Sharnan the Rejected

In the year 4666BD, there was a boy born in the town of Amaiga in North Ideitess. The boy's name was Chiarnha. Born into a wealthy family, he was schooled like any other, and eventually joined the Carson Institute at age 15 in the hopes of becoming a great magic user. By the fourth year, his teachers noticed that he was very clever but he wanted always to know about the dark magic. Of course, it is not taught at the institute, and the masters urged him to concentrate on something else. After a year, he changed his mind, but the next year he left the institute and vanished from sight.

Ten years later, an anonymous writer began to submit magic-related publications to the institute asking to have them published as magic theory books. The principal said no after the first page, but nobody knew who to write to to get the writer to stop sending letters. More and more publications were sent, all of which explained that there had to be more channels to Riiga. They challenged what was written in Carson's "On Magic" and insulted the intellectual foundation of the institute. They also delved quite deeply into the workings of shadow magic, and how people should not fear it. It served to fuel many furious arguments within the higher ranks of the institute.

In a fit of rage, the principal -- whose name was Yrmaros Gracien -- hired an assassin to track down the writer of the letters. The assassin's bare skull was on the Yrmaros's desk the next day. People saw this and within a week Yrmaros was stricken of his rankings and exiled from the institute for life. So he took it upon himself to find the author of the publications, which continued to be sent. After almost a year of searching and analysis, he came across a deep and secluded cave which led to an underground residence made from stone. He discovered thence that Sharnan had been writing the publications for almost ten years. Heavily insulted and without his temper, Yrmaros attacked Sharnan with a fury of magical spells but the young mage seemed the greater caster, for they had no effect and only served to collapse the cave under the earth. A spy whom the institute hired to watch Yrmaros had witnessed what had happened and escaped the cave as it was collapsing. Both mages were trapped inside. Nobody knew what happened to them.

Sharnan versus Yrmaros

When the institute discovered that Sharnan had been sending the publications, they were astounded. They collected the papers and burnt them, and then they mixed the ash with salt and carted it to a high mountain, where it was buried deep in the snow. The next day, the mountain erupted and the ash suffocated a village nearby, killing almost everyone. Though the publications stopped, strange things continued to happen. Sharnan's hometown of Amaiga was stricken with a dangerous disease now known as Atramentous, it Lake Ideitess froze over completely, and it rained on the city of Venzet for two weeks.

The high ranks of the institute gathered and discussed this. Most of them thought that Sharnan was somehow casting the spells that Carson had said were beyond any human from under the earth. The rest thought that it was all pure coincidence, and that Sharnan was dead. They then searched high and low for any remaining publications to undergo a deeper study, in the hopes that it would reveal something about what Sharnan was doing.

One publication was recovered. It was titled "Atramenum", which the disease was named after. Once the new principal had read the document, the strange events ceased. The rain over Venzet stopped, and the ice melted, but the disease was still active. Many said that Sharnan simply died of starvation, and had only stayed alive by eating the body of Yrmaros. Others said that it was Yrmaros who had cast the spells to spite both Sharnon and the institute, and that he had learnt how to cast great spells using Sharnan's documents in the cave. A select few said that Sharnan and Yrmaros had joined forces and attacked those above ground for some reason or another.

Whatever the case, Yrmaros was mostly forgotten. Sharnan was remembered for far longer because of the disease that lingers thousands of years later.