In the twenty-eighth year of the reign of Garard II, king of Wesnoth, the Kingdom was plunged into a bitter war with the Orcs of the North.

The Northern host encamped at Galcadar, by the ford of Abez, and the King led his forces to meet them. Splitting his army into two, he led one half while his son, the Crown Prince Eldred, led the other.

Eldred was a brave and courageous warrior, able to lead his soldiers well. Unfortunately, for Garard, his son was also ambitious...and treacherous. In the heat of battle, Eldred's men turned against their King.

And so, Garard was slain in battle that day, along with his brother and all his sons but Eldred.

Garard's Queen, Asheviere, looked on with glee, having come to watch the battle from a nearby hill. The rule of her son would surely satisfy her lust for power far better than her husband had.

In exchange for tribute, the warlord of the North happily made peace with Eldred, who declared himself King and led his army south towards Weldyn.

But, Garard's arch mage, the Great Delfador, had escaped the battle and, riding with haste, reached Weldyn first, where he mustered a force of loyalists to fight Eldred and avenge the King's death.

The loyalist army marched north to meet Eldred.

Eldred made war upon Delfador and his forces, with his mother's advice ringing in his ears: "Fight no one great or small except the old mage, whose head should be severed from his shoulders!"

And Eldred did indeed meet Delfador face-to-face in battle. In the hinterlands near Tath, Sword clashed against Staff, as the Wise Old Mage fought the brash young warrior.

In the end, Delfador's men were defeated and routed, but Asheviere found her son's lifeless body, fixed to the ground by the great mage's staff.

Asheviere herself took command of the army and led it back to Weldyn. Knowing that the King's young nephews were next in line to the throne, she ordered them all killed, and declared hereself Queen of Wesnoth.

Soon after news of Asheviere's orders reached Delfador, he secretly entered the palace and stole away Konrad, the youngest of Garard's nephews, thereby saving him from death.

Fleeing to the Aethenwood beyond the south-western border of Wesnoth, Delfador raised the child Konrad under the protection of the Elves, watching sadly as Asheviere's reign of terror over the lands began...

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