The Hero of Eladren, that’s what they used to call me. Heh, amusing. What would they think if they knew that’s who I was. Pathetic. The relics of the past to which they hold; waiting for another champion, the reincarnation of that ancient hero, to stop this new tyrant. A man so evil and powerful that the gods themselves wouldn’t challenge him, so they say. But he’s already returned; or rather never left.

No. No, I’ve been here these past 400 years. For a while I let the world believe I was gone. Moved on, retired, dead. There was work to be done. Things to learn, to understand. And after 180 years spent pouring over the tomes I recovered from my last quest, I do. I had unearthed the hidden crypts of the lost Valleys of Descension where an ancient race once lived and died and dedicated their lives to their wild, primal god long since lost and forgotten. and within I found a small and pitiful conclave of monks who had spent the better part of a thousands years trying to piece together what I did in 200.

They weren’t even close. Believing the lore to be a path set out by the gods to preserve balance, they spent their days meditating and chanting some mindless babble rather than consuming the knowledge right in front of them. Volume upon volume of mythos and enlightenment, most of which had never been touched, let alone read by a mortal. A few of them laden with foolish legend and superstition, but most filled with illumination on the science of magic and the truth of mystery.

Now I, and after killing the rest of that silly cult and burying the Valley out of time, existence, space and history I alone, have it. I know all there is to know and with it, I have become the most powerful leader Eladren has ever seen. Obedience and devotion of millions whom listen, enthralled at my every word. Every whim seen fulfilled. I’ve walked through planes undiscovered, times long gone and not yet passed, places unknown to even the highest order of being, all of life and even death. Yes, I may be a tyrant, but a much needed one. The potential of which we are capable has not even been touched. Not in the least. I will lead us there.

Many are unworthy; perhaps most, but I will instate a new order. Through reverence or fear, I don’t care. All will bow to me as they never did when I was their hero. There are hundreds of stories of that time, but I have saved their simple, worthless lives more times than they’ll ever know. Now they owe them back to me and I will have them. All of them.

As soon as I am free. It seems they were wrong about one more thing. The gods did challenge me. Their collective, cowardly force could not end me, though. Not after the things I’ve done, the strength I wield and the understanding I possess at which they, themselves, can only guess. I don’t know how long I’ve been here, but it has seemed an eternity. I am certain my armies have long since abandoned me. My physical body was destroyed and my essence banished to a plane not my own. The mere protrusion of my consciousness was trapped here in this disgustingly mundane form and held to this structure by some miserly anchor that won’t hold me. But the faint connection I maintain with my own energy now will be even further limited when I leave.

The remainder of my powers were fractured and scattered by those cravenly deities so foolishly worshiped by the simpletons that stagger about this world; blind with their own ignorance.

I will have them again. And when I do, I shall have my retribution on the ‘gods’ that dared attempt to unmake me; for even here, restricted, I grow more powerful. Never again will I be broken so easily. No. I have seen where I was once weak and am no longer. Soon, those who oppose me will be no longer.

Wait. I hear.. I hear.. escape.