varda balahadd ... his name now is a memory from heroic poems but it was he who waged the war that culminated at ravenora plains, the very war that lead to the creation of paladia alliance, and also led to the fall of the kingdom of nebezial asheri

varda was slain 212 years ago by general melchial asheri, brother to king nebezial

historians differ in the opinions as to what the purpose behind vardas war was allthough they do agree on one thing , varda wanted to release the sinner delphi bellarya

to what purpose it still remains unknown, but mere three years later king nebezial will be the one to fulfill his goal

it is worth acknowleging that never since varda has a necryte of such power emerged , unless one believes groundless rumors that a sorcerer known as the reaper of ardunat is actually none other than varda returned

people feared him for a good reason, for necrytes could do the unholy act of binding dead souls to living bodies, the dead form a pact with a necryte and become the perfect soldiers, no fear, no hesitations and absolute loyalty

but varda took it a step further, to destroy his enemies he meticulously organised kidnappings of high ranking military personells families whom he then posessed with dead souls and put on the frontline of his army

he was defeated in the end but it was a bitter victory

just a shot of nebezial from the time of the battle for ravenora. the glory days before the traitory that destroyed his body and soul.
in those days the ruler of the norther kingdom of aphelion, also called farreach , was the younger of two brothers. nebezial, also named raven of the north.
he was the only ruler crowned by eani with the crown from the old world. but it is his weapon that made him the king.
Not by an act of violence but by a test of worth was he crowned, by proving his power and sealing a wanderers weapon magradan. with this he was chosen to marry an eani and through the rites of old world he was to inherit the immortality of their people

but too much of a good thing will breed jealousy

a veteran of 3 wars and numerous battles alven has ranked up to the position of general in 6 years of his military carieer

his loyalty lies with the kingdom of wranthorn ruled by the house of reiyus it is his unquestionisng loyalty and sense of honor that impressed even king nebezial who found in alven a first true friend in a long while

his combat skills may be lesser than those of antheus prayne or arjent azure but his tactical prowess more than makes up gfor it, he is often referred to as wizardbane asje has proven himself over and over again to be a masterful surpressor of opponents wizardry forces

tho not a wizard himself he is incredibly versed in the magical lora and has long studied it to find weakpoints of many spells that were once considered most powerful weapons on the battlefield. it is this that earned him a rank of general and made him into a legend among the non magic wielders

When the threat of a necryte fell upon the lands of ravine, eani agreed that an alliance was needed. A special alliance , for an eani was to unite with one that would prove him or herself the most powerful mage at the time. With eani immortality granted to such a person that mage would come close to the limitless power of a necryte.

That man was Nebezial Asheri, and he was married to Freiya of Stelladeen. with her a warrior eani was sent to serve as a bodyguard, and a general to nebezials army.

for twenty five years threat of necryte varda was contained to the western continent of krannad, many news of his terrible victories came to the continent of ravine, and then finally his terrible armies arrived. varda found what he was after. on the ravenora plateau he was to claim his prize.

however his plans have failed, he found a power there strong enough to oppose and crush his own in the end.
in this battlefield azriel fought valiantly, and his great friendship with his king nebezial was sealed when nebezial granted him his daughter calistos hand in marriage

those days of old glory are long gone, their shine destroyed by traitory, and tragedy, still...flames of glory can be rekindled by a valiant soul

said to have arrived in the old days with the dragons and the eani, avatari of aertes. Whisperers never truly stepped into the world. A partial existence of eternal hunger is what they endured, and according to the stories it is in eastern Ardesh they first started inhabitiing the bones of the dead.
It was in Ardesh in the age of civil war that army of rebels decided to dessecrate the crypt of the dead king , but they were met by the royal army, so among the graves they waged their battle

Focused on each other it took some time till both sides became aware that every slain man has risen to fight them all, and in short while they were surrounded by the dead and massacred
So the first legion of whisperers has risen. They realised there is power in the bones, they could link to any bone and make it their new body. Alas for them the link was unstable and often the corporeal link fell apart

It was necryte Varda who first perfected the link by fusing bones to armours imbued with barans spiral, and the dead glory was made. Allthough a part of his armies consisted of posessed, living bodied inhabited by the spirit of the dead who in exchange for new life pledged absolute loyalty to Varda, it is the dead glory that was the main axis of his army.

