This is the beginning of a book I started writing a long time ago and fear I shall never finish. Just found it rumaging through some old notes so I thought I'd post it up.




Zodiac Braves Prologue

After the battle of Vigrid, in which Surt, the fire lord, burned the nine worlds to ash, and after the regeneration that followed Ragnarok, Nithog, The Eater that gnaws on the roots of the Lifetree, Yggdrasil, gorged himself on the bodies of the fallen lords that floated down to Nifleheim on the Nastrond. As Nithog fed he grew in power, doubling, tripling, and quadrupling in strength as he consumed the bodies of the most powerful monsters, giants, and gods.

The sleeping brethren of Nithog, ancient Wyrms known as dragons, felt his power increasing. Realizing that he was growing too strong they rose from their slumber and flew upon Midgard, the land of men. Thousands of the newly birthed humans were slaughtered as the beasts gorged themselves on the helpless masses in a mad attempt to match Nithog’s power. Nithog stared upon the senseless slaughter in horror, for the remaining gods no longer cared, meaning that if another Ragnarok were to occur there would be no miraculous regeneration. And Nithog felt certain that his siblings would ensure the end of the world in their mad race to match his power.

Nithog knew he could not defeat them. They were too many and already to strong. In a battle he would surely die. But Nithog had not survived Ragnorok for nothing, and his recent feasting on the bodies of the gods had endowed him with even more magical prowess and wisdom. He quickly devised a plan and made ready to set it in motion.

The Eater swept up the first twelve bodies that flowed down the Nastrond, six men, six women, one for each Zodiac sign. To each of the twelve bodies he gave three items: one drop of his blood, one scale from his back, and one tear shed from his right eye. He then gave every body a different Zodiac blessing. With all this done Nithog breathed life back into the bodies.

When they stood alive around him, these twelve children of The Eater, he gave them one final gift. This gift was the secret to taming dragons. He told them that if a wrym is fed constantly and doesn’t have to work for its food, it becomes lazy and seeks to sleep. Slumber is when a dragon is truly vunerable. After the wyrm is dead, the egg, which all the beasts carry within themselves, will hatch into a baby dragon. These young would normally devour the dead dragon and by eating its brain would inherit its thoughts and memories essentially becoming the previous creature. This was the chain that made dragons appear to be immortal. But, if the young wyrm could be kept from eating the brain, it could be trained much like any other animal.

After telling his children this Nithog gave them their mission. They would travel to Midgard and there they would teach the humans the secret of taming dragons. They would then live among the humans and protect them from the dragons and any other thing that might bring about a second Ragnarok.

But before they left The Eater told them one final thing. They must never bring a male and female dragon together as the results could be disastrous. The twelve inquired as to what could be so terrible about a few more dragons? And then Nithog imparted unto them another secret of the great wyrms. Dragons don’t just have one or two young, they have generations.

The twelve left him there next to the roots of Yggdrasil. They left with heavy thoughts and even heavier burdens. They were to be the saviors of man. They would be their protectors until the end of the age of mortals. They knew so much and now had so much power; they were to be as gods themselves. They were to be the ones who walked the path of the dragons and the path of the stars. They were to be known as….

The Zodiac Braves