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When Taur Urgas read this letter, his advisors found it necessary
to physically restrain him to prevent his doing himself injury
Though it is possibly an exaggeration, some witnesses maintain that
the Murgo King actually began to froth at the mouth, so great was
his rage. It must be admitted that the letter of 'Zakath was probably
the most strongly-worded which any sovereign has ever directed at
another, however, and it signaled the beginning of preparations in
the two nations for that war which was now absolutely inevitable.
Occasionally the Murgo King was impelled by his growing
insanity to take some kind of action against his implacable enemy. 'while
these actions were usually rather petty, 'Zakath's response was
always the same. Not long after such incidents, Taur Urgas would
receive the dismembered body of some-cousin or nephew. Since the
Murgo obsession with race is exceeded only by their attachment to
family, nothing 'Zakath could have done could have injured Taur
Urgas more, and as the years passed, the hatred of the two grew
stronger until it became in the mind of each man virtually an article
of religion.
The tragically altered Emperor of Mallorea has become obsessed
with the concept of power, and the idea of becoming Over-King of
all of Angarak has dominated his thinking for the past two decades.
Only time will determine if 'Zakath of Mallorea will be successful in
his bid to assert his dominance over the western Angarak kingdoms,
but if he succeeds, the history of the entire world may well be
profoundly altered.
The CDALLORean
GospeLS
BOOK I
0
THE BOOK OF AGES
Now These are the Ages of Man:
In THE FIRST AGE was man created, and he awoke
in puzzlement and wonder as he beheld the world
about him. And those that had made him considered
him and selected from his number those that pleased
them, and the rest were cast out and driven away. And
some went in search of the spirit known as UL, and they
left us and passed into the west, and we saw them no
more. And some denied the Gods, and they went into the
far north to wrestle with demons. And some turned to
worldly matters, and they went away into the east and
built mighty cities there.
But we despaired, and we sat us down upon the earth
in the shadow of the mountains of Korim, which are no
more, and in bitterness we bewailed our fate that we had
been made and then cast out.
And it came to pass that in the midst of our grief a
woman of our people was seized by a rapture, and it was
as if she were shaken by a mighty hand. And she arose
from the earth upon which she had sat and she bound her
eyes with cloth, signifying that she had seen that which no
mortal being had seen before, for lo! She was the first