The Fall of Nystol and Other Tales

In the ancient Realms of Whitehawk the kings were all too aware of the temptation of magic. They could feel its threat, a presence in their courts, a serpent slithering at their feet, even entering into their beds. To deal with the problem they formed a pact against all magic. They agreed to send all wizards into exile, across the desert wastes and the vast expanse of Dry Blood Dunes, to the remote Sardu Mesa, where was secluded the long dreamt cliff-caves called Nystol. But wizards are not dealt with so easily. In time they reared many great towers and became a world power, protected by the vast desert and impossible cliffs of the mesa. Just the rumor of their arcane conjurations was powerful enough, instilling a paralyzing fear in earthly armies. For tribute, they made every realm send their own precious collections of knowledge and learning, every scroll and book to be brought to Nystol for copying. Then, somehow, at the peak of their influence over the realms, but before they could return the books, the wizardic orders learned doom. Tattooed barbarians sacked the library-towers burning them to empty shells and executing many magic-users. Axe-wielding masters of the Northern forests, a mere horde of illiterate Maharim, accomplished the deed. As the flames consumed the magical scrolls, so too was lost all secular learning. All written record vanished in a single day and night, ushering in an age of darkness across the continent. How could it have happened? Who opened the lower gate and showed the barbarians where to climb the mesa-steps? Who would place all the civil lands in peril, and why? These six tales are haunted by a singular mystery. Exactly what treachery brought about the Fall of Nystol? For a thousand years her magic-users kept all the realms in both fascination and fear. What conspiracy of minds, certainly involving some wizards, resulted in her destruction? Or was it as the prophets foretold: a calamity that must be ascribed to the Wrath of God, the one who could no longer overlook Nystol and her corrupted practices, sorceries and conjurations, experiments cruel and forbidden? Join the ex-slave Hepthe of Setet in his journeys across the realms in search of the answer, and hear the stories he tells, and why the unraveling of this mystery is crucial to the continuance of civilization itself.

265 pages of story-research into the causes of the fall of the great wizard collegium Nystol to the barbaric Maharim. Why is it that the powerful and learned wizards could not defend their remote towers against brutal warriors? These stories investigate that question and tell the story of Nystol.

The Nomads of Sardu: A hundred years have past since Nystol fell. Abbot Cromna, hearing rumors of a lost library in the basements of Nystol's ruins, dares to travel across the forbidden lands in order to obtain a forbidden book...he risks his own life, but will a Man of God risk the lives of others to obtain the knowledge? 

Underground to Nystol: As the rear cohort of Whitehawk celebrates victory with wine and song, the overthrown dwarf-emperor suddenly appears at the entrance of the tent. The dwarf-emperor Nergalfin, his army scattered, has somehow escaped both death and capture. The mad dwarf persuades them and proposes to lead them into the depths of earth, knowing a secret passage beneath the desert, a passage to Nystol, the collegium of wizardic towers. He will take his revenge on the wizard-city which betrayed him, and at the same time reward the soldiers with magic treasure. After all, with no booty to return home from their war-labors, how could the soldiers refuse? ...but one wizardic tower stands in the way, and the wizard of that tower cannot die...

Last Days of the Magi. A valraph and gnome share some good conversation and fine leaf together during their long imprisonment. The valraph describes in exhaustive detail how Nystol, the great mistress of all the world which once served men with wisdom and wholesome magic, became corrupted unto wickedness. He recounts the intellectual conspiracy to seize the fonts of philosophy and authority, and how envy and division ended all that was good and noble in Nystol.

The Fall of Nystol: Like the beast that leans close upon Jerusalem, the Maharim barbarians of the Northern forests wait at the colossal bronze gate to enter the civil lands and head across the desert for Nystol. Finally the creature Gulathar retrieves the key from the caverns of an ancient worm and the conspiracy is ready to ferment. When the propitious day arrives the barbarians paint their torsos with marks of fury and the gates are opened. The great collegium of magic-users has no defense against them, no realm would dare ally with the accursed sorcerers. Ten thousand horsemen ride forth from the gates trampling Gulathar. Eager for mayhem and spoil, they cross the Dry Blood Dunes to finally burn down that bane upon the world of men. They arrive at the prescribed time, the week of the hyperlyptic alignment when all magic is suspended. The wizards worry not, but bicker over details while the barbarians sharpen their axes. Little do they know that laying in their bosom is a viper who will let in the barbarians to the mesa steps. But who among them can oppose the new master of Nystol, an antichrist, the dark magus Simon Invernalius?

(with illustrations by author)