HeXen Prologue

I'm posting this prologue of one of my upcoming stories as a "teaser" - suggestions on how to improve the directions of the story are very welcome.

Oh and mind you, I won't start posting chapters from this story for a loong time as I first need to at least finish Doom: Hell on Earth (which is pretty much on its way).

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Prologue

“Magic is a powerful tool, yet sometimes it has a will of its own and only the strongest and most determined of creatures may tame it and wield it effectively or the results will be devastating to not only the user but to everything around the user”

These were the words of a powerful mage on the magical world of Cronos – the very same man who discovered the true nature of the magics called “Hexen” that were the particular type of mana-utilizing magic present on Cronos, and realized that a strict separation of the magics was necessary.

Long before that time, man had first discovered the magical nature of their world by accident. Learned men of Cronos found that their world contained a magical gas that a powerful mind could utilize and weave like physical tool. The gas would directly affect the mind of the user and through complex mastering of the thoughts the user would be able to focus the energies on the thoughts and by doing so, would be able to do things otherwise considered impossible. This gas was named “mana” and when it became more widely used, powerful sorcerers found means to trap the mana within magically sealed containers – a strange paradox of using mana to trap mana. This particular trait of this sort of mana being trapped and stored within containers became the definition of the magic later known as “Hexen” for it was later learned that Cronos was not the only planet where there were mana occurrences.

There followed a time where the mana of Cronos was ravenously exploited by everyone who knew of its existence and used to further these individuals’ own end. Some used the force of the magics to oppress, while others sought to do good.
Yet regardless of the intentions of the individual who wielded the Hexen magics, the result was most often that in the end, when an individual gained enough mana, the capricious power of the mana would consume the individual and unleash a fury of destruction that would lay waste to the surroundings. In addition, being able to control one’s mind was essential for the safe use of mana. Failure to control one’s mind would result in nightmares come true as the user spontaneously would summon the evils within his nightmares.
Only very late and after many disasters and loss of life, did mankind realize that to successfully master the powers of Hexen, one should not only be able to control one’s own mind but to have a wide knowledge of the moods of the mana to prevent that it would all end in death and destruction.

And long before this realization, as people became aware of the enormous potential of mana, the powerful energies were seen as a valuable resource that could make a man rich and as such, many bloody wars were fought over the control of mana. A few, powerful individuals created magically imbued weapons that where further instilled with the enormously destructive energies of raw mana. These powerful weapons could often determine a battle and they soon became common usage within the many human factions.

Amidst the ravaging battles, a handful of people realized that mana was the root of the evil in their world and tried to persuade their fellow men to stop utilizing it, yet these people were persecuted and regarded as heretics. Only a single sorcerer, who had long been expelled from the society prevailed.
He had spent his life studying mana and as such he was one of the few who could truly master it. The sorcerer, whose name was Kimaeron, sought out other individuals who had the talent to use the magics the way it should be controlled and taught them. One of his best students was surprisingly a warrior named Timon, who learned to master the magics in such a way that he could enhance his own strength and speed as well as many of his senses.
With Timon at his side, Kimaeron travelled around in Cronos, gaining more and more followers and ultimately converted many people into this new “belief”.

Kimaeron had realized that it was necessary to divide the mana evenly between different users and only those strong enough to wield it. As such, Kimaeron and Timon together with a bishop named Fragidor formed a strictly divided order composed of three castes: The Warrior Caste, the Holy Caste and the Arcane Caste.
And thus the foundations for the three major institutions that ended up ruling all of Cronos was laid.

The three heroes became the grand leaders of a great order and their influence spread across the countryside like wildfire. Too strong to resist, all outside forces who tried to resist this order fell before the might of the Three. And soon, the order of the Three had conquered all of Cronos and the three diverse heroes had become the world leaders. Their position was passed on to their sons and daughters who were all schooled in the use of mana from birth – each time, the mentally strongest of the children was chosen as the new leader.
The society of Cronos was ruled by three institutions, evolved from the three castes: The Legion, consisting of the warriors of the society that were the enforcers of law and order, The Church which performed many ceremonial tasks as well as representing the common conscience of the society and finally The Arcanum, where the holders of wisdom resided, granting the arcane knowledge of the secrets of magic to only those that were worthy.

Yet the society developed in a negative way too, for the Leaders became progressively more affected by the enormous powers which they possessed and by the time Zedek The Mighty, Traductus the Pure and Menelkir the Mysterious arose to their seats as leaders of Cronos, the society had turned into a society of oppression. And it became worse under these three leaders.

Women were no longer allowed to use or even study magics and individuals were kept under close surveillance, suppressing individual thought. As for the three leaders themselves, they were all pursuing influence, devoid of concern for their subjects, and at times, minor skirmishes between the three institutions would occur as each leader only sought his own goals.
Even worse was the fact that the countryside was being ravaged by foul creatures that had only recently appeared. Hushed whispers about the so-called “Chaos Serpents” could be heard around in the towns of that time.

