Library :: The Druid Scrolls of the Dead Forest of Nez

By an unknown author

 And so it came to pass, during the years of Gris', the last remaining God of Nez, 'Great Contemplation' there was born a Wild Elf child of great power. The child would be given the name Mathius, which shall remain a name of infamy for many years to come.

Mathius' parents were poor farmers who lived just outside the village of Wylenshire. Their farm, like many of the farms throughout the realm of Nez, was squalid and the soil lay dying after the War of the Gods. Yet, aside from each other, it was all that the couple had.

When Mathius' mother became pregnant with him, she became quite sickly. Now whether her illness was due to the poor living conditions she and her husband lived in, or perhaps some dark omen of what was to come, shall forever remain a mystery.

But know ye this that immediately after Mathius was born his mother did die. Some would say that her life was sacrificed for his, while others will say it was nothing more than the tragedy of Mother Nature; but as this tale unfolds you may question whether or not it was Mathius himself who had killed his own mother as he clawed his way to freedom from her diseased womb. It was a time of tears for Mathius' father, both tears of joy at the birth of his son, and those of grief for the loss of his beloved wife.

The years rolled on as Mathius grew from infancy to childhood. And as the time passed the sadness of losing his wife grew within Mathius' father. Eventually his depression caused the farmer to move towards the dark, overpowering abilities of the bottle. Night after night Mathius' father would drink enough eldberry wine to drown a pikefish. And with his drunken sadness would come rage and anger, which many a time seemed to be directed at Mathius. For the farmer blamed the child for the death of his mother.

I know what some of you may be thinking, you're thinking that the farmer abused Mathius, whether it be verbally or physically, but you are quite wrong. Never for one moment did the farmer raise a hand against Mathius, or call him names, but rather his hatred for his son remained unspoken, and unacted upon.

The farmer wasn't cold nor cruel towards Mathius. He gave the young elf whatever the child wanted, within reason of course. He never even once stared at the young elf without the look of fatherly affection upon his face. Even though he had a bitterness deep inside of himself towards Mathius, the farmer never let it be known.

In all essence he was the best father a child could have. He provided for Mathius, taught him how to farm, how to fish, and played games with the young elf all the time. The farmer was there to clean up the skinned knees Mathius would get when he'd fall down. He held the young elf whenever he was sad. And he was always there whenever Mathius had any troubles that he needed to discuss.

When Mathius reached his14th year, the farmer went off to the Drow Elf city of Madre Nuit for a new briarbull to pull the plow, leaving the young elf in charge of the farm. The farmer never returned from his trip, leaving Mathius with a domineering feeling of abandonment. He was now all alone in the world, no family to speak of, essentially an orphan. He had nothing left except for the dying farm.

Mathius grew older as he tended to the farm. Raising what few crops could survive in the harsh soil. The feelings of being deserted, as he saw it, by both of his parents, weighed heavily upon Mathius. He began to feel unwanted by society as a whole. He became withdrawn, a hermit, rarely venturing into Wylenshire except to sell his small harvest and to pick up what little supplies he would need.

It was on one of these trips that he met her. An exquisite young Wild Elf named Jasmine. She was there in the town square buying vegetables for herself and her grandmother. Her dress nothing more than a patchwork covering the many tears that had developed over the years. Her face dirty, and her legs caked in mud. And yet even with her ragged appearance this did not diminish the fact that she had to be one of the most beautiful elves to have ever lived.

Mathius' heart leapt the first time he saw her, just as Jasmine's had for him. Very few beings in all of the known dimensions experience 'Love at First Sight', but these two elves were blessed with that phenomenon.

And it was the truest of loves, for the both of them were so similar, as if they were made for one another. Jasmine was poor just as Mathius was, and she had lost both of her parents to the Orc Wars; she was now being raised by her maternal grandmother. They both enjoyed the solitude of being alone, doing nothing but feeling the wind in their hair, and listening to the birds' song, as they breathed in the summer breezes deeply.

They began to spend every waking moment they could spare with each other. Jasmine would sneak out at night to see Mathius, just as he would go into town during the day to be with his beloved. They would dance, they would sing, they would kiss, and hold each other close. There's was a love that was purer than anyone could ever hope to experience. But however glorious this event was for the two of them, it would also be their undoing.

