A Wizard for a Dowery Prologue

A Wizard for a Dowery: Prologue

     It is evident in the indelible histories of man that human beings are principally creatures of dynamism and invention, creatures of transience and adaptability.  To say it in another way the only thing for sure is that nothing is for sure.

    An era which brought forth the Elementals kings, the beastkin, and the legendary giants of Syrephon Deep. However as if in response to nature's reassertion of its ancient divine powers mankind rose above the world and gravitated into space. A gap grew between common folk who were bound to the land and their seemingly super human masters with their impossibly complex machinery. Despite the changes in the world mankind's dominion over the earth remained intact. 

    For hundreds of years these creatures were treated as the shame of the human world. The untouchable caste whose very existence was something to be disgusted at. However there were others that took pity on these wretches and sought to civilize them. The history of man is filled with the same noble intentions as the road to hell is paved with.    

    Centuries past and what began as a few sparse tribes had spread throughout the world, their numbers eventually surpassing the human population. Conflicts arose quickly between the humans and their would be successors. The common men, who had been left on the earth by their intellectual and economic betters, had no desire to share what little was left with their expanding neighbors. Tensions mounted and the threat of violence seemed ever present. 

    The Nephites, as the would come to be known, had their own tensions. Leadership amongst the major tribes was sparse and conflicting. With two sides beginning to form. The Apologists, who would later be described as the holy high traitors, who believed that a lasting peace and possible unity could be found with the Humans. The other side was represented largely by the religious class and its most passionate of followers. They believed that their God had chosen them to reign over the earth and the humans were the unclean who had rejected God's will in favor of new technology. For a time both sides butted heads until fate chose to intercede.

    As so often is the case with important instances in history the impetus for the war came completely by accident. A group of human soldiers got lost and ended up coming upon the Holy Salt Sea. Not recognizing it they followed the sea's coast until they happened upon a building, the holy sanctuary where the great prophet of the Nephite faith held residence. Reluctant to admit their mistake, and being certain they were in grave danger the lost military unit claimed the Sanctuary under right of conquest and sent out for back up. Back up never came as the local militia arrived to lift the siege.

    Under normal circumstances the soldiers would have simply been arrested, and held as prisoners. But history as a funny way of taking unique moments and pairing with them with singularly important figures. Who we only know to be singularly important after the fact. The head of the local militia was Nephite named Thaulston Royce. Little is known of Royce's life before this instant, but two things are clear. He had vicious disdain for the current state of affairs between his people and the human race, and he was able to engender a loyalty in his followers that even the greatest of gods would envy.  

    Royce was ordered by the human military command and the local apologist leaders to return the humans to their commanders. He did so, only he kept their skin. In the first Nephi's own words, they flesh has denigrated our holy lands and only their flesh can cleanse it. In retaliation the human on mass invaded the Holy Salt Sea, and demanded the surrender of Thaulston Royce has a war criminal. In response the Prophet of the Nephite faith declared that he received a vision that the humans were in fact the Lamanites of legend and that all men of true faith must do all that they can to oppose them.

    According to the Nephites' religion Lamanites were a wicked tribe that had sought to destroy all the true believers and were reputed to be cursed by God. This would lead to a fundamental change in the view of the Nephites and would come to define the nature of all future relations between the two. Humans were no longer simply enemies, they were the very embodiment of evil. The war was no longer simply a battle to reclaim the holy land but a Righteous Rebellion against the forces of evil that had captured the world.      

    Mankind had the superior technology, their planes, tanks, and gun ships should have easily swept over the Nephite horde. But as history as often shown, their is nothing quite like the blind fury of a people united in a singular effort. Humanity had all the advantages ,yet still were defeated.    

    The fall of man came when the last of the human strongholds was annihilated by the Nephite bombers. The humans who remained after the war were stripped of even the most basic of rights and given two choices. live as a thrall of the Nephites or live as a transient but under no circumstances would man ever be allowed to reign over the Earth again.

    Twenty years after the fall of man the new Nephitian Empire would meet its first test. As the humans who had abandoned the Earth and it's people returned. They came down in great vessels of untold power. Their technology was so beyond anything the remaining humans and Nephites had ever imagined that most believed it to be some form magic. Thus this became known as the war of Sky Devils.

    Together with this improbable coalition Royce was able to push back against the Sky Devils. Then came the day that would become mythic in it's retelling. Royce led a ragtag force that numbered less than one hundred thousand, against a horde of human warships that were said to be so numerous they created a ceiling over the sky. All hope for the Nephites were lost and utter defeat was more than certain. Then in the light of the morning, not even two hundred miles from the Holy Salt Sea that had begun the great rebellion, the sky cleared and the sky devils fell.

    That is the story of man and the Nephites who usurped him, but as is often the case, one story is not the whole story. When humanities elite abandoned the world to ruin the wizards of the legendary cities had already begun their work. As the centuries passed their legend among the common men and the Nephites grew. Their powers were both feared and envied and even other supernatural beings looked upon them with suspicion and awe.

    “...It is said that Nature is inherently magical, that OMAS merely unleashed it's true potential. This, as far as it can be determined, is true, but insufficient to understanding the nature of our magic. For we see in the Kingdoms of Fire and Water, in the wild woods where Earth lords dwell, and even on the high altitudes of Wind kings, that nature's magic is but an extrapolation of itself. These creatures are, though sentient, merely acting out their own roles in the cosmic scheme. They are but players in a greater game.

    So what then is a wizard? A wizard is one that rejects that game. That rejects nature itself. A wizard is one who chooses the path they walk and defies all other paths to try and hold them. If it is true that animals are creatures of instinct, that Elementals are creatures of nature, that Man and Nephite are creatures of reason, then it must be said that Wizards are, quite singularly, creatures of will. What is Wizard's magic then? It is the power to rebuke nature, to rebuke the gods and their creation, it is the power of individuals to master themselves and the world around them, and as OMAS showed in His own life, it is the power to rise above this world and go beyond. Wizard's Magic is but the will to become...” -Harashima the faint, excerpt page 462, from Of Wizards and Our Ways