The tale of Tien and Lao Chang

Gather youths, for I am about to tell a tale about two of the greatest heroes our land has ever known. Tien and Lao are their names and they have accoplished many great deeds, despite their young age. It was on a dark night, with a thick mist rolling onto our shores that the elves of Naggaroth came in their etarnal hunt for slaves. They attacked a village along the coast of Hizou and amongst the captives were two young twins. These two slaves, were totally different in demeaner and temperment, yet they had never exchanged blows. They grew up working together, and in their young adulthood they had learnt to work together and function as a perfect team.

In the many days or even weeks they spent in the hull of the slaveship, they saw many of our strongest and mightiest warriors die, overcome by the conditions of their enslavement. In this ship Lao met an old elf who, near death lay in a struggeling heap. Lao  gave this elf the last bread he had, but it didn’t help. Dark Elves have a particular hatred for their kin and with the ship being full, they regarded the loss of one elf as insignificant. Two days later the elf died. Before passing beyond life he gave Lao a small precious stone. He explained that the stone had the power to heal great wounds. He told Lao take this stone, as he would need it in the Land of Chill. He explained that it would lose its power near fire but that it they exscaped into the wild, it would sustain them and keep them healthy.

Once the slaves arrived in Karond Kar, the home city of the slave captain, they were sold as cattle on a market. Tien and Lao were bought as a pair by the same noble together with many others of our people. The noble, N'Tzakari has a cruel reputation that Tien and Lao were told of by the slaves they were to meet. Even amongst the elves of Naggaroth he was known as a bloodthirsty and cruel man. He locked them up in the catacombs of his tall tower on their first night, without food, clothes, blankets or light. As dawn broke the Slavemaster of the tower woke them vicously, and had all the slaves dragged to the foot of the tower. Here all the slaves were divided into teams of two and chained together. The slave drivers equipped one in each group with a shield and the other with a sword, then sent them through a mighty gate of iron. Once Tien and Lao, who happened to form a team, passed through the gate they saw a cruel spectacle. Thousands of dark elves screaming for death and blood filled the tiers around a great circle of sand. Tall wall rose, seperating the pit from the tiers. Banners fluttered in the wind displaying the emblems of the various houses with a stake in the coming events. Suddenly Tien and Lao were attacked by the other slaves who were sent onto the arena. Their only chance to survive was to fight.

Tien and Lao formed a good team. Every team that approached them fell before Tien's sword. Stories of their successes spread throughout Karond Kar and eventually, beyond. Whispers even came to the ears of the Witch King, Malekith. He was not pleased at all that he didn’t have the best fighters in his arena and sent a convoy to fetch Tien and Lao to Naggarond.

It was a long way to Naggarond. The road was cold, desolate and frought with danger, and all the slaves faced death on a daily basic. The Dark Riders and Warriors that protected them were unable to bring harm to them, but many died on the road regardless. After about a week of travelling Tien managed to cut through the rope that restrained her and tried to escape. Her attempt was futile. She was exhausted and the horses of the Dark Elves were well rested. After this incident the captain of the convoy ordered cages made for them. The rest of the way there was no more attempts of escape.

Once they arrived at Naggarond, the Witch King heard about Tien’s attempt to escape and he ordered the best smith of Naggaroth to create the strongest chain in the country. In the meantime, Tien and Lao were handed over to the Witch King’s personal beastmasters who threw them into the catacombs of Naggarond. Two days later the chains were completed and grafted to their wrists using the cruel magics of the Dark Elves. Every time either one felt a mere fleeting hint of joy, the chains would throw waves of pain through their bodies.When they were first sent into the arena of Naggarond they were stunned by the immense crowd that had gathered to see the flowing of blood and the immense variety of opponents they were to fight. There were strong men from the north, elves from Ulthuan, men from the Empire and even dwarfs from the mountains. Tien and Lao had never seen these races before, they had only read about them in books. After the first few battles, the Witch King declared Tien and Lao as his personal champions in the arena, and defying the accepted rules of the arena forged a magical sword for Tien. Malekith favoured Tien, revelling in her skill and bloodlust with a blade. They fought year after year in the arena and they became famous among the elves of Naggaroth. However the Witch King had another cruel idea prepared for them. He searched the pits of Naggaroth for the captured parents of the twins. The next day when Tien and Lao entered the arena, they saw their parents standing in the arena, both equiped with rusty daggers. The old Cathians attacked them in a frenzy and although Lao blocked every attack and tried to calm them down, his efforts were wasted. Their parents had no idea of who they were or who Tien and Lao were. The drugs of the beastmasters were too potent and the bloodlust too strong. Tien and Lao were forced to kill their parents. From that day, every time Tien and Lao were thrown back into their cells, Lao looked out the window and each night he tried to remember another part of the city and when they were led to the arena Lao studied the passages under the arena.

Finally, three weeks after the day of the parents death, when they were led back to their cells Tien and Lao killed their beastmaster and all the guards and fled out of the city. When they were over the walls, they felt joy and were happy, but the burning bracers reminded them their adventure was not yet over. It was a life of shadows they lived over the following days, sleeping in a hole under the ground by day and travelling at night. Their ultimate goal was the High Elven city of Arnheim, which Lao remembered from the maps he studied back in the schools of his village.After weeks of travelling they finally saw the city rise out of the pine forest and their hearts rejoiced, tough it was only for a moment, because their bracers torured their exhausted bodies. When they entered Arnheim, they were led to Eltharion and they told their story. The high elf warden asked for a mage to break the chain, but he only managed to vanish the burning magic, he could not break the chain. After three weeks of recovering in Arnheim Tien and Lao asked to return to their home country and the warden granted them a ship to go to Ulthuan and from there they were they would take a merchant ship to take them back home to the safe city of Fuzhou.