(This is my story from long ago, at least the first chapter.  I'll be updating once a week until we get to chapter 12, which I left half done.  The names have been changed from last time, as they were all based off names of players here, but made no sense to outside observers.  For those of you who don't know who I am, I was the one who founded the VU chapter of Werewolf, wrote this story and ran The Three Kingdoms RPG until I started college and lost all my time to do any of these things.  Now that the roleplaying forums are actually popular, maybe I'll be motivated better.  Enjoy.)

Chapter 1: Uprising

King Alek sat in his throne room, eyeing the corpse of his former advisor.

"Guards! Get this body out of my sight!"

For years Alek had tried to rule his realms fairly, but the longer he ruled the more separated he became from the common man. Eventually he began to see their plight as simple whining. If they would work, they could fix whatever was wrong.

As the divide grew, Alek himself grew more ruthless, and eventually began ruling with an iron fist. As he saw it, everything he did was for the good of the kingdom. Dissenting mayors and governors had to be assassinated, for disunity could destroy a kingdom from within. Recently more scouts from the desert kingdoms in the south had been spotted along the border, and the western portion of his kingdom, that still practiced the old religions, was becoming more unruly as the fish within their sea began migrating elsewhere.

All of these factors has culminated in Alek having the noble prince of the northern tundra, Rhade, assassinated. In response a few of the northern governors and mayors banded together and declared independence, in a full-out revolt. These days Alek had trouble keeping advisors, for whenever news had to be delivered of a failure or new uprising, the bearer was often executed by Alek himself, as was the case with the body currently being dragged out of the room.

The king stood and looked out a window, taking in the size and glory of his armies. Alek had his generals begin to prepare the armies as soon as the revolt was discovered, and it had taken weeks. To show any other parts of the kingdom who might consider joining the revolt that any resistance was futile, the entire strength of the army was now amassed and ready to march against the north. Against many of his advisors warnings, only a small detachment had been left to guard the southern borders against Alyra, should the foolish Queen Scian strike.

Alek's thoughts were interrupted as Warren and Augustine burst into the room, arguing about something.

Augustine was shouting, "We can't take on an experiment of this scale! We've barely had success with the smaller experiments, this is simply too fast!"

With his hand on his sword, Warren replied, "We need all the magic we can muster, and you've had good results in the past, yes? Then figure out a way to do it with hundreds, thousands of participants! Our jails are full to the brim, surely in death they would serve us better."

Alek stopped their quarrel with a wave of his hand. "What is this about? I will not have my two greatest generals fighting in front of my soldiers."

Augustine and Warren kneeled, then Augustine spoke. "My liege, as you know I have been conducting experiments with our prisoners, finding ways to tap into vast magic reservoirs. I enhance some of the inmates using magic, creating such creatures as werewolves and vampires, and then give those that remain weapons and other abilities. We then instruct them that the only way to survive is to be the last group standing, and take advantage of the malice, hate and death that ensues. Powerful magic is created, but up until now we have only experimented with a few people at a time, maybe twenty at the most! Warren is trying to order an experiment with thousands!"

Warren glared at him, then raised his head and spoke. "Perhaps Augustine does not understand the kind of magic we will need for these battles. If we are to provide an example for all other would-be rebels, our power must be extreme. Understand that these people would be well contained, and absolutely no risk to our empire! What could be the harm in tapping into larger reserves of magic!?"

"I see no reason not to try it. Augustine, you will oversee the experiment with the aid of our mages. Warren, I want you to lead our armies north. We will ravage the lands on a warpath to Paladin's castle, for he is the governor that leads this revolt. These peasants follow him blindly, believing their plight to be so horrible. They will know true anguish when we descend. Off with both of you!"

Augustine lingered as Warren left, and was about to say something before deciding better. With one last baleful glare back, Alek was again alone.

So...uhh...turns out that I did not, in fact, remember to bring the story with me.  Next chapter will be up on ~Dec. 20th.  Lo siento.

