Ridirean Solas

By Luke Clawson

In an age forgotten by men, when the Dwarves still mined the earth and the Elves and Fairies guarded the forests and waters of the surface, an ancient evil threatens the land of Eradon. Mortal men have dabbled in dark magic and created a race of cruel and brutal beasts called Blood Spawn, but their creation soon turns against them coming under the control of an exiled Asgardian general in league with Surt. If there is any hope for survival the Dwarves must join forces with the Elves, Mages, Humans and Fairies of the surface to face the blight of the Blood Spawn and their Muspelheim powered leader Porconapin.
To face such power the united forces of Eradon create an elite force of gifted warriors, The Ridirean Solas. To become Ridirean they must ingest the poisonous blood of the Blood Spawn and enter the Solas pool where their natural gifts are enhanced, but will it be enough to overcome the blight and save Eradon?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Luke Clawson
• Release date: Jan 28, 2019
• ISBN: 9781733650700

Luke Clawson

Former Marine, Author, Actor, Director and Producer.

Book preview

Ridirean Solas

Luke Clawson

Published by Luke Clawson

Paperback edition

ISBN 978-1-7336507-1-7

© 2019 Luke Clawson

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permissions contact:

Luke Clawson

[e-mail]

Cover By:

Matthew Bay

Chapter 1

Beginnings

Long ago in ages past, when the cosmos was the void of Ginnungagap, fire and ice met, and Yggdrasil began to grow. As the world tree grew its branches spawn the realms. From the tallest tip of Yggdrasil’s trunk sprung up Asgard the realm of the Aesir gods and home of Odin. From the three eastern branches arose Vanaheim the realm of the Vanir gods, Nifelheim realm of the Mist Fairy’s and Svartalfheim the realm of the Dwarves. From the three western branches came Alfheim realm of the Elves, Muspelheim realm of fire and home of Surt, Jotunheim realm of the Frost Giants. At the bottom of Yggrasil’s roots Helheim the realm of the dishonored dead and home of the goddess Hel. At the center of Yggrasil’s trunk, the chaos of fire and ice produced the giant Ymir. A being of chaos, the eternal struggle of light and darkness, his heart the embodiment of dark energy. In time there arose the Aesir gods, chief among them Odin and his brothers Vili and Ve who slew Ymir and from his corpse they created Midgard, the realm that is the center of Yggdrasil and would become the realm of mortal men. Buried deep in the belly of Midgard, were the shattered remains of Ymir’s dark heart.

On the day Odin finished the Creation of Midgard he brought Mist Fairies from Nifelheim to tend the waters and lands of the new realm. Naming Radel and Celett king and queen of the Mist Fairies of Midgard. On the next day, as it is counted on Asgard the Elves and Dwarves were brought to Midgard, the elves to rule the forests of Midgard and the Dwarves to mine its riches. As time is counted on Midgard twenty years had passed before the elves and dwarves came to the realm. Five days of Asgard but a hundred years on Midgard and Odin created Ask and Embla from a double trunked stump of a tree in a land the Elves had called Eradon near the shores of the warm Peltic sea.

In the time before men, the land was divided between the two sects of the Tevenlen Elves. Lumea king of the Makir Elves ruled the cypress swamps of the southeast. King Keeleem of the Kimir Elves ruled the conifer forests of the northwest. The rolling planes that surrounded the Misty Lake, and the lake itself were ruled by the Mist Fairies. This land that the Elves had named Eradon, was a land of breathtaking beauty. It stretched from the warm Peltic sea in the south, to the rugged snowcapped peaks of the Cold Iron Mountains in the north. Even the tundra at the edge of the conifer forest that melded into the desert that stretched to the southwestern shores of the warm Peltic sea was an awe-inspiring sight.

In the years that followed Ask, Embla and their children had developed a fine trading relationship with the Elves, fairies and merchant dwarves of the surface. The mortals had learned to harvest pearls and fish from the sea as well as the various shells of the creatures which they fashioned into jewelry. The humans used the wealth of the sea to barter for skins, vegetables and healing potions from the elves, from the merchant dwarves they bartered tools, and clean waters from the fairies.

Two hundred years of Midgard pass in peace, and the humans prove to be quite prolific, within a hundred years they numbered in the tens of thousands, another hundred years and their numbers multiplied to hundreds of thousands. As their population grew, they began to split into clans, corresponding to the linage of the twelve sons of Ask and Embla. The twelve sons were these, Mattheus, Haklang, Ludvig, Konrad, Jannik, Gerlak, Fastulf, Edvard, Dierf, Claus, Brynulf and Absalon. The clans became nomadic, moving from south to north with the seasons. With the increase in population and the change in their society some humans began to be born with magic abilities, but the humans having only seen magic in elves, were frightened of this aberration. And superstition of magic humans grew, so palpable was their fear and superstition, that they would only allow two human mages in a tribe to live, one to serve as healer for the tribe and one apprentice.

