The Albren

With Wares dead, and Tremolyn decimating the armies of the remaining gods, one human became the rallying call of many people. Albren Arrowshot, a human knight of the Northern Kingdom had become a hero of great renown by slaying an Ice Dragon with a single arrow shot to the eye. At a time where it could take a thousand men to bring down a fully grown dragon, he was seen as an answer to many people's prayers, and was thought to have some sort of divine magic at work. In truth, the shot had been pure luck, and the only magic he knew was the same as any other knight.

But that hardly mattered to the people. Increasingly, people sent prayers to keep Albren safe, and generally healthy. The goddess Hella obliged them, and did her best to protect the young knight, who at the time, was thirty five. She saw him as Wares's legacy, a symbol for people to rally behind, and give people faith that all would work out in the end. The morale on the day Wares died was nearly as crushing as the battle.

As time went on, Albren became aware that Hella was keeping him safe, and giving much of her attention to him. Albren became a general of great tactical and strategic skill, and was constantly adored by the populace. He successfully recreated his last great accomplishment, that of slaying a dragon with less than a thousand causalities sustained in the process. This was done by trapping the best inside a canyon, where he had his geomancers crush it underneath the tons of rock. This still cost the lives of 706 men, but it was still an astonishing victory, and created a fierce pride in Humanity, who at the point had been fighting against Tremolyn the longest of any race, the Selk and Kathal still helped where they could, but the Selk were not trusted and the Kathal had no magic to help them. The Jedem had retreated to their underwater cities, the Jekauze were too frightened of losing their freedom, and the Ivorsk still hid in the wilds. To Humanities glee however, the remaining seven gods gathered to help lead them against these new perils, in spite of this new found revelation of their mortality.

At this point, with another Dragon defeated relatively easily, Albren caught the notice of Tremolyn who now saw him as a threat to his plans. Tremolyn planned to lure the human into a trap, by using his few human followers to relay information of a breeding pit, where Tremolyn created his dragons. Unfortunately, this was a ruse, and no such pits exist. The creation of a dragon, though it took a great deal of Divine Nakesh, was a quick process, and often formed from the same element that they commanded. However, the pits that Tremolyn had his servants give Albren knowledge of, were places where other monsters his Selk had made resided. It was thought abandoned long ago. This led Albren to believe the story, thinking the creation of a dragon might be the same as that of a monster, and that the abandoned locale was a good cover. With this information, Albren led a small force of 500 men to the aforementioned pits to be as stealthy as he could.

Tremolyn was waiting, however, and subtly sent disasters and misfortune to the men, reducing them to a meager 13 by the time they arrived. When his men realized that the pits were nothing more than holdings for various monsters, they knew that they had been set up. Tremolyn himself appeared before them then, and challenged Albren to a duel, as was the custom in the Northern Kingdom to resolve disputes. The fight was a farce, and Albren was sorely humiliated in front of the remaining men. Tremolyn goaded Albren on by tossing his remaining men one by one into the pits that held the monstrous creations of his Selk. At this point, Albren called on every remaining god in prayer to help him defeat Tremolyn. The remaining gods, now realizing what danger Albren was in, sent him a great deal of power. In a desperate attack, Albren tackled Tremolyn to the ground and began tearing at him like a wild savage. As he did so, a lone page was torn from under Tremolyn's clothes. Albren quickly grabbed it, knowing that their was only one book that Tremolyn had on his person at all times. In a stroke of luck, he had found the one page that detailed how to reach a realm of power.

However, Tremolyn had not been defeated, and quickly recovered. Using magic that was known only to him, he blocked the connections of prayer. This forced Albren back to his frail mortal self, and the "fight" continued. Albren was lucky however, and Hella had made a concentrated effort to reach through the connections of prayer to speak to all of humanity, begging for prayers to keep him safe. She had become convinced that Wares, her husband, lived on in Albren, despite the fact that his Nakesh had been absorbed into Tremolyn. With the extra prayers, the remaining gods were able to break past Tremolyn's block and once again bestow great power to Albren. However, Albren was beaten and bloody, and saw that Tremolyn had already begun to block the connection once again. In a hurry he read the page that was still clenched in his fist, and opened a realm of power at random.

He found himself reaching into the Nakesh that defined humanity. Every skill, talent, and ability that every human had, he had access to. He found himself as strong, as fast, as quick of wit as every human on Kalyssia combined. His wounds were dissipated onto all of humanity, essentially disappearing amongst so many. Albren Arrowshot was no more, and The Albren had been created. The god of humanity. With this done, Tremolyn realized all too late that his foe had become a god, and was struck with a mortal wound. Albren, however, new to the experience, did not yet have full control over his powers. The flow began filling with all the weaknesses of humanity. He was assaulted a minute later by the fear and desperation of every human on Kalyssia, and with this distraction, Tremolyn was able to escape. Though to wear, no one knew.

With this act, Tremolyn's armies began acting erratically and the dragons began to lose their viscous cunning. The First War was over, and a new god had taken Wares's place in the pantheon. The humans, now the most militarily accomplished, settled all of Kalyssia, and began kingdoms that recognized no other Triune being's borders. In turn, the same was done to the humans by the other Triune beings. A new era had come. One that though peaceful, still left a bad taste in many mouths.