The soul of a pisces with the heart of a dragon

Author: "Well Iyasumi. Seeing as you are the expert of legends and mysteries in the group would you like to tell us about The Legend of The First Heroes?"

Iyasumi: "Gladly. Although you must first know that there are many versions of the legend as it has been passed down for many generations. The interesting part though is that the really old accounts are very... different from the modern, "official" version."

"There are a lot of different stories about what The First Heroes did in their life times, but the bottom line is that they helped people all around the world and so grew in fame. In the end they founded the four Hero Guilds and then disapeared, presumably to save mankind from something by sacrificing themselves. The sort of thing every self respecting legend would do. At least officially."

"The truth about The First Heroes is a totally different story. Something mankind has struggled to forget ever since. The truth is dark and tainted with blood. At the time of The First Heroes there lived another race alongside human kind. A people called Orcs. In our time Orcs are believed by many to be a fantasy, something that you scare your children into behaving with. Others presume that Orcs where savage beasts who simply caused their own extinction. But from what I have gathered the Orcs were in fact a highly intelligent race, and also the ones who taught humans the arts of magic. At the time of The First Heroes those who wanted to learn magic seeked out an Orc shaman willing to teach. They possesed different degrees of knowledge concerning healing magic, elemental magic och summoning, or rune magic. But for some unown reason, and it seems that no one except the heroes themselves knew why, The First Heroes suddenly went on some sort of rampage to eradicate every last Orc in this world. But I have found a source that says that the last Orcs, High Shamans as is probably no surprise, cast two curses before they were killed. One on their own people and one on The First Heroes. The curse they cast on their own people is unclear, but had something to do with necromancy. A forbidden art of magic even then and not something taught to humans, which might explain the lack of information. But the curse they cast on The First Heroes however was a very disturbing one. Somehow the High Orc Shamans had created a magical disease. And from what I gather it was a very contagious one too. Anyone who touched The First Heroes would get the "disease" if they were human. It would give them all the powers of The First Heroes, but also all their memories and all their guilt. I have read somewhere, although I have no idea how valid the information is, that presumably only 1 in 1000 humans, or less, would be able to handle all this. The rest would go insane in an atempt to escape their new knowledge, and in the end go berserk or try to kill themselves. But the curse would keep them alive. Barely. And those who did not go insane would instead spread the curse further. I presume that that was the reason The First Heroes disapeared, together with the reason for why they eradicated the Orcs."

Author: "But what about the Hero Guilds?"

Iyasumi: "I'm not sure. They were probably founded in dedication to The First Heroes. I even think that the scouts is the oldest orientation of all and that in teh beginning they were all trained for and sent out to find The First Heroes."

Author: "You do really have a vast knowledge of legends and myths. Do you have any guesses of your own as to what might have happened to The First Heroes?"

Iyasumi: "My best guess would be that they sealed themselves in with the Orcs in a location which is extremely hard to find. Their curse together with the possibility of the Orcs rising from the dead does make it a plausible choice if they cared about humanity. Or just wanted to save their own reputations."