ALTARUS: Gaze deep into the mists with your spirit-eyes, Xerxes... look far, and tell me what you see.

XERXES: I see a land far to the north... a vast empire of dark endless moors and snow-crowned mountains... a land of brooding citadels and warrior-kings who hail to grim gods.

ALTARUS: Look well, Xerxes, for enlightenment hides within the fog-swathed vales of Hyperborea...



The King's Dream:

By the onyx sceptre of my forefathers, the air is churning with auguries of dethronement...

Impending dread thus prophesized!

In a dream I was bade ride the argent-eyed unicorn to the Ring of Stones...

There a torrent of viscid slime assailed me, as pipes and horns sang the clarion of my dissolution...

And the usurpation of my ancient azure throne.

Assassins stalk the nighted halls of my palace... poisoned blades and chalices surround me.

I thirsted for a balm, but my thirst was slaked by an envenomed draught.

My swordarm shackled by tendrils of sloth... enthralled by the chasmed gloom...

Borne upon wings of labyrinthine dread... I awaken!

I shall seek the counsel of the sorcerer, keeper of the ancient scrolls of wisdom, and the Crystals of Power...



The Words of the Sorcerer:

My liege, great and regal king... the mists disclose their secrets... you are destined to wield a great dark power. Drink deep of the potions of the apothecary, for upon thee now I bestow a shard of the mystic Crystal of Mera... sacred artefact of the Atlantean mages, won in battle by our legions. My liege, the Crystal of Mera shall unveil the truth lurking hidden in thy most fever-haunted dreams...



The Voice of the Harbinger:

The land awash with spilled blood, and viscera torn forth from the sundered dead...

Gorge the earth with flesh darkened with t