The Skullfall Throne Part 2: The Birth of Nororafell

 

The blood of the trolls were impregnated with magic.

    

    The trolls were the first beings on the earth. The Great Volcano, The Mother peak, erupted in the beginning and from it the trolls crawled from the lava. Their Mother Peak gifted her children with the magic that flowed through her magma chambers. The trolls lived under the watchful eye of their Mother Peak, never straying too far.

  

   They didn’t feel the need to go far. They were blessed by Mother Peak with everything they needed.

    

    They could do many things with their magic and the trolls used it to make the land beautiful.

    The trolls craved beauty of any kind. Under their tender care, the land grew to be lush with vegetation of every kind. A kaleidoscope of colorful wildflowers covered the plains and in the early morning when there was still a layer of dew on their petals they would glitter in the sunlight.

    

    One day, a troll wanted to create something as Mother Peak had created them. He used clay and lovingly sculpted the most beautiful being that he could imagine. 

    

    But the clay was cold and uninviting, he longed to infuse the clay figure with warmth and life. He went to the base of The Great Volcano to ask for the knowledge to create beings. He pleaded to be granted with Her power, but Mother Peak refused. 

  

   “My child, you create things that are soft and beautiful, but these things are unlike my dearest children.”

    

    The troll left The Great Volcano with his head bent, and came upon a stream. He looked down at his reflection. His rocky face was chipped at the edges. His brow ridge protruded far and made his amber eyes nearly invisible. But his brow ridge was no match for his boulder of a nose.

    

    He came face to face to the reality that he was hard and hideous. The troll returned to the clay figure and fell upon it with a stream of yellow amber raining down from his eyes. The shining amber fell upon the clay figure’s lips, and something unexplainable happened.

    

    The magic infused in the tears of the troll sank into the clay and from them the enchantment spread. The cold and hard gray surface of the clay was replaced by soft and blush skin. The hair turned from a slate gray to golden curls that resembled a halo around the head.

    

    The troll pulled away and watched in wonder as the figure took its first breath. Her eyelids fluttered open and her sapphire eyes landed on her creator. The blush of her skin paled and in her eyes, the troll saw her terror. The troll became aware of just how hideous he was compared to the beauty before him.

    

    She immediately jumped to her feet and bolted away into the wilderness. Still the troll was moved to compassion for his creation, and not wanting her to be alone in the world he made more figures for the clay.

    

    They were made in all shapes and sizes, and with each of them the troll shed tears over each of them to bring them to life. With each first breath, the humans would scream and run from their own creator with fear.

    

    The shedding of the magic tears drained the troll and he felt his life fading away.

    

    Finally, the last human was brought to life and with the last amber tear the troll fell to the ground in nothing more than a pile of rocks.

  

 Mother Peak sent a line of lava to the troll and pulled him back into her depths. The other trolls watched their brother return to the Mother with sadness in their stone hearts.

  

 “Go my children,” Mother Peak said. “Go and hide in the Jagged Peaks. In honor of your fallen brother, we will let these humans roam the land, but to protect my children still alive, you must hide from these terrible beautiful creatures.”

    

    With heavy hearts, the trolls left their Mother Peak and found a new home in the cliffs of the Jagged Peaks. But they never forgot why they had been banished to that dark corner. They sat in the shadows of the steep ridges while their hatred for the humans festered. That hatred turned to rage as they watched the humans flourish and find happiness in the beauty that the trolls had created without a thought to their own creator whom they had killed.

    

    “They killed our brother and forced us to leave our Mother and they must pay!” The trolls thundered and marched from their hiding place.

    

    As the war raged on, the trolls marveled at the strength and zeal of the humans.

    

    A strength and zeal that matched their own.

    

    The trolls returned to the Jagged Peaks with a newly found respect for the humans and when they came down, this time in peace, they offered the magic they possessed to the humans in a sign of goodwill for the humans.

  

    Not all the trolls were happy about offering the magic that Mother Peak blessed them with to the ones that forced them out of her presence, but when they put it to the vote most of the trolls were curious to learn more about the humans and were weary of the unrest between the races.

    

    The humans gladly accepted the gift.

    

    The royal family accepted the gift that the trolls extended and as an act of further gratitude for accepting their peace token, the trolls used their magic to make the castle grander than any of its surrounding, and placed a protective shield around the castle and the whole of Nororafell. With the castle and the land protected, the royal family let the trolls spread to the rest of the people.

  

    In the beginning the humans made use of the trolls' magic to boost growth of crops to stave off the effects of the famine that had ravaged the land after the Troll War. Soon, the farmer’s fields were laden with crops that feed the entirety of Nororafell. The people of the land rejoiced at the abundance of provisions.

  

     But instead of recognizing the trolls incredible power, they extorted it without thought of the trolls themselves. Some would use the magic with the welfare of the country in mind, the farmer’s continued to use the trolls’ power to increase the yield of their crops, chefs and bakers would use the trolls’ magic to make their food taste better and benefit the customer, and trolls would help healers develop cures for diseases and other ailments.

    

    Other humans were only interested in using the magic for their own selfish reasons, the nobility who cared for nothing more than appearances would use the trolls to make them look more beautiful than their peers, and it soon became a trend to have a beautician troll in every household, and not leave their manors with their own faces. Their manors and palaces would be gilded and covered in gold filigree.

    

    Some greedy merchants would use the magic to cast enchantment of their wares to charm their patrons into buying more of their poor quality goods, while others would simply have the trolls transfiguring items into gold.

    

    The trolls quickly became slaves of the Mother’s Blessing.

To be continued...