The Chronicals of Arax: Book One of War and Heroes

Our actions define us as heroes or cowards, not intentions. Such is the nature of war, Arsenc. Men march beside their comrades into walls of spears and under rains of arrows, refusing to relent so as not to shame themselves before their brothers. For every man who shirks his duty and abandons his post, a hundred stand their ground. What more can a hero be than a man who risks his life for country and friend in spite of the obvious fear that strikes at us all? The paths of war and heroes are forever intertwined....

War does not create heroes. It merely reveals them. They are not measured by the greatest of deeds but by the simple willingness to do their part. I am marching north in their company.

--King Lore, before the battle of Kregmarin

Gargoyles had plagued mankind since the dawn of creation. Once servants of the Most High, they betrayed their creator, who cast them down upon Arax in mortal form, contesting mankind for dominion of the world. From this chaos, Yah, the creator, rose up a champion, Kal, to guide mankind in following his will and vanquishing the gargoyle curse.

Kal found favor with the creator, unifying mankind into one kingdom, heralding a golden age of prosperity, justice, and equality before the law, while driving the gargoyles to the brink of extinction. Alas, all fell to ruin, his reign betrayed by the greed of treacherous lords, who slew their rightful king, establishing their own fated kingdoms, each falling in kind once the gargoyles rose again.

And so mankind suffered, enduring endless war with their mortal foe for two and a half millennia, each unable to destroy the other, until one human, Tyro, arose, aligning his people with the gargoyles to war against the rest of mankind, destroying the balance that had kept the gargoyles in check since the days of King Kal. Bringing all of northern Arax under his dominion, Tyro threatened to sweep south, bringing all of Arax under his sway.

With the drums of war sounding, Terin Caleph, the only son of a Torry farmer, embarks on a journey to the city of Rego to serve as a scribe and apprentice to the Torry ambassador, an old friend of his father's. To protect him on his journey, his father gifts him an ancient sword, which holds mysterious powers that he soon discovers. Are the powers inherent in the sword or in himself?

Terin's journey draws him into a growing conflict between his native Torry realm and Tyro's Benotrist-Gargoyle Empire, in which he takes an ever larger and unforeseen role. Joined by a Torry warrior and a motley band of strangers from a place called Earth, he becomes caught up in the great war to decide the fate of all the sentient peoples of Arax. As in any war, there are heroes found in places one would rarely look.