User:KenMartis/sandbox

The Darkening: Revenge
The Darkening: Revenge is a planned series of nine books by Ken Martis beginning with The Darkening: Revenge - Harvest Black. In preparation for publication a companion novel titled, The Darkening: Revenge - Imperial Compendium of Lore and History, was published by Sell-Sword Publishing in 2023 and is available for purchase on Amazon or it can be acquired for free on the author's webpage as a PDF.

Synopsis
Hate, Revenge. I would kill…

- Azerri Lafiel Vallow

A Tribunal supplicant is brutally murdered by the purportedly dead Arch Bishop when he discovers him at the High Altar of Saulum, the Everlasting God-King, dipping the pages of the most sacred book in the clergy, the great Taal, in the blood of Azerri’s forbidden lover, Kael, and eating them. Hate, the irreconcilable desire for revenge are his only thoughts as he dies at the altar. Azerri is inexplicably resurrected 333 years after his death as a Jakkin, a life-eating descendent of the Vampire. Bound to the world of the living only by his hate and all-consuming desire for revenge, he vows to kill without reason or consequence, to embrace damnation itself to kill his own murderer. However, the world he finds himself in is very different than the world he remembered. Much has transpired since his death. The seemingly all-powerful Tribunal has lost much of its influence and authority. Nobles have assumed dominance of many of the lands and the magic-wielding Saith, Arkani and Ikarri are concerned with their own agendas. Since Azerri’s death and resurrection, his murderer, the Arch Bishop has raised a nearly unstoppable army of magic-wielding Arch Vampires, rogue Sorcerers, human allies with their own dark ambitions, and seemingly endless legions of Saadi Innes.  With his Grand Armee the Arch Bishop is bent on again waging war, spilling blood, and conquering everything in his wake with the intent of eradicating all memory and every last vestige of the Tribunal. The Arch Bishop’s eyes and ears are everywhere, nobles in powerful kingdoms secretly serve him, his reach is long, and his influence is vast. Confronted by such powerful adversaries, consumed only by hate, Azerri’s murderous desire for revenge may well be his own undoing. However, he will briefly encounter a hastily drawn together and estranged band of companions, a rogue Knight, a fiery barmaid, a cunning thief, and a young noblewoman of mysterious origin. Their lives will be forever altered by the series of inexplicable events that follow, as war ensues and the prophesized end times begin, The Darkening .

Plot Summary
On November, 24th 2012, a user by the name RedMage333 posted a complete plot summary in the form of a video on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4TKOFnYMCw. The plot of the novel is as follows:

The Darkening: Revenge – Harvest Black is the tale of Azerri Lafiel Vallow, a supplicant for a religious order known as the Tribunal. He is murdered with his lover, Kael, by his own Arch Bishop, Michael, after he was resurrected as an Arch Vampire. Azerri is then returned to the world by the Blood Daemon Ambition, once known as the Faerie Bataryal, in the body of a Jakkin 333 years after his death.

Upon his resurrection in a Jakkin body, which is an offshoot species of the Vampire, but which requires the consumption of whole life rather than blood, he is bound by hate and embraced damnation itself to kill his own murderer. However, the world in which Azerri has returned to life is far different than the one he knew in true life. Azerri learns that the Arch Bishop has assembled an army of Vampires, rogue Sorcerers, and human Saadi Sworn allies with their own dark ambitions and seemingly endless legions of Saadi Innes. The Tribunal has lost most of its power in the 333 years since Azerri’s death and the Arch Bishop seems on the verge of destroying it completely.

After Azerri is resurrected in the body of a dead Jakkin, a Shadow Man as they are known in regions that border the Scourge Lands, he slays several of the Tribunal’s so-called Holy Soldiers and the Azaere Empire’s Warriors that had allied to slay the Jakkin. Azerri then seeks out the High Lady Elzibeth, the Sorcerer Queen, within the city of Amora to ascertain the location of the Arch Bishop. However, the High Lady is a minion of the Arch Bishop and engages in battle with Azerri in which she summons a Blood Golem, which Azerri dispatches with deadly Black Magic. She then seeks to escape Azerri and unleashes upon him both her Gyd, her deadly time-space distorting assassins, and a Blighted Son of Maalberith, a Ghoulamb, a monstrous creature that lives only to consume flesh and inflict suffering.

Although the Ghoulamb seems on the verge of slaying Azerri, a chance encounter with a Vanguard Knight from Atkin and a thief join in the battle and together they slay the Ghoulamb. However, the battle leaves Azerri unconscious. Azerri awakens in an inn known as the Wandering Way because the Vanguard Knight and thief rescued him along with a young princess and barmaid who worked at the Wandering Way. It is at this point that the estranged group of companions agree to travel to BethelWryth to escape the Sorcerer Queen.

