The Twelve zodiac and the Dragon Saint

For tens of thousands of years, the twelve Zodiacs: Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, and Capricorn had dominated and ruled the land through the twelve zodiac fortresses. The true enemy of the twelve zodiac fiefdoms had always only been one, the Dragon Saint. Legend had told tales of the final days of the primordial period, when the Dragon Saint Kasiyanuo had swallowed the Holy Castle in a single breath during a fierce military campaign. At the price of its destruction, the Holy Castle had primed an ancient talisman that would detonate itself along with the sacrifice of the Holy Castle once inside the Dragon's belly. The detonation would send the Dragon Saint into the depths of the ocean, taking with it the talisman and the Holy Castle ruins left behind that once shielded its power safely away. Kasiyanuo had fallen into the ocean depths spurred on tidal currents that washed over the entire land, and therein brought the incessant warring of the primordial period to its knees.

Slaughterer of Dragons Over time, oceans had dried into fields; fields were flooded into oceans. Tens of thousands of years had passed on and humans had once again risen to survive and replicate across the land spreading their agrarian culture and civilization wherever they had settled. While the humans idled away contently, the twelve zodiac fortresses had watched with a growing nervous disposition. They knew the Dragon Saint would be reborn and the day of reckoning would soon be upon them. For whoever it was who could once again conquer the Dragon Saint lost within the depth of sleep would this time be able to retrieve the talisman resting unprotected in its belly. With that talisman would bring an unlimited power that could destroy the very rule of the twelve fortresses. The twelve fortresses had created an elite force designed to seek out any information relating the Dragon Saint's reemergence, as few outside the ranks of those officially sanctioned had dared to venture on such a task. Modi, who carried in him the blood of his ancestors who had once themselves, walked the very streets of the living sacrificial the Sky Castle; and it flowed through his veins. He had learned the tales of the sacrificed Holy Castle and the Dragon Saint in the primordial period from his ancestors. He himself, had a honed a deep discipline over his mind and body, and as a result, hundreds of dragons had fallen under his sword. For this, he had come to be known, and later feared, as the Slaughterer of Dragons.

Perhaps by the guidance of fate alone, as he had slowly maneuvered his boat along the sea just off the shore, he suddenly found himself staring at the frail, limp torso of the great Kasiyanuo floating just below the ocean's surface. Its sheer mass and size made Modi finally believe the tales he had heard as a boy about this epic dragon swallowing the Holy Castle in a single bite. As he looked upon this lifeless yet formidable opponent, he knew that even the slightest hesitation would mean his demise. His sword, still dripping with the blood of a hundred dragons before it, drooled with envy at the chance to taste the blood of Kasiyanuo. After a bloody war between the two, Kasiyanuo had been riddled with wounds evidencing the bloodbath it had endured thousands of years ago. The long dramatic wound on its stomach held it in the clutches of the ocean patiently waiting its chance to rise again out its forced hibernation.

And so, the talisman inside the Kasiyanuo's belly would once again return to the descendent hands of the legacies of the Holy Castle. However, when the Arian forces received word of Modi's discovery they had mobilized in attack. Even if Modi was unsure how or if he even should unleash the full potential of the talisman's power, he was left with no choice but to use the talisman to summon the triumphant return of his ancestral Holy Castle in a glorious defense- the thirteenth city, outside the ring of twelve stars-protected now by the ancient power unleashed by the talisman's master. With Modi's use of the talisman and the ancient powers it wielded, a new threat had emerged.

Modi amassed a battalion of soldiers mounted upon a fleet of flying griffins and mobilized against Aries. The armies of Aries were soon overwhelmed and Arian annihilation was at hand. One after the other, the remaining zodiac fortresses raced in effort to steal the talisman back into their control. The armies of Taurus, Leo, and Scorpio united together in to attack and to destroy the rogue Holy Castle and its master, Modi. Only they too had met their demise under the talisman guided by Modi's hand.

When Modi found himself once again surrounded by the remaining eight zodiac fortress closing in on his garrison, he knew that the talisman must never leave the hands of his bloodline. For the scales of power were already tilted in line with the feudal Zodiac Fortress, and that only recently had he begun to bring balance to the world. And so, in great sacrifice, he raised his gem sword with great and furious force, and smashed the talisman into several pieces. The Holy Castle had once again fallen, crumbling into desecrated ruins, bringing countless thugs seeking plunder into its tombs.

The fragments of the talisman had split into innumerable shreds of gemstone, and had slowly spread throughout the far reaches of the Middle-Earth without notice. Its great power had not been lost, but was unable to be summoned in its lost state. But the talisman would not be ignored. It would find its own way to return to the hands of its true owner, the legacy of the Holy Castle.

War had broken out in the chaotic search for the missing fragments. The once great twelve fortresses suffered tremendous loss in strength, and their grip over the Middle-Earth had weakened. Smaller satellite cities outside of their domain had begun sprouting up, building strength and seeding hope in their revolution. Revolt had been spreading, and in the chaos of the war, the zodiac fortresses found themselves fighting an increasingly losing battle.

In the heat of battle, when Modi had destroyed the talisman he had neglected only one thing. By the chaos that had ensued as a result of his decision, he was in fact destroying order itself. The ring of twelve fortresses had fallen feeble, and as their hegemony declined, so did the order they had brought. Endless wars, conquest and subjugation had broken out between these new rising powers, and disorder had bred way. And so began the Dark Times. All sacrifice comes with cost, and at what cost did his actions affect the outcome of so many lives left in darkness? The chaos would continue on, and order would have to wait for a new hope to arise....