Darkness.. In your minds eye
you hear the tortured screams of the dying and the screams of those for which death would
be far more pleasant than that which awaits. Laughter Cold, mocking, malicious laughter
echoes around you. As an impenetrable fog begins to lift, the roar of fire assaults your
ears but from where? There! On the horizon! Glowing as if a large city had fallen to the
wrath of a mad god and the vengeance of fire itself was unleashed upon the world. As you
scramble up the side of the hill, slipping in the muddy earth you see what is left of a
once prosperous city. Blasted trees stumps, still smoking from an otherworldly fire, dot
the landscape like burned out candles. A city in flames, which calls out to you in near
recollection, still eludes your memory as to its name. An army, created of both the living
and the dead, stretches across the horizon like the shadowy form of an angered serpent. As
you move nearer, the invaders banner becomes visible in the haze. The standard is of a
claw-like skeletal hand raking at a blackened sphere on a blood red background. Ragged
elven men and women are stripped of their belongings and their children slaughtered before
their unbelieving and despairing eyes. The remaining elves are then bound in chains and
led to a large group of awaiting slaves and their cruel masters. An image appears in the
sky of a man cloaked in true darkness. His arms out stretched as if to embrace the world.
His eyes, glowing as if embers, hold that same mocking laughter heard before and you know
that you are seen. The horde of destroyers then thrust their fists to the heavens and
their vengeful cry was heard above the tumult of destruction, Hail to the Order of the
White Hand! Hail to the Overlord Thelaskir! All hail his divine darkness!!!
As you awake with a start, the nightmarish image receding, you hear that selfsame mocking
laughter whispering in your mind. A cold and emotionless voice was then heard. Sleep
peacefully Norrath. I and mine are coming and the nightmares begin again That was all that
was said. And then there was only laughter. Was this just a nightmare to be forgotten? Or
was this a prediction of things to come and quite possibly the end?
The Order of the White Hand is an Everquest Roleplaying Guild on the Morell-Thule Server