I can change them back if it's going to confuse you :P, I think I'll change Alek back to Arzun anyway since Arzun is better.  So meh, I'll change them all back.  And yeah, I could use the other chapters so it's not another two weeks before the story progresses.

wow.....just read this, great story m8!

keep it coming!

maybe i will write one......

second chapter please! ill print it and read it l8tr

hey, what happend to the rest of it? like the part that i hated BADLY!!!!


the part where some amazon chick ran me through....

Back with popular demand, its the old DECENT!!!!

Chapter Two: Unity

Seated at the head of a great table, Paladin rose and looked over those seated before him. At the other end of the table sat the only woman in the room, an ambassador from Alyra. While she and her kingdom unofficially supported their bid for independence, they could not officially pledge any support, yet. Seated next to her was a cleric from the western regions of the kingdom. Those still worshipping the ancient gods and goddesses had been left out of the new government, which left the region unruly. The western region and Alyra has long shared good relations, and it was well expected that if one pledged support, the other would follow suit.

On each side of the table were seated various mayors and governors that were either supporting the rebellion, or were wavering in the support for the king.

“You will all know why we are here. For years Arzun ruled this country well, all people were treated fairly and injustice was rare. However, as the years have passed corruption within the government grew. Arzun now only listens to those with the money to influence him. The lower classes, produced from the enlightening, have been neglected and are disgruntled. Scian’s kingdom, Alyra, has been persecuted and bullied into submission time and time again. The western kingdoms that cling to the old religions are effectively excommunicated from the government, and we in the north were given very little say. It is obvious that the East controls this kingdom, from the shorelines that the original missionaries landed to the far reaches of Scian’s western border near the mountains. Arzun feared that disunity, and in his paranoia closed his mind to the rest of the kingdom.”

“We decided long ago that something had to be done, but it was only recently that our beloved Prince was murdered. Rhade will be sorely missed, but in his absence we must remain strong. We now know that Arzun has begun raising soldiers against us, though we do not yet know the size or strength of these troops. We had originally hoped that there would be no real need for violence, but it appears that if we want to return our kingdom to its former glory, or at least to a time when it was ruled fairly, it must be done.”

Paladin glanced around the room, and then settled on the ambassador from Alyra. “What does the queen have to say?”

The ambassador stood, the eyes of most of the men in the room following her as she walked. She was lean and beautiful, muscular like most of the women from the southern region of the kingdom. She was also scantily clad, in the dress of her homeland, regardless of the much cooler temperatures of the north.

“Queen Scian would like for me to inform you that she supports your bid for independence, unofficially of course. We cannot, however, risk an attack from Arzun’s armies, and until the north can prove that you can handle yourself in battle against Arzun, we cannot give you any kind of support.”

As the ambassador returned to her place and the table and seated herself, Paladin nodded and turned to the cleric. “That is what we expected, and I thank you for coming. What does the west have to say?”

The elderly cleric gripped his cape and pulled himself to his feet. “We agree with Queen Scian. We have been granted a good deal of autonomy by the King, and we cannot risk that to follow you yet, no matter how noble your cause. Until you can show us that you have some chance, we cannot even consider aiding you.”

There were some murmurs of agreement from around the table, and a governor stood, “They’ve got good points. If we join this rebellion with no chance, it will simply be suicide. What makes you think you’ve got any chance of winning? There’s a good chance Arzun would annihilate us simply for coming to this meeting!”

Paladin slumped back into his chair. “So this is how it’s going to be then? You all pledged your loyalty to Rhade over and over. He’s been gone nearly two weeks now, yet already you waiver against his plans. Simply because Arzun executed him, does not mean we cannot fulfil his vision.”

