"Sheep may talk peace with a wolf, but the wolf always answers the same. No."
Banehallow was noble-born to the house of Ambry, the greatest of the
landed castles in the old kingdom of Slom. Before the Fall, as the
King’s wants grew strange, and his court grew crowded with sorcerers and
charlatans, the house of Ambry was the first to rise against the
avarice of the throne. No longer willing to pay homage and fealty, they
instead sent six-thousand swords into the capital, where they were wiped
out in the Massacre of the Apostates. And then came the teeth behind
the old truth: When you strike a king’s neck, you had better take his
head. Enraged by the betrayal, the king exterminated the vast Ambry
bloodline, sparing only the lord of the house and his youngest son,
Banehallow. Before all the royal court, with the disgraced lord chained
to the ornate marble floor, the King bade his magicians transform the
boy into a wolf so that he might tear out his own father’s throat. “Do
this,” the king said, “so that Lord Ambry will understand the bite of
betrayal.” Powerful magic was invoked, and the child was transformed.
But though his body was changed, his spirit remained intact, and instead
of biting the exposed neck of his father, he attacked his handlers,
tearing them to pieces. A dozen of the King’s knights perished under the
wolf’s teeth before they managed to drive it off into the night. Lord
Ambry laughed from his chains even as the King ran him through with a
sword. Now the heir to the lost house of Ambry, Banehallow wanders the
trail as the Lycan, part warrior, part wolf, in search of justice for
all that he lost.
