Mystics and Kings: Legends of the Second Age

The Last of the Eldenar

Another place, another time.

In the Age of Myth and Wonder.

The Eldenar, fair of both flesh and form, had tamed the forest lands of Europe and brought them under their rule. Their empire branching out from their petrified city of Lyoqua, from the Atlantic coasts of the West to the dark and foreboding Mirkwood to the East. Of the Gaelic tribes that lived under them, the Eldenar ruled with a firm silken glove, being both gentle and controlling. For if the wild was to be left unchecked it will breed chaos, and chaos will bring ruin. Yet, one of their greatest heroes was just that, the wild incarnate, the very force they subjugated.

Born Morcos, son of the huntress Zilyana, he spent much of his youth in the forests of Mirkwood. As he grew older he too grew in both stature and strength. Yet, Morcos wasn't a lumbering giant, for he was still as swift as any of his Eldenar kin.

Having been taught both bow and blade from his mother, he served as a Woodsman of the Eastern Watch. When a Captain of the watch began to lust for his mother, Morcos stepped in to defend her honor. In an effort to be rid of the adolescent woodsman, the Captain sent Morcos to kill a beast that had been a thorn in the Eastern Watch's side for hundreds of years, the Villrdyr.

The Villrdyr was a monstrous bear mutated by wyld magics, with an ivory pelt that no weapon could pierce. Undeterred, Morcos sought out the beast, eventually finding its lair in the Carpathian Mountains. Their battle lasted for three days, and when his weapons failed in harming the beast, Morcos used his raw strength to choke Villrdyr. When the great bear took its final breath and collapsed dead, Morcos used its claws to skin it and its teeth to fashion its pelt into a cape.

Returning to his village, he presented the beast's carcass and pelt to the Captain as proof of his success. Furious that the beast didn't kill him, the Captain attacked with his adamantine axe, Silvermane. Morcos, using the pelt cape as protection, disarmed the Captain and used Silvermane to cleave the Captain's head clean off his shoulders. Claiming the Captain's rank and axe, Morcos took charge of the garrison of the Eastern Watch within his village, able keep the peace with surprising efficiency.

However, word of the death among the Eastern Watch spread across the Empire, eventually reaching the Royal Court of Aldar the Great. At the urging of his advisors to deal with this unruly woodsman, Aldar sent a messenger to summon Morcos to the Court in Lyoqua for judgement.

Yet, when the messenger arrived, he was not willing to go. Now a young man and a commander of the Eastern Watch, Morcos had many supporters and allies within the eastern territories. Instead, he had the messenger deliver a message of his own. Unless Aldar himself comes to the Mirkwood to speak with him, Morcos wasn't going to Lyoqua.

While his advisors were insulted by the demand, Aldar was rather entertained by the show of moxie. Accepting the Watch commander's terms, he came to Mirkwood to speak with Morcos. Instead of punishing Morcos, Aldar invited him to be captain of the Artosgard, the King's elite cavalry. Comprised of mighty warriors mounted on the backs of massive war bears.

Knowing an opportunity when he saw it, Morcos took the offer. Though Aldar assured his advisors that the decision would rein in Morcos' wilder tendencies, the invitation instead began a career of battle fury never before seen by the Eldenar. Brandishing Silvermane atop his mighty war bear, Atlas, Morcos carved a bloody path in any battle he took part in. Though a strong leader and unrivaled fighter, he took no orders other than his own.

On numerous campaigns he led the Artosgard on reckless yet decisive missions. Among his most famous adventures was the Battle of Azure Fields where he took the place of Lady Dyne (the Guardian Arch-Dragon of Europe) to fight the corrupted water dragon Hydrus, whose 100 heads Morcos severed from their body. In the War of the Dead, he led the Artosgard and the Eldenar forces against the undead hordes of Abuskhau The Resurrector. There he bisected the Egyptian necromancer's champion, Mentu-ra.