they had no fear, no weaknesses and with every enemy slain they could increase their numbers, they resisted magics , couldnt be slain by arrows, feasted on the souls of the dead only true threaths were heavy weaponry wielding warriors who could smash the armors to bitsor sever the limbs that allowed them to keep killing

dragonfire as purest form of natural magic failed to penetrate the smoke whisperers generated, if they had a weakness it was the fact that they werent skilled wariors but with their numbers and inbvulnerability to many attacks they needed no skill

still the dead glory was stopped and destroyed in the ravenora battlethrough smart tactical use of powerful land dragons and heavily armored calvary and infantry mixed with a great number of war machines

varda put too much faith into the dead glory for he thought his own spellwork would be able to deal with enemys tactics, but here too he made a grave mistake when he met the young king nebezial asheri, the raven of the north, and here varda was defeated and his army of whisperers was destroyed

after this , great care was taken to incinerate every dead body as a part of funeral rituals in ravine, tho some nations like dregy preferred a more romanticised ritual of binding a wadlar tree seed to its inhabitants, and after their death the seed would engulf the body and grow into a tree above it, these medium sized trees had a curious trait od repelling whisperers, and so dregya grew to be surrounded by a forest .

since vardas warthere have been no significant appearances of whisperers anywhere near palladron alliance regions

only son of avanum reyus ruler of city state of wranthorn tarn has finaly came to age where he is to take over the crown of his father.

wranthorn rulers obey the tradition of handing oer their authority to their heirs while they live so they can serve to the new king and the people as the high royal guide and advisor. this tradition has led to proverbs that compare wise choices, and listening to good advise to wisdom of the wranthorn kings

wranthorn is one of few countries that respect the old and perfected traditionof coronation by dragonhorns. they use needlesized sliver of dragontears which are then nailed to the new kings head , these cause a crown of horns to grow on its own . after the coronation master smits usually create unique decorative plating which remain for life and beyond attached to kings horns


tarn is wearing the royal armor made of seventh rank tellas , sevenforged dragons are considered semidivine and their scales are nigh impenetrable so armors made from tellas that is created from those scales is light and immensely protective

it is worth mentioning that there are only five smitheries currently in the entire ravine continent who can actually work the rank seven tellas and anything made from it is priceless

also there is a characteristic to seventh rank tellas that makes it obvious from a far. seventh rank tellas is red in its natural form and it is a trait it keeps even after forging into armor or weaponry

originating from city state of waroda sairan was a part of the support troops sent to paladia castle as a symbol of friendstip between Waroda and Paladia

people of waroda have a long kept generational secret of perfect kill archers . they are usually referred to as breathtakers

secret to their skill lies under their eyepatches as generations ago they too realised the possible uses of magic focusing power of barans spiral and started engraving
it in the skin and eye. the art was mastered and had remained unchanged for the last 200 years, their skills in archery became unparalelled and are among 3 known classes of archers that can take down a dragon in a single shot

melchial asheri was honored two hundred and twelve years ago as the man whose blade ended necryte vardas life.
it was unexpected that he never returned byck to aphelion, city ruled by his brother nebezial. instead he went to casta del palladia, heart of palladron alliance.
there, buried and sealed under mount palladron, an old god, azhi damanul lies
ever since the ancient god was discovered, he had made a pact with the kingdom above, long life, health and protection to the kingdom, powere to make it unconuerable

it was the presence of the living god that made more and more people forsake the old religion to fates guide aertes, and instead they embraced the tangible blessings of god under the mountain

damanuls lure was probably what got melchial asheri to come to palladia, and he climbed the ranks of damanuls church till he took the position of first oracle, rimad gregorius

now ever growing power of damanuls church has grown in power to such extent where it threathens the kings authority. this is a source of constant bad blood between the rimad melchial, and king godwyn

melchial knows how to use his position both as the rimad, and the hero of the alliance, constantly carrying the staff of necryte varda to remind everone of his achievement

a small panel from the bottom of the page but i decided to post it simply cause it made me chuckle after thinking about it like this... eww... reaper of ardunat wuz here

wont go too much into explanations, ravine is my epic fantasy comic series starting this year on a 3 to 4 issues a year schedule

each issue over 100 pages of painted fantasy goodness

and full story is 10 issues long

and itll be published by my long time associates and employers , top cow

thisll be a fun year for me