For Jasmine's grandmother disliked the young Mathius. She just sensed something about him, she wasn't sure what, that she did not like for one moment. This intuition she had about him, coupled with the fact that he was poor and could not provide, as she believed, a good life for her granddaughter, caused the aging elf to order Jasmine not to see Mathius ever again.

Of course, Jasmine refused to follow her grandmother's edict and continued to see her true love. This only infuriated the aging elf even more. Whenever her granddaughter was missing, she would call for the Elven Guard to retrieve her from Mathius' arms. She even went so far as attempting to have Mathius incarcerated for kidnaping Jasmine. And when this plot failed to keep the beautiful young elf away from him, Jasmine's grandmother decided to arrange a marriage for her.

As was stated above, Jasmine was quite a beauty, and she had many admirers. Amongst these admirers was a noble lord who had high hopes to secure her as a bride for his son. The noble elf offered a considerable dowry for Jasmine, and when her grandmother had agreed to his proposal, he quickly arranged for the ceremony to occur the following month.

Upon hearing that his beloved was now betrothed to another elf, Mathius immediately ran to see Jasmine. He then proceeded to plead with her, begging her to run away, far away, with him. But Jasmine sadly refused. She could not leave her grandmother, even though she despised the aging elf for all of her meddling. Could not walk out on the last remaining relative she had left.

And so, two weeks before Mathius' 21st birthday, Jasmine married the son of the elven lord. Mathius' heart was crushed. He cried himself to sleep for many a night after the wedding. His depression was enough to make even the most diabolic of beings weep. But in turn his sadness turned into a deep hatred. Hatred for the elf that had taken his love from him. Hatred for the grandmother that had stolen away his life with his beloved. And hatred for Jasmine's betrayal, as he saw it, by denying his request for flight.

Mathius tried going back to the tedious life of the farm. Tried losing himself in his work, and forgetting the sorrow he felt. But the pain in his heart was too much to bear. So he packed up his belongings and left the farm and Wylenshire far behind.

He traveled Eastward, following the rising of the sun. He journeyed past the castle of the Wolf Riding Moon Elves. Past the southern base of Mount Paradis. Along the Sea of Dread. Deep into the dusty sands of the Desert of Flesh. Till finally he entered the Mystic Forest.

Mathius rather enjoyed it there in the forest. The serene beauty of the groves, the majestic height of the tall redwoods, and the clarity of the forest's many refreshing ponds called out to him. It had a feeling of tranquility, peace, and solitude. It was a place where he hoped he could remain with his painful loneliness forever, never to be bothered by anyone or anything. Unfortunately for us all, his prayer went unanswered.

Even with its ravishing beauty and majesty, the Mystic Forest is quite a dangerous place, which Mathius soon found out. One afternoon, while he was briskly hiking through the forest, Mathius was attacked by a very large owl-bear. The beast slashed at him with its powerful talons, tearing his soft flesh, and mortally wounding him. The owl-bear surely would have killed Mathius if we, the Druids of the Mystic Forest, had not intervened.

We used our powers over nature to come to the aid of the dying elf and scared the owl-bear away. The sight of the beaten and broken Mathius was quite saddening, just as sorrowful as the feeling of eternal sadness we sensed deep within his soul. We brought him back to our home, in the heart of the forest, and slowly nursed him back to health.

It took us many months to rejuvenate Mathius. Yet, even with all of our powers combined, we still lacked the ability to completely remove the wounds from his battered body. It became apparent that even though Mathius survived his battle with the owl-bear, his entire body would be forever scarred from it, as much as his heart was scarred by the loss of his beloved Jasmine.

Over the time of his healing, Mathius grew quite interested in our ways, especially our abilities over the forces of Mother Nature. His curiosity grew into an obsession, and he begged for us to give him the honor of teaching him our ways. After conferring about the matter for several days we decided to make him our pupil. We of course sensed the inner hatred that tore at his soul, but we had hoped that our educating him would eventually rid him of this disease.

And so the years passed, as Mathius learned the potencies of nature. He had a great power within him. An excellent ability of learning magiks within mere months that took our greatest sages years to master. His powers over the elements flourished and grew. However, so did the blackness that was consuming his soul.

No matter how hard we tried, we could not get Mathius to truly embrace our teachings and become one with nature. To forget his past and forgive Jasmine, not to mention his parents, for leaving him. To give up the hatred and anger that would one day annihilate the very fabric of his being.