After an adventure, Azerri leaves the party to confront the Arch Bishop in Manereh, where Azerri had been murdered in true life. Azerri kills the Arch Bishop and obtains the blood sword known as Suffering, the sword named Affliction. However, in killing the Arch Bishop, Azerri mistakenly enabled the Blood Daemon to enter the Corporeal Realm and began a chain of events that would result in The Darkening, the end times.

Concept Art
Ken Martis has also illustrated concept art for The Darkening: Revenge, which can be located at the Concept Art section of his webpage at https://www.thedarkeningrevenge.com/concept-art.html.

The Darkening: Revenge - Imperial Compendium of Lore and History
The companion novel, The Darkening: Revenge - Imperial Compendium of Lore and History is written from the perspective of Milius Vaalak-Melkior Anthar, First Tier Imperial Aesthetic and Historian, Mark of the Fox. The Imperial Compendium of Lore and History has been compiled by the Imperial Order of Aesthetics at the direction of Sal-Omen Strato Mallius, the Imperial Keeper of Records and Master Historian to the Emperor-God, Jainus Lokus-Tempes Baliel. The purpose of the document is to archive a collection of written records and oral traditions that collectively preserve the understood history of the Alissaea continent with a focus on lands south of the Hanging Claw Mountains, which are referred to as the Common Lands in contemporary times. The written records and oral traditions have been collected from a myriad of primary and secondary sources from within the Common Lands, the Azaere Empire, and various territories on the continent. In more current times, the reconnaissance reports gathered by the Order of Intrigue have also been added to the compendium to document the most current events of the age, which is referred to as the Common Age by the men and women of the Common Lands.

The compendium discusses the generally recognized nine ages that comprise pre-history and history. The timeline of the recorded historical ages encompasses 12,296 years. All of the ages discussed are the: 1) Age of Light, 2) Age of Harmony, 3) Age of War, 4) Age of Enlightenment, 5) Age of Magic, 6) Age of Despair, 7) Age of Kings, 8) Age of Empire, and 9) the Common Age.  Furthermore, this compendium also discusses the so-called prophecies that foretell a time of societal unrest, upheaval, and unparalleled chaos, a time when nightmares assume flesh and menace the waking, when the dead arise to eat upon the living in armies so vast that they outnumber the stars, and magic again devastates the land and leaves only cinders in its wake, it is a time when suffering itself is made manifest, it is a time of unremitting anger, hatred, blood, and revenge, it is a time of world-shattering and shrieking darkness that sounds the clarion call of an ending to all things, it is the end times, it is The Darkening.

The Age of Light - The 1st Age
Little is known about this age. It was the time before the written word. Oral tradition suggests that elves were the only sentient beings that inhabited the world during this age. It is the longest age and contains most of the time that has passed in the world.

The Age of Harmony - The 2nd Age
The turning of this age would come with the physical manifestation of creatures born of the Ethereal Realm that would come to be known as Gods, Goddesses, and Faeries. Initially, there was love and trust between the elves and the Gods, but jealousy of the elves' love would set the stage for conflict.

The Age of War - The 3rd Age
Bitter jealousies that developed among the Gods led to open conflict between the children of light. The elves that would ally with the Fell-Gods would become known as the Bale Elves, and they would become corrupt through their fealty to the Fell-Powers and result in an Age of War.

The Age of Enlightenment - The 4th Age
This was an age of unprecedented learning and discovery. Miraculous tecknologeas were discovered, but so too were malicious uses for such tecknologea. This was an age of great change and one for which more knowledge has been recovered than for any other age in history.

The Age of Magic - The 5th Age
This age is one of unrivaled peace and prosperity comparable only to the Age of Harmony. War, hunger, sickness, and suffering was virtually unknown.

The Age of Despair - The 6th Age
This was an age of hopelessness, darkness, and despair. War, disease, and famine were again known and even the dead once again walked among the living.

The Age of Kings - The 7th Age
After the Unamah was fractured and broken, ambitious men and women forged kingdoms for themselves. However, it was rare they could maintain their borders, most of which shifted with the seasons ...

The Age of Empire - The 8th Age
The Emperor watches...

The Emperor conquers...

The Emperor punishes...

During this age, the Azaere Empire conquered nearly all the Common Lands.

The Common Age - The 9th Age
The Common Age is defined by chaos in wake of the echoes of war. The once seemingly all-powerful Tribunal has been marginalized by rising secular powers, but a holy war is once again on the horizon.

The Darkening - The 10th Age
It is the end times ...