A little over six hundred years ago, there existed a tribe of human barbarians calling themselves the Horse Archers. They eked out a bountiful living at the western edge of the Emerald Sea where the grassy plain meets the towering reaches of the Beadoec Range. This tribe of two hundred warriors and three hundred women, children and elders lived a prosperous but hard life. Never a year went by where they did not have to defend their homeland against a deadly invader. Whether this enemy be orc, plague or dragon, however, the Horse Archers always emerged victorious. This was partially due to the fighting prowess of the warriors and their steeds. Most of the credit for their continuing existence, however, was the intelligence of the barbarian king, a man known as Argund Dragons-Bane. Argund knew the mountains and the plains like no other. In the time of the first orc invasion, it was he who persuaded the dwarves of Dormun Deep into an alliance that proved too much for the vast hordes of orc invaders.
Eight years after the first invasion, however, the orcs came back. So swiftly did they descend on the hated humans who had so greatly humiliated them, that there was no time to make plans and form alliances. As the vast horde of 5,000 orcs, led by a black garbed demon of the Abyss, swept out of the mountains like an ebony river of death, the Horse Archers could only watch in despair. Argund knew that to remain and fight was tantamount to suicide. He leapt to his saddle and rode like the wind. He rounded up his warriors and loaded all of his tribe on to every horse available and began what was to become a headlong flight eastward across the Emerald Sea. They stopped only long enough to rest briefly before again mounting up and riding on. And always when they looked behind them they could see the orc horde following them. Towards the end of the sixth day, the tribe saw, rising before them like a beckoning finger, the tall spire that was the top of a great mountain sitting like a solitary giant amidst the green grasses of the Emerald Sea.
All of the seventh day and most of the night was spent in a mad dash towards this symbol of hope. The rising sun (known to the Horse Archers as Daystar) of the eighth day illuminated the huge peak with a soft blue light. Shortly before midday, Argund led his people, minus the eighty six who had died in the trek, into the mountain through a tunnel fully visible in the light of the autumn sun.
The small opening could be guarded indefinitely against a host of invaders. After losing four hundred orcs in a mad charge against the opening, the demon general of the orc army set up camp and began a siege that he hoped would force the humans into leaving, or killing them by starvation.
Unbeknownst to the demon spawn however, the Horse Archers were in no danger of death by starvation or thirst. The huge chamber beyond the tunnel entrance was rife with edible fungi. Furthermore, a river of clear mountain water flowed freely through the center of the cavern.
One hundred days after the siege had begun, the orcs attacked. Far from their hopes of a foe, weakened by hunger and thirst, they instead came against the Horse Archers in full battle readiness. Five hundred orcs charged blindly down the inviting tunnel entrance. A rope was pulled. Almost three hundred orcs died under tons of rock as the roof of the tunnel collapsed. With no retreat, the remaining orcs continued on. In the huge chamber beyond, they encountered two hundred mounted Horse Archers fully prepared to deliver the same message of death given to the ill-fated invasion of eight years previous. The orcs knew fear. The battle prowess of the Horse Archers was legend and never did the orcs even think to attack the tribe with less than three to one odds. Completely demoralized, the invaders sought to flee but, to the last, they were cut down.
Meanwhile, outside the mountain, the demon general saw the dust caused by the collapse. He waited for two days for some signs of life but found none. He concluded that the humans had been weak and had caused the collapse with the intent of killing as many orcs they could even though they too would die. Thus satisfied with his logical but incorrect conclusion, he departed with his depleted army and traveled back to the towering peaks of the Beadoec Range.
During the hundred day siege, the Archers had learned much of their haven. A veritable maze of tunnels honeycombed the mountain. A total of four huge caverns and dozens of smaller ones were found. Several other exits were also found. Far from being defeated and killed, it was the tribe who emerged victorious, driving off their enemy with a clever ploy.
Argund chose not to return to the Beadoec Range and instead declared Blue Mountain to be the new home of his people.
Despite the haven offered by the caverns within the mountain, the tribe chose to set up their new homes outside of the mountain. With all that the caverns offered, they lacked one important element: light. Life within the mountain would be one without the warmth and life of the Daystar. So the tribe initially rejected the offerings of the mountain.
