The Prophecy has been realized! The Goddess Suria has sent The Five Pendants of Power to Andora, sparking a war between the peoples of Suria and the Great Nosferatu Houses. Once again the Vampire Lord Dragul stalks Andora, gathering the legendary Hunters of Yeld to restore his dark empire. Now the High Elves of Elderon stand with the Imperial Legions and the free people of Korinath against Draguls Nosferatu armies. You must choose a side in the Battle for Andora. More...
	A Brief telling of the Cross Roads Story CREATION The universe as we know it, is but one ring in the tree of eternity known as creation. We know not of these other rings, because we are outmost manifestation of creation, and know not of our predecessors. Existence persists from the core of creation known as Avalon, from it all things are born, dreams, worlds, power, and strife. First born to Avalon is the world of magic, beyond it, the world of the Celestial plane, home to Heaven and Hell. After than The astral plane, the intangible span of space known as limbo, the void, or purgatory. Lastly is our world, the physical plane. A great fall has occurred and magic, which was previously not present in our world has come punching violently through the very fibers of our reality. The elements have their greatest focus, or heart at points of great power to their namesakes, fire, earth, air, and water. Good and evil began to be able to harness their own powers to do evil or righteous works, and the power of the stars themselves seemed to penetrate everything. TIME OF GODS With the birth of these spheres of existence, came the birth of Gods, One of good, and one of evil, Sirius the Goddess of good, brought hope and unconditional love with the creation of immortal life in the magical worlds, created her own host of heavenly angels, and brought mortal life to our plane. Her brother Lucifer, God of all evil, brought forth nothingness, hatred, bitterness, and strife were his gifts to these new beings, as he created hoards of demons to torment the living and to battle Sirius' hosts of angles. Demons plagued the mortals of our world unto their deaths, and sent them to the first son of Lucifer, Hades, the lord of the dead. Sirius then created a race of beings so powerful and benevolent that human kind would never again fear the demonic creations of Lucifer. She created the Tentutinjen, a race of immortal demon hunters who sought out and destroyed every trace of demonic creatures on the face of the earth. THE NOSFERATU In response to Sirius' actions, Lucifer begot his second son, Dragul, a demon so foul that all other demons would tremble in his wake. Dragul was the living dead, he was the wretched, the despoiler, the lord of the vampire. The Nosferatu king began his single handed campaign to wipe out all of the Tentutinjen by whatever means he could, and in his wake his number grew. For Dragul hungered for the blood of his adversaries, and in drinking of their blood, they became Nosferatu, entirely obedient to his will. They spread like a fiery plague across the world, taking countless numbers. Hunters appeared among the masses to fight the vampire but most were destroyed. A few precious remained who were powerful enough to survive and to destroy the Nosferatu outright, and these vampire hunters were revered among hunters. Ages passed and the Nosferatu continued to be a blight upon the living, Kaututh, a Tentutinjen who became Dragul's first blood son, began a campaign to create the seven houses of the Nosferatu. Each of these vampire spawned the Nosferatu as it is know to this day, seven noble houses headed by greatly powerful lords, with droves of willing servants at their beckon call. A great betrayal was planned against Dragul, which resulted in his death, the seven plotted to turn against Kaututh and install one of their number as the lord of the Nosferatu, but they failed to gauge the combined power of Kaututh, with those of Dragul, as Kaututh was now Lord of the Vampire. He thwarted the betrayal and hunted down each son one by one and slew them. Upon Dragul's return, Kaututh's powers waned and he once more was Dragul's willing servant. When Dragul is slain he sleeps for but 100 years, then he rises again, and reclaims his place as Lord of the Nosferatu. Other than this betrayal, the only being ever to have slain Dragul was a vampire half breed named Varris Thane. The Nosferatu are undead beings, unable to reproduce in any fashion other than by biting their victims. This makes them mindless, ravenous servants, who cannot beget other vampire. If a Nosferatu shares his own blood with his victim, they become blood bound servants who are part of the nobility, and can claim others as Vampire. A HOPE TO DAWN As people continued to fight the spreading threat, a group of nine vampire were captured and imprisoned in order to subject them to various materials and effects in hopes of finding out more about the nature of vampires. Many were exposed to salt, fire, water, holy objects, and more, others simply burned up at the rising sun they were exposed to, or left in solitude from everything. The hunger is great and if a Vampire cannot feed, it goes insane, all save for Kuldon Thane. He remained for over a week in solitary isolation, away from all light, sound or interaction to anything. As the madness began to set in, he suddenly felt different, a sort of hunger that a Vampire had never known, a hunger for food, true food like any man would eat. He was alive. From that day forth Kuldon Thane could sate the hunger for blood with mere animal blood, and he later found when taking a bride that they could produce offspring. He broken out and freed the remaining Vampires who survived the ordeal, and together they started the Vampyre faith, preaching overcoming the hunger by force of will and focus. Together they became a whole new vampire movement which would eventually strive to overthrow Dragul, and achieve it for a time. Dragul was slain in a great hunt by the Vampyre, but in their complacency he was able to return and bring his revenge upon them. COMING OF THE FIVE But hope remained in a prophecy which foretold the coming of the five, to be bestowed in trust upon a priest of great renown, he would also be given a gift from the Gods which would entrust their powers of creation to him. One day that event came to pass, and the five arrived, they were pendants of power, one of Strength, one of Wisdom, one of Courage, one of Life, and one of Death. Each pendant carried with it near ultimate power deriving from it's name, as well as bestowing immortality upon them. Arcane Randolph, the priest who received the gifts, also received the Gods Hammer, a magical hammer which changed its shape to suit the need. This day it was to be a forge hammer, as Arcane created two weapons, one to find the Ankhs should they go astray, and one to nullify their powers while the thief was subdued. The hammer alone had the power to destroy the ankhs, and in fact the hammer could destroy anything in existence, with a force so great it rattled the foundation of the world. These five pendants were bestowed in trust to a select few, Arcane wore the pendant of Strength and held the sword which could nullify the powers of the anhks, a guardian of the temple held the pendant of courage and the axe which could seek them out, The pendant of Wisdom stayed at the temple to hold balance over the use of Life and Death. THE STRANGER One fateful day a stranger from a far away world arrived and slew Arcane, taking the pendant as her own, She also slew the guardian of the temple, and took the pendant of Courage and the Rune axe. The Pendant of wisdom knowing of this event, hid itself along with life and death. Much time passed and events transpired in which the descendant of Arcane, Kain Randolph, and the Garrison of Antiquity, Po, sought out Dragul as he had happened upon the pendant of Courage, and such power should never fall into his hands. In this event, the Pendant of courage was destroyed by Po, the weilder of the Gods hammer, bestowed upon him by the former Garrison, a great Dampeel Vampire hunter named Varris Thane, the grandson of Kuldon Thane, and the only single person to have destroyed Dragul. Yet more time passed as the group of individuals strives to thwart Dragul and to find an end to the evil. The prophecy is all which gives them any light into the events that may transpire, but they are nothing much more than riddles. OUR WORLD Meanwhile the common man makes his way in the world, since the great fall which brought magic into the world of man, he has found himself neighbor to elf, dwarf, orc, and many other races of half men. Kingdoms rise and fall by the hour and others stand by the test of time for thousands of years. People strive to make their way and to overcome the lesser evils of day to day life, while others seeks to rid the world of all forms of evil great and small. Cultures develop as they always do as those in the know await the coming of the great CrossRoads where all evil will be destroyed, or will become victorious.