VARIOUS LOCATIONS - May 7, 1999 - Owen

Thursday, 4th day in the 2nd month of the rule of Wolfgang.

The young king Wolfgang has claimed his fathers throne against all odds; not at least with my humble help, his majesty was able to overcome the threat of the waring nobles. He will be a good king, hard from all the cruelty he had to commit, but just and good. It only sickens me, when i think of THEM... the Dark Monks used their vile powers to help him, true. But i dislike them nonetheless. They exceed too much power and i don't know WHY they helped him in the first place... their plans are a mystery to anyone. But i overheard some rumors... the elves may know more than they say about the Dark Monks.

15th day in the 2nd month of Wolfgangs rule.

The wedding will be today. Again, THEY have planned it, exceeding their powers over the young king. It is a political marriage, needed to unite the lands, but it would have been a wiser choice to marry the daughter of Lord Blake of Jhel's Home to bind his knights and ships to the kingdom. But no, the Monks voted for the duchess of the off-landish island of Maginia, which has no strategical position against the Lords of the south! Why are they so interested in this marriage?

3rd day in the 1st month of the second year of our kings rule.

Oh joy! A prince has been born! He will rule the land after his father, may he live long. Nedemor is his name and a well choosen name it is. The sages explained to me that one of the meanings is -roughly translated- "the one needed to lead us", or Ni-de-mon in the tongue of magics. I don't think that the other meanings have any relevancy, because what could "ruler from behind the veil of mist" or Neb-de-mon possibly mean? Sadly, his mother died. But thus, Wolfgang can arrange the political marriage with Jhel's Home at last. I can only hope that the we can find out where the pirate raids originate from, as they increase at a constant rate. They must have some kind of base from which they operate.

14th day in the 6th month, year 5 of our kings rule.

Our beloved prince grows like whead, and how intelligent he is! He already plays with reagents and alchemical instruments. If only the Dark Monks would not have such influence on him. I overheard the elves refer to them as the "Anlor-sil"... i can't believe that this is true. The Anlor-sil are just a myth! Maybe the order of the Dark Monks pleases itself by imitating them in their ways to foster their powers? I have to investigate this further. For if the elves are right, we could be in grave danger. But it would explain how they were able to overcome even the most powerful enemys of Wolfgang with only so much effort... i always wondered how they defeated Pervons armys...

13th day, 7th month in the 7th year of our kings rule.

The new queen has born the king a second son. I hope Mondain will be loyal to his brother. The southern Lords have agreed to a truce for the time being, so hopefully we will have time to prepare our defense. They fear our new alliance. The building of the wooden fort Trinsicill goes well. With it we will have a foothold deep within our enemys lands. But we can only supply the fort by ship, so we need to put an end to those damn pirates. For now, we can afford to guard the support-vessels by warships, as we need the supremacy at sea as well. But how much longer can the king tolerate this thorn in our side? Additonaly, he could prove his worth by capturing the pirates once and for all. The other lords suffer from them as well. With our new alliance to Jhel's Home, we might be able to locate their base, as their vessels are swifter than our heavy warships.

3rd month, 13th year of our kings rule.

Finally we discovered the bucaneers den on an island east of Magia. King Wolfgang prepares an expedition to root them out. This will be the last triumph needed to seal the Great Pact with the last autarc lords. They might not like it, but they have to bow before the power of the king. Even the mysterious stranger that appeared just recently and made a name of himself... He achieved too much to soon, i don't trust such people. He has many new ideas, most of them political i bet... i will have our spies watch him closely. Coming from another world? Ha, but he sure likes ours, it seems...

18th, 4th month,14th year of our kings rule.

The king was victorious! He captured the leaders of the pirates! We will hold a celebration to show the rebellious Lords our might! This was the victory needed to tear down their last pride and have them join the kings side. But i have disturbing news of a conspiracy against the royal family. We should guard the young princes more closely; the elves and -most suspicious- the Dark Monks are restless of late. I will double the guards for the queen and the princes.

20th, 4th month,14th year of our kings rule.

My worst fear came true. One of the gifts to the prince, an amulett with a huge gem was imbued with some vile magic to kill him! Fortunatly he did not wear it, but sadly, the young prince played with it! Now he lies ill, fighting death. The Dark Monks never leave him alone and use their magics to keep him alive; they were always interested in the prince and seem furious now. Some of them seem to research the origin of the amulett. Wolfgang beheaded the treacherous Lord that brought the gift right away. Our army marches again to enslave his land, and the guards hold the other Lords for "negotiations". They will obey, no doubt. But i suspect the one bringing the gift was only used by one of the other Lords...this stranger is suspicious. We cannot show any signs of mercy or weakness!

10th, 5th,14th year of our kings rule.

The Dark Monks come in handy now. They never leave the ill prince. Mondain is furious too, he already sounds as hard as a true king, planning to impale the whole family of the treacherous Lord. Not at all like a child anymore.... There is strange activity around the palace. People i have never seen before, moving things out of the castle. They seem to belong to the Dark Monks, although i have seen less and and less of them recently. They are drawn somewhere, no doubt about it. The head of the Dark Monks had some grave discussion with the king... i only overheard the last sentence:"It HAS to be done!" and the king seemed to have given in. I asked him numerous time, but he wouldn't tell me...

30th, 5th month,14th year of our kings rule.

A sad day for the land, as the young prince died. Strangely, the head of the Dark Monks left today with many of their order. I am happy they leave, but i am a bit curious as to why. They were after both the princes, but now they just leave Mondain alone, while his brother is dead... and then those mysterious happenings prior to his death. I need to investigate further... The king seems broken, even neclecting the most basic works. And he ignores Mondain as if he has died along with his poor brother... and Mondain doesn't like that. What has happened to us? What happened to our dreams of an empire? When did we go wrong?

I am unsure when i will find the time to write in this diary again if ever... with the king broken, we need to keep up the image towards the lords, or else they will try their luck and launch an assault at us. Fortunately, the king seems to recover, but the death of prince Nedemor might tempt the other lords as well: the fruit of the king was to weak to live, they will say. This is an omen, they will claim. I wonder what'd have happened if he had been crippled by the magics... better not think about it.