In the four hundred and fiftieth year of Midgard the peace among the mortals came to an end. On the second day of Tvimanuour as the clans hunted elk in the planes of Misty Lake, two hunters Lukas of Claus and Ingulf of Jannik, aimed their spears at the same large bull. When the hunters found the fallen bull elk, its carcass held both spears, and they argued over the kill. The argument grew into a bloody brawl, which drew the attention of the other hunters. They approached and separated the brawling hunters, and as each hunter told his side of the tale, division grew between the clans of Claus and Jannik. The violence between these two clans exploded and the tale spread, five of the clans sided with Lukas of Claus and the other five with Ingulf of Jannik. What started over one disputed kill, grew into an all-out war over hunting grounds, the severity of which drove the clans apart. With each passing year their wars intensified. Where there is war there is profit, and one enterprising merchant dwarve, by the name of Behlen was quick to furnish all the clans with the best dwarven crafted weapons and armor. For a hundred and fifty years the clan wars raged, and each clan sought to find an advantage over the others. By this time the unofficial lines had been drawn, with the clans that had sided with Lukas of Claus keeping to the north, and the clans that had sided with Ingulf of Jannik keeping the original homeland in the south.

In the six hundredth year of Midgard, the mage from the clan of Haklang convinced his chief to allow him to use his magic in battle. With the mages’ help chief Haghbarth of Haklang gained a tremendous advantage, winning may battles and taking rulership of the southern clans. Having seen the value of Haklang’s mage in battle, chief Malthe of Mattheus, brought his mage, and mage’s apprentice into battle allowing him to push the southern clans back and making the clan of Mattheus the ruling clan of the northern clans. The addition of the mages’ in battle pushed the human wars to a new level of savagery. And with the fear and superstition gone the number of mages within each clan grew exponentially. As their numbers increased the advantage slowly began to dissipate and within fifty years the war returned to a stalemate. The stalled war began to cut into Behlen’s business, but the crafty merchant thought of a way to reignite his profits by introducing the mages of Mattheus to Lapis a magical gem that would help focus a mages power, not one to pass up a tidy profit he also sold the Lapis to the Mages of Haklang, and just to keep it spicy in addition to the information he gave the mages of Mattheus, he told the Haklang mages that when the lapis is ground into a powder and ingested it would increase a mages’ power three-fold. This extra knowledge gave Haklang a temporary advantage, but it didn’t take long for the mages of Mattheus to discover the missing information and give themselves the same increase in power.

What Behlen could not foresee is the secondary affect that the lapis had on the human mages. The ingested lapis did indeed increase their power three-fold, but more than that it opened their minds and revealed the existence of dark magic. As the mages explored this new magic, they became aware of the existence of the realm beyond human mortality. Passing into this realm to master the dark arts would require the blood of magical beings, and on Midgard the strongest magical blood resided in the veins of the Elves and true natured Dwarves, but no human had ever seen a true natured dwarve of underground. The mages began to hunt the Elves for their potent magical blood, the mages that used this dark blood magic took the name of necromancer. The more they learned the more sinister their spells became. And in the search for some advantage over the other clans, Ivan a necromancer of Haklang, discovered that when the blood used in their spells dried it formed spores, and the spores came in contact with the dead flesh of any once living thing, it would produce a brutal beast like creature. The perfect warrior, without compassion or fear and just enough intellect to train in the use of weapons. As he experimented further, he found that a spore fed to a living host would produce a more intelligent warrior. As Ivan dissected his creation, he was astounded to find a spore sack at the base of the neck of his creation that he came to call Blood Spawn. The spore sack turned out to be the creatures form of reproduction. A spore placed on a corpse or carcass would spawn a clone of the Blood Spawn that the spore came from. Juris the head necromancer of Mattheus was no fool, he had recruited a member of Haklangs mages to spy on Ivan, with the knowledge passed to him from his spy, Juris developed his own Blood Spawn Warriors for the clans that followed Mattheus.

With both sides now racing to build their armies of Blood Spawn warriors, they began to slater Elves for their blood, and finding that the blood of the Mist Fairies could serve their purpose as well. Over the next two hundred years the savage humans and their Blood Spawn hordes pushed the Kimir elves deep into the forest of Ki-Moth and in the south the Haklang clans pushed the Makir elves into the swamps of Ma-Ark. The bloody slaughtering of the clans brought the Mist Fairies to the brink of extinction. Now these mortals, who’s territory had once only been from the shores of the Peltic sea to the southern plains of Misty Lake, now span from the sea to base of the Cold Iron Mountains.

