Your support makes Blue Moon possible (Patreon)
"What a godforsaken place."
Talathiel Bloodborne, Captain of the Queen's guards, descended from the horse she had been riding and waved for her small squad of troopers to do likewise. The warrior elf-women, in their gold-chased armour that glinted in the sun that peeped from behind fast-moving clouds, circled the Queen's coach, forming a protective ring about it, swords drawn. The door of the coach opened, and from it extended a long, elegant leg, clad in a dress of purest blue silk that shone with the same sapphire luminosity of the regal elf-woman that descended from it to the earth. Queen Selendrine Moonshadow was tall, voluptuous, her raven hair pinned in place by a delicate filigree of golden wire in the shape of a wreath, set with sapphires cut to look like lustrous berries. She looked about herself, at the dry grassland extending to the horizon, the small rocky hill ringed with tall pines, the ruins of the ancient fortress that could be seen squatting among the rocks and trees.
"On the contrary," the Queen replied to Talathiel's statement. "It has not been forsaken. Indeed, the Goddess Ardala has blessed this location, for within, perhaps, lies the salvation of our people."
The journey from Kanluna had been several days, into this wilderness, but this, so the Goddess had vouchsafed, was where Selendrine might find the legendary Nahkriin the minotaur. The creature was said to be huge and formidable, but from the point of view of the elves who had travelled here from their forest kingdom, its main virtue was its potency, which was the result of divine gift from ancient times, though the elder scrolls were silent as to which god exactly might have sired this hybrid demigod upon the world. Indeed, so potent was the seed of the beast rumoured to be that, Selndrine believed, it might hold the key to reversing the curse that had slowly strangled the Kingdom of Kanluna over the preceding centuries.
Kanluna was a beautiful and verdant land, full of luch fields and beautiful, elegantly-spired towns. Relatively remote from human lands, it had lived peacefully with its neighbours for centuries. Its armies were small but powerful, and its diplomacy far-sighted. However, it suffered from a terrible malaise that had eaten away at its core until the entire Kingdom had become little more than a shell. The land's bounty and wealth has had come at a cost, due to a terrible bargain enacted millennia ago by a sorcerous queen - a pact with dark forces. While the land had become supernaturally fertile, the population had not - indeed, quite the reverse. Its elven women struggled to become pregnant, and even then, only one birth in ten was of a male child. In spite of the longevity of elves, the number of men in the land had plummeted until they had become a cosseted rarity, kept in palatial conditions and used purely as breeding stock. Women had been forced to take all of the senior roles in the elf society - nobles, priestesses, mages and warriors. However, there were not enough to till the fields and work the wood and metal needed to keep the kingdom functioning, and so, many years ago Kanluna had been forced to institute slavery, and bought in non-elven workers from outside to work its fertile fields and craft and perform other lower class occupations. The elves now formed only a governing elite with a significant underclass.
The elves had tried for centuries to find a way around the curse. Their major religion had come to concern the worship of Ardala, the Mistress of Fertility, and her Priesthood worked many miracles of healing, birth, desire and sexual potency. In this way the few remaining male elves have been steadily coaxed into fathering sufficient children to keep the population going. However, it had become clear that there was no long term future in this, and that even with the blessings of the Goddess, the population would continue to fall until the elves become extinct. The present Queen, Selendrine, also the High Priestess of Ardala the Bounteous, had prayed hard to the Goddess for a solution, and been granted a vision. She needed to prepare a ritual using the fresh seed of the most fertile creature in the land, which would serve as the basis for a cure for the curse. And this being, Nahkriin, lived in this abandoned fortress miles from any civilisation.
The Queen shivered at the chill on the wind that swept across the grass, unchecked by any mountains or trees.
"Let us find this creature, then," she told her guards. They fell into formation around her as she walked gracefully into the forest, emerging onto the rocky path that led up to the old fortress, its stones scoured by wind and the unmerciful stream of time.
Talathiel Bloodborne, Captain of the Queen's guards, descended from the horse she had been riding and waved for her small squad of troopers to do likewise. The warrior elf-women, in their gold-chased armour that glinted in the sun that peeped from behind fast-moving clouds, circled the Queen's coach, forming a protective ring about it, swords drawn. The door of the coach opened, and from it extended a long, elegant leg, clad in a dress of purest blue silk that shone with the same sapphire luminosity of the regal elf-woman that descended from it to the earth. Queen Selendrine Moonshadow was tall, voluptuous, her raven hair pinned in place by a delicate filigree of golden wire in the shape of a wreath, set with sapphires cut to look like lustrous berries. She looked about herself, at the dry grassland extending to the horizon, the small rocky hill ringed with tall pines, the ruins of the ancient fortress that could be seen squatting among the rocks and trees.
"On the contrary," the Queen replied to Talathiel's statement. "It has not been forsaken. Indeed, the Goddess Ardala has blessed this location, for within, perhaps, lies the salvation of our people."
The journey from Kanluna had been several days, into this wilderness, but this, so the Goddess had vouchsafed, was where Selendrine might find the legendary Nahkriin the minotaur. The creature was said to be huge and formidable, but from the point of view of the elves who had travelled here from their forest kingdom, its main virtue was its potency, which was the result of divine gift from ancient times, though the elder scrolls were silent as to which god exactly might have sired this hybrid demigod upon the world. Indeed, so potent was the seed of the beast rumoured to be that, Selndrine believed, it might hold the key to reversing the curse that had slowly strangled the Kingdom of Kanluna over the preceding centuries.
Kanluna was a beautiful and verdant land, full of luch fields and beautiful, elegantly-spired towns. Relatively remote from human lands, it had lived peacefully with its neighbours for centuries. Its armies were small but powerful, and its diplomacy far-sighted. However, it suffered from a terrible malaise that had eaten away at its core until the entire Kingdom had become little more than a shell. The land's bounty and wealth has had come at a cost, due to a terrible bargain enacted millennia ago by a sorcerous queen - a pact with dark forces. While the land had become supernaturally fertile, the population had not - indeed, quite the reverse. Its elven women struggled to become pregnant, and even then, only one birth in ten was of a male child. In spite of the longevity of elves, the number of men in the land had plummeted until they had become a cosseted rarity, kept in palatial conditions and used purely as breeding stock. Women had been forced to take all of the senior roles in the elf society - nobles, priestesses, mages and warriors. However, there were not enough to till the fields and work the wood and metal needed to keep the kingdom functioning, and so, many years ago Kanluna had been forced to institute slavery, and bought in non-elven workers from outside to work its fertile fields and craft and perform other lower class occupations. The elves now formed only a governing elite with a significant underclass.
The elves had tried for centuries to find a way around the curse. Their major religion had come to concern the worship of Ardala, the Mistress of Fertility, and her Priesthood worked many miracles of healing, birth, desire and sexual potency. In this way the few remaining male elves have been steadily coaxed into fathering sufficient children to keep the population going. However, it had become clear that there was no long term future in this, and that even with the blessings of the Goddess, the population would continue to fall until the elves become extinct. The present Queen, Selendrine, also the High Priestess of Ardala the Bounteous, had prayed hard to the Goddess for a solution, and been granted a vision. She needed to prepare a ritual using the fresh seed of the most fertile creature in the land, which would serve as the basis for a cure for the curse. And this being, Nahkriin, lived in this abandoned fortress miles from any civilisation.
The Queen shivered at the chill on the wind that swept across the grass, unchecked by any mountains or trees.
"Let us find this creature, then," she told her guards. They fell into formation around her as she walked gracefully into the forest, emerging onto the rocky path that led up to the old fortress, its stones scoured by wind and the unmerciful stream of time.