Yet the three leaders did little to counter these creatures, as they were only concerned with one thing: To enhance their position and find a way to immortality so that they would rule Cronos throughout all time.

Then came the Dark Serpent Rider.

...

O_O Make a novel dude, I'm serious. You are that damn good.

NICE!! I made a hexen2 story once, it was pretty good. Amazing job! I want to read about the serpent riders' promise of immortality to the three leaders, which leads to the world's downfall, and how the 3 warriors from the church, arcanum and army rise up against Korax!

You should also put the part in where the wizard sails to the end of the universe and accidentally pierces the bubble stopping the serpent riders and other demons from escaping into these worlds, and takes his own life to seal it while 3 demons manage to get out-the serpent riders.

Good stuff!

this is great. we agree with bigbadgangsta, write a novel. the story is great. you kick ass at writing. we like it, and we haven't even played hexen.

monochrome said:

this is great. we agree with bigbadgangsta, write a novel. the story is great. you kick ass at writing. we like it, and we haven't even played hexen.

we? Wtf? I have played Hexen, Nick probably has, so, I dunno wtf this "we" crap is.

BigBadGangsta said:

we? Wtf? I have played Hexen, Nick probably has, so, I dunno wtf this "we" crap is.

Lol, he's just being funny :-)

NICE!! I made a hexen2 story once, it was pretty good.

Really? Cool! Why don't you post it?

Amazing job! I want to read about the serpent riders' promise of immortality to the three leaders, which leads to the world's downfall, and how the 3 warriors from the church, arcanum and army rise up against Korax!

You should also put the part in where the wizard sails to the end of the universe and accidentally pierces the bubble stopping the serpent riders and other demons from escaping into these worlds, and takes his own life to seal it while 3 demons manage to get out-the serpent riders.

I have a bit where Korax reminds the Three Masters of his promise down on paper - maybe it'll need some improvement. The story will focus on the three heroes so it is certain that it'll be explained how they evaded Korax' powers. :-)

And the part with the wizard is also in the story, but not described as a physical event since it took place eons before the events on Cronos - there's a point in the story where an ancient tale is told for our heroes where the events with the wizard are described.
[edit]Oh yeah and the events in Heretic are also described in this tale[/edit]

BigBadGangsta said:

we? Wtf? I have played Hexen, Nick probably has, so, I dunno wtf this "we" crap is.

You remember nothing about his 'split personality'? At least it's not as annoying as me. :P

ravage said:

You remember nothing about his 'split personality'? At least it's not as annoying as me. :P

Or DOOM Anomaly :-P

Uhhh, wasn't HERETIC a prologue to HEXEN? Just read the HERETIC storyline.

Let the man write dammit! :P

Chu said:

Uhhh, wasn't HERETIC a prologue to HEXEN? Just read the HERETIC storyline.

You seem to have a hard time understanding things huh? :-P

Heretic took place ages before the events described in HeXen, but since I belong to the group of people who find Heretic dull, I am not inspired to write about the events in Heretic - I'll let a Heretic fan do that instead (provided that someone will write a Heretic story).

But there is nothing wrong with the cronology of my HeXen story, as it will be revealed that Korax is the second of the three Serpent Riders and that his younger brother D'Sparil was defeated by a lone Elf ages ago. Like I said, the events in Heretic will be described, but only as part of a tale told to our human heroes, that will explain who Korax is, not as a physical chain of events that take place in the actual HeXen story.

oh no no no. The story was great: I was just confused if it was supposed to be HERETIC or not.

I have Hexen. It rocks. That story rocks. I love the Hexen 2 story(But am yet to get the full version of the game). Are you going to write about Eidolon too?

P.S. I don't think I have that Hexen2 story anymore, because when I wrote it I didn't know about the DooMWorld forums. I might be able to dig it up.

[edit] Doom2 Hell On Earth story eh? /me wobbles.[edit]

Nick Perrin said:

I have Hexen. It rocks. That story rocks. I love the Hexen 2 story(But am yet to get the full version of the game). Are you going to write about Eidolon too?

I've thought about it, but I don't have the full version because the demo didn't appeal too much to me (didn't like how the weapons felt awfully weak and the way the player movements worked) - maybe I'll just do an introductory "foreshading" story for HeXen 2, for without the full version I'm in a bad position to be able to do a complete story.

Your' in luck DSM, I have the full copy and official guide too. Maybe I can help you (not qquite sure how though :P)

ravage said:

Your' in luck DSM, I have the full copy and official guide too. Maybe I can help you (not qquite sure how though :P)

We'll see about that another time - now I have too many other projects to work on, but I'll be sure to approach you with questions and stuff when the time is right ok?

And to the rest of ya: Thanks for the comments and Merry Christmas :-)

not bad, but I like mine better :D