Once again there were murmurs of agreement, this time from the different leaders. These leaders nodded, and one named Vertencio spoke, “We pledge our troops to Rhade, and with his death we have even more reason to fight. Arzun knew nothing of his plans, and even though his paranoia was founded he had not idea it was. He killed Rhade simply because the people loved him, and not just here in the North. We still support the rights of the old religious to practise, and the people supported him for that. The people of the East agreed that the class system needs to be abolished, and supported him in that. The people of Alyra agreed with his cause, which is now ours.”

Paladin nodded, “It is my hope that those of you who still waiver will change your minds, but until then we must prepare. Those of you that have pledged troops, we have recently received Intel that they are going to march directly to my castle. We will stage our resistance from there, so prepare you armies and begin the march. We will be outnumbered, but Arzun’s armies have never fought in the north, and it will be hard to find food for the numbers he intends to bring.” Paladin looked about the room, focusing on those who had refused to help. “Even if we fail, we have at least died trying, with honour.”

Does anyone actually read this story?
Or is Rhade still about to fini*beep* once I've posted chapters 3 & 4.........

Chapter 3: Games

It had been a few days since Arzun had set Senturu and his army out for the northern reaches of his kingdom, and for all that time Scientist had wrestled with how to undertake the massive task at hand. There we no moral objections, only ponderings on how to achieve the goal of delivering a huge magic reservoir to Senturu and his army very quickly without killing the entire city. He had finally just decided to go ahead with the experiment and let the events fall as they might. Some of the mages, however, had a problem with that.

“Sir, this isn’t safe at all, and you know it! Why do you insist we use so many subjects!?”

Scientist backhanded the mage, Alexander, and the turned away. “These orders are from above me, and I can’t change them. Now we’re just going to have to do everything we can to keep anything from going wrong, aren’t we? Because, if we screw this up, then it will mean death for both of us.”

He looked out over the large courtyard, once used for royal ceremonies and holy rituals. Now it was to be the site of Scientist’s next experiment, one exponentially larger than any he had attempted before. Prisoners were led across the courtyard in front of him, and then separated into four different lines. One line would be infected with a lycanthrope virus, only recently discovered. This would serve to create werewolves from which Scientist could harvest the power of their hunger and lust for flash into magic.

Another line was led into a dark dungeon where, one by one, each inmate was bitten by an imprisoned vampire. From these un-dead could be harvested the powerful emotion of hate, of all living creatures. The last two lines would stay unaltered, however, the first would receive weapons and the off of piles upon piles of gold to be one of the last standing at the end of the contest. Magic manifested itself in these people in the form of greed and malice. The last line would simple be led into a dark hallway, and then released against once all the other prisoners had received their ‘treatment’. From these ignorant people, magic could be harvested in the form of fear.

It had taken years for Scientist to develop a system such as this, where so many different emotions could be converted into magic at the same time. All it required was a few mages in constant meditation to collect the powerful forces that would grow to surround the combatants. More mages would have to be brought in eventually, of course, to harvest the kinds of magic the amount of death that was about to occur would leave behind. He had considered dragging out this experiment, as he sometimes did, to collect less powerful forces little by little, but had instead decided on a battle royale, to move straight on to the harvesting the death energy. The field of energy that was created would then slowly and carefully be siphoned off into precious gemstones, mined and cut specifically for this purpose. This was the only way to effectively transfer magic of this magnitude, and the only way to control it.

Alexander, still rubbing his stinging cheek, finally found the nerve to talk again. “There is a reason, Scientist that we mages do not attempt to hold in these kinds of energies during real battle. Once erected, the fields that we use to contain the magic are self-sufficient, and we cannot tear them down, only direct the power from within them into something else. The forces created by a war-like situation would be nearly impossible to contain, and if they were, they would most likely destroy everything inside of them. What you are doing here, now, is creating your own battle. We are putting this entire city at risk! If even one mage slips up and the fields fluctuate, the kind of power that would escape could decimate these lands if uncontrolled. I hav-“

Scientist had been growing more and more impatient whit every word his assistant spoke, and had finally had enough. He punched his stomach, and then shoved him against a wall. Scientist grabbed his arms and pinned him, then brought his face inches from Alexander’s.

