Part Three

Excerpt from Oriena ä Danus of Khatme’s

Treatise on Foreign Magiks

The origins of Skala’s so-called Third Orëska remain shrouded in mystery, though there is little doubt that it had its roots in a loose confederation formed sometime during the reign of Erius the Priest Killer, son of Agnalain the Mad.

Wizardry was already common among the Skalans—the unforeseen and, in the minds of many, unfortunate result of the mingling of our two races. But the powers of Skalan wizards were for the most part inferior to our own, and had been further debased with the loss of so many of their more powerful mages during the Necromancers’ War.

Some scholars postulate the hand of Aura at work among the Skalans. How else to explain the rise of a generation of hedge wizards and conjurers not only to unity but to genuine power? Yet I question why these newfound powers should have taken such an alarmingly different form over the resulting centuries. The Third Orëska vehemently denounces all forms of necromancy, and the stated precepts of their great school proscribe such studies, yet I have myself witnessed their use of blood magic, and instances of communion with the dead are not unknown. As Adin í Solun of Lhapnos observed in the third volume of his Histories, “Despite the ties of trade and history between our two lands, one must never forget that throughout her early history, Skala faced Plenimar, not Aurënen.”

Since my sojourn in that capital, I can vouch for the famed hospitality of the Orëska House, but the veil of secrecy remains; the names of the Founders are not taught or spoken of now, and the few accounts made by earlier scholars all conflict, confounding any attempt to decipher the truth from them.