12:18am 11/12/11
Straight into random notes:
The Emperor will be in a walled city called The Great Fortress when an eruption in a distant land blocks out the sun for days, and the weather chills immediately after. The people turn against him, and in a moment of pure hubris, he orders all but the noble class and the warior class cast out of the city. The workers and slaves, scared and upset by the dark, attack The Great Fortress.
The Emperor's eldest son is in the sothern part of the empire, overseeing the religeous duties of the port city that ships mined gold to The Great Fortress, when the darkness falls. In the chaos of the Evernight, his faithful Bodyguard leads him and other nobles and priests to the shipyards, and they sail away while their city burns. The Prince determines to lead everyone to The Great Fortress, certain that The Emperor will know what to do.
When the sun returns, it casts little light, and no warmth, and a storm arises out of the bleakness, wrecking the ships on the Forbidden Isle. The Prince must chose to stay upon the shores until all the ships are repaired, or leave some behind and press on. Unable to sacrifice a few for the many, they all band together to repair the 'fleet'. Then the creatures of the Forbidden Isle attack the camp, and The Prince is forced to leave others behind, including his Bodyguard, who holds the monsters off until The Prince is safely aboard ship, but is overpowered before he can reach the boats.
The remaining force then continues on to the Great Fortress, first by ship, and then on foot, picking up survivors, and fightng the Ape Men that were normally non-threatening, but have been driven towards violence out of hunger and desperation. When The Prince finally reaches the Great Fortress, he finds that it has been destroyed, that his father is dead, and that there is no food or saftey in the surrounding lands. One of his allies finds The Emperor's crown in a charred pile of dead, and presents it to the prince, asking if the gods have chosen him to lead them out of the disaster. He excepts his father's crown, and becomes The King of a northern bound people, still at odds with the Ape Men in the northern lands.
The King comes to a river that flows north, and his people build rafts, and follow this long river to the sea. The river's delta is fertile, the climate is moderate, and the area is relatively free of Ape Men. The Kingdom is marked out, and a fortress is made, and The King meets a new people, not Man, but not Ape either, simpler but with language and tools, and they trade and prosper. The King, at the end of his journey, admires his kingdom from the vantage of his fortress wall, and imagines the future, with great monuments, and calanders they can plant by. The Kingdom numbers no more than 2,000 people, all that remain of the race of Man, but they still survived the end of the world. He ends by thanking the gods for his good fortune.
1:11 am
Edit (1):
9:07 pm 11/14/11
The last paragraph felt a little choppy and rushed. Let's rewrite it!
The King leads his people north, along the coast, until he comes across a simple fishing folk, with shell necklaces and strong spears. They take on a guide who claims there are more Men in the northern lands where the sea ends. Once they journey to the land, a fertile place with two lakes, and many streams, protected from the Ape Men by tall mountains in the north, and rivers and coastland in the south and west, The King realises that this is where his people could be safe. The land was occupied by another human group, as the guide had said, but they had fallen hard after the Evernight. With no chance of a reconcilliation, the King is forced to fight the folk.
After the battle, the men of the natives were killed, and the women were left to join his people on their own. In time, The King will rebuild a slave population, and build a new fortress in the shadows of the mountains. Finding gold in the rivers is seen as a sign that the gods want his people to settle here. In time, the King's lands prosper, and he imagines the future his people will build. The Kingdom grew from only 150 people, all that remained of the race of Man, but they still survived the end of the world. He ends by thanking the gods for his good fortune.
9:40 pm
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