“Is that all, Alex?”

Afraid, but still worried, he started to address Scientist.

Instead of allowing him to talk, Scientist harshly twisted him arm. “I asked you, is...that...all!?”

Alexander dropped his gaze and muttered a “yes, sir”, and Scientist responded by releasing him. “Now, set you mages up around the courtyard, we need everything to go perfectly.”

As his assistant left, another mage came in. “Scientist, sir, the subjects are ready to be released.”

“Good, I will signal you when to release them. Now leave me.”

Alone again Scientist slumped into his chair. Burying his face in his hands he contemplated exactly what his life had turned into. When he has first joined Arzun’s monarchy, he had sworn never to use science or magic to harm others. As Arzun’s focus turned, however, from equality to preservation of his power, he had requested more and more that Scientist do things which fell into a moral grey area. At some point he had just given up his ethical beliefs and gone along with anything his King asked him to do. And now, here he was, leading thousands of people to their own deaths, just so he could use their sacrifice to give Senturu greater ability to kill others.

Scientist sat and pondered like that for nearly an hour, before Alexander returned and informed him that the mages were fully prepared. He nodded and told his assistant to go inform the guards to release the prisoners into the courtyard, then walked out onto the balcony overlooking the scene.

As the first prisoners exited to dark hallways where they had been confined, Scientist began to speak.

“All of you are here for a reason. You are scum of our kingdom, and only in this way can any of you really serve a true purpose. To whoever is the last group standing, we offer freedom and riches that you could not comprehend. To those of you that fall, all we can offer is hell. You have no choice in this matter. Fight or die.”

The prisoners were still filtering out, werewolves, vampires and humans all. When they reached the middle of the courtyard and cam into each other’s sight, each stopped to take in their opponents. That was, at least, until a scream broke out. A vampire had come across an undefended human trying to sneak around the edge of the wall, and had simply done what instinct told him. He drank his blood.

At that point all hell broke loose. Man and beast charged, met and attacked. The vampires struck and retreated, the wolves were in an all out bloodlust, and the humans were simply caught in the middle. Eventually the humans that remained pulled into a tight circle, guarding themselves in all directions with weapons they had either been given, or pulled off of their fallen. This led the beasts to attack each other, who offered less organized defence. While vampires were the more agile and could act more covertly, that alone did not allow them to overcome the werewolves’ speed and strength. As the wolves picked off the vampires, an odd human or two would reach out and strike the unwary wolf, which would then retaliate.

The numbers were dwindling, but the rapid death and emotion was having an unforeseen effect. The energy within the field could now be felt by the combatants, and the mages were starting to strain a little to contain the power. As the battle dragged on more energy manifested empowering the fighters to new levels. With new strength, the hated and number of dying increased, this again increased energy within the field. Soon the energy became too much for the humans within the field to bear, and many began simply dropping dead. The wolves and vampires would have lasted, had the extra energy from the dying humans not also taken its place. Within seconds every brawler was destroyed, which, while efficient, put an incredible strain on the mages.

Bolts of energy, manifesting in different forms of fire, lightning and plasma, cracked out from weaker spots in the field. Mages began fainting from their effort, and while reinforcements were there to take their place, no one was ready for the sudden burst from the massive ball of energy. For a split second, Scientist could see the mages being tossed about, right before he himself was thrown back into a wall blacking out.

Hours passed before any of those struck by the wave began to awaken. By this time it was already dawn and the sphere of energy shone with its own light. Scientist turned to Alexander, who was also just waking up. “Go get the gems; we need to get this power into them soon. I don’t want to find out what else could happen.”

Good ive read it i want more :P!

Hehe, I'm back home!  I'll get some updates going.

Ehm bump next bitty please lol.