Then you come to a place like this where no one fits. The Initiative, our benevolent equalizers.
[His tone slightly dry, but for the moment he's not bitter or annoyed. He takes another sip of the wine.]
We're an ancient order, born of the necessity of saving our world from an at the time unprecedented plague of darkness and evil. Creatures that had never before been seen swarmed the dwarven kingdoms underground and erupted upward, impelled by the commands of an insane god. They infected those who came in contact with them, mutating and sickening them, and blighting the lands they touched.
Wardens drove them back and slew the god. Another rose to take its place. Five times this devastation has been visited upon our world. We recruit from all races and nationalities, and we answer to no one kingdom or government, for the threat we combat knows no borders and recognizes no treaty. It's difficult to keep our numbers up, because these blights have spanned the ages, often going hundreds of years between one and the next.
People are more apt to concern themselves with the here and now than the possibility of an ancient threat that hardly seems real, dark legends from stories told to keep errant children in line. It's an understandable but short-sighted attitude. Only in the Anderfels do we face no opposition, for they are under constant assault from the enemy, and much of their land is blighted beyond hope of any recovery. It's much harder to ignore the enemy not only on your doorstep but beyond your threshold.
no subject
[His tone slightly dry, but for the moment he's not bitter or annoyed. He takes another sip of the wine.]
We're an ancient order, born of the necessity of saving our world from an at the time unprecedented plague of darkness and evil. Creatures that had never before been seen swarmed the dwarven kingdoms underground and erupted upward, impelled by the commands of an insane god. They infected those who came in contact with them, mutating and sickening them, and blighting the lands they touched.
Wardens drove them back and slew the god. Another rose to take its place. Five times this devastation has been visited upon our world. We recruit from all races and nationalities, and we answer to no one kingdom or government, for the threat we combat knows no borders and recognizes no treaty. It's difficult to keep our numbers up, because these blights have spanned the ages, often going hundreds of years between one and the next.
People are more apt to concern themselves with the here and now than the possibility of an ancient threat that hardly seems real, dark legends from stories told to keep errant children in line. It's an understandable but short-sighted attitude. Only in the Anderfels do we face no opposition, for they are under constant assault from the enemy, and much of their land is blighted beyond hope of any recovery. It's much harder to ignore the enemy not only on your doorstep but beyond your threshold.