"Your Majesty? What are you doing here? It's not safe!"
Rhys Idris, the king of Ambria, ignored the soldier's warning and continued marching up the stairs, sword in hand. Rhys was a strapping young man, barely twenty years old, thrust onto the Lion Throne in the prime of his youth. He was prepared for battle, wearing mail and surcoat, and the War Crown framed his golden hair. Behind him were a handful of knights, close friends who had adventured with him when he was still Ambria's upstart young prince. They'd faced terrible danger together, but nothing like this.
He reached the top of the stairs, and strode out onto the battlements of Castle Aurvale. He was just in time to see the east tower, already aflame, collapse under its own weight. Stones fell and timber snapped, and the whole castle rumbled as part of the wall was torn away and fell into the river below. In the sky above, the THING shrieked.
It was something that hadn't been seen in Ambria in generations - a dragon, awake and on the wing, the size of the castle's keep and clad in red scales. Everyone had heard tales of the dragons that slept in the Iron Mountains, of course, but for one to not only awaken, but descend to the realms of men, was unheard of.
There was dark sorcery at work here, to be sure, and so it came as no surprise when an all-too-familiar voice called out, "At last! The Young Lion appears!"
The dragon alit on a parapet, and a woman clad in black descended from its back. She possessed an eerie, ageless beauty, but it was impossible to escape the sense that there was something wrong about her.
"Aunt Ceridwen," Rhys said, "You called for me?"
"It's been too long," the Witch of the Wailing Woods replied, "why, when your father banished me, you were such a tiny thing. And now look at you, a grown man." She tilted her head. "I can't say it's an improvement."
"Enough. What do you want?"
"What do you think I want? I want my kingdom back. The kingdom your father stole from me."
Rhys spat at her in disgust. "You're a monster," he said, "A murderer who consorts with demonic powers. Ambria will never be yours."
"And I suppose you think you can stop me?"
"You think I'm afraid of your beast?"
Ceridwen laughed. "Of course you'd say that," she said, before laughing again. "I hate to disappoint you, nephew, but I only brought dear Calagor here to get your attention. No, I have something special planned. Something that will make sure you can't resist."
"And you expect me to believe that?"
"You're about to witness something truly great, nephew," Ceridwen said. "The Kingdom of Ambria, remade in my image." She raised her hand, and suddenly her eyes turned black.
"Sorcery!" one of Rhys's knights shouted. Rhys nodded, and without a word, he charged. He need to strike down Ceridwen before she could complete the spell.
He only made it a few steps before the effects began. Rhys Idris, and the entire Kingdom of Ambria, was changing...