The Paladins of Asheron

The Ancient Dragon gave a sorrowful sigh that rippled across is massive body as June asked about fellowship who named themselves the long “Paladins of Asheron.” 

“What does the name mean?  Who were they?  Why did they fight against evil in the world?”

“Slow down, young elf, slow down.  Argh!  I can see why few Scholars of my kind can stand to speak with you little ones, so inquisitive!  Well, you shall have your answers, so sit down for a while, and listen to an old story.”

Once, long ago in a far away place, there was an old man, a wise, powerful, and burdened old man.  When he was but a child, he lost all those he held dear, his mother, his father, and his friends.  And after they were gone, he was given the heaviest burden to replace them: that of the survival of his people, and of the light.  As a child with parents no longer, he was charged to stand against the shadow, and told that the hope of the world rested upon his actions. 

And he grew, in age, in strength, and in encumbrance.  He became a mighty Sorcerer, though to his people, sorcery included all the spheres of magic that are.  He created mighty wonders for his people, and was know to all.  And he went on.  When all he knew passed on from old age, he found he felt as young as ever, and did not grow feeble as his peers did, but stronger.  And he grew afraid, grew tired.  He began to seek one to take his charge from him, to stand in his stead.

Then came disaster.  An experiment he was commanded to perform went awry, and his people were dying by the tens of thousands, and the one he chose as his heir was slain.  Weeping, he sent all who lived yet to another place, and stayed behind in a world that had fallen to a greater power.  For a long time he was alone in the darkness.

Then came a strange time, when many beasts and the children of strange races came to his world, brought by the same spell that saved his people.  With their help, he used some to aid him in reclaiming a small island for them all, and he dwelled alongside, though aloof, from them, alongside two other estranged, but later friendly peoples.  And after dwelling so long alone, he and the Three Children Races dwelled in glorious peace.

And a different darkness rose again, this time an ancient one, tied to his fate more closely than the people his grew to love.  The Shadow that slew his father, and that his mother sacrificed herself to defeat began to swallow his Children, and they cried out in fear, in despair, and in pain.  He felt responsible for them:  they were his children, there only because of him, and so he came.  As the Shadow shattered the land and spread like pestilence,  he gathered the mighty of his children, his golems shaped by his will, and his mighty magic that had grow to such strength that to see him was to see a god made flesh, and he stood against that beast, stood for the hope of the world.  And there, on that hill, he sacrificed himself for his children, and triumphed.  The Shadow was driven from the land, and though his children would face great challenges in the days to come, the sun would not rise during those days but for his sacrifice.  And so some of his children took on his name, forming an order to fight in his memory:  Justice and Selflessness is their creed, and they used their might to stand against the shadows and evil that still plagued their world.  Always did they remember the one who gave them their lives, in exchange for his own, and so spent them fighting the evils they could face, to make the world a lighter place.

And so came to be those who called themselves the Paladins of Asheron.