Many, many years ago, there was the land of Lyaden. These five mid-Atlantic islands were well hidden from outsiders. In fact, if you were to go out to sea farther than twenty miles, you wouldn’t be able to see anything at all. To get there, you would first have to know it was there. You couldn’t simply happen upon it during a leisure cruise.
The first island was Tysel. Large and tree covered, Tysel provided nearly all of the wood and fruit in Lyaden. Surrounding the island was the Yaorack Mountains; many were active volcanos, others dormant or extinct. There were two colossal rivers running through Tysel: the Kyraid and the Malifoss. In many of the cities in Tysel, the people speak Lyaden’s original language, Kledesh. Kledesh isn’t like most languages. It almost always is impossible to learn. To most people, Kledesh is a jumble of letters. However, a natural born Kledesh speaker can decipher it in a number of seconds.
The second island, Magredeth, had a plethora of gem mines. All sorts of gems were mined: there were multiple amethyst, sapphire, emerald, diamond, and ruby mines. The mines were located underneath the island, but some went out under the ocean. Those mines, as you may have guessed, were the most dangerous to be in. It is for that reason that that job is the best paid.
The third island was Zopret. On Zopret, they also had mines, but metal mines. From copper and iron to gold and silver, they gave just about all of the island collection its metal. The crowns that each of the kings, queens, princes, and princesses wore were made of Zopret mined silver or gold. The island of Zopret also created the best swords armor in all of Lyaden.
Valer, the plantation island, grew most of Lyaden’s vegetables and wheat. The Valren also had many beautiful flowing rivers and sparkling lakes that provided all of the water needed for these crops. One of the strange things about Valer, was that all of the buildings were dug into the ground so that they were either partially or fully underground. The reason for this was the floods. With all the lakes and rivers, Valer was often submerged in water, so they put important stuff, such as the bedrooms, under the ground.
The fifth island, Covadia, was undersized and quite un-wealthy. The people there were sick and dying, but none of the other islands did anything about it. Honestly, they didn’t want to do anything about it. The reason for this was simple: the Covadian king, Samuel, took, but didn’t provide, making this small and already poor island lose nearly all of its money. They used to be an island of healing herbs, but the other islands in Lyaden realized they could just have their own herb gardens in there backyard. Covadia didn’t seem to even be trying to come up with a solution to this problem, so the others steadily grew angrier and angrier.
On this island, in a large, grand bedroom on the second floor of a castle, is where our story begins. Nearly everyone in the kingdom was asleep.
Nearly.
