Shadowlands Horde Letter - #1
You decimated their ranks and destroyed their armies throughout Rokugan. Your strength was unmatched as you tore down their palaces, burned their land and destroyed their hope. The legions our undead filled the Imperial lands, and our Oni feasted on the flesh of the righteous. I heard your cries of victory at Otosan Uchi before the battle even began, screaming for blood and retribution.
Now you stand before me, explaining why we have lost.
They think they have beaten us. They think we flee in fear, that our battle is over and that they have no more need to be afraid of the darkness in our eyes. But this is what they do not know. This is what they fear, and this is what will give us the strength to rise again when the time is right.
After the death of our Lord, after they tore his head from his body and pierced his heart, I watched them go. Bloodied and weary they left the throne room, leaving the body of our Dark Lord unguarded upon the ground.
When all was finished and they had gone, I went to the body of the Emperor and I lifted his severed head from the ground. Its eyes rolled back and its blood spilled forth upon my face like tears of a forsaken god. It was then that I knew what I must do. Deep within the recesses of my soul, I can still hear our Master's voice. You, who follow him as I do, you know its call. I rose from that place, my hands stained black and the flames of his blood searing my eyes, but I did not falter. The palace was empty and I knew the way. He had shown it to me long before, in dreams and fevered visions.
Through dark tunnels and catacombs I traveled, until the sun had set. Then I climbed above, to the plains south of the palace, and I began the long journey home. Somewhere, within the Shadowlands, there is a place that calls me. A place so dark and evil that no mortal has approached it and survived.
A place which my lore and spellcraft always told me existed, but which I could never unearth. The dark hole in the center of the world, a festering pit of corruption and evil - now to become the grave of our Master, the Dark Lord.
I will take him there, and this time, they will let me find it.
And someday, when his wounds have healed and the chains they have put upon him grow weak again, he will rise. He will rise, and he will remember me. He will remember us all, and we will advance again from the Shadowlands to crush them for what they have done this day. Know this, even if you remember nothing else of the lessons Fu Leng taught -
Death is not eternal.