PAGE FOUR (4 panels)
Panel 1. Still on the surface of Elyptra, near another Nyzium mine: A lone knight without his helmet speaks to crowd of disenchanted miners, stirring them to rebel against their servitude. This is Hadrius the Eighth, and he points toward Andrylla, which looms in the sky--he is convincing them to abandon the people of Andronus and found their own colony on the second Greater Planet. In his other hand, he holds a great battle axe, as if to say “We are mighty; we can conquer anything in our way!” The crowd of weary laborers shouts its approval and waves their own crude weapons. Several other knights, mounted on oblivious Olfari, sit behind Hadrius--his band of followers who will accompany him into self-imposed exile.
CAP: “HOWEVER, IN THE SIXTH CENTURY, ADHERENTS OF THE INSURGENT HADRIUS THE EIGHTH ABANDONED THEIR POST ON THE ELYPTRAN MINES. WITH AID FROM UNSUSPECTING OLFARI, THIS GROUP OF MALCONTENTS MIGRATED TO THE SURFACE OF ANDRYLLA.”
Panel 2. A group of elder wise men (Sages) sits in an ornate room in one of the towers of the Great Keep and discusses a serious matter. The shelves about the chamber are full of massive books and tomes that hold the continuing history of Andronus and the Ancient Days. Through an open window, we see both the jungles of Andronus and the looming spheres of Elyptra and Andrylla dominating the sky; a lone dragon-rider also flies by on an Olfari.
CAP: “WHEN THEY FAILED TO RETURN, THE SAGES OF ANDRONUS ASSUMED THE EXPATRIATES HAD PERISHED UNDER THE RAVAGES OF THE ANDRYLLAN ATMOSPHERE.”
Panel 3. Above a working mine on Elyptra, a group of Andryllan dragon-riders (on Malfari dragons) battle a group of Andronan defenders (on Olfari dragons), while in the foