Hood of Niadris - Prologue

In the time of powerful magicians—the time when the Great One, Avon, walked the land—Brack was a peaceful and prosperous land.  The Great One and the Gardeons, his disciples, taught the inhabitants of Brack the ways of righteousness.

But the Great Avon had to leave his land of Brack and return to Godholm when one of his own Gardeons, Avongel, betrayed him and corrupted the land.  The Great One left his Gardeons in Brack to keep Avongel from completely destroying his land.  The Gardeons succeeded in pushing Avongel and his grotesque armies of cryans and evoluns south of Brack, and managed to trap Avongel there.  Avongel took control of this place and it became known as Tophet, the land of smoke. 

In case Avongel was to ever break the spell that held him there, Niadris, a magician fawn and disciple of Halbark, one of the Gardeons, forged a helmet and planted into it the knowledge of ending the reign of Avongel if Avongel ever escaped.  By forging this powerful instrument, Niadris quickly made enemies, mainly bounty hunters, hoping to gain something back from Avongel by destroying it.  Fleeing for his life, Niadris hid the helmet in the Forest of Halbark.  There in the enchanted forest, the helmet was safe.  No Aizon could penetrate the magical thickness of the forest of Halbark. 

After a few centuries of imprisonment, Avongel found a way to escape—through the Menelandine border.  He released his Raiders of Night, his messengers of death, to prepare for his return to Brack.  The Raiders began a reign of terror.  In every village, town, or city visited by these Raiders, only ruins and smoke were left behind.  Armies of any kind fell to the feet of these Raiders.  Nothing stood in their way. 

More recently, the Raiders have completely devastated the territory of Meneland and have moved north into Kanine.  Their direction of destruction seems to be northwards and their next possible direction is east until the Avas Sea—in this way, destroying all of Brack from east to west.