[i]House Sunwalker's End[/i]
[b]Lord Governor Darius Brightheart Sunwalker of Paledune, the Sultan of Paradise (140 - 215)[/b]
[quote=Frelo Denelus, Sunwalker Chronicler. 216]The last battles of House Sunwalker were melancholy at best. Lord Governer Darius Brightheart was much beloved by his people for his kind demeanor and charismatic face, how quickly things change when a man is thrust into power. Jaeron Sunrise, previously lord and sultan, was receiving guests at his home, leaving to respond to an intriguing letter. It was a number of hours before the guests grew suspicious, striding to his door, they rapped upon it thrice and received only the cold whistling of an open window. The door was forced open, and Jaeron was found then, his throat opened and his lifeblood leaking to the ground in a crimson pool. I saw it then and it continues to pay a haunting presence in my nightmares, yet I did not know then how deeply the house of Sunwalker had been submerged until the next year. That year, Lord Darius took his place on the Sanded Throne, the corpse of the father was given a grand funeral, and the corpses of his two young cousins were pieced together from what remained of them after the assassin's blade bit through their bodies.

Fury quenched thought, and Lord Darius banded together with the similarly orphaned Lord Eriokles. They soon realized that their sowers' deaths had both been under circumstances too close to be a coincidence. Both men had given condemnations of the contemptible Lord Thanesrow, whether by quill or blade, and had been horrifically slaughtered like the very pigs in their fields as a result. Both men approached the Emperor Haedulus, ego only matched by hatred of the Greenlords. Haedulus, not with a care to give on the loss of these mens' beloved family, visualized a plan of action to cripple the backs of the Greenlords once and for all. 

With the two orphan lords at his back, Emperor Haedulus demanded compensation for the death of his beloved allies. King Argenon, tenting his fingers and gifting upon the congregation a horrific snarl. With a wave of his hand, he dismissed the congregation, and with it any hope of peace with the Ascended Lords. Haedulus and allies returned to Haedulon, many days having passed without contentedness or pleasure, rage wrought on their faces, the Ascended Lords quickly forged a declaration of war, rallying their respective populaces and executing a frenzied march into the heart of enemy territory.[/quote]

[quote=Frelo Denelus, Sunwalker Chronicler. 216]Many expected a hard fought war, especially with the addition of House Oakwarden to the board, but few expected it to be as brutal as it proved to be. The first battles of the war were simple enough, with both sides getting decisive victories on multiple fronts, with Lord Saero, son of Sultan Darius, getting special focus for a lightning victory over the Oakwarden forces at the Battle of Jupulus Fields. Despite Sunwalker victories, the massive military power of the House of Oakwarden was concentrated elsewhere, dealing a horrific defeat to the forces of House Eriokles at the Battle of Greenfall Castle. After the massive Oakwarden army poured in from the jungles and annihilated the meager defenses of the castle, it was besieged and taken within a matter of days. I heard that blood could be smelled across the forests even across a number of rivers. Men were grabbed and hoisted from their homes, wives seized and taken, childens' heads dashed on floors, and hanged from the walls of the castle, riddled with arrows as a demonstration. The heir to the Greenfall was killed in this manner, but the rope was far too great in length, and he fell for a great distance before his head was ripped from his body.

Lord Eriokles' fury was far too great to be described. Already having taken Meadlander territory, he seized all men, women, and children, and had them hung from the treetops and disemboweled slowly, with special care given to ensure death didn't come too soon. Before death could welcome them and give reprieve, they found themselves alight as the trees they were tied to were used as kindling for a massive flame. Lords Sunwalker, Haedulus, and Thanesrow managed to avoid reaching the lows of their fellows despite plenty reason to, perhaps it was for the best, considering what was to come.

The second phase of the war was a grim, brutal affair, with their armies spread far and wide and their homelands isolated, the lords scrambled to seize and pillage as much territory as possible, with House Thanesrow landing their army in the wide Paledune deserts and forcibly marching across. After a loss of perhaps half of their force, they reached Paradise, besieging it and trapping Lord Sunwalker's only son and daughter within the castle walls. Sunwalker spoke to his generals in the Meadlands later that eve after receiving a messenger's tale of the events. He stated few words with a solemnness upon his brow so thick I could almost feel its presence.

