Legends

The Legend of Hidul, Father of Giants - by T.A. Saunders ©2012 v1.0

In a time during the Age of Twilight, Miron, the Overlord of the Nine Lords of Chaos and Synri, Lady of Deception sired a son, who they would be name Hidul. This child rose to power quickly as he matured, showing both the strength of his father and the wit of his diabolical mother. Soon Hidul gained renown as Miron's executioner, whose towering form was imposing to even the bravest of the Nine and their servants. Yet, despite the praise of his mother and father for the blood he spilt amongst the other Lords of Chaos and elsewhere, Hidul was not satisfied. He craved more than simply being his father's instrument of slaughter and enforcer of his will. Hidul also had the ambition of his father and wished a people to rule as his own. In this, Hidul traveled to the mortal realm of Imarel and took the form of an Asyndi to disguise his towering stature and scarred visage. Here, he blended with these graceful divine protectors of this world, he sought a woman amongst them that would be wife and mother to his new race.

Yet, each Asyndi woman he met was either not beautiful enough, not strong enough or simply unwilling to entertain his advances. Impatient, Hidul finally came to the ancient capital of the Asyndi, Ilidania. near the top of the world. Hidul had every intention to stay here in the City of the Gods, until a mate was found. While held in wonder of this truly amazing city built by the Old Gods, his frustration quickly grew with not being able to find a suitable woman amongst even the most powerful of Asyndi who lived here.

Finally, after the sun set on the ninety-third day of searching, Hidul paused to rest in the great courtyard, where Asyndi played music, danced and sang around a great fountain that depicted the Old Gods, Zorah and Kaal. Having no love for his uncle or his aunt (for Kaal and Miron were brothers), Hidul used the sacred water from the fountain to cool his brow and to quench his thirst. When he lifted his head from the water, an Asyndi woman looked upon him with a curious tilt of her head and a warm smile upon full, pink lips. Her hair fell down her shoulders in inky dark waves and her eyes were as striking blue as the water he drank. Dumbstruck, Hidul gazed at this woman and knew she must be his.

He spoke to the woman, who revealed her name to be Kasha and discovered she was a Spear Maiden in the Asyndi Armies. Encouraged by this, they began to talk of tactics, battle and glory. While Kasha seemed less interested in glory, she seemed to Hidul to be filled with the wisdom only battle experience could bring. As they walked through the streets of Ilidania and watched Ka fall below the sky and the twin moons, Ishaela and Vocor rise, Hidul challenged Kasha to a sparring match, to see if she was as strong as she claimed. The two found a field of tall grass, bereft of watchful eyes and tested one another with steel and spell. Kasha was surprised at the speed and ferocity of Hidul, having no inkling he was the infernal enforcer of The Enemy, Miron. Hidul, likewise was impressed with the speed, agility and sheer power this woman possessed, confirming all his impressions of her.

There, as the pair stayed their steel and smiled to one another under the twin moons, Hidul took Kasha's hands and spoke of his desire for her, yet telling nothing of the truth of him. Kasha, who was wise as well as beautiful sensed something amiss in Hidul's forward nature and hesitated to return his lust. She spoke of a long courtship that they would know one another, before sharing that most intimate bond. Hidul, being truly his father's son, flew into a blind rage and took his true form and attempted to take Kasha by force. Horrified at the sight of the hulking monster, whose body was riddled with countless scars and whose eyes gazed with a sickly yellow gleam, Kasha steeled herself and took her spear and shield once more to defend herself.

Hidul was blind with frustration and rage and tore through even the skillful defenses of Kasha. Wounds struck by the impossibly fast spear were largely ignored and hands reached in and grabbed the Asyndi maiden, lifted her then threw her to the ground. Winded from this and her spear knocked from her hand, Kasha had no means by which to defend herself against the advances of Hidul, who pinned her struggling form with monstrously large hands and began taking his wont of her, against her will. Kasha fought Hidul with biting teeth, punching fists and a knife she kept close, but the pain from his taking grew acutely and soon, it was all she could do to remain conscious.

