Douglee began....

"Once upon a time there was an enchanted land, wild and
untamed; dangers lurked in its deep dark forests, but also it
was alive with vibrant, bristling magic...and vibrant,
bristling creatures. Wot's more..."

And I continued....

Much of the land was uncharted and unexplored. No man knew the
breadth of its treasures or the depths of its holiness. So a
breed of explorers was born unto the women of this land, and
their fathers bade them, "Go forth, Son, and discover the land,
tame the Monsters, and report back unto me what you have
found."

The young lads approached this task with excitement and fear,
for it was known that although riches great and magic powerful
were to be found, the land was also host to Monsters unlike any
seen before. The Monsters could take the shape of anything at
all, but most often they would take the form of beautiful
women, and it was said that they could seduce men, suck the
love out of their hearts, and steal their very souls.

The first explorer was a young lad, broad in chest and hearty
in laugh. They called him Canusatomus, and he was reknowned
throughout the land for having explored more of its reaches
than any other man before him. He travelled wide and far,
sounding his great klaxon and bidding other men, "Follow me,
follow me!" But the other explorers, though they respected
Canusatomus, knew in their hearts that he only wandered through
the bright and happy parts of the land, never treading into the
Dark Realm of the Soul Snatchers. And the men believed, quite
mistakenly, that the best rewards were to be found in the Dark
Realm.

The next explorer was a fearless lad named Alsisco. Alsisco
quickly assembled a mighty horde of foolhardy men, and set
about, not to explore the entire land, but to explore the same
part of the land over and over and over. Soon, they knew
everything there was to know about their area of the land, but
the Monsters conspired against them, and kept changing the
terrain. Alsisco grew weary, and soon began lapsing into
foreign tongues. Many of his men tried to befriend the Monsters
in their land, and Alsiotious watched as the souls were ripped
from one of his horde after another. Explorers from across the
land gazed in horror as the men they had studied so closely as
paragons of discovery became soulless zombies, contributing
nothing new to the search.

Further in the south, the great and mighty explorer Zedosteo
roared forth from the Realm of Smoke and vowed to slay every
Monster he could find. He became a master of disguise, living
among the Monsters and observing them, learning their every
habit. Some men even said he had once slain a Monster with 48
heads. The illustrious Zedosteo was so mighty, it was said no
Monster could ever take his soul. Yet as he explored more and
more of the land, Zedosteo grew weary. He tired of the
discovery. He sent a broadside across the land, telling the men
that all the Monsters were the same. One night, when he was
sleeping, a door opened in Zedosteo's Soul Space, and his soul
escaped. The people of the land wailed and gnashed their teeth,
and Zedosteo set off in weary pursuit of his own essence.

And yet, some of the men did succeed. The bravest explorer was
the oldest of the young lad, a gentle giant named
Reedorhythmus. It was said that no one in the land had delved
deeper into the Dark Realms than Reedorhythmus, save his arch
nemesis, Samsonli, the Dark Prince of the North. Reedorhythmus
was so brave, he wore his soul tucked into a band in his hat,
and dared Monsters to take it. The men told one unbelievable
story that Reedorhythmus had once taken his soul and handed it
to a Monster willingly, and the Monster had chewed his soul,
and gnashed upon it, and shat it out in a mangled piece of
feces, but the soul had reformed itself, and grown stronger and
more brave than before. Reedorhythmus took great pleasure in
downplaying his deeds among the men, and most of all took
pleasure in acting the part of the jester, so that the men
often mistook him for one of the humorous Elves of the Realm of
Aquabriny. Many times, the barbs of Reedorhythmus were so
well-fashioned, his victims failed to recognize their own
wounds.

Then there was Dreddhealer, the bravest explorer of all. He
explored alone and fought his battles alone. The men of the
outer realms cried for the great Dreddhealer to visit them to
spread morale among the men and teach them his secrets, for it
was said that Dreddhealer had tamed a Monster, and led it about
on a leash for all to see, and that said Monster bowed to him
and called him "Master." Some men found this story so
incredible, they doubted the existence of Dreddhealer, but
others claimed to have seen him with their very eyes, and that
he was a mighty explorer and capable warrier.

But the explorer the men feared most was Samsonli, the Dark
Prince of the North. It was said that Samsonli had been born
without a soul. He had not even a hole where the soul should
go, but a beaming sphere of Darkness that radiated both inward
and outward. Samsonli never fought a Monster, but would open
his Soul Space to them, and let them drive themselves insane
with desire. The Monsters would offer their own souls to
Samsonli, and he would play with the withered, sere
monster-souls for a while, then toss them into the pits of
Depravity that were strewn across the land.

Many of the explorers wanted to be like Samsonli, and disposed
of their own souls in vain attempts to emulate him, but the
emptiness of their Soul Spaces thereupon drove them to madness,
and they became Zombies, wandering across the land. Some of the
men despised Samsonli, because it was said that he had learned
from the Monsters how to steal men's souls himself, and he
would give them to the Monsters as trinkets to win their trust
and admiration. Many times had Samsonli endeavored to capture
the soul of his arch-nemesis, Reedorhythmus, and he was
infuriated that the soul was so strong, so healthy, and so
bright. Where Samsonli had a sphere of Darkness where his soul
should be, Reedorhythmus had a beam of ever-growing light that
served as a beacon to the better parts of the land, which he
explored and mapped for his secret pleasure, telling none of
the men what he had found.

These were the first explorers of the Great Land of
Enchantment. There were many more, but they have their own
stories to tell...

Saxbeat