The Syndicate has retired from the world of Shadowbane

After a very successful and dominating time involved in this game, we have moved on to new worlds and new games. We leave up our Shadowbane pages as a reminder to our time spent in that world.

The Syndicate: Dragons' Journals

Year 96 - Dragons Personal Journal Entry
Since our arrival in Aerynth, things havent felt quite right to me. It seems as though we didnt just arrive here by accident but rather by some greater purpose or fate. As I roam the countryside I see shades of ancient relatives and stories from family history in the faces of the people. Did my relatives come from here? Is that the connection? And how did both portals end up at the same spot. Each portal was its own spell cast within its own world so if the fabric of magic was warped, how did each one warp in exactly the same way? I feel there is something more to our arrival than just random chance and I have instructed our seers to seek out any and all information to help unravel that mystery.



Year 96 - Dragons Personal Journal Entry #2
Weeks have passed and our search is not turning up results. I grow frustrated at this lack of progress because the more time I spend here, the more convinced I get our arrival wasnt just by chance. At the suggestion of our seers, an ancient ritual was performed and the spirits from the past were summoned to be questioned. Spirits wailed and flew around the room and magical lights flashed but I was making no sense of what we saw and it seemed neither were the seers. As i was losing patience with this foolishness one spirit manefested before us for only a second and then the room was silent. XanderXavier, most ancient of our seers muttered but one word as he strode from the room... "Beregund". The significance of that word I have yet to learn.



Year 96 Dragons Personal Journal Entry #3
Emerging from the catacombs below Arx Draconis that housed both Ancient Syndicate texts as well as all manner of Aerynthian knowledge that we could collect, XanderXavier sought me out with news of his discovery. There was an ancient warrior named Beregund who existed more than a thousand years before Caeric during what was called The Age of Days. Beregund quested for and found the sword known as Shadowbane. He found it and returned it to his love only to be betrayed and poisoned and the blade lost to the world. Beregund had a brother that little is known about. What is known is that his brother took up the quest to find Shadowbane and to avenge Beregund's death. His brother was a mage of some reknown and used his powers to travel from world to world searching for clues. It seems nearly a thousand years ago he appeared on Sosaria where he sired a son. Xander feels strongly that there is a bloodline connection between myself and Beregund through his brothers travels to Sosaria.

Even so.. that still doesnt explain how both gates ended up here. But it does give us a place to start searching. Since The Syndicate doesnt involve itself in many of the mainland squabbles we have built many friendships among the various clans and nations and empires. I have dispatched riders to various nations with a request to search their archives for information that might help solve this mystery.



Year 97 - Dragons Personal Journal Entry #4
Word has begun to come back in from the archives of our friends and allies. It is only bits and pieces but we are able to piece some together and learn a bit more information. It appears that Beregund's brother was also a bit of a seer and could see the future. He foresaw a day when his clan's descendants would form a very large and very powerful army. He felt that if his quest to discover the location of Shadowbane failed, that the future army he saw might be able to succeed.

We also found reference to a magical scroll entitled "Summon the Army of Beregund" that was placed in a library somewhere and then forgotten. Does that scroll refer to us?



Year 97 - Dragons Personal Journal Entry #5
Search teams were sent to scour ancient ruins dating back to the time when Kierhaven fell. It was when Kierhaven fell and the king was betrayed, Shadowbane vanished again and the worlds split that our portals manefested here, possibly traveling through not only space, but also time, to arrive at that exact moment. Now that we have something to search for, the ruins seem the logical next step.



Year 97 - Dragons Personal Journal Entry #6
Among the ancient ruins a decaying library was found. We dont know who lived there but clearly it was once a mighty city with a grand library that must have housed many works. A journal of the head librarian and scholar was found. It seemed to be his personal accounting of his 'modern' history as he observed it. The last entry is most disturbing and may be the clue we seek. It reads:

"Cambruin was betrayed by the curse of Shadowbane. The traitor attacked him without warning taking Shadowbane and driving it into the king's heart pinning him to the First Tree.. the World Tree. In that moment, the tree turned to stone, the skies darken and the World rumbled. I fear the end is upon us and it is in that hour of the end that I must fulfill my destiny as passed down to me for generations. I am breaking the seal on the scroll. I will summon the army. Maybe they can save us"



Year 97 - Dragons Personal Journal Entry #7
So it appears I am of Beregund's clan, one of the few to ever hold Shadowbane and like all the rest, he was betrayed by the cursed sword. My army was brought here by his magical scroll perhaps not only over space but also over time. Knowing that only a united coalition of all races could ever hope to avoid the curse of Shadowbane the scroll transformed part of my host into different bodies giving us that coalition to build from knowing we were already one nation, unified under one leader.

Now the question falls to me... what role with The Syndicate play in the hunt for Shadowbane? Will we play any role at all? If we do play a role and if we do win Shadowbane, how can I avoid the same fate as all who have wielded it in the past? Weighty questions and time will tell what the answers will be. For now we continue forward as we always have. Large, powerful and unified. Steering clear of the squabbles of other nations that dont concern us. But when threatened or attacked, we will strike out hard and fast and destroy those that oppose us.