Prologue

End of the Iron Age

Bad tidings travelled from Thûska to Thûska at the end of the Iron Age: Forest-, Stone-, Water-, Natù-, Tenà- and Earth-Thûskae; and these were only the largest of their kind. "An unknown entity of indescribable strength is ravaging the land," the heralds reported as they hurried from one tribe to the next. "A flaming spirit is ravaging villages, landscapes, harbours, castles and strongholds; scorching and scouring everything without ceasing. Nothing and no one who stands in its way will stop it or divert it from its path."

A war council of all the Thûskae of Ithrum, the Thûwigthing, was convened with the aim of restoring the old unity of the feuding tribes and opposing the evil as a whole; to prevail or to fail as a whole.

But selfishness, short-sightedness, envy, quarrelsomeness and false pride blinded the Thûskae, as is so often the case. And so the seemingly noble and wise army commanders parted from each other in great resentment and retreated to their tribes. Everyone was now on their own again. They were even happy about this in their small-mindedness and poisonous pride. Only the prince of the Water-Thûskae, Chasír, sent a mighty army to the Forest-Thûskae in the remnants of old friendship when the monster moved there and threatened to wipe out the tribe. But none of the troops sent survived. Only one soldier, who was supposed to make it back to the Water-Thûskae, reported that the creature must have been a spawn of hell before he succumbed to his wounds:

It was a flame demon, a Ûdrhum, who came from the underworld of Rùthrá, which reached into the sphere of Asnoâ. It had been bred by Oth' imperial witch Sÿr, one of the most eerie Túrâksch, full of evil and contempt for Alomne's works. Like all beings of Oth', she was born of his greatest strength, his hatred. Vomited by her master like rancid flesh; this was to be her birth. Even against his own creatures, Oth felt only tormenting hatred, driving them to share and spread their pain, contempt and hatred to the world.

From his proud fortress, deep in the magical Wadrón Forest, Tadrûr, the prince of the Forest-Thûskae, looked down on the field of corpses outside his gates. The army of the Water-Thûskae had been unable to do anything. It was as if they had all been slain in their sleep, so defenceless and defenseless had they been against the Ûdrhum on the battlefield. Tadrûr was struck by the pain of no longer being able to do anything for his tribe. So he called for the complete disintegration of their unit and for them to flee into the fragmented, lonely seclusion in order to find at least some protection. He told them to leave everything behind that was not essential for survival in a life of privation in the wilderness. They were to spread out over Ithrum, the further away and the smaller the groups, the better. This would save the lives of the forest Thûskae, but the once most powerful tribe would be dissolved.

Meanwhile, the heart of the prince of the Water-Thûskae filled with great fury. He had given many of his men and women to death for Tadrûr, but what did he do for his tribe in return, he asked himself. Not even a word of thanks came from Tadrûr's lips; let alone that Tadrûr paid his grateful respects to him and his tribe, he grieved.

But Chasír did Tadrûr an injustice: When the Forest-Thûskae left their fortress via the secret passages into the Wadrón, Tadrûr rode day and night, ceaselessly, heedless of hardship and pain, only to accomplish one thing in his lifetime: To find Pextagesque, the Blue Enchantress. But there have always been few beings who know where wizards are. Even the wise and powerful Thûskae are not among them. After all, Thûskae are able to find and read secret signs that can bring you close to them. Although such searches can take months and years, Tadrûr was lucky.

As if Pextagesque had been waiting for him and even favoured their meeting, it was only a few days before tracks led him to her in the icy cold of the Khæsch Mountains. He was driven up to the ridge of the mighty mountain range. Right at the beginning of his ascent, he had to leave his horse behind and was on his own. He finally reached the ridge on the third day. In the thick drifting snow, he witnessed the violent ejection from Ithrum's earth core. A huge mass of red-hot ore poured out above him, spewing lava, ash and rock for weeks. But instead of burning up under the hot pulp of the earth's core, he found himself protected and saw what was happening on the mountains as if through a transparent wall of ice. Tadrûr had previously been guided by Pextagesque, by the weather and by falling snow and stone avalanches as if by an invisible hand, so that he inevitably had to enter one of the unrecognisable Caësther. Death would have overtaken him immediately if Pextagesque had not been waiting for him there, so dangerously had it been set up. By entering this magical portal, he had left the earthly world. Nevertheless, he could still observe them as if he had remained on the mountain path.

"You were looking for me and now you have found me, Tadrûr! But you know, magicians are not found; they determine whether someone finds them." Tadrûr, meanwhile, only remained silent in awe. "Mortals who enter here are denied the way back. Forever there! Even Thûskae like you are not spared this fate." She paused for a long moment, but Tadrûr bore it manfully and remained silent. "What did you give your life for?" she wanted to know. But although she had already read the answer from him, she heard his painful plea. A tear trickled down her cheek with compassion, but also with joy at his generosity, and dripped into her hand. Her teeth turned into a shining blue gemstone full of light and gleamed with confidence. "Tadrûr, your endeavours were not in vain. But you will now have to pay a very high price for your wish. Take this so that you do not lose heart in Hÿeth and instead carry a little light with you forever," and she gave him the enchanting lapis lazuli and continued: "You will no longer have to fight hunger, thirst, cold and fatigue here, but you will have to fight loneliness and eternal life in this sphere of belonging and yet not being recognised."

The blue sorceress left the brave Thûska without further words, but with the gemstone. She had to hurry, for she had little time left to fulfil her promise. She took the shortest route through the mountain worlds that she knew of. Not only was it the most dangerous, but also the most arduous, and her heart was heavy with it. She began her quest in the mountain world of Hÿeth. Deep in the mighty ridge of Ilaures, a massif that ran through half of Ithrum, Pextagesque was faced with a choice: she had to gain time and take the quickest route to the Water Thûskae before the Flame Demon arrived. But she knew that she would only succeed at the greatest sacrifice here in the Hÿeth. But she could also trust that the Thûskarum's old ties to each other would still be strong enough and that others would rush to the aid of the water Thûskae first. That would buy her some time before she could finally support them. But her courage sank at this thought; the Thûskae had grown too far apart for her to hope for this miracle. So she decided to take the path through the Stekeinthón and cross parts of the eerie underworld of Rùthrá. It would take her many years, although time stood still in the Isothón calendar. All too often, her quest came to nothing and the path that briefly led through the Thalâthón was also cruel, with the time jumps taking their toll on her. But the short journey through the underworld of cruelty was to be the worst. Her martyrdom was recorded in the writings of the mages, the Trrûllre ni Nùmerrh.

After all, her path would lead her out again. She emerged from a hidden cave near the fortress of the Water-Thûskae just in time. So it was that Ûdrhis' path would cross hers before he could strike his final destructive blow against the Water-Thûskae army.

Pextagesque knew her opponent very well from the early, mighty battles of the old centuries of the Iron Age, described in the writings of Râsnòla neèma. The Blue Mage knew very well that she would not be able to stand up to his magical powers on her own. It would take the combined might of the Wizards' Guild to force him back into the depths of the earth's core and imprison him there until the magma of Ithrum finally extinguished him. Just like when the magicians were still young in this world and they had left him there to be destroyed for the first time. But some great power must have freed him from this.

She didn't have enough time to search for the other magicians, because the relationship between the wizards is also difficult. Although they are on good terms with each other, just like siblings, they are sometimes antagonistic towards each other. Moreover, finding one magician through another is not a foregone conclusion. Here, too, the finding must be approved by the person to be found. A magician, on the other hand, does not always feel like meeting up with his peers.

Thus, the rich in discovery had to gather other powerful support. It was to be one of Pextagesque's main strengths that she cultivated a good and favourable relationship with many beings in Ithrum; with simple and sometimes very powerful ones.

Among the mighty are the Trhàšz, those wondrous, early beings of Ithrum who are neither animal nor plant, nor do they belong to the elements. Rather, they are a mixture of all of these. Their character is neither corrupt nor are they thoroughly good beings. But it is certain that wizards are capable of finding and utilising their good sides.

The...