Part II
How does one set the stage of the tale about the most destructive entity the world has ever seen? The story of the Resolve is one of betrayal and of wickedness, something that could very well be mistaken for fantasy, if the effects of their misdeeds had not still been felt to this day. What is known of the Resolve is scarce and limited, but I shall do my part in painting the portrait of their dark nature as best as possible.
In the time before their coming, “magic” and the arcane had been something accepted by the Republic, a tool that held the potential to unlock the world’s greatest mysteries. Despite the Republic’s vast knowledge and power, magic was still a fledgling science in the thirteen hundreds, something of awe and wonder. Few understood the mysteries behind the arcane, yet many still dabbled with its power.
It was this lack of knowledge that the Resolve no doubt preyed upon, for their arrival in the Republic was met with wonder and awe. Each member of the collective, of whom only thirteen had been seen at any given time, had been a veritable master of the arcane, wielding powers and spells never before seen in even the farthest reaching territories of the Republic. Their display of control over magic was something of legend and allowed them to quickly garner the respect and admiration of many citizens of the Republic.
With this fame, the Resolve set out upon a show of power that solidified their reputation as miracle workers. They moved from city to city, territory to territory, performing nothing short of miracles. Where the Church had failed to devise a cure to the Torment that had been raging across the Republic, the Resolve had been able to not only heal the infected, but to immunize those that had yet to be stricken with the disease. Their acts of benevolence quickly spread through the Republic, and with each city they visited, more and more joined their ranks as willing followers. As 1313 drew to a close, thousands of citizens had abandoned their lives within the Republic to join with the mysterious collective, some out of fear of the Torment, others out of the desire to learn a mere fraction of their knowledge of the arcane.
It did not take long for the Church to grow weary of this movement. With each sighting of the Resolve, envoys were sent to plead with the powerful magi to share their knowledge and power with the Republic for the betterment of the land. Yet each request was met with refusal, for the Resolve had guarded their power jealously.
In the month of Deepsnow, 1313, the Church had made a bold but necessary decision. In the city of Amorrn, a bustling trade city of a state many days west of the capital of the Republic, Tor, an entire company of Templar had been dispatched to stop and detain the magi. Their efforts had been futile, however. In a single hour, more than two hundred Templar fell to the power of but a dozen and one Resolvists, as more than a thousand converts watched in silence. It was with this act that the ire of the Church had been drawn, and Resolve had been labeled enemies of the Republic.
Their newly acquired title had little consequence, however. Onward did the Resolve march, with their following of converts, farther into the west. With each city and state they stopped in, many more joined their cause. They met little resistance from both the Legion and Templar, for the story of the slaughter that ensued in Amorrn had reached the ear of every soldier serving in the Venerated Republic.
As 1313 faded into history, so did the Resolve. Their exodus across the Republic had brought them far west, into portions of the kingdom that were referred to as the “blacklands”. It was here in the western blacklands that the Torment had struck most violently, and where it was thought it have originally emerged. Civilization had collapsed in the western territories, as many cities and states had been overrun by the Torment months prior.
The Resolve, with their following of faithful, disappeared into the blacklands in those last days of 1313, never to be seen again for many years. It hadn’t been for another few months that the true nature of mysterious cult had been revealed…