By Kevin Kaumans, Entertainment Editor
A note from the Northwestern News entertainment editor: This text, while fictional, is meant to be less so of a story and more like a piece of historical text that was written in the alternate world of Ethna. This essay was written by Dr. Laura Normer, a professor of anthropology at Varna University from 1948 to 1960.
Within the rural areas in the country of Canatha, there exists an urban legend of a male humanoid called the Shadowman of Harrowfeild.* Harrowfeild was the name of a city that was built during the Middle Ages that was burned down some time in the 17th century.
The cause for the city’s destruction is unknown, as all its papers and documents were lost in the fire, and the kingdom wasn’t made aware of what happened until months later when the royal household failed to receive their annual money from the city’s taxes.
Throughout the years, many scholars have tried to figure out the mystery of Harrowfeild. The most famous theory among the common people of Canatha, however, is that of the Shadowman.
The tale tells of the lord of the city and his two sons. The eldest was an elitist, lazy child who had no desire to improve his knowledge or skills.
Meanwhile, the youngest son excelled in all subjects; from history, to philosophy, to sword fighting, to even politics. Because of this, the lord decided to hand his title to him instead of his next of kin.
As the two boys turned into men, the youngest would go on to write many essays, become the most killed fighter in the land, and even marry the most beautiful women in the city.
Enraged with envy, the older brother hatches a scheme to kill him. Using old spell books hidden within the basement of his father’s mansion, the older brother began teaching himself all sorts of magic in secret.*
One night, while the younger brother’s wife and kids leave the mansion to go visit her family, the older brother waited for his kin to go to bed before casting a fireball on the door of his room. The plan was to only kill his little brother and frame it as an assassination.
However, not having much practice with casting spells, the older brother underestimated just how much power he put into the blast.
Instead of the fire only spreading into the younger brother’s chambers, it had covered the whole fourth floor of the mansion. Before the older brother could do anything to minimize the damage, the flames had moved to the outside of the building and the ones around it.
Realizing that all of Harrowfeild would burn down and he’d have nothing to inherit, the older brother had fled into the mansion’s underground tunnel. What happened next is heavily dependent on which version of the folktale one is exposed to.
In one, the older brother is unable to escape in time before the ceiling collapses on him. Another interpretation has the lord himself run down the stairs as well.
Upon seeing his eldest son down there and realizing what he had done, the old man falls into a blind rage and strikes his son, causing him to fall against a torch on the wall and getting engulfed in flames.
An extremely popular telling of the story has the wife come home early with the kids. Seeing the fire from the outside, she tells the children to stay put and runs inside. She finds all the upper floors covered in flames and runs to the tunnel in the desperate hopes that her husband had made it in time.
When the older brother sees the spouse of the brother he killed running down the stairs, he comes to the thought that she’ll find out that he had been responsible for the fire and tell the whole kingdom.
Lunging himself at her, he begins to strangle her. During their struggle, the two knock over a barrel of ale, soaking them both.
Grabbing a nearby torch, the younger brother’s wife had managed to push the older one away before throwing it at him.
Whatever version one reads, the ending result is always the same, with the older brother getting set on fire and dying a slow, horrible death.
According to the legend, he then awoke to find himself in a circle of fire. Standing before him was Salazzard, a demon of the Cotakis Pantheian* who is said to be responsible for all chaos and destruction in the mortal world.
Salazzard made a deal with the man: He would send him back to the land of the living. In exchanged, he would dedicate the rest of his existence to causing as much pain and suffering as possible.
To be continued….
*1:Pronunced: “Heh-row-fed”
*2: In the middle ages, magic of any kind was illegal in Canatha and was punishable by banishment if not outright death.
*3: A polytheistic religion, Cortakian is one of the biggest human-founded religons in the world of Ethna.