That the night held the Moonlace impressed much on the Master of Ksathra, and he knew this to mean something great, that the stars themselves were revealing secrets to him, or bestowing favor upon his offspring. So he did teach her all he knew, from his neutral majyks to his darkest. And in time she took up the Black Craft of her own volition, excelling in them, revelling in the ease with which they came to her. The Blinder, their Master, had found her to be worthy and blessed her with many gifts. The Shadowlord became jealous under their Master's adoration of her, which was used as a barb into him many times, but never did it get to the point of true battle bewteen sire and daughter, for conflicts arose outside the walls of the Stronghold to which the Shadowlord was forced to answer. He had become too strong and too threatening to those who dwelt inside Ksjethe Keep, far south. The Druyyeds planned their interference and the Master of Ksathra went to bat it aside. Alas, such was not to be the case. A powerful Druyyed named Veshkyn had forged weapons of steel and majyk, and imparted them unto two men... Lorne from the Islands and Daxx, a Laurean. The clash between forces was staggering and cataclysmic. Veshkyn, his champions and the Shadowlord were destroyed. But the weapons remained and Imperia feared them, for if they had felled her sire, perhaps they would one day fell her, too. So, with her great powers and blessings and gifts, she found a name in the most ancient of ancient scrolls, another land and realm entirely, and she did cast them away from her, from Lyrys, and onto this far away land with its strange peoples.

For many centuries the weapons were forgotten. In time, Imperia's mother died, as Sariians must, ever wary of her dark daughter. Indeed, after Imperia's thirteenth year, her dam withdrew entirely. It is said she could not bear what she had sprang from her womb. Imperia ignored her and the old woman finally expired alone. She was found in her room, cold and stiff, several days later. Imperia had her body thrown to the snow d'wargs and went back to her studies after giving the order. She grew in stature and power, in dark dread might and wicked intent. Her heart became black and her soul she offered for even more power. A husk without life, she cares not at all for it. Many times she did clash with those who kept council in Ksjethe Keep... many lives she took of their brothers. Many of her servants' did they take, but never did they conquer Imperia. Not until her fifth Moonlace, when she reached 500 tarms in age.

At her birth she had found favor in darkness, in the Moonlace, that rare celestial event when all twentythree of Lyrys' moons gather in formation, align, and appear much like a necklace. Even the two day moons, one red and one blue, show themselves with the night moons, and are called its clasp. Even the stars fade before this event, and it adored her then... and adores her each time a little more, until she felt that this last moonlace would be her key to her world throne. Two tarms before she did attempt this ultimate surge, she created a being called Svarog, a hideous mutation of a J`kwendii, huge and impervious to anything born of Lyrys, even a Druyyed's majyks. And it hunted Druyyeds tirelessly, destroyed and devoured them, until only four were left. These were, at the time, High Druyyed Noven, his son Kran, Ahrymon the Old, and his student Trevelyan. Nothing could stop Svarog, that most black and powerful of Imperia's creations... villages fell before him, castles were decimated. In the interim when he could not consume Druyyeds, he wreaked havoc over the land. Ahrymon, the eldest of them all, had discovered, in the most ancient of scrolls, the mentioning of the realm to which Imperia had translocated the weapons Veshkyn forged so many tarms before. Hoping that the great implements of the Shadowlord's fall would save them again, Ahrymon ventured there, being the strongest of the Druyyeds, in an attempt to find the sword and the axe, and bring them back. It took him only a day to our world, unknown how long his quest lasted in the other realm, but return he did much to our Mistress' dismay, for she had sensed his power blink out, and attributed that to Svarog's victory. When Ahrymon returned, for he was her oldest adversary, she was most displeased. It matterd not, for she had great confidence in her Svarog, even though the weapons and new champions had travelled with the Druyyed. Imperia had made her creature very well, nothing born of Lyrys could harm it, and the weapons had been forged here. She truly had nothing to fear, had not another appeared shortly thereafter...

