Excerpted From the last translation of the Epic Poem, The Golden Wreath, as penned by a Scholar of the Averneum tradition. 

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O Chronicler!

Praytell what became of the Land of Gold. 

What word of its Empire, laced in wreaths? Its Crown, forged of gold and silver? What news of its deep roots, drinking deep from the cup of nobility and history? Its spires of ivory, home to the most learned and wise of the Eldars? It fields of rye and wheat, reverberating with the song of the sun's blessing? Its centurions wrapped in honor and brilliance? Its immaculate halls echoing with the finest of dances, dresses and wine? 

What became of its glory? 

What became of its history? 

"Listen now, learned scholars and blessed acolytes, and I shall answer your most worthy of queries with the words of the last Emperor of Gold. For high beyond the ruin of his legacy, he watched, and he listened. And upon my arrival, he begged of me to share what remained of his glory, so it may not be lost to time. 

"'O Sage,' he begged of me. 'Listen well, and you will see... in all things present and past I am beyond reproach. Beyond blame. I take to my grave not the shame of a man possessed by war and rage, but a king who was far too poor a father. Rich I was in the love of my children... yet miserly I was in my responses. Indolent I was, blinded by the love I had for my children, their brilliance tainted by a greed and envy beyond my ken. Listen well, oh learned one, wise in the scriptures I devoted my youth to, yet failed to truly elucidate in my age. Pay heed to my foresight, and know you shall find me blameless in all things.

"'O Sage! I held no hope of peace when I learned that Duke Verduryne, noble and wise, a leader in all things, pledged an alliance with my third queen, a healer of both body and soul. 

"'O Sage! I held no hope of peace when I learned the my Son, the resplendent Prince Survarath, adored by gods, challenged his siblings to a game of cunning, rigged in his favor. 

"'O Sage! I held no hope of peace when I learned of how my childrens' games, innocent as they seemed, summoned the wrath of the great Evernian Drake, great and horrible in his blinding wrath. 

"'O Sage! I held no hope of peace when I learned of how that dragon broke the houses of Birch and Verduryne, robbing my land of their vitality and enduring friendship. 

"'O Sage! I held no hope of peace when I learned of how my sons made a mockery of a funeral, preying upon the last sons of both houses and driving them against each other.

"'O Sage! I held no hope of peace when I learned of how my Daughter, The Third Queen's most precious gift, lost her mother and home to her uncle's guile, though her most ardent defenders were in attendence. 

"'O Sage! I held no hope of peace when I learned of how She wreathed in Gold stood upon the paripet of the Kingdom to the South, righteous and pure, and declared to all who gathered her home a place beyond salvation. 

"'O Sage! I held no hope of peace when I learned of how my sons, despite my sage council and indulging upon the riches bestowed upon us by the gods, pursued a path of science beyond the sight of any council. 

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"'O Sage! I held no hope of peace when I learned of how the last Son of Birch raised his arms in defiance of his treacherous lord, unashamed and righteous in his indignation, only to meet his shame at the hands of his own sister, gifted and learned in the arcane arts. 

"'O Sage! I held no hope of peace when I learned of how, drunk upon the victory they had, the Mages of Byrnvathon claimed manor of Birch, once lauded as the pinacle of Aurean design, as their own castle, and undo the years of service they commited to Our Empire. 

"'O Sage! I held no hope of peace when I learned of how my sons reacted, so betrayed by both friend and family, driven by righteous indignation to steal away that illustrious Lady Birch and the Stave of Candavyrious, blessed by the gods themselves. 

"'O Sage! I held no hope of peace when I learned of how gifted She of Birch and Mana truly was, her words and wand warp and twisting the very flesh of the most loyal of men, the filial Dogs of Wargris, into beasts of war at the behest of my honorable of sons. 

"'O Sage! I held no hope of peace when I learned of how, so thusly scorned by my sons, my Daughter roused the might of the Holidom, the most hallowed of reliquiries, against her own kin. 

"'O Sage! I held no hope of peace when I learned of the armies that gathered between the Empire of Gold and the Holidom of the Divine, in those plains that once drowned in an amber ocean of grain, beneath the gaze of heavens - o those Fertile Fields of Amaros, never to grow a crop again, salted by the tears and blood of the very babes she fed. 

"'O Sage! I held no hope of peace even when I learned of the men that stood by my Empire's side- The great Teacher Sterioros, blessed by the stars with an imagination both great and terrible; The Immortal Synderos, who rejected the crown in service to a greater good for centuries, ageless and wise; the peerless Hawk of Yndara, whose arrow could silence a mere gnat a league away. 

"'O Sage! I held no hope of peace when I learned of how Ylithya, the voice of the Goddess herself, stepped along side of my Daughter, wreathed in Gold, blessing her with the gifts she granted through the graces of Divinity.  

"'O Sage! I held no hope of peace when I learned of how the gods themselves blessed the warriors of the Holidom- Bertrandal, gifted warrior and son of the great god of wind; Kivadraya, a sterling soul that rose from the ashes of a most profane diety; The Black Knight Ferdinand, peerless in blade and character yet bereft of the position his history earned him. 

"'O Sage! I held no hope of peace when I learned of how the war began, howls of men and beast rupturing the skies and driving all the Celestials to weep, the very heavens shaking with the cacophonous chorus of death. 

"'O Sage! I held no hope of peace when I learned of how, standing before her Brothers, her Sisters, her teachers, her peers, the Princess I once knew as sweet trembled with moment of doubt, only to be held firm by the word of Ylithya, who some claim spoke with all the authority the Goddess herself. 

"'O Sage! I held no hope of peace when I learned of the mayhem, the chaos of my Sons and their war- the merciless tricks they used to pull Ferdinand into their unbreakable Vortex formation, the cruel words of the Byrnvathon mages that incited the wrath of the Evernian Drake once again, the attempts made to kidnap and slay my Daughter and all her friends. 

"'O Sage! I held no hope of peace when I learned of their deaths- of Malloveth the Mighty, of Rakham the Bold, of Kolivar the Cunning and yes, of the Crown Prince Survarath- my sons, one by one, lain in the very field they promised to claim as their own through glory and strife. 

"'O Sage! What hope of peace could I have when I learned of how, in the midst of battle, our most brilliant minds of past and future, lay their lives upon the soil they could have tilled, and chose to salt instead? What worth can peace have with a price so grand? 

"'O Sage! I had seen these events and despaired, weak as I was in my love for my sons and daughters, and watched my Empire fall, consumed by monsters of their own creation. In this I am blameless, yet I bear the greatest guilt of them all. That I still rule to see the end of these golden days, that I still breathe? Had I a hundred children, would I bury them all before I know peace at last? 

"'O Sage... if I had but a chance to do it all once again... would the gods grant me the strength to overcome it all?

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