For you see, during this time, unbeknownst to us, Mathius was secretly learning the darker side of our powers. The archaic knowledge of things that we had long forgotten. The chaos of oblivion. The darkness of dissension. The powers of death and destruction. Only after his knowledge of these dark lessons, which we had long since forbidden ourselves, was complete, did we finally learn about his dabblings in the arcane.

Mathius used these darker magiks to enact his revenge upon the owl-bear that had scarred him for life. The poor beast was burned, frozen, drowned, electrocuted, and torn asunder all at the same time. Our regret that we had not only failed to protect the owl-bear from Mathius' wrath, but also to save the powerful Wild Elf from himself, consumed us all.

And so we held another counsel about Mathius' fate. We knew that his obsession for the powers of nature, fueled by his hatred for those that had betrayed him, would continue to grow, just like the malignant tumor that was infecting his soul.

We spent several days and nights discussing what should be done, until we were left with only two options. One would be to bind Mathius magically, much like the way Gris had been imprisoned by Noirceur, the Goddess of Darkness, all those years ago. The other would be to kill him, thus ending the possibility that he could harm anyone, and anything again. The decision was a difficult one, so it was decided that we should convene for one night, in hopes that some divine enlightenment would come to us through the power of the full moon. But as we meditated, Mathius' began to hatch a plot that would lead to the finalization of his wrath upon the world.

Mathius called upon the darkest of his powers, the blackest part of his soul, and brought forth the most terrible forces of nature. He summoned the Demon Elementals, the dark cousins of Mother Earth, Father Fire, Brother Wind, and Sister Water. The deadly conjuring of these horrible beasts was so powerful that it caused everything within the Mystic Forest to wither and die. Every bird, every beast, every leaf, and every drop of water was instantly decimated. Eventually, because of the utter lack of life within it, the forest would be renamed the Dead Forest of Nez, a place where no being who respected his or her own life would ever want to set foot in again.

As we awoke the next morning, we found Mathius, a devilish grin upon his face, flanked by the Demon Elementals. Magic runes, forming an ancient word of power, glowed red just below his right eye, binding the demons to him for all eternity. And with his demon horde he was able to enslave us, for Mathius knew that we did not have enough power to overtake both him and the vile beasts. He then proceeded to use all of our powers for his own personal vengeance.

We were forced to march Westward, back to Mathius' homeland. And as we marched Mathius' Demon Elementals left a trail of death and desolation behind us, while they fed upon all living things that were filled with nature's purity. They picked their teeth with the bones of those they massacred, as we continued ever onward on our trek. All the while, Mathius' plotted his revenge upon those he had felt wronged him.

After several months of slaughter and devastation, we reached the outskirts of Wylenshire. Mathius was delighted with the fact that soon his vindication would finally be at hand. However, his pleasure was premature, for we could find no sign of Jasmine, her husband, or her wicked grandmother.

Mathius forced us to use our magiks to ravage the village, so that the poor elves who lived there would reveal what had happened to the trio. We struck the town with lightning and wind, fire and brimstone, hail and earthquake. After less than an hour of this display of Mathius' power the elves were quick to answer all of his questions. Apparently Jasmine's grandmother had died not long after he had left, and since her memories of Mathius were far too painful for her to remain in the village, Jasmine and her husband moved away from Wylenshire. None of the elves knew exactly where the couple had gone, just the general direction that they had left in, North. This last answer apparently did not appease Mathius for he used our powers along with his Demon Elementals to destroy the village, and everything within it. I can still hear the horrifying screams of the villagers echoing throughout my ears to this day.

But the decimation of his homeland did not phase Mathius for a single moment. He immediately moved us Northward. Again his Demon Elementals filled their belly's with the innocent and pure. Wherever we went, all life ceased. The demons left nothing in our wake but dust and ash.

For over a year we searched for Mathius' true love. We followed whatever rumor and tale that Mathius heard from the tormented beings that we ran into. And after these poor souls had given us the information the evil elf had requested, he repaid them by feeding there bodies to his demon horde. We went on and on, destroying whatever was in our path for what seemed like an eternity. And just when we all thought that we would never find her, we stumbled upon Mathius' beloved.

