The name crept in among them. Nobody knew how…but one thing was certain: the night before the sudden assassination of the King's Heir, a daughter Silvryn Seilhera and the most promising Princess to grace Kytana's streets in a century, there had been no Phantom Grey. No whispers in the night, no mutters in the day.
Stories of him varied. To the nobles he was a dastardly villain, murderer of their precious Princess - a yarn said to have been circulated by the High Vizier, who now would ascend to the throne after the king's imminent demise. To the traders he was a thief and a trickster, a dancing shadow of moon and stars. To the children he was a bedtime story, a tale to be told in hushed tones by the fire. But to the peasants, perhaps most accurately, he was Phantom Grey - secretive and sinister but at times unexpectedly noble, a rescuer.
Events took their course, as events will, and presently the King did indeed die, and his Vizier ascended to Regentship until an heir was a come of age. There were several, nephews and nieces of the Royal family, and for a time all was thought to be well and good, or as well and good as could be under the circumstances.
But first one little niece died. Then the oldest nephew. And in the course of a grief-filled six months the rest were laid to rest by some disease that came like a thief in the night - like a phantom, though he was not its cause - and the Regent looked very much like ascending completely to Kingship and control over Kytana.
But the Phantom's strikes increased forthwith until the Regent could not so much as send a caravan to the nearby sea for salt and fish than they came tearing back, money stolen and prize possessions likewise spirited away. Strangely, the peasants endured no such hardship, indeed they almost appeared to be benefiting. And young men who would prove valuable to the Regent's army disappeared overnight, their families hard-faced and uncommunicative as to their whereabouts. Young women, too, left their kin suddenly while disapproving elders muttered about their duty to marry and bear children. And occasionally whole families disappeared altogether, almost always ones who were desperately in debt or convicted of some crime.
And the Phantom's power grew, even though none had ever seen him.
But so much more than the nobles or the Regent ever suspected was at the Phantom's disposal. In a great network of caves deep underneath the Earth's Teeth, a formidable mountain range skirting Kytana and separating it from nearby Vidyr, a growing community exists - and a devoted band of the Phantom's followers.
But the Regent is not content to sit docile, allowing what he now thinks of as his kingdom to have its resources sucked dry by some taunting rebel. He begins to arrest many, often on little or no charges. But some of his attacks have struck their target…and will the Phantom be next, to join the growing ranks of his imprisoned followers? To hang dangling from a noose as the sun sets, abandoning Kytana to a merciless usurper?
Find out.
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I will be playing the Phantom, and only him for now. You can be anybody you want, really - a rebel, a villager, a noble, an evil person…
Also, when creating your characters, keep in mind that Kytana is not a land where magic is common and commonly used. The vast majority of people will have no magical powers at all, and those that do will not have big flashy ones - enough to mutter a charm in order to light a torch, or communicate telepathically over short distances. Races are predominantly human, a dying race of Dwarves, and the last few elf-human hybrids. These are mostly nobles, so if your character is a villager they will have no Elven blood. They are also very similar to humans other than enhanced senses and agility, and often strangely colored hair and eyes. This is not set in stone, so other subtle magical abilities and possibly some other races are still open for debate.
Places:
The land is called Kytana, and it's predominantly coastal, sharing about a quarter of its border with neighboring Vidyr. The mountains along this border are Earth's Teeth, and the capital city in the centre of Kytana is Y'rydha. Other than that, no set places or features other than the Phantom's Keep, under the Earth's Teeth.
Please post your characters in the thread in The Barrow-Downs