Svarog was impervious to majyks of any kind, especially ones of Lyrys. This new threat, however, was not of Lyrys, not at all, and neither were her majyks. The two Champions who would wield the weapons were not of Lyrys either. They were named Rylan Jaxx and Keernan Locke. And they yet draw breath. In the end, it was not the Druyyedic weapons that felled Svarog, nor the Champions, but the one who came after them, followed them, the first female Druyyed of Lyrys... Kalantha. She became the greatest thorn in Imperia's since Ahrymon, and perhaps moreso, for humans do not think like Sariians, they are separate creations, of separate realms, and Kalantha is unlike any who has crossed our Queen's path. Sister of Light, her majesty calls her, and whether such is actually a compliment, no one can be sure. In Imperia's eyes, one would hazard to guess it is a compliment. As much as it should be an insult for one on the opposite side. It was not Kalantha's majyks, however, that brought down Svarog, but a tiny stone set in her gold circlet, thrown by Rylan, into the heart of the beast, that destroyed him. In the end, the High Druyyed Noven and his son Kran were killed. Ahrymon handed the mantle of High Druyyed to Trevelyan, and left the Keep. Trevelyan took two students, brothers named Sheehan and Shavez, their talents average. Kalantha invited herself into the Keep, where only Druyyeds could enter, but for her the door opened. And she took as apprentice a youth named Kaleb Bevan, who's gifts in majyks were more than average. So out of a score of Druyyeds, only three full ones remained, and had to build their stores from there. It was discovered tarms later that the stone was called an 'opal', and such stones do not exist on Lyrys. Imperia raged for weeks, destroying much of Ksathra in her fury. She calmed eventually and started into her next plan, which was to harness the power of the adoring Moonlace that would occur less than two tarms from Svarog's destruction. She had, actually, already begun her plottings tarms earlier, placing servants in high positions of power, even among the fair Laureans. Again, her plan would have worked, it almost did, save for that most meddling Druyyed, Kalantha.

Everything had been set... even the vaunted Sylvaurii had been infiltrated, handed over, the great cities were in turmoil, Tsadhe, too, had been placed into her hands. In the end, all was set, bound, delivered. Ksathra was breached as a huge battle raged outside, razing the ice realm of Randgryd as the Tyr of Tsadhe employed his birthright and all struggled against the vast armies of Imperia, including her dead warriors who she brought back to aid her, and the Queen had even managed to cast Kalantha from her sight, reducing her, much stronger than the Druyyedess with the power of the Moonlace at her side. And in her power and in her glory, did Imperia summon to herself night's graces and altered her form into something that words cannot describe... huge and monstrous and black. Ksathra crumbled about her as the new form arose. Many were crushed under her, many burned away in the green fire she spewed from her own gullet... and she was winning. But Dark's Sister would not be denied... transforming herself into a pinprick of light and slipping into Imperia's immense maw between fire blasts, the Druyyedess unleashed the most deadly weave in their arsenal, the Tapestry. A weaving together of all majyks and supplications into one mighty weave, only the strongest of Druyyeds can employ it and survive. Generally, it is a suicide attempt, a last desperate measure, and perhaps it was with the Druyyedess as well, perhaps she never expected to survive. But there, in the belly of the Queen, the Tapestry unravelling, her supplications to the Bright Father being spun... the Blinder was chased away, his power withdrawn, the Moonlace abandoned her, and the Druyyed exploded. That the Queen survived is amazing. That Kalantha survived, even more so. She had the aid of her comrades, however, and the Queen did not, for none could get close enough to her to assist; she had been surrounded by Druyyeds, including Ahrymon. Lord K'rullyn, most faithful of her Majesty's servants, had been severely injured by his cousin, the Tyr of Tsadhe, and horribly burned by the birthright. Commander Vaushtii, the Queen's daughter, had taken the fallen Lord and hid away where they could not be seen, healing his injuries and plotting her time to smite back at the Druyyeds, for her own pride had suffered.

Kalantha was restored by Ahrymon even as he wrapped the Queen in a specialized weave and handed her over to his trusted friend, Tolkan, a wandering Laurean, a rogue, who had denounced all clan ties. Tolkan, a shapeshifter, took the Queen's body and set it in the Kaman Lake, which is death to anyone of mortal blood. And there she did lay, for tarms on end, in a deep sleep, alive for a Druyyed's weaves, and watched over by the guardian Tolkan who took the form of a wulfe, and kept a close vigilance, that none may rescue her. But it came to pass that Vaushtii, half Sariian half Laurean, and half-sister to Syh-rath, took it upon herself to study a few key parts of the Craft, read her mother's tomes, and search for a thing specific. It took long, but she managed what she desired... she concocted a power, and in utter stealth as the warrior she is, she stole up on Tolkan, placed the powder in the stream nearby where she knew he drank. She did this at the right time, and he, downstream, drank of it. The powder took affect and using her Laurean healing gifts, Vaushtii took Tolkan as he slept and made occur that which would have not naturally occured; she made Tolkan to be the sire of her children. When the shapeshifter awoke, it was three days later, and he did not remember what had happened.

