Beyond Good & Evil: the Galanor Saga Volume I

Frank M. Viollis

Description

"Beyond Good & Evil: The Galanor Saga - Volume I" is a novel written in three parts or "books" consisting of five chapters each.
Book One: Galanor, a young nobleman of Atlantis, is standing at the funeral pyre of his lifelong friend and mentor He was slain by acolytes of the demon god, Azool, a fearsome entity determined to hold sway over all existence. Galanor, a might and god-like character in his own right, swears to exact revenge. Thus, begins a series of events, adventures, and challenges that take the eponymous hero across not only this but another world as well.
Atlantis is in the grip of powerful and relentless storms that threaten its very existence. Galanor, despite his loss, is summoned to meet with Atlantis' High Lord. During that meeting, he discovers more than he expects and is charged with overseeing one of the twelve flotillas that will carry the doomed Atlantians
to freedom in the barbaric world beyond their shores. He agrees and is given the gift of a sword with vampiric properties.
Finally, as his homeland succumbs to the forces of nature and the will of the gods, he sails away.
Book Two: Galanor and the crew of his ship, the Salafar, find themselves in the seaport capital of a kingdom overrun by cruel and sadistic soldiers of a cruel and vindictive king. After a tragic event, with deadly consequences, he and his crew are forced to battle the naval forces of the king. During the battle, Galanor is confronted by a servant of Azool. He slips into a coma. While incapacitated his crew must fight for their lives against a wizard who wants nothing less than to drain the life force from each and every one of them. Events transpire that find them all, including Galanor, headed to the far reaches of the northern wastes in search of a bejeweled city of ancient heritage. When they arrive, after Galanor is forced to do something that threatens to devour his life and soul, they discover not only the city but an object that beckons Galanor. to give up one reality for another.
Book Three: Galanor, having crossed the barrier between realities, encounters creatures who explain things about his past and his future. They offer him an opportunity to help save them from the fate that has been foisted upon them by a god of their own making. He agrees and passes through their domain into the realm of a mad and cruel god. There he encounters a woman who changes his life and heart forever. He finally finds the mad god and another as well. when he returns to the world he knew, he is not the man he was. His life, his heart, his mind, and his soul have been changed forever.

Sujets

• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 18 octobre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669852179
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

BEYOND GOOD & EVIL: THE GALANOR SAGA VOLUME I
 
A Novel In Three Parts
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Frank M. Viollis
 
Copyright © 2022 by Frank M. Viollis.
Library of Congress Control Number:
2022914241
ISBN:
Hardcover
978-1-6698-5219-3

Softcover
978-1-6698-5218-6

eBook
978-1-6698-5217-9
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
 
 
Rev. date: 10/18/2022
 
 
 
 
Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
847512
CONTENTS
Dedication
Prologue
Book 1 : Arise The Hero
Chapter 1     With Love Remembered
Chapter 2     To Die By the Sword
Chapter 3     Let the Truth Be Known
Chapter 4     Eternity’s Child
Chapter 5     As the Gods Decree
Book 2 : Yesterday Lies In The Shadow Of Tomorrow
Chapter 1     Speak No Evil
Chapter 2     The Jaws Of Death
Chapter 3     Of The Wizard’s World
Chapter 4     Tomorrow’s Gate
Chapter 5     Voices In The Mist
Book 3 : Beyond Good And Evil
Chapter 1     To Cross The Void Bridge
Chapter 2     A Heart Renewed
Chapter 3     Wings In The Night
Chapter 4     While The Demon Waits
Chapter 5     The Face Of Evil
 
Epilogue
DEDICATION
To my mother, for her support, guidance and love. And, to my son, for his steadfast belief and inspiration.
PROLOGUE
The Age Dawns
                            They were like unto gods, these
                            Children of the sea, who, with
                            Haughty strides did walk abroad
                            Before we could crawl … and, to
                            Whom the world was a plaything,
                            A child’s top to spin and toss.
 
                            They cared not for what they did,
                            Nor succored those they humbled.
 
                            They heeded not their gods’ decree,
                            And so the fates repaid them for
                            Their hubris.
 
