James was still reeling with shock when Lila put her hand on his shoulder and murmured, "Would you like a moment longer to think on it? I know it is a lot to take kin. We can talk about the rest of the Continent on another day."

"No." The word ripped its way out of his throat, surprising him with its ferocity. "No. Let's continue. there's nothing I can do about the past, right now."

"If you're sure," she sighed.

I'm sure, James though. I know that the moment I have my power, the moment I can go back to Corith, I'm going to tear the king and Lord August to pieces. The vindictiveness of it surprised him, but only a little. He was cold with fury.

The Elder picked up another flag and placed it on the Deserts.

"It is common practice for many nations to exile their criminals to the Scorned Lands. In the Morian Deserts, bandits who were once proud citizens of Corith make their living. But that is not what it once was.

"Where Corith now is, was once a mighty nation known as the Moria. Historians say they were the first settlers from the Deep South, bringing their Old Gods and Deep Magic with them.

"The Kingdom of Tyraen," she said, putting down a flag on the Tyraen Plains, "once held all the land from the south sea to the Reyk Pass in the north.

"When Moria came, they were utterly destroyed by some black magics, leaving an empty desert and an arid grassland as the only evidence of their existence."

"What happened to the Moria?" James wondered. "If they were so powerful..."

"Who can truly say?" the Elder shrugged. "The truth is, they disappeared so quickly and so thoroughly, nobody knows. Some speculate that they simply took down their cities and left to return to the Deep South. Others speculate that some Deep Magic rite gone awry obliterated them.

"The most popular theory has always been that they angered their gods, who consumed them utterly."

"Are gods real?"

"Again, who can say? We know magic is real, and perhaps demons too, so why not gods? Alas, they have yet to interfere with us, so there is something to be said of that too.

"Now, what the Moria left, exiles from the North settled. The one thing about us humans, despite being weaker and overall more short-lived, is that we reproduce very quickly. The humans that established the kingdom of Corith quickly expanded, also invading the Marshes and driving out the indigenous species there. I suspect it was something they left that turned the humans there into Beastmen.

"Humans soon became the species with the highest numbers on the Continent, driving the orcs back into the mountains and steppes, the elves back into their hidden halls and woods, and the dwarves deeper still beneath the earth.

"Eventually, the twelve human kingdoms that had been established," she uttered, "had enough of fighting each other, deciding to unite into one Empire - the Empire of the Sun. Each ruling family had a seat on their Senate, and they all appear to have lived in peace and harmony till today."

James did not miss the deliberate choice of the words "appear to". There seemed to always bee more than what met the eye. Of the twelve red flags representing the twelve kingdoms of the Empire, the Elder snatched away five.

"The Empire once tried to expand further east and north, but was met with the coalition from the Kingdom of the Moon. Species that the humans had tried to wipe out had banded under one banner to strike back.

"But with one spell array from the sorcerers of the Kingdom of the Moon, both armies were obliterated and the land beneath them scorched away, leaving what we now call the Red Wastes." A black flag landed on that desert. "The Red Wastes, Tyraen Plains, and Deserts of Moria together form what you know to be the Scorned Lands."

"Why is one the Empire of the Sun, and the Kingdom of the Moon? Did they just want to be opposites?"

"On the contrary, this very much happens to do with religion. At the time these nations were established, people very much still believed in their gods. That has fallen out of favor in the last century, but I digress.

"The Empire is a monotheistic one, where their only god lies personified in the brightest object in the sky - the sun. On the other hand, there are a wider variety of beliefs in the Kingdom of the Moon, as each species brought their faiths together. The worship of the Moon Goddess predominates, but there are also worshippers of the Father of the Forest, the Maiden of the Mountains, and the Scourge of the Sea, who also go by other names. Just to name a few."

James pointed at the icy land in the far north still devoid of flags.

"What about here?"

"These are the Ozmyth Territories," the Elder replied, placing a flag on the north-westernmost peninsula, "which are nominally still a territory of the Kingdom of the Moon, but enjoys far more freedom.

"Over here,to the north and east, lies the Vrisian Tundra. Few make it out of there alive, harsh as those conditions may be."

"Why don't we go further east from here?" James wondered, pointing at the patch of desert just south of the Tundra.

"The Sea of Sand," she replied, with a flourish. "A massive desert that is, so far, completely impassible unless you sell your soul to some greater demon. That desert has swallowed entire armies alive. That is why we are a separate continent from whatever is out east."

Something only the Elder could hear suddenly seemed to draw her attention. She blinked and pulled James away from the table. With another grinding noise, it sank back into the ground.

"I am needed elsewhere," the Elder declared. "Any final questions?"

"What is your power?" James asked, feeling overwhelmed and small.

"I can see the memories of the dead when I touch what they left behind." From the folds of her robe, she produced a hefty tome. "A brief history of the Continent, if you care to learn more. Come and ask myself or Master Edmund, should you have any further questions."

With a whirl of blue-grey robes, she was gone, leaving James standing between statues, staring into the bleak darkness of the hall.