The first rays of yellow orange sunshine penetrated Oakleaf Gilderwood’s sleeping sanctuary. Daybreak upon him, Mage Gilderwood began to stir from his contemplative rest. Already some 370 years of age, Oakleaf seldom truly slept, particularly at this most significant of all the seasons. Today, the most powerful of all days, the sun would rise to its greatest possible extent. Today was the day the Emerald Wizard had been preparing for, his year focused on just this moment, the moment that would come as the sun peaked in its journey through the heavens. With the power of Life at its zenith Oakleaf was to cast the spell which he hoped would usher in a time of salvation for the Empire, to stem the madness, and to begin an era where life and not death would rule this world.

    To others, all others it sometimes seemed, the season of sun was a time for war, for conquest, for heroic battle and endless death. “The fools!” thought Oakleaf. “And then they come to me for healing. They seek their destinies with weapon and spell and armor and creatures of rending death. They seek to create by destroying. They are all mad, and yet still I labour to save them. Save them from their madness, their disease, their mental and physical weaknesses and their everlasting pain!”  But today would be different. Today his preparations would bring him assistance. He had journeyed throughout the world, gathering the wisdom and knowledge of the greatest practitioners of Emerald magic. Though he despised and disdained them he traveled to the great colleges of Wizardry in Badendorf to research and to learn. In the College of Astronomical magic he obtained the use of a lens, the largest of the day at great cost, tremendous cost. Now, mounted in his throne of vines this lens would focus the sun’s rays and provide the necessary energy for his plans. Assistance from an Earth without Chaos and without war was coming to this world today, if all went well, if the preparations were sufficient, and if the experience did not kill Oakleaf.

    He spoke to himself this way throughout the day, mumbling, some would say, at least if there was someone to observe. There was seldom anyone to observe, save for Celeste. Oakleaf was a man who had devoted his life to saving and healing men, but who despised these same men for their vices and weaknesses and their endless thirst for power. This greatest of mages shunned power, hated its advantages and inherent responsibilities and yet, in the entire world none wielded more than he. As he harvested the magical herbs, as he prepared his most elaborate throne, wrought of growing vines from the forest, as the sun crept ever higher and as the power grew and grew and grew within him until he felt as if it was impossible to control, Oakleaf felt a doubt. Was this truly the being to summon? Surely, he resided in a land absent the taint of chaos. That alone should be enough, but nowhere was war present in this young man’s life and none of the plagues of mankind terrorized his world. His surroundings seemed safe and rational. In all of the worlds that Oakleaf Gilderwood had journeyed none could match this Earth, or so it seemed. Further searching would delay the summoning spell for another year and the Empire did not have another year. It was the mage’s judgment that without assistance of a most significant nature, the Empire would cease to exist within months. Attacked from without by the armies of Chaos and from within by the rot of secret cults, secret societies and covert plundering of all that was beautiful in his beloved homeland. It was within his power to summon the new redeemer, not truly Theodor but Theodorlike in his ability to transform the Empire.

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    Now the sun approached its apex. It was time to begin the chanting and cast the spell, years in the making. This was the moment to call across the boundary between the worlds and summon the young man who could assist, the young man already aware of the Empire and its world. The champion of Earth. The Theodor of his world, the young man they called James. Oakleaf began, “Hear me James, hear my call, answer the need, answer my summons! Cross the boundary between the worlds!” The sun's rays began to focus through the great lens and the massed construction of magical herbs began to smoulder. Gilderwood waited. He waited for just the right moment when the enormous focused rays of the sun reached their maximum heat and the immolation of a king's ransom worth of healing and power herbs caught fire and exploded in rabid heat. He chose this moment to stride forward into the inferno, uttering the great words of power.