Back long ago, when the moving lands had not yet crept to the edge of the mountains, back when the Mother river had no children, back when the four Guardians were young, there came a warning. The youngest of the Guardians, who kept watch over the western pole, was curled up napping when a dream came to him of the future. It was a dark and bloody dream, but not one without hope.

The Western Guardian awoke from the nap in terror and sent a frantic message to the other Guardians, detailing his vision. Those three Guardians turned to study the world below. Over a century later, they each sent a message back to the Western Guardian. None of them had seen anything that might hint at such a foresight being true and none had dreamt of the same dark future. In short, none of the other Guardians believed the Western Guardians vision and they each went back to keeping a steady watch over the world. The Western Guardian, however, had only grown more certain that his dream was true and in desperation turned to those living on the world below for help.

It was these to whom the Western Guardian gave his warning. Of the thousands of available, the Guardian chose the Bard Torin to hear his tale of the future. Torin quickly fashioned the Western Guardian’s message into a song that was then passed down from generation, to generation until the song began to come true…