King Albert in the Throne Room was pacing about when a guard came through the door, "Have you captured them yet?" Worryingly, said Albert. "no my king they seem to have had help, they escaped on a boat," Albert madly threw his crown at the guard, "are all my guards useless, can't they stop two men!" Albert shouted.
"Albert calm down," said Albert's mother Matilda. "They can't get far, the only play they can go to is Breakneck pass there is a Northern castle there with Einar's Loyalists" "so you're saying we should send our men to take that castle" "the north is useless Albert a bunch of barbarians not cultured unlike us" Matilda laughed "it will be easy to take it" "good call the Noble Council" Albert looked worryingly at the red moon and sighed "blood will be spilt in these coming days".
Hakon and Einar were on the boat talking to the men, "Uncle who are these men?" said Einar, "the sons of the mountains, our men," laughed Hakon, "loyal to you Einar" "we would all die for you, King Einar." The men all got on one knee. "who is the leader?" Einar said. "That would be me, my king," a tall, scarred man said, "What is your name?" "Sven my lord Sven Shield-Breaker" "these men are the 50 who fought with me" added Hakon "where is our destination Uncle"
"We will go up the river to Breakneck pass. We have a castle there" "Breakneck Pass? But Uncle, surely Albert knows we are going there." "I'm counting on it. We will show him how the north fights" the boat slowly went up the river.
Two days later in the throne room many nobles arrived but there was a distinct lack of northern nobles. " "My king, where are the northerners?" said a rotund noble "they are probably praying to their heathen gods." said a tall noble, everybody laughed as King Albert put his hand up to quiet them "I bring sad news, I have found evidence that Lord Hakon and the northerners conspired to kill the former king". everyone gasped at the news: "Those damn northerners look at what we did for them and all we get is betrayal." "we should wipe out the tribes," many nobles said in statements about wiping out the tribes and betrayal,
but one noble, a short stocky man, said, "My king, the northerners, have always supported the throne after the great war, why would they kill the king?" this man was Joseph Herwing, count of Landzing near the northern border, a known sympathizer of the tribes.
"Oi shut up you northern lover" shouted a small grey haired man. This was Duke Erhard Gottfried, the grandfather of the current king, a very ambitious man who was probably the number one hate of the northerners "look if the king says its true its true" retorted Erhard a fight nearly broke out between the Count and the Duke the King raised his hand
"I have given it thought, I believe it is time for us to complete what our ancestors couldn't at completely wipe out the northerners" the king said "a new war of the sun will happen for our god" he pulled out a sword and shouted "for Sunir for the kingdom" the nobles repeated this chant
Joseph looked worried and hurriedly left for his fief many others left to prepare for the coming war.
The war of the sun is a tale of how the gods of the south led by Sunir, the god of the sun, fought the spirits of the mountain led by Udite the spirit of earth. It is a true tale that even today you can see the effects the river on which Hakon boat is on was made by a gods sword cutting the land the tale is used by fanatics on both sides to justify a new holy war.
The south worships Sunir as the supreme god under the church of light ruled by pope Manfred the Zealot. He is known for massacreing whole villages of people just for saying the word Udite. The north, however, worships spirits led by the arch spirit Udite worshiping nature itself. The Spirit religion does not have a leader but is controlled by a council of priests.
Einar's mother Astrid was once on the council, though it is believed that she was Udite personified thus to the northerners Einar has Spirit blood in him though the south would take offense to this.
Three days later on the boat Hakon was talking to Einar "lad when we get to the tribe you will have to go through the right of the mountain before becoming king" "The right of the mountain?" Einar said, confused. "it is an ancient tradition of which all northern kings go through you will have survive in the mountains for three days on your own"
"But uncle, how will i survive?" "lad you have spirit blood for us northerners, you are a god" "spirit blood?" ""Your mother was Udite herself," Einar has heard many of Udite's stories. how she created the mountains itself, defeated the dark king and married the spirit of fire Bruni according to tradition the kings of the mountain have to be blessed by Udite to ever gain the throne.
"But uncle i do not want to be king," said Einar, "you don't get a choice anymore, lad Albert has chosen for you his maternal family are fanatics, they will probably call for a new war of the sun," explained Hakon. "so you have to become king to bring the tribes glory and protect us"
Einar was scared he would never have any inkling of becoming king. He just wanted to live a free life but fate is often cruel: "Be quiet lad, I hear something," Hakon heard talking at the nearest river bank he saw two soldiers "so were off too war then" said a tall soldier "Yes I've heard the northerners killed the former kings" said a short soldier "Duke Erhard is rallying his troops to attack Count Joseph
"why Count Joseph?" "he is a northern lover" "good then let's kill them all"
"Shit," Hakon exclaimed, "Change of Plans Men We Dock at Landzig," "Uncle why Landzig," "One of my friends count Joseph is under attack, we northerners never forget friends," the men started rowing toward Landzig as they heard marching and screaming saw fires and blood.
Hakon ordered them to armour up and row faster: "Men today is the first battle of our new northern kingdom don't let me down," Hakon said, placing on his helmet the boat docked at Landzig as they saw the banner of Duke Erhard and men massacring innocents Hakon then roared as he shouted Charge.
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