After an agonizing struggle that took from Hidul his left eye, the Spear Maiden Kasha lay broken and blooded in the tall grass, raped and filled with the corrupt seed of Hidul. Smiling at his conquest, Hidul called forth black art and drew upon the divine power within the Asyndi Spear Maiden, siphoning the remains of her life and her being into the bloodied ground. Through this unspeakable magic, Hidul mingled Kasha's broken body with the ground to create beings not so different from himself; towering creatures of both power and wit, to follow him and to worship him as divine. As Kasha's beauteous form sank and melted into the soil, from it rose towering figures, both male and female that looked at first like nothing more than great shambling masses of land. With a great clap of his hands, Hidul shook the rock and the grass from his new children and called them the Hidulan, in honor of himself. With the rock and grass shaken free of their immense forms, each of these giants was as luminous as their mother, Kasha but as powerful physically as their father who stood before them.

For many months Hidul dwelled with his giants and taught them both battle and sorcery so they would be able to defend themselves against the Asyndi and their accursed Wyrms when the time finally came for war to be made with his uncle and aunt's children. That day was much sooner than Hidul thought, for Zorah who presides over all Life and Death saw these new children grow from the womb of her soil and felt the biting sting of Hidul's magic when he corrupted that ground with the tainted blood of the innocent Kasha. It had been Kaal's own hand that stayed Zorah from immediately striking down Hidul with the fearsome war-spear, Narseeya; neither he or Zorah knew whether Kasha had willfully surrendered herself to the treacherous son of Miron or if she had been stolen away and taken against her will. As Hidul once disguised himself as one of the Asyndi, so too did Kaal himself disguise himself as one of the Hidulan and walked amongst them in secret.

With his identity hidden beyond the fledgling deity's powers, Kaal knelt before Hidul and asked to hear the story of the birth of the Hidulan. Hidul, whose hubris had grown beyond reason, was only too glad to tell Kaal the tale of his mighty conquest and the breaking of the Asyndi Spear Maiden, Kasha. As the one-eyed Hidul smiled and told his tale, he found he was uncomfortably blinded by the light of Ka and turned his blinded eye to Kaal, to divert from the glare. It was then the Sun-Father struck, calling forth both his true form and blazing great sword, Mirastheyr to his hand. Caught completely unaware, Hidul barely hand time to raise a defense, before Kaal lopped off the fledgling deity's head, then kicked it down the side of the great mountain where Hidul had taken his people. Awestruck and confused, the giants gathered around Kaal and now Zorah, who appeared at her husband's side.

As they were part of pure Kasha, as well as corrupt Hidul the giants were given a choice: either renounce Hidul and his teachings or be cast down the mountain as the head of Hidul had been. Because some of the giants favored their father more than their mother, they immediately set upon Zorah and Kaal, thinking their numbers significant enough to defeat the Old Gods and use their blood to resurrect their great Father. But those giants who favored their mother's wisdom did not join their brethren, nor did they mourn them when Zorah and Kaal cast them down the mountain, to the plains. Bereft of wisdom, these war-like giants would retain the name, Hidulan and became known as Plains Giants to the other races that would eventually flourish upon Imarel. Without wisdom, they grew corrupt and twisted as their father was and were as prone to fight amongst one another, than they were with those they encountered.

With the wisdom of their mother, the giants that stayed upon the mountain where Hidul had led them became known as the Kashalan and later Mountain Giants, to the other mortal races of Imarel. Removed from the troubles and affairs of the other races, the Kashalan practice ancient magic comparable to the Asyndi of old and dwell in harmony with their frozen land, in their great city of ice, called Jhormdir that sits upon the crown of the world. Normally aloof and wishing nothing more than to exist in peace, the only race known to have any sort of contact with the Mountain Giants in the modern age are the Kaal`Kor of Clan Hammerspark, whose gregarious nature and skill with crafts greatly amuses their noble giant friends.

The death of Hidul, like the death of Kasha, did not go unnoticed by Miron and Synri, whose anger and anguish roared across Xos, The Frozen Dark. The hatred for his brother renewed, Miron and Synri called forth the other Lords of Chaos and through their brief unification, set forth events that would eventually lead to the War of Twilight and the Fall of the Asyndi.