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(2x07) Falling of the Darklight: Part 3, Episode 1

Over unreckoned aeons, not geologic time by the scale of the old world beyond but many generations still, the divided lands of old Sphidia drifted far around the world and collided again. The angelic mer-folk who had once operated the bridges between the old world's realms cast an illusion upon their seas to hide the Sword of Darklight on the far side of the world from any who would seek out its power, and in time the people of the new land would come to think it the only land, at the center of a flat world. But as that land first came together, the vampires of the east discovered the new west and sent forth explorers to map its contours. There, however, they found what to them looked to be a capitalist dystopia: wealthy elven nobles living in fantastic palaces while legions of desperate lesser elves toiled far and wide in the lands that they owned, all for the privilege of continuing to exist upon property that was not theirs.

Shocked by the news of this, the Fire King sent forth missionaries to try to stir revolution in those elven serfs. But the cold-hearted elves were callous even to their own plight, reckoning that no specific injustice had been committed to bring this state of affairs to pass, as unfortunate as it may be, and that the burden fell upon themselves to try to work harder within the system to earn a place higher in its structure. Many even thought that the vampire civilization of the east sounded astoundingly injust, even for its proclaimed egalitarianism, though they did not begrudge them that way of life if that was what they freely chose.

Appalled by this false consciousness, the Fire King sent forth an army to topple the evil elven nobility and free the serfs who would not free themselves. This vampire army found however that their bite did not merely weaken and drain the life of their victims like it did when they themselves were bit; instead, it mixed with their own strange elven magic to transform them into something different, smaller creatures of lesser intellect and no magic, their bright blue eyes reduced to slate grey, and their skin turned a darker olive complexion; what in later ages would be reckoned orcs. The vampires found that these orcs felt naturally cowed by overwhelming fear of the vampires, and in terrified subservience would do as they commanded. This enabled the vampires to finally instigate the uprising as they had been trying to do.

Next: Falling of the Darklight: Part 3, Episode 2