Centuries before the arrival of Harwin in this world...

  After the death of Artredies — the chief commander of the royal army — his students, Graftel and Yhorm, had been appointed as the replacements of their master.

  This was a shocking promotion as this was not the law of seniority. Many out-ranked the two young lads, but now the same people had to adhere to their commands which was a great source of animosity.

  None the less, they assumed their roles, but barely managed to keep the army under control. Their disgruntled seniors made sure that there was trouble waiting behind each and every door.

  As they were both of the same rank, they had divided their responsibilites. Yhorm was the brain, deciding various matter regarding strategy and resource management while Graftel acted as the sword, the iron-hand to implement the various policies.

  They were not as great as the legendary Artredies and were caught up in politics of the capital. As for the mage-king, he had shut himself up in a room and refused to make any appearance. This closure meant political matters were left to various lords who now called themselves the council of ministers. With support from the bitter officers, they often created hurdles for the sword-saint and storm-sword.

  Of course, if they were on a battlefield, Graf and Yhorm would have annihilated them without dropping a sweat, but this was a whole different kind of battle. Even with the wisdom of Yhorm, they were simply bewildered and overwhelmed by their opponents thus as predicted by the mage-king: corruption and treachery grew in the decade following the death of Artredies.

  The criteria for selection in the royal army had also changed. Graf and Yhorm had been promised to be given unanimous authority in this matter, but the decree offered by the mage-king was treated just as another piece of paper by the council of minister who were experts at politicking. Soon they had found loop holes upon loop holes, exploiting them and placing their blood relations in important positions in the Royal army, even if they were not qualified at all.

  In the end, the criteria for the selection became a referral letter than actual combat prowess or cunning mind. This resulted in the enlistment of officers who neither had the brain nor the brawn to be useful in the battlefield.

  The royal army was left an empty shell of the once formidable, mighty force, just another place for people with connections to enlist in. As expected, the soldiers and officers regularly involved themselves in bribery, corruption and made the lives of civilians difficult. It was the law of the jungle in the capital — the survival of the fittest.

  Graftel at times even thought of using brute force to extinguish the power of the ministers, but Yhorm stopped him at every turn. The storm-sword (Yhorm) used wisdom in a place where blood was required, making him the bigger fool of the two.

  Finally, the biggest blow came when the ministers decided to wage war on the wood-elves. They decided to destroy all the Great-forests in the process, but why were the wood-elves chosen specifically?

  One reason was to spite Graftel and the other was because they were an easier target according to the corrupt and tyrant ministers. There were no pure elves on the continent except for the wood-elves, which meant that the elves were divided by their descent. Infact, the numbers of wood-elves were the lowest in comparison to anyother race.

  The high-elves were no-where to be found on the continent but were rumored to have settled in the mysterious and vast eastern continent — a place which was believed to be the land of divinity.

  The wood-elves, though were powerful, but came nowhere close to their relatives. They were not only fewer in number but also occupied only the forests around the continent, most of which were hardly in any strategic or defensive location.

  The beastmen in comparison were strong, powerful and in them, lived great minds as well. They were not only ruthless but also as cunning as Yhorm. Most importantly, there numbers were in the millions which made them an extremely difficult or even impossible target for the current Royal army.

  The war even began in a rather barbaric and dishonorable method. A caravan of the wood-elves was attacked by the soldiers of the empire of Silfordan on the pretext that the caravan was carrying weapons to wage war on the empire. All of the elves in the caravan were murdered in cold blood, and their heads were spiked to the edge of the road — leading upto the capital — on order of the ministers.

  This uncalled for assault was the breaking point for Graftel. He was once again stopped by Yhorm, but this time he did not pay heed to the words of friend. He made his way to council-hall, massacred all the ministers and the corrupt officers.

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  The officers and the soldiers were fat, lazy and weak like their masters thus it was not a fight at all — it was as if a wolf hunting down a herd of sheep. There were, of course, screams, pleas of mercy and the promises of riches but such things were wasted on the sword-saint.

  In the end the golden hall was covered in crimson, officially beginning the great human-elfin conflict.

  Soon after this event, Graftel and Yhorm both had left their ranks and were even followed by few of their loyal followers — sparking the end of the royal army which had now been divided....

