Crown of Vengeance
Stephen Zimmer
Prologue
THE UNIFIER
A solitary figure stood gazing outward, at the edge of the crenellations ringing the circumference of the great tower soaring up from the top of the massive, mountain-citadel. Shrouded with a regal, proud air, The Unifier, the Lord of far more than Avanor, regarded the heart of His worldly dominion with an invigorating feeling of growing mastery.
Yet there was a deep concern weighing upon His mind, of a nature that rarely manifested to His pervasive senses.
The Unifier was a figure that embodied majesty and charisma, His captivating persona as legendary as the astounding feats that He had performed during His ascension to power. He was one of the most comely men to ever draw breath upon the face of Ave, and one would be very hard pressed to discover anyone who would dispute that observation.
He was fully six and a half feet tall, with a slightly olive tone to His smooth, unblemished skin. The immaculate state of His skin was noted by all who gained the privilege of close proximity to the Unifier. It was unmarred by scratch, bruise, or wrinkle, though His age was known to be great, and His travels extensive. It was regarded as yet another outward testimony to divine favor, as not even the immortal races fully escaped the ravages of time on their physical forms, whether Wizard, Elf, or the winged Elder in their skyward havens.
His large, even teeth were of the purest white, and His angular facial features seemed to be chiseled in, lending Him a strong mien with perfect proportion and balance. His face would have challenged the skills of the greatest of sculptors in endeavoring to replicate a close likeness, with its flawless symmetry and harmony.
The Unifier had short-cropped, coal-black hair that had a perceptible curl to its texture. His body was lithe and muscular, with wide shoulders tapering down to a narrow waist, with sculpted, long legs extending below.
The Unifier’s luminous blue eyes were one of His most exceptional physical features. They always gave the impression of containing unimaginable depths within them, and it was known well that His eyes conveyed His moods with a mesmerizing power. The attribute was spoken of by those who had found favor with Him, and also by those who had found disfavor, and still survived to tell of their icy terror. The azure gaze held a mysterious, captivating quality, one that could make the most strong-minded and proud female swoon in euphoric vulnerability, or cause the most formidable of battle-hardened warriors to tremble in stark, quivering fright.
His exquisite physique was clad in a flowing tunic of pure white silk that descended all the way down to His ankles. It rippled in the high breezes, shimmering in the day’s light.
The precious silk cloth used for the garment had been a gift from Theonia, acquired by the empire’s merchants who had traded with the exotic lands to the far east. The ells of silk cloth had been the crowning element of a bounteous tribute from the Theonian Emperor, which had included a wealth of rare spices and other uncommon luxuries. Few ever undertook the long and perilous journeys along the Rising Sun Road to the eastern lands. Fewer still returned with such treasured items as that which had been enthusiastically presented to the Unifier, by the delegation sent to Avalos from the Emperor of Theonia. The quality of the immaculately woven silk was much rarer and finer than any now being produced within the Theonian Empire, who rigidly protected their indigenous silk trade. In the rays of the sun it looked as if it glowed from within, casting an angelic hue upon its exalted wearer.
The collar, hem, and sleeves of the tunic were brocaded with broad bands of magnificent, intersecting golden designs. The most expert hands in all of Avanor had labored relentlessly in fashioning the full-length tunic for the Unifier, sewing and cutting meticulously from the precious cloth. Through their painstaking skills they had rendered the Unifier a resplendent tribute of their own; a one-of-a-kind garment, for a man without peer.
The light tan shoes covering His feet were of the softest leather, coming from the rekka, a creature native to Kiruva. Even the most prolific of hunters and fur traders in that faraway, river-crossed land seldom encountered the small, cautious animal, rarer by far than ermine or sable. The hide of just one of the diminutive beasts alone was worth several quality war stallions, and two rekka had been used to fashion His footwear, part of a lavish gift from the last Grand Prince of Kiruva.
The Unifier’s waist was tied about with a light belt woven of golden thread, which pulled His long tunic in, while also serving as a graceful adornment.
Truly, the Unifier was a vision of regality and grace, without equal.
The Unifier did not claim any one heritage, realm, or ethnicity, instead seeming to possess many lineages, hearkening from all the known lands of Ave. Though the subject was rarely raised directly in His presence, there was little to nothing known of His true origins. The only knowledge held by the scholars and monks was that He had risen up rather suddenly from the masses in Avanor, in a tumultuous age long ago.
His ascent had come at a dizzying in speed, a tale of epic proportion now sung by gleeman and bards across the lands. Coming during a bitter time of war and upheaval, the Unifier had swiftly become indispensable to Avanor. His reputation had spread like lightning, as He gave incomparably wise counsels to Avanor’s lords, and was then involved in incredible, supernatural events that were witnessed by multitudes. How He had gained their ear in the first place was forgotten, but its affects were not.
He had been regarded by all as unwaveringly selfless, and as a dedicated peacemaker, helping the Duchy to avert many of the little internal wars between Avanoran barons that had caused so much suffering among the populace. In this area, He was far more effective than even the Western Church’s Peace of the All-Father movement, which had been created to lessen the violence and ensuing suffering of the peasantry. The people of Avanor began to look to Him more than the Church, to resolve their dilemmas. Then, a very unexpected development had occurred, one that had surprised everyone.
The last titled Duke of Avanor, William The Bold, had lost his only heir to an unexpected illness, incurred during the onset of the young man’s prime. It was a dark sickness that even the mystical powers of the Unifier had been unable to thwart.
Trusting nobody else, the old Duke had designated the powerful Duchy over to the Unifier upon his passing. The timing was most fortunate, as the populace saw it, as the declaration had preempted much further trouble when the Duke passed away rather abruptly, within just days of naming the Unifier to succeed him. The people lamented the Duke’s fate, believing that tremendous grief had broken his will to live.
To the Unifier, the death of the young man and the Duke, and the timings of their demises, were not mysteries, but just a few of the secrets that He harbored. The Unifier had risen up with no established name or quality of lineage. Yet His charisma was without equal, and his powerful, commanding presence inspired people, both great and small, to follow Him.
He offered a compelling vision of a world governed by one order, a rule of law equal for everyone in it, in which all lands could prosper, and all wars would be brought to an end. The only conflict that He desired to prosecute was one that would achieve this unprecedented state in Ave, the War to End All Wars, seen as a very noble goal by the rulers of lands used to chaos and plight.
His incredible qualities, and the unparalleled vision that He embraced, were why there had been no subsequent challenge to His hold upon the Duchy of Avanor. At first, He had given no name, merely calling Himself the Servant of the People. By sole virtue of His magnetic persona, bringing even the most volatile of rival barons into cooperation for the betterment of Avanor, the Avanorans had soon begun referring to Him by the name that the world now knew Him by; the Unifier.