In the Shadow of Virtue: Victory to the Virtue's Bane.
By WarderDragon.
By WarderDragon.
The Freeborn Press has confirmed that the Bane Chosen - revealed to be the Servants of the Infernal Lord Virtue Bane - has conquered the rural farming Village of New Skara Brae. The Legions of Queen Dawn and the Ophidian Vanguard have issued a full retreat from the Spiritwood Forest.
This comes on the heels of Queen Dawn's failure to defend - or recapture - the Stronghold of Gideon; which fell to the Cartel Federation not more than seven evenings ago.
In an ironic twist of fate - and contrary to the most dire proclamations of Britannian Royalists and the Friends of Queen Dawn - the Chosen have not engaged in any of the genocidal slaughter or tyrannical oppression of the Dark Enchantress and Lord Casca the Deceiver. In fact, Citizens opened their doors this morning in fear, only to find the dragons departed, the legion of armed soldiers vanished and the city left intact. The Markets have reopened. Trade has resumed. Shopkeepers were told to unbar their shutters and commence business as usual. The only visible difference is the hulking Bane Liches, who patrol the streets and quell any signs of armed resistance to their rule.
Those watching the struggle between the Britannians and the Chosen debate the nature of their aforementioned leader. It is speculated that he - Virtue's Bane - is the demon behind the destruction of Magincia; but supporters of the Bane Chosen are quick to counter that it was the Britannians who turned the carnivorous beasts on the Magincians, hoping to profit from the trade ports demise. Britannians claim the Bane Chosen wage a war of murder and conquest; but the Chosen argue this is a War of Liberation from a Queen aligning herself with the same Ophites that slaughtered countless Northerners and Papuans during the First and Second Ophidian Wars.
The answer might be found in the writings of the enigmatic Loremaster Argent; who speculated that demons act as a sort of Enforcer in the Balance of Virtue. It is not that the Pit Lords and Fiends are Servants of the Virtues themselves - the Princes of Hel are the closest thing to true and unadulterated evil in the Universe - but instead the dark denizens of the Infernal Void are able to manifest themselves in the absence of Virtue, where they prey upon the weak.
Despite the apparent submissiveness of the Ranger Council since the Fall of Skara Brae, pockets of resistance have sprung up in defiance of Virtue Bane. Two Britannian Knights - an archer and a swordsman - led a hit and run campaign against the Bane Liches late this last evening across the Northern Coast, while the Cartel and the Spawners Corperation have led their own uprisings in the City Proper; harassing the Dark Guardians with reckless abandon.
Continue to follow the Freeborn Press for further developments in this Saga.