  One whole year was spent by Graftel in gathering as many able wood-elves as possible under his banners. He used guerilla tactics because even if the the enemy was inexperienced and incapable, they were still in great numbers, and it was folly to face them in an open field.

  The sword-saint, Graftel, was an experienced battle-commander. More importantly, he knew the Ins and outs of the Royal army, their strategies and all about their current leadership thus he used that information to determine where to attack — the weakest links.

  He was not conquering anything but only weakening the already broken shell of an army. Of course, it was not as if he was able to save everyone, few forests were burned at stake with the inhabitants dying in the blaze as well. Their screams, filled with agonies, were said to echo throughout the lands. This only further motivated the rest to gather in unity against the tyranny.

  The royal army was also supported by the other corrupts nations. Most were bought by the royal treasury, but these mercenaries could never compete with a loyal force.

  Graftel tried to gather all the wood-elves in nearby forests, making them close to each-other so they could be better protected.

  One significant event in the war was when Graftel made his way to a forest near the southern most part of the continent. It was near a large town under enemy governance, and they were planning to burn the forest. There was constant resistance from the elves, so the attacks from the humans were mostly futile, but they only needed one successful attempt to burn the whole forest. The tides changed when Graftel, along with his group, came to help their brethern.

  Being wood-elves themselves, they found the elfin village hidden in the forest rather quickly and were welcomed as heroes. The tales of their victories had spread throughout the entire land. It was here that he found two great warriors who would become his greatest assets throughout the war and beyond — Efrion and Farelen.

  Before the arrival of Graftel, these two warriors had been successful in defeating any party that had made their way in the forest so far, but the village had few men who were being lost every time they fought in a battle.

  Graftel called upon a council and presented his strategies infront of everyone. According to it, they were to move from this great forest to another one which was near a town called 'Elsanye'. The town was not directly under the jurisdiction of the royal capital but rather was controlled by a nation who was previously part of the great Silfordan empire, but seeing the opportunity amidst chaos, it had rebelled.

  The elves would be safe there. Needless to say, there was some protest but as Farelen had served under Graftel during his time as an officer, so he convinced others to accept the terms as well.

  It was decided that first all of the women and children were to be transported there with the help of the group of men brought-in by Graftel. These men were strong and powerful individuals who had swore absolute loyalty to the elfin cause. The wisest of them of all was a young elf called Fitz who was entrusted with the task.

  Back in the forest, there were about fifty men left under the leadership of Graftel. Most notably, there were amongst them few old men who mainly served as advisors but had strong resolve to protect their village as well. They had taken up arms at this time and were ready to lay their lives fighting; this further boosted the morale of the young ones.

  The enemy forces again infiltrated the forest, but this was after Fitz and his group had already left.

  Graftel had stationed the soldiers in key locations from where they showered arrows on any incoming forces while Farelen and Graftel took down the rest.

  The forces of the enemy were depleted at an alarming rate with the casualties on Graftel’s side being minimal. Infact, the two deaths were that of the old men who had decided to remain back in the village to defend it. They had charged at the enemies in a frenzy and annihiliated anyone in their path but were killed in the process as well.

  The town's soldiers could not even compare to a regular royal soldier. They were mainly peasants who were forced to participate in a war. The poor civilians had never wished to start the war, or to support an alliance through which neither their families nor themselves had ever benefited from.

  After a few more decisive defeats, some reinforcements from the royal army remnants finally arrived under the leadership of an old officer. He was one of the few who had been trampled over in ranks by Graftel during the selection of the successor of Artredies.

  He was a capable man but mediocre at best when compared to his comrades who had resigned upon seeing the corruption that had surrounded them. The biggest problem of this man, Schultz, was his ego and pride. He was simply driven by vengeance against Graftel, which made him blind to anything else.

  The royal army reinforcements, instead of first collecting any information or listening to any reports from the town guards, marched towards the forest. It was an action which came to bite them later. The army was obliterated — or better yet played with — by the legendary elfin warriors.

  Upon seeing the ruthless charge of the giant Farelen with his mighty axe, most of the men fled with their tails between their legs, but Shultz did not run. He stayed there as the last man standing.

  Graftel after noticing him, ordered all the attacks to be stopped, as he decided to personally engage his old senior. Shultz had become an officer in the royal army when the old criteria was still intact, thus he was a great warrior as well. The duel between the two would act as a catalyst which would further shift the balance of power between the humans and the elves.