Kane the Nightstalker
You there! Have you come to embrace the Shadow, or to fight it? I've no stomach to talk to Shades or Vampires, but all others are welcome! My brothers cannot yet join me here: until they do, the burden of the fight falls to you. The Lich-Queen's armies are rising! If mortal folk cannot keep them at bay, the Death Gate will open and all the world shall be overrun! What are you waiting for? Go now, and destroy everything in this blighted place that draws no breath!
Who are you?
I am a Nightstalker. Ah, I've see you've heard of us. My brothers have done their work well. I was born when Ardan ruled the first kingdom of Men, and learned my craft from Colshak, the vampire slayer himself. I was once a loyal warrior in legions of Ardan. I remember well the War of Shadows, when the Vampires and their blood-fed slaves slaughtered all my brothers in arms. I joined Colshak's new order, and learned to smite the Nightborn with steel, stake, and fire.
I was one of Colshak's twelve chosen, who took the Long Sleep that we might fight again against the armies of the dead if they ever rose again. And so it has come to pass. I have heard tales of all that has transpired in the thousands of years since my brothers and I fell into our slumber. What a mess you have made of the world! Still, there's time to set things right -- draw your weapons, and take the fight to the unholy ones! Go now, and fear no darkness!
Who are these Brothers?
My order was born in the War of Shadows, when the restless dead first rose in legions to threaten Ardan. We fought the mindless hordes of zombies and skeletal fiends, and the darker things that served as their masters. Led by the Titans, we broke the undead legions, slew their Vampire generals, and scattered the black cult of necromancers who drew the Void into Aerynth to begin with. Colshak, our master, was troubled, and feared that the shadow might someday fall again.
The Thirteenth Titan had a solution: he placed Colshak and twelve other Nightstalkers in an enchanted slumber, until such time as Oblivion should ever strike again. What seemed a single night for us has lasted more than three thousand years. When we awoke we were terrified to learn of this new island, and the Lich-Queen who rules it. Rather than strike out directly against the foe, Colshak bid us revive our ancient order, teaching the Nightstalker's secrets to all who will learn. Seek out my brethren in the Safeholds, and they will teach you if you're worthy. As for me, I was given the task of keeping watch on the enemy's movements, and to call Colshak and the others if the unholy ones attempt to open the Death Gate.
What is the Death Gate?
An easy question, but with a dark answer, Go to the northeastern reaches of this blighted place, and you shall see it for yourself. Near the end of the War of Shadows, Aemarth, one of the fiendish wizards who invented necromancy, attempted to tear the fabric of the universe, and open a portal to the Void. His efforts failed, but the channel he wrought allowed this entire realm to be pulled closer to the Void centuries later. Now, the fiends are hard at work again. They have built a second gate, and hard at work enchanting it. Their dark machines are gathering the souls released in their foul torture pits, and channeling the energy into the Gate itself. When they have claimed enough victims, they will open the gate, and the cold breath of the Void shall kill all that lives. But we still have hope: the same energies that power the Gate replenish the minions of Oblivion after they are destroyed. Kill all you can! Every skeletal we kill delays the hour of doom! To arms!
