The King and The P.I

Kaglesh was split in two in looks and society. From above it looked like two different planets. Mount Narroux, a hulking, looming volcano, stood smack in the middle of Kaglesh. Kaglesh doesn’t rotate it became tidally locked during The Great Orc War. The right side, Vlauplera, was full of life. Lush, thick, green forests dotted every couple of hundred kilometers, rolling plains spanned kilometers of land allowing creatures to settle, clear, blue lakes ran through breaking the land, creating watering holes, a deep blue ocean surrounded the west and south of Vlauplera, snowcapped mountains to the north, black sand beaches to the south. Creatures of all kinds and colors roamed free making their home anywhere they please creating a kaleidoscope of colors. The left, Xiaplish, was dark and gloomy. Swamps, green and mossy dotted the land connected by green lakes, forests were bare, the snowcaps to the north providing the only bright color as the black sand beaches and the dark ocean to the south and east created a void. While a multitude of different creatures lived in the shadows of Kaglesh they lost all of their pigment making all creatures on Xiaplish a dull grey making them appear older than they are.

The creatures from Xiaplish held a deep hatred for those from Vlauplera. The creatures from Vlauplera had no opinion of those from Xiaplish. This was not always the case. This only happened after the creatures began to civilize and create laws to keep the peace. When the King was coronated, seeds of hatred were planted in Xiaplish and seeds of superiority were planted in Vlauplera. They were divided from the beginning and there was no coming back from it.

That was before the eruption. Mount Narroux had only erupted one other time. It was back before anyone had settled or made communities. Creatures roamed free, the land was lawless, there were no clear boundaries, everything, simultaneously, was chaotic and orderly. It was a fairly large eruption. Not enough to impact the environment, but it impacted the creatures. It was after this eruption they worked together to create sturdy homes and communities to protect one another should Mount Narroux erupt again.

The creatures of Kaglesh lived centuries in safety. Created generation after generation. Cultivated land. Started trading to those who had so little. They felt safe. They felt safe and they stopped worrying about Mount Narroux. The elders stopped teaching the newer generations the horror that loomed over them.

Mount Narroux, however, stood there, as menacing as the day it was created watching and waiting. It built up it’s pressure in all of it’s magma chambers. The pressure eventually grew too much for it’s own chambers and it began to spread to the other volcanoes in the region. The snowcapped mountains to the north, the innocent mountains that littered the planet, even the few volcanoes that laid in the ocean, they all filled with an unnerving amount of pressure and magma. Because that is what the Kagleshi didn’t know. Mount Narroux was just the beginning the real horrors lied underneath them. The interconnected tunnels of pure magma that ran the course of the planet just waiting to be let out.

Centuries of feeling safe. Centuries of creating a civilization. Centuries of only warring with other creatures. Centuries of being at peace with nature. Gone in minutes. Millions gone in an instant. Millions more quarantined. A volcanic winter blanketed all of Kaglesh for almost two decades.

For two decades Kaglesh finally looked like one planet. For two decades there was no war. For two decades things were peaceful. Then the King emerged and things seemed to return to normal. Until one tiny, furry, hungry creature wanted a sandwich. The King’s sandwich.