The Library of Wonders is ancient establishment, built by the Last Archmage, created countless years ago, near the time of the Last Archmages death.  The Last Archmage, or known to some as the enchanter, Merlin, lived backwards through time, born at the worlds destruction, and dieing at the planets birth.  Through out this time, he collected several hundred books of magick and lore, that if used correctly, could benefit all man kind, or destroy it, if used for evil intent.  So, for safety sake, he founded a library deep within what we know now as Scotland, and kept the vital information for this on one of four very magickal scrolls ( the Scrolls of Merlin, explained in the history of Bethenden ).  Nearing his death, the Last Archmage hid his scrolls, and with a powerful magick incantation, bound himself to them, fearing that while he was no longer alive to protect his Library, a great evil may take advantage of the knowledge there.  Thus he denied the world, for a time, the Wonders within, until the Chosen arrived, and took up the task of guarding the Library, so that all may partake in its knowledge once more...

The chosen has arrived...

Bethenden Cross-Toval

On the world of Beltindia, in the land known as Fren, under the fire red, magickal glow of the Tallows Luna ( magicks moon ), a special young child was born to the Serhanya ( lady chieftain ) of the Toval family.  His mother named him, Bethenden...

    Bethenden, a member of a 'barbarian' clan Cross, hails from the Frennish grasslands from where the entire Nowiggian ( of which he is a part of ) race once made their homes.  From birth, Beth was considered special.  It's said that any born under the midnight light of the Tallows Luna is destined for glory, and thus are automatically inducted into Shamanism ( the clans religious leaders, they gain power from the spirits that allow them to wield powerful magicks ), regardless of birth class.  Bethenden was no exception.  At the age of five, he was taken from his mother, and raised by the ranking High Shaman, Shaman Earthlore.  Bethenden was cosidered blessed, for he was gifted with a bright mind, and the magickal gift.  He learned all that was required to become a Shaman in a short five years, where it took his mentor seventeen years to master.  At the age of nine, he was given his Shaman name, Mystweaver, and blessed ( though sometimes he considers it more of a curse ) by the spirits with Shamantic agelessness ( note:  This is not immortality.  Bethenden can still be killed as easily with a sword as any other, and it has nearly happened many times.  This just means, from his thirty fifth birthday, he stopped all physical ageing processes ).
    Bethenden lived happily, though he always felt something was missing in his life.  Around his nineteenth summer, he was declared High Shaman, and given the right to call himself Shaman Mystweaver, and eventually married.  Though his marriage was an arranged one, he respected his mate, and treated her accordingly.  He wasn't unhappy, but he still felt he was lacking something, that is, until his daughter was born.  Senshara, as his wife and he named her, was the light in Bethenden's life.  She made him feel whole, and Beth cherished every moment with her.  There were times that he felt, should she ask for a star, he would climb gladly to the heaven to retrieve it for her.  That was the first, and up till he came to Earth, the only true love he had ever felt.
    As ranking High Shaman, Bethenden was also the diplomatic envoy for any dealings with the 'Church of the Single God' that involved the clan.  The Church was monotheistic dictatorship that ruled all of Fren ( this isn't to say there was no royal family, its just the church held more power than the royals ).  For countless years, the Church tried to convert the Nowiggian's to their religion, but Beth, being a skilled diplomat, managed to keep the Church pacified, while keeping his people's on the path of the spirits.  After about eight years of such 'diplomacy', Archpriest and ruler of the Church, Father Menson, decided he had had enough of the clans, and declared genocide on all Nowiggian's.  The Church, led into battle by Imperial Prince Hollis, attacked the Cross clan on Bethenden's twenty ninth summer, slaughtering the entire clan, minus one.  Bethenden did absolutely everything he could, just short of killing himself by draining his entire soul from the use of magick.
    To this very day, there are times he wishes he had killed himself, so he wouldn't of had to watch his daughter die...  a man on horseback.. Prince Hollis.... a flail to her head... came right from the neck... the crimson... only eight years old... The memories are still vivid in his mind.
    Bethenden went into a rage, and brutally slaughtered over three hundred priests and soldiers of the three thousand attacking Church members single handedly.  When it came to the last, and the war had been waged, only Beth stood surviving on the battle field.  He spent the next six days, without pausing for food or sleep, burning and burying the ashes of his clan, all seven thousand and twenty four, of which the last he buried without creamating, was his own daughter.
    The only life Bethenden had known was his clan, his family.  He was an outcast.  A Shaman without a clan.  The spirits still provided his magicks, but he felt he didn't deserve them.  He was deeply depressed, and felt as though nothing about his life no longer mattered, when he became an assassin for the very Church that slaughtered his family...
 
    And that's what he did for over eight hundred years.  Killed for coin.  And he was good at it.
 
    But then, about some odd eight hundred years later, he began to reevaluate his life.  For the first time in centuries, he saw what he had become... and he didn't care for it much at all...  Then a mission came his way, a mission to another world... Earth.  He snatched it up.  It would be his chance to escape.  Maybe even make a new life for himself on this new crystal sphere.  And so, he went to Earth...
    Bethenden wandered the European kingdoms for a long while, before he finally decided that he would seek guidance from the spirits he had so painstakingly tried to put behind him.  He went into a deep trance.  A spirit quest dream.  And, much to his surprise, a spirit did come to him.  The spirit of the Last Archmage.  The spirit told Betheneden to seek out four scroll cases, each containing a scroll of unimaginable power, and at the end of this quest, his destiny would lay before him...
 
    The spirit could not have been more correct.
 
    Bethenden did as he was bidden, he sought out the four scroll cases, and each with a scroll of vital knowledge that would help Beth in later quests.  The first scroll was a map to the other scroll.  The second, a scroll of spells written by the Last Archmage himself.  The third, a parchment containing several prophecies involving the Last Archmages chosen, and various peoples close to him.  And the fourth and final scroll, the diary of the Last Archmage...
    It took Bethenden two years to find all four scrolls, and more wounds then he would care to admit.  But, when he located the last scroll, he found it inside the Library of Wonders...  The spirit of the Last Archmage then visited Bethenden once again, and officially declared him his chosen, passing over responsibility of the Library, and all within it to him.  And on that day, the Library of Wonders was open once more to any whom would walk through it's doors...

   And, as they say, the rest... is history...

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