Dungeon Siege II: The Azunite Prophecies

As we continue to move closer to the arrival of “Dungeon Siege II” in Spring 2005, we are sending along the beginning of the Azunite Prophecies, a series of prophecies recently discovered in the world of Aranna.

These will provide you the first insights into the mysteries present in the world of Aranna. Armed with these insights, when “Dungeon Siege II” ships, you will engage in a series of exciting – and sometimes disturbing – revelations.

Historical note: The following document, pieced together from the recently discovered Scrolls of the Agallan Foothills, has been definitively dated to very early in the First Age. Its author, known to scholars only as the Azunite Ancestor, predates the life of Azunai the Defender himself; he appears to speak of events that took place well after his lifetime, most notably the cataclysmic battle at what we now call the Plain of Tears. The “Unmaker” is clearly Zaramoth, who took that very title in his lifetime, though he may well have been ignorant of this prophecy. Considering the tribal partisanship that such a prophecy should contain, its tone is surprisingly neutral. Though we are reasonably certain the author was a human, and possibly an actual member of the same tribe from which Azunai arose, the name “Azunite Ancestor” is one of those academically imposed anachronisms that we live with to help our own understanding. The accuracy of this foretelling is what remains as the most remarkable aspect of this rare document.

-- Bidelia of Aman’Lu

Shards of sword, shards of souls, both shall scatter on the scars of Aranna. The hands of the Unmaker shall descend on the Defender.

The hands that grip the sword are the hands that constrict the magic; none shall weave the spells but those hands and their stewards. The Unmaker shall strike down his own kin, and shall appoint a new breed of mages, and these dark mages in his service shall form many fingers to tighten the grip on all powers.

But the hands shall not hold all. A common man shall sit by the mystical pond, and taste a trickle of the power that has leaked through the fingers of the mages.

Power will be controlled.

Power will be dispersed.

Two Truths, rising up in arms against each other, are destined to collide.

As the ley lines flow beneath the land, so the passion flows in the veins of the Defender. He shall rise, aided by Giants. They shall build for him a shield to match the sword. He will find his own magic, fit for his ambitions, and his ambitions shall favor the people. And the people will rise, and gather behind the shield, and pry loose the fingers of control.

The Unmaker will not tolerate the Defender; the Defender will not submit to the Unmaker.

And of the Two Truths, one event is certain: they shall meet, and that shall be the Last Day.

And in this end shall be a beginning.