The tribe soon learned that the dangers of the Beadoec Range had only been replaced by the hazards of the Blithwic Forest. Blue Mountain stood at the northern extremes of the silent and deadly forest. Often dangerous and unidentified creatures would wander north out the forest and wreak havoc among the Horse Archers. Many times the tribe was forced to watch from the safety of Blue Mountain as their homes were devastated by creatures that could not be killed with their weapons.
After living in the vicinity of the mountain for twelve years, Argund sent his second son (his first had been killed in battle), Anzov Silverarrow and a troop of ten warriors on an expedition to Dormun Deep. His quest was to trade the furs, woven goods and fresh fruits of the tribes’ labors for the weapons of steel, fashioned by the dwarves. Anzov succeeded in reaching the dwarves with the loss of only one warrior. He returned to Blue Mountain not, however, with the weapons of steel for which he had been sent, but with a treasure far more valuable to the tribe.
In the years that the barbarians had been gone from the Beadoec Range, the dwarves had uncovered a magic stone, found deep within their precious mountain. This stone consisted of a giant, perfectly formed crystal, with eight smaller crystals fitted around it like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Experimentation and luck uncovered an unusual property of the crystals. The light reflected by the center crystal was duplicated in the smaller crystals. When Anzov learned of the photo-empathetic qualities of these crystals he saw the perfect answer to the dilemma facing his people. Thus he returned to Blue Mountain, not with weapons, but with something much better.
With one small crystal situated high in the roof of each of the caverns and the large one exposed to the sunlight, the one problem of life within the mountain was solved. There remained, however, the problem of where to put the main crystal where it would be free from harm. The ideal answer was to place it at the very top of the mountain. Placing it at that unattainable height was, however, quite impossible. Or so the people thought. Thus they kept the crystal near the entrance with a constant guard of fifteen warriors. The Horse Archers then set up camp within the mountain.
Anzov Silverarrow was not satisfied. It was he who brought the crystals to the mountain. It was, therefore he concluded, his job to place the crystal atop the mountain.
The answer to his problem, he thought, was to tame a flying mount. Not just any mount though. His had to be a flying horse of the race known as pegasi. Capturing and taming a pegasus was not easy. The creatures were very intelligent and not easily lured into traps. To capture a pegasus it had to be coaxed and convinced to serve willingly. Thus Anzov took leave of his people and traveled back to the Beadoec Range where pegasi had been sighted from time to time.
He had not been in the mountains more than a ten-day when he spotted one of the legendary creatures. For eighty three days he stalked the magnificent beast. At times the creature would land nearby as if to listen to Anzov speak, but never did he attempt to capture the pegasus. Anzov simply talked to it as though it were an intelligent being.
On the eighty fourth day, the pegasus landed right next to Anzov and nuzzled him. Whereupon Anzov mounted the creature and, together they flew eastward over the path on which his people had fled so many years ago.
The Horse Archers now had a home that had everything they desired. It was at this point that the Horse Archers underwent a social change. No longer were they barbarians eking out a haphazard existence in the face of famine and invasion. They were now a civilized people with a permanent home. The population grew under the dynasty started by King Argund Dragons-Bane. The lands around the mountain proved ripe for farming while herds of wild cattle roamed the Emerald Sea. These were eventually caught and tamed for use as farm animals.
But not all was ease and comfort. Still the inhabitants of Blue Mountain had to defend their farmlands against invasions by humanoid tribes to the south. These invasions grew fewer as the population of Blue Mountain, and thus the strength of this beohere (army) grew in size and power.
The Argund Dynasty ruled for 248 years. The final ruler in this dynasty was Good King Darwin. King Darwin was noted for his grandiose raids against the Bloody Hand, a huge orc tribe whose assaults against Blue Mountain were growing bolder and more persistent. On the banks of the Coenfor River, the beohere of Blue Mountain met the Bloody Hand. It is said that the waters of the Coenfor ran red for 30 days. The battle lasted for 13 hours from dawn to dusk. As charge followed murderous charge, the pile of bodies grew deeper. By the end of the day, the orcs had been surrounded and the end followed swiftly. What remained of the beohere returned to Blue Mountain, leaving 8000 dead orcs behind. Of the original force of 6000 men, only 3000 returned to their Blue Mountain demesne. One of the Blue Mountain dead was their king. |