                            Verily, I say unto thee, speak in hushed
                            Whispers of that land. For, though its
                            Homes have turned to dust, its might
                            Shall ere be felt ‘til the setting of the
                            Age of Man …
SCROLLS OF PONTIPHUS — VOL II
 
W elcome.
My name, though it is not crucial to the telling of these tales, is Aficiados. I am, by virtue of choice and heritage, a master chronicler. As such, I have been called upon to relate these tales of honor and courage. They are tales that have yet to be concluded, though they began when the world was very young.
It was a time when all things seemed possible.
It was a time when sinister powers stirred the pool of humanity’s sloth, so as to shape and command its destiny.
It was a time of legend and myth, when good and evil were not just random and ever-changing points on a societal compass gone mad.
It is at this point that my tellings shall begin.
Mark them well, for I shall relate them to you, as they were given to me, and to my father before him, and to his father before him, and beyond that unto the dawn of my line (which has its roots in the dust-shrouded soils of antiquity).
These are the histories of he who was known as: Galanor.
Let us begin …
Like a sated lover, the island lay upon the breast of the ocean. Lush green forests, laced by ancient meandering rivers, flirted with the rigid snow-capped peaks that ruled the northern wastelands. Graceful white sand beaches, forever wed to the tranquil sea, bore no witness to the miles of trackless desert that marched inland from that southern shore, to a spinal divide of teeth-like mountains. Lost in a realm of timeless dimension, its rocky eastern and western shores were doomed to face forever outward upon horizons perpetually enshrouded in mist and dense fog.
It was a land of vivid contrasts and rare beauty.
Such was its size and complexity, that for centuries entire races flourished upon its shores, without any knowledge of their brethren.
However, in the fullness of time, this changed; and as is often the case in human matters, change was not easily accepted, not easily won and was often baptized in blood.
It was not until the later days of what became known as the Age of Rantok, that any strides were made toward unification.
It was along the broad banks of the great river Padoon, where merchants and artisans first gathered to exchange goods and services. The heavy, timbered warehouses of the tiny river town of Atlantis became the focal point for all commerce throughout the land. Here, men gathered in the semi-passive warfare of trade. Here, they exchanged ideas and beliefs that might otherwise have only been shared on the blades of swords and battle-axes. Here, they laid the foundations for the greatest civilization the world would ever know.
Generation after generation the prosperity of Atlantis grew. The tiny village gave way to a city, the city to a metropolis, and the metropolis to a continent-spanning capital, housing more than a hundred thousand souls.
With the dawning of The Age of Mardock, and with Atlantis’ feet firmly placed upon the path of history, the island-continent that had given it birth took on its name and shared in its growth.
There are those who have said that Atlantis gave its soul and energies in the selfish pursuit of wealth, pleasure and power. They contend that for all its long and glorious history, Atlantis was little more than a harlot, taking from, yet giving nothing back to, the world around it.
That is not true.
Those of us, who live to relate the tales of our species, know this well.
Atlantis stood where no other culture has stood or will ever stand again. From its infancy, it was ever at the forefront of mankind’s experiment in civilization. There was no societal blueprint to follow, no advanced civilization to plunder or emulate.
The Atlantean culture stood alone, on the prow of the ship of human destiny, with its collective minds and hearts shaping and reshaping the horizons of law, art and science.
Great ideas flourished there. Noble men and women offered up their lives in the service of its ideals. Bold explorers set forth from its shores in ships of wood, to breach the midnight veil of the unknown.
When the first of the five Ages of Mardock was yet a toddler, Jalard the Wise sat at the head of the Council of Ashan.
He was a man of powerful vision and vigor, who moved with the grace of a jungle cat and possessed strength and wisdom beyond any of his time. It was said that he spoke every tongue of Atlantis as if it were his own, and knew, with frightening accuracy, the particular intricacies of each of its cultures.
He was a man who stood apart from his fellows, not because he sought isolation; but, rather because he moved through the vapors of a displaced reality, being simultaneously part of, yet, apart from, his world.
He was a man whose nature and being were as multifaceted as uncut crystal, and as complex as a dream of peace. Perhaps, he was best described by the master chronicler, Xaxos the Elder, who wrote, in his now all but forgotten Histories:
…Verily I say that he is not a man, nor yet is he a god.
If there could be but a marriage of the two, its name would be, Jalard. He moves among us and beyond us, touching and knowing our needs and dreams. His soul is as vast as the Darnath. His vision defies the horizon.
Would that I could say from whence he comes, but in sooth, I know not. Would that I could entreat him to share his purpose; but such is not my lot. I know only that he who is our Lord, moves upon the wind that is eternity…
Much more could be said of this man who was the architect of his world; yet, it is not the purpose of these writings to dwell upon even so noble a figure as Jalard. Suffice it to say that from his energies, and through his vision, the Atlantean civilization was molded into the dynamic force that it was destined to become.
It is an interesting component of human history that the path of the visionary is a solitary one. Few men can, or would dare to walk it. Most, attach their lives to the words and reassurance that espouse order in this world of chaos. They kneel before the pompous and self-indulgent rhetoric of those who can neither create nor dream, and call it: truth.
It is the one sad reality of human civilization, that, if it is to survive, its great visions must ultimately succumb to the practical and unimaginative dogma that is both government and religion.
And so, it came to pass that, as Jalard had illuminated the Atlantean dream with the fire