In the Eight hundred and forty second year of Midgard, two warriors were born, on the second day of Morsugur was born Mathen of Mattheus, and Hayor of Haklang on the eighth day of Goi. Twenty-five years later these two warriors would rise to lead their clans. As the warriors gained prominence and leadership of the clans that had followed Lukas or Ingulf, fate found it an opportune time to intervene, for the beasts the necromancers had created to serve the clans began to organize and turn on their human masters. In just nine years the Blood Spawn hoards had put their former masters on the defense. On the second day of Solmanuour in the eight hundred and seventy sixth year of Midgard, the Blood Spawn hoards had pushed the human clans from their lands and onto the same battlefield. There in the Valley of Meado Hayor and Mathen joined together and met the hoards in a bloody and savage battle, as the sun rose on the morning of the fourth day of Solmanuour Hayor and Mathen had fought their way to victory over their rebellious creations.

Having won their battle Hayor and Mathen negotiated the treaty of Meado to end the violence between the clans. In their talks it was decided that the practice of necromancy would be out-lawed and the children of the clans that were born with magic abilities would be sent to a school for mages that they would establish on the island at the center of Misty Lake. There they would be taught the proper use of magic. As the negotiations progressed it was decided that Mathen and the clans that followed the house of Mattheus would take the lands north of the plans of Misty lake to the base of the Cold Iron Mountains. Hayor and the clans that followed the house of Haklang would take the lands south of the planes of Misty Lake to the Peltic sea. Misty Lake and its surrounding planes would serve as the natural boundary between the kingdoms. As the treaty developed four clans refused to submit to the leadership of Hayor or Mathen, Kork of Claus entered the negotiations as the de facto spokesman for what would become the barbarian clans. Kork agreed that his clans would take the tundra and desert region to west from the forest of Ki-Moth to western shores of the Peltic sea calling it the badlands.

So, the clans of Haklang, Konrad, Gerlak and Fastulf followed Hayor who established the Kingdom of Harafit in the south. The clans of Mattheus, Ludvig, Dierf and Brynulf followed Mathen and created the Kingdom of Mat-thew in the north. The remaining clans of Claus, Jannik, Edvard and Absalon followed Kork to the badlands and continued a more nomadic existence as the Barbarian clans and establishing a general trading city called Pa-At near their border with Harafit. Over the next twenty years, Mathen and Hayor, with the help of the Elves were able to clear the land of Blood Spawn.

That, however, was on the surface of Eradon, high up in the Cold Iron Mountains lay an entrance to the vast Dwarven kingdom and the mines that run far beneath the entire land of Eradon. The Dwarven kingdom seated in Bandavah and ruled by Dagor and his eldest son Dugan of House Duras. As well as the Dwarven court, consisting of the four great houses; House Duras holds the royal line and controls the northern mines, which are rich in emeralds, rubies, diamonds, sapphires, and the magic amplifying gem called Lapis as well as the sunlight infused metal Uru, also home to the cavern dwelling slate dragon. House Evvoh; which controls the gold mines of the west where the giant armored tunnel worms run deep. House Brokksa; controls the carbon and silver mines of the east and House Oggrev; which controls the iron, platinum, and titanium mines of the south.

Dwarves, like their distant relations the Elves of the surface are virtually immortal and magical by nature. Unlike the Elves however, Dwarves cannot perform magic nor are they susceptible to most forms of magic, the magic in the blood of the Dwarves flows through their hands and into whatever they craft, and the Dwarves are the most skilled in all forms of crafting with any material. The Dwarves also differ from the Elves in appearance, Elves are slender and beautiful, with narrow pointed ears and a luminous sheen about them, skilled in magic, swift and stealthy with quick hands and a keen eye in the hunt or battle. While the Dwarves are thick and strong as the stone of the earth, and prideful in that strength, their eyes sharp and clear even in the darkest of mines with finely tuned senses of smell and hearing, reflexes as quick as the wind. Deathly skilled with the sword, ax, and hammer. Of course, these are the true natured Dwarves of underground, to those on the surface it is supposition for not much is known of the true natured Dwarves for they prefer little to no contact with those who live on the surface. The merchant clan of Dwarves who made their home on the surface were changed over time, away from the underground and deep stone, their offspring were shorter and more frail then the true natured Dwarves who remained underground. The merchant clans are the only Dwarves the humans have ever seen.

CHAPTER 2

BandaVah

On the twenty day of Skerpla in the twentieth year of Midgard, the sons of Ivaldi and their families came to mine the new world created by Odin and his brothers Vili and Ve out of the corpse of Ymir. These are the generations of the sons Of Ivaldi that came to Midgard; Duras the eldest son of Ivaldi had two sons Greebal and Vissen as well as his grandson Dagor the son of Vissen, along with the seven daughters of Duras and their spouses, including servants house Duras numbered one hundred and twenty-seven. Evvoh had two sons Echoam and Solvig along with the four daughters of Evvoh in all house Evvoh totaled one hundred and eleven. Brokksa had three sons Bulendar, Dulef and kosava, with his five daughters and servants house Brokksa totaled one hundred and eleven. Oggrev had five sons Gandrw, Oflefik, Moshen, Vikkom and Caflik, as well as three daughters so House Oggrev also totaled one hundred