Role

Chapter 1

As predicted, the power of the Eternal Night brought Cabdru more and more
danger, even beyond what he had expected. Rogue Ccul'gra began to hunt Cabdru.
Twisted nightmares of these dread Nightwalkers haunted his sleep. The Dome of
Maethien which entrapped many of the Ccul'gra, he learned, was weakening. If
it were to break, the Ccul'gra would have their way into Thera. It would be
as the day of the Prophecy of the Eternal Night fulfilled, but with one crucial
difference. If the Ccul'gra were able to achieve their crossing without the
aid of the Scions, they would have no reason to treat them any differently than
any of the cattle of Thera. The Scions would lose their opportunity to bargain
and control the Ccul'gra invasion. Such a thing would be a disaster for every
man, woman, and child in Thera, but since it would also be one for the Fold of
the Night, it could not be permitted.

Learning that a dark artifact of the Shadow Plane could be used to repair the
faltering dome, a force of Scions struck deep into the very heart of fallen
Maethien to recover it. Only by using this artifact at the foretold time
could armageddon be prevented. Unfortunately, in their incompetence, the
artifact circlet was embarrasingly lost to a contingent of paladins of the
Fortress. The Scions desperately needed a leader to rally them in this time
of great testing for the Fold of the Night, and Cabdru rose, anointed by the
dark gods to lead as the first Chancellor in generations.

The Dome grew weaker and weaker, and disaster loomed unstoppable. At the
eleventh hour, it was Cabdru himself who struck down the leader of the
troublesome paladins with a single ferocious chop of his axe. Reclaiming
the circlet of flowing shadows, he held it safe from the Theran enemies of
the Midnight Chasm, as well as the attempts of the leader of the rogues, a
powerful greater Ccul'gra named Za'shen'ra.

Realizing his force of Scions would prove too weak to push an assault towards
the Black Dome, Cabdru recruited all of his worst enemies. He knew that they
would not benefit from the breaking of the Dome, and that they would abandon
their various ethical facades to protect it in their own self interest.

So it was that Maran and Imperial, Outland savage and Tribunal alike stood
with the Chancellor of Eternal Night at dark Maethien's gates. Their fear
and need made them Cabdru's pawns. The elves that safeguarded Maethien also
reluctantly joined him. As the Dome began to give way, wave after terrible
wave of rogue Ccul'gra surged at them, numerous as the grains of sand in
Araile herself. Cabdru himself was their target, he and the circlet. Again
and again, the Ccul'gra charged him, heedless of their own safety. Too many
aeons of entrapment had passed. Their hunger for freedom was too great.

It was not enough. Forged and folded a thousand times in the Charnel Forge
and battle, Cabdru was too strong for even Za'shen'ra. Breaking the back of
the Ccul'gra assault, he strode up to the very cracking wall of the Black
Dome and there, wielding the circlet of flowing shadows as his weapon, he
imposed his endless, burning will upon the Dome, making it whole again.

The Dome would weaken again, someday. The Ccul'gra of Maethien would have
another c