The Awakening of Glacius

[BuddhaKekz]

This is my entry for the Frost Field Short Story Contest.


We heard about the demons just a few months ago. At first we thought those were just exaggerations, just a new breed of beasts that looked infernal.
The people of the Frost Field always lived in peace with the beasts, or I should say in an armed truce? It doesn't matter, we had no intentions attacking the beast and we hoped they didn't either.

But then the hellish armies marched northwards and they burned everything on their way. That was when we learned the truth. There was no chance for a truce, they would mercilessly attack us, our women, our children and our elderly.

Yet their was still hope. Legends told about a powerful mage who encased himself in the ice of the mountains to be reborn when Newerth needed him. If the story was true he would help us, he would save us. So I gathered the best warriors of my village to go into the mountains and search for this man.

We found him after 3 days. It was majestic to see this wizard in his frozen prison. He looked old, older than the eldest of our tribe. At the same time he had this aura of wisdom and power. Just standing before him made me feel energetic. I pulled my pickaxe out of my back and started mining the ice and soon my followers would do the same. After about one hour we finally got to the mage.

The cracks in the ice became deeper and the prisoner started moving again. First his hands, then his whole body started twitching. With an expolsion he set himself free. Instantly we bowed before him. He looked into my eyes and said: "I am Glacius, Lord of the Frost Fields! Why do you wake me from my eternal slumber?" I gasped and replied: "Master Glacius, the demons of Hell are invading our peaceful land. Will you save us from them?"

Glacius kept staring at me and finally opened his mouth: "No." With that he started levitating through our ranks while we were to shocked to move from what we heard. Only the youngest of our group stopped the mage. "You were our last hope!" "There is no hope" he said and continued his way down the mountain.

Some say he joined the Hellbourne but I refuse to believe this. It can't be. He was supposed to save us.

[Draconid]

great job

This raise a question too, who really the current Glacius is?
Is he the real Glacius in the legend?
Or the legend itself is a lie and Glacius is in fact a prisoned demon?
Or this is the great spy work of one of our greatest hero Glacius?

[BuddhaKekz]

Thanks^^


I think Glacius' story is so ambiguous because he changed his allegiance twice if I remember correct. In the early beta he was Hellbourne, than a
long time Legion and now he is Hellbourne again. I don't remember his first lore bits but at the Legion he was actually the hero Glacius that came to save them.

Now the questions is, is the side changing in any way considered canon? Or is it just gameplay and we should think of him as always being on the HB side.
But in Myrmidons case it is considered canon, making things even more confusing.

Btw I wanted the ending of the story to be different first, it would have been something like "but there is still one chance. one other hero" but I dedided not to.
Guess what a few days later we got the Ellonia teaser. :behe: xD

[Salem1]

I liked it. It's concise for a short story and sums things up. There's only one thing I think you need to do - give the least hint why Glacius not only didn't help them but joined the Hellbourne. I personally think that Draconid's idea of the legend being a lie and Glacius actually being an imprisoned daemon or corrupted man is really cool and a very fresh break from every legend, prophecy or whatever being true as it usually is in games and stuff.

I'd think of Glacius as always being on the Hellbourne side while Myrmidon swapped.

The best thing you could do with Glacius's story is to not just have Glacius join the Hellbourne or not help but to also hint that he was always a corrupted man. Then Glacius/something somehow managed to create a story that depicted him as a hero waiting to save the day, misleading everyone who had hope in him and ensuring that when the Hellbourne needed him most he would be released from the prison. A grim, dark twist of the legend. It could be that shortly before he got imprisoned Glacius managed to create some tablet or inscription casting Glacius in a positive light for the local land which he cast away so his captors wouldn't find and destroy the obvious trap. Then, after time passed and Glacius was long forgotten, someone found it and shared it so that the tale of this unknown, promising Glacius's heroism spread through the land. But no one knew where he was (because Glacius didn't know where his prison would be so he could not say where they would find him). When times got worse people started looking more and more and eventually your party found him. Then you can pull a cool finale when Glacius full of pride at his plan's success does and/or says something villain-ish and then goes away to join the Hellbourne and plague the land once more.

In afterthought the story I just laid the basics of has similarities to Smeagol finding The One Ring as well as Arthas finding Frostmourne. Pretty cool I'd say. Feel free to use and develop it, take parts from it or not use it at all :)

[BuddhaKekz]

Thanks for the input I appreciate it much. The reason why I don't go into detail about Glacius's origin and goals is simply because the story is told from a villagers point of view. The narrator simpley doesn't know much more than what is told in the story.

My own thoughts about Glacius is that he wasn't always evil but actually kind of a hero. Eventually he learned about the Hellbourne and how destructive they are and encased himself in ice to be awaken when they come. During this time he was in a dream like state and he had visions. Visions that let him loose all his hope that he could defeat the demons. Hence the "There is no hope" line.
He isn't really evil or corrupted however he lost his hope and his fighting spirit and submitted himself to the forces of Hell. Spelling that out in the story though would have made the reader go "How does he know that?" that's why I only hinted at it and also of course to make the reader think and come up with his own theories. I could have let Glacius give a speech but I had the feeling that him crushing all the hopes of those villagers with a few words came of stronger.

Besides I personally love it when certain things in a story or lore are left ambiguous, it adds room for speculation and provokes thought. And I certainly managed to pull that of.^^