"My children are lost this day, I know it to be true, and with them goes the future of my house. I can only trust in Emperor Haedulus to pick up the fragments of glory that my forebears once held in their very hands."

The Sultan shook softly, hands wrapped around himself as his eyes stared out into the open nothing, as if expecting a ghost to suddenly appear in the cool breeze. He was offered a cloak by a handmaiden and took it greedily, wrapping himself and shivering as tears began to work their way down his face.

His children died the next day.

His daughter, housed in the upper floors of her family's castle as to avoid harm, leapt from her balcony on hearing that the walls had been breached. Her ruined body landed in a stream, where it was carried into the marshes, away from the eyes of the besieging forces, a lucky thing, considering the fate that womenfolk suffered as a result of the siege's victory. When the Sultan returned to the city, me at his side, we found her corpse, seated gracefully under an old oak, pale skin shining in the moonlight, white robes stained a deep red by blood and water. She was remarkably unmolested, despite her heavy wounds. The Sultan approached silently, kneeling beside her and placing his head upon her heart as tears fell from his face. He wrapped her arms around him and held her in one last embrace, apologizing under his breath that he was unable to save her, his words tired and stilted due to his sobs. When we returned to the army, the Sultan holding his daughter in his arms with tears staining his face, all knelt in respect, clearing a path as the Sultan walked off into the night, seemingly unaware as to what he was doing.

We never did find his son's body, his head was mounted upon a pike and carried into battle by the Meadlanders, but it was lost in battle, and the rest of his form was never found amongst the mountains of corpses that littered the once golden streets of Paradise.

The Sultan lost his resolve forever, staring into his hands and weeping during briefings and beginning to speak to people that were not there. One night he was heard screaming, but when guards forced their way into his room, all that they saw was the man hunched in a corner, a sickening remnant of a man, drenched in his tears and holding the remains of a severed finger, having bitten it off in a manic episode.

The forces of House Sunwalker retook their castle and then remained there, mourning for the many lost, before again called by the Emperor of Haedulon for one last battle to decide the fate of the land. This battle is known to be the most bloody in our world's history. It is here that I will list the dead among this land's nobility, Lord Eriokles, last of his line, died in a cavalry charge. Lord Douk Haedulon, second son of the emperor, died to an unlucky arrow to the heart. Thersum Fariefriend, King Oakwarden, died in a suicide. Jenyus Hearthkeeper, son of the King Oakwarden, decapitated in a duel. Many others lost their lives, far too many for this one man to list, but suffice it to say, no one battle has had greater repercussions on the world as this one...

I have tried to write of this for hours now, and yet every time I complete a statement my tears ruin the ink and thus my writing. But I suppose I have little choice now, my eyes have run dry and my quill has yet to. House Sunwalker ended on that day.

Sultan Darius, no longer commanding his troops due to his fragile mental state, had sat behind in his tent for the length of the day. Even as his friends among the ascended lords were slain like cattle, Darius remained in his tent, hopelessly attempting to construct an image of his daughter through the use of ink and pottery, he screamed repeatedly of not being able to remember her face, claiming that her eyes were lost to him through a fountain of tears.

It was hours until he finally left his tent, tears dried and face stalwart. With a soft look, he turned to his personal guard and gave them one instruction:

"This is not a world that I belong in anymore, do not follow me."

He mounted a horse, looked back at me and his other attendants, and with a sad smile, rode off towards the battle. His body lays among the many still being removed from that field, perhaps never to be recovered. The battle was a loss for both sides, and the war efforts of the remaining Ascended House, that of Haedulus, and those of King Thanesrow, were forever crippled. But never again were the people of Paradise to see a man of House Sunwalker lead them, never again was Sultan Darius to hold his daughter's hand in his own, and never again was I to write, this is to be my last chronicle, for my purpose has been fulfilled. I can only hope this new era ends kinder than my own.[/quote]