Chapter 1
Alas, dear child of the Third Sun Era, let not yourself be fooled by preacher nor practitioner who cites the Fall of Ayor as proof of the gods’ mercy and kindness.
For, when Ayor, King of the Gods, entered the mortal plane, to conquer man and elf and beast alike, the gods did nothing.
And when Ayor’s reign of tyranny spanned a thousand years, the gods still did nothing.
They did not a thing till Ayor built an army of mortals to ransack the palace of the gods—only then did they act.
The execution of their corrupted King was swift and absolute, but Ayor’s power could not truly be destroyed by man or god. The power of Ayor was splintered into a thousand Stones and scattered across the lands he once ruled, that none may take this power for their own selfish ends.
And here, child, is where the preachers tell you of the mercy of the gods.
How the gods selflessly closed themselves off from the mortal realm, never to enter or intervene in our affairs again.
To protect us, they say. To keep Ayor’s power from corrupting another god, from creating another King, they say.
Out of the gods’ reach, the Stones can do no harm, they say.
But you and I know this to be a folly. For it is not only the gods whom power can corrupt most wholly, but man as well. And any true tyrant knows the only being more terrifying than a god with indomitable power is a mortal man who seeks to become one.
It is why, dear child, our land is known as Ayor’s Rest. The immense power of the King of the Gods is not destroyed—it is merely asleep.
— Excerpt from “The Truth of the Gods” by Edmund Greaves, in The Stones of Ayor