he would control them all.