"Very well Wraith, the time for your first training in the fellish arts is soon to come. However, let me tell you a tale." Mater Harauphar said, leaning on the chair inside his private chambers within the upper levels of Lord Hugenstore's castle.
Like the Cottage, it seemed like Harauphar had no room for decoration. The room was large but relatively empty. The only thing that filled the space was a large bed infinently more lavish than the small cot that Harauphar slept in while at the Cottage. Several bookshelfs and a large writing desk with several papers and times latex askewed filled up the walls and the entire room itself had the odor of old paint due to Harauphar'a insistence for no one other than himself and those he personally allowed were given access into his chambers.
"Are you ready?" Master Harauphar said expectantly at you.
You nod "Yes, Master Harauphar, I am ready for any tale you wish to tell me."
"Very well, nearly five hundred years ago, there was a talented mages called Rowan. During his early life he knew nothing of magic but later on, he discovered he had a power. A power that fed on raw emotion, and with that power he emerged on a level of magical might that is completely unknown to even me." Harauphar said, " That power gave him the strength to fight against the very gods themselves, and with time he even gained the support of both the demons of Hell and the Devils of the Unending Nightmare, and with time his power only rose."
"Incredible, did he ever defeat the Gods?" You asked.
"At first his power allowed him to wound the gods, though he was unable to do anything major, however the gods constantly hunted him down, seeing him as a threat to their rule, Rowan laughed at them and pursued a life of maniacal evil, he killed thousands on his quest to gain power, and after getting a familiar who grew in power alongside him, the two finally managed to become strong enough to fully battle the gods in combat. With his loyal familiar, and the support of both demons and devils alike, he waged a hundred year war against the angelic armies of the Old Pantheon. In the end, thousands died, the demonic army was nearly wiped out leading to the devil takeover of Hell and only a handful of gods belonging to the pantheon survived."
"Such power.... but what happened after?"
"Rowan and his familiar had destroyed the Old Pantheon that had ruled this world ages ago but at a price. However, Rowan was too greedy and powerhungry, his time had changed him from the simple boy to the power hungry mages he became. He tried to absorb the divine power of all of the gods he had slain, but he quickly discovered that the power of so many gods was too much for even someone like him. No one knows why he couldn't handle that power. Perhaps Rowan simply had the magical power but not the selfcontrol to use it. Rowan exploded in a blast of both divine and dark energy. The blast reverberated throughout the planes themselves possibly and most likely causing damage that even now we are still not aware of, the power was so intense, it completely devoured Rowan's soul to the point where it simply did not exist anymore and would never manage to reincarnate into any world once more, however had his familiar not been there who had managed to somehow reflect the energy back into Rowan, chances were that this plane would've been utterly annihilated. However even then, millions upon millions of people on this world died, with nearly half the population was killed."
"Tha event was called the Colarus, named after an old God of knowledge who had predicted the disaster years before it occurred, because of Rowan, the world was temporarily turned into an apocalypse filled with destroyed countries, ecosystems, and continents. Even now, despite the time that has passed and the people who managed to put the world onto the state of recovery, there are still scars of Rowan's actions that can be seen today."
Your ears perked up at this and your mouth was opened wide at Harauphar's last sentence "W-wait, this actually happened Master?"
Harauphar simply nodded.
"But, how do you know all this?" You asked.
"Rowan's familiar was one of the survivors, by that time he was a powerful mage slightly below Rowan's level but due to his Master death, he could prevent his death by several days. In those few days he managed to give himself, he travelled as far as he could, telling everyone he possibly could the events of what happened. He told his tale and claimed it to be a message to all. A message to you. Arrogance leads only to disaster and that a man will always die the same way he lived. The familiar later died. Now we are here." Harauphar said, ending his story.
"Was that the thing you wished to tell me Master Harauphar? To never become arrogant or greedy?" You asked.
"Exactly, arrogance leads to disaster, no matter how skilled you think you may be at magic, know that we can all be killed, no matter how powerful you may be." Harauphar says.
You nod telling yourself to never become like this mages called Rowan. You briefly wondered about Rowan's familiar. What was he like? Perhaps in an alternate world you were Rowan's familiar. You were the one to see his master go mad with power. Or maybe you weren't, there is no real way to tell.
Master Harauphar cleared his threat before standing up from his chair and saying "Now that that is done, let us finally begin your training, I know you've been waiting for it Wraith."
Your ears perked up and you forgot about Rowan for now. Now was the time to prove your worth as a warlock.