The Rod of Baladret

            The Voron named Baladret as a means to have better control of his power created this golden colored rod. It is made from a gold colored metal found on the floating land of Vivenek, the same type of metal believed to help hold the land in the air. The rod is six feet long and about an inch in diameter. It has pictures of various plants, animals and words engraved on it, and on the top it forms onto a braided circle.

            The rod holds all the power that Baladret contained, but if someone else were to use it then they would have to learn how. Even if someone were to learn how, they’d still have trouble equaling the abilities of Baladret himself. Those who would use it for evil would be destroyed because it was designed to keep Baladret’s good magic intact forever (good magic means magic used for doing good. Although if a person had their own rod consisting of evil magic of equal power, then they would be able to control it anyway they wanted, thus becoming twice as powerful. They would also have to power to control good and evil anyway they wanted, or warp both to their will.

            There was once a man who tried to posses Baladret’s rod, he was an ex-Voron named Seltvi. He had turned to the ways of the evil wizards, the Galaband, and had devised his own secret art. He had reached a level were he was equal to Baladret’s power, yet in the evil arts. Seltvi, too, discovered the way to place his power in a rod; he made his from a rare stone, a slivery almost transparent hue, found within a canyon in the Great Southern Desert (Da’al name). In this canyon there were rock elves that Seltvi enslaved and mutated them into the Black Elves. Seltvi knew that he would have twice the power if he could wield Baladret’s rod with his, so he tried to take it. Signs of the battle that ensued between Seltvi and Baladret can still be seen in the desert. In the end the land of Vivenek was lost beneath the sands and Seltvi and Baladret both perished, but not their rods.

            When they both died their rods were torn from their hands and were thrown into the desert. Over the next few thousand years the desert sand covered the rods and they were forgotten. That is until one day the rod which should not have been found, was. A trader, from the Da’al Protectorate, found the rod of Seltvi. His name was Corsia El’sar, and the moment he picked it up he became the tool of Seltvi. Seltvi had discovered a way to preserve his spirit within the rod if his body died. So Corsia was brought to the canyon, there he found an ancient abandoned city carved into the rock walls. In the center of this city was a massive back tower carved completely out of some strange stone. Inside this tower Corsia discovered a book made from stone, black stone, and bound with steel rings. The book had writing in it that had been carved into the stone and then liquid silver had been poured into the letters, which then hardened. At first Corsia could not understand the words, but the rod showed him. Then the dark power of Seltvi once again began to inhabit the world. The surviving black elves around the area once again became enslaved, and the evil slowly began to reach the Da’al Protectorate.

            Meanwhile the Rod of Baladret was discovered by a caravan and brought back to Da’al. There it was sold to a historian named Roseth Ma’lven who took it home and began to study the inscriptions on it. Slowly he began to understand what the rod was and what it could do. Unlike the rod of Seltvi, however, Baladret’s spirit was not preserved within it. Instead the wielder of the Baladret’s rod had to learn all the magic it was capable of slowly, and without outside help. Roseth learned all this by deciphering the ancient text written on the rod. After Roseth learned all this he decided that the rod must be shown to the priests at the local temple. Upon doing so, the head priest, Va’sel Even’sa; a student of ancient magic, picked the rod up and immediately felt the darkness growing to the west. He then told his fellow priest that the rod must be moved across the sea before evil overtook it.

            That very day the rod, and several priests, boarded a boat and sailed to the eastern colony across the sea. And as the dark magic of Seltvi spread across the Da’al Protectorate, destroying it, the rod of Baladret remained safe and hidden deep within the mainland to the east. So the only way for the dark power of Seltvi to be stopped is for someone who is equally learned in the art of good magic to come with Baladret’s rod and destroy the power of Seltvi.

Compiled by Matthew Grafstrom