Jasmine was living on a small farm that was not much different than the one that Mathius had grown up on. She was, of course, several years older now, and the lines in her face had revealed that the years were apparently filled with a lot sadness, but she was still as breathtaking as Mathius had remembered her. She had two small children fearfully clutching to her legs as our small army approached. However, there was no sign of the young noble elf that she had left Mathius for. At first Jasmine reacted to our presence the same way the children had. She was obviously frightened, but tried to look brave for the two young elves that were crying at her thighs. She politely asked us what it was that we had wanted. Mathius stepped forward and lowered the large black hood that was covering his face with its darkness.

Even with his deeply scarred face, Jasmine immediately recognized her true love. A look of pure joy filled her face as she quickly rushed up to him with her arms outstretched. Mathius stepped back from her embrace, almost as if he was afraid of it. He raised a hand up to her, a silent motion for her not to come any closer. She obeyed his mute request as tears of sadness suddenly started to fill her eyes.

Mathius sternly asked Jasmine where her husband was. She tactfully explained that the noble elf had died the previous winter of a terrible illness. A dark smirk spread across Mathius' face as he heard this. He then asked who were the two children that were now cowering behind her. They were hers she answered. You mean they are his, Mathius angrily spat back. The tears were flowing deeply from Jasmine's eyes as she nodded and looked back to her little ones.

Mathius looked at Jasmine coldly, not even acknowledging the presence of the children of the elf that had stolen her away from him. He then preceded to give her an ultimatum; she would leave these bastard children behind and come with him, or they would all pay the price for her betrayal. Jasmine looked over Mathius' shoulder, at we druids and the devilish elf's demon horde, which must have seemed to be a quite frightening army to her. She then looked into Mathius' face and at the cold stare he was giving her, then fell to her knees before his feet, weeping and pleading with him. Jasmine sobbed that she would gladly go with him but she could not leave without her children.

Mathius kicked the sobbing beauty away from him as if she were some pitiful mongrel looking for scraps. He then turned his back upon her and made a small gesture to the Demon Elementals. The vile beasts giggled with glee as they followed their evil master's uspoken order and rushed down upon Mathius' one time love and her innocent children.

The nightmarish tortures that Jasmine and her children went through are too horrible to put down upon parchment. But I will say this, the anguish and suffering that they were victims to was much more tormenting than any being has ever gone through in all of eternity.

And throughout their agonizing cries Mathius, his backed still turned toward them, closed his eyes, smiled wickedly, and laughed heartier than I have ever heard him laugh before. It was as if this one moment was the most ravishing event that he had ever experienced.

However, with all the tortures that Mathius had forced his demon horde to cause upon her and her children, not to mention his seemingly shear delight in doing so, Jasmine's dying words to him were, 'I Will Always Love You'.

This last phrase tore away the last vestiges of Mathius' already dying soul. The villainous elf had hoped that in Jasmine's destruction he would finally find peace, yet her last words would torment him for the rest of his days. There was no salvation with her death. There was only more pain and anger. And with this undying hatred came a longing to obliterate all.

Thus, did Mathius decree, that if he could never find happiness and fulfillment, then no being shall. And so we marched again as Mathius used both our powers and those of his Demon Elementals to utterly devastate anything that we came across. With the powers of Mother Nature at his command, Mathius flooded vast cities, burned bountiful fields, toppled grand forests, sucked deep oceans dry, and quaked high mountains down. We were forced to decimate whole armies, annihilate impenetrable fortresses, wreck seafaring vessels, and exterminate entire races. Until, at last, there came deliverance.

The mighty God of Neutrality, Gris, finally came to his resolution and liberated us from our bondage. He took Mathius away and threw the malevolent Wild Elf into a portal that would send him far away from Nez. Without the magiks of their master to sustain them, the Demon Elementals were forced back into the black depths that they had been conjured from. Our powers were finally emancipated to be used the way they were intended, to preserve nature, and help it to flourish.

So we have returned here to the Dead Forest, the place where Mathius' cancerous powers originated. We felt that this was the perfect place to begin repairing the damage that was caused by our magiks. We have faith that our powers are strong enough to one day make this world green again. It shall be a long and challenging endeavor to rejuvenate all the devastation that has been done, but that trial is nothing compared to those we had endured under Mathius' oppressive rule.

We have only one silent wish. We pray that Mathius never finds a way to return to the lands of Nez. For if he did, we know that his fury would have no bounds. And that his wrath upon us all would be a thousandfold worse than the torments he inflicted upon his once beloved Jasmine.