In due time, Vaushtii gave birth to twin sons, one healthy and strong, one weak and sickly. The sickly son she sought to dispose of, for rare is it when a Laur-Sariian male child survives past his first two years, and while the infant was more Laurean than sariian, she had no desire to deal with it, had the strong to look after, for neither was he free of the death that seemed to suddenly claim those male children of mixed bloods. She sent a J'kwendii female away with the sickly infant, with instructions to leave it somewhere and let it die. But the J'kwendii woman could not do so once she saw the child, and instead fled with it, intent on giving the boy to one who wanted him. Vaushtii sent a party out after the servant, to bring her back alive and she was cornered, and she was beheaded, mercifully. The child was left where he fell to die from exposure to the elements. It was almost twenty tarms later that it was revealed the child had not died, but been found, adopted and raised by Kalantha, of all people. Eventually, mother and son met up with the cast-away twin, Kalantha's son now, their bloodsong sang loudly and they knew one another. Vaushtii again tried to kill him, but the weaker, named Jaren Roze, had inherited his dam's strong healing graces and his sire's shapeshifting. The stronger twin, Kaen Wynt'rhauk, had been graced as a great weatherlord, with the strength of his warrior mother and her skill. Half raised by Lord Kr'ullyn (who had died of olf age a few tarms before) and by Vaushtii, he was indeed a fearsome fighter. Jaren, raised by Druuyeds (the entire Keep, in fact), and the Champions along with the Vaush-Sariian brothers, was not so much a warrior as he was clever, quick, and his sickly self had been chased away under Kalantha's stubborn schoolings and her inability to accept that her son might be weak his entire life. Though much slighter in form than Kaen, Jaren was more than able to make up the difference, and they battled, Kaen shocked that he had a living brother, Vaushtii having told him the twin was dead.

The battle near the Kaman lake, though not so very close it was a danger, Tolkan flew over to view the scene. And when his eyes met the eyes of the twins, he knew he was their sire. And they knew he was theirs. And Vaushtii despaired. She had not planned on ever reawakening her mother, Imperia, but she had planned to accomplish what Imperia had failed to do; and with Kaen at her side, she had swept down into the Laurean forests and taken their lands with force and the spilling and blood. The Druyyeds had finally been requested to help deal with the problem, as Vaushtii and her armies were quickly acruing all on which they set eyes. But then, when brothers met and sire showed himself, all went awry. The fight altered, then stopped, until only Vaushtii remained unaffected. And she fled with the remnants of her army, back into Randgryd, for her plan could not go through without her son, and her son, Kaen, had left her when he lost the desire to fight his unknown twin and father. Only then did Vaushtii seek to free her mother. Tolkan gone for a short time to spend with his sons, the Kaman lake was unguarded, foolishly so, and Vaushtii herself dared the waters. Being of mortal blood, part Sariian, she kept herself alive only by using her healing gifts, though she very nearly did not make it, and Imperia was pulled from the waters. Taken back to Ksathra, wyzards managed to unravel the weave which kept her still as death. And she awoke. And she pledged the destruction of the Druyyeds and especially Kalantha. She ignored, fortunately for Vaushtii, the fact it took so long to free her... well over 25 tarms. This time, she has sworn oath, there will be no failing. She searches elsewhere for power now, and she will find it. The Blinder be damned. He still owns her soul and she still receives power from it, make no mistake she is every bit as powerful as she was before the sleep, though it has taken her tarms, nearly ten, to recover fully from the lake, but she has decided he cannot be all on which she relies. So our great Mistress has left us for another realm, seeking glory and might. She will return, we have no doubt, though we do not know when. All we can do, being her servants, is be prepared for when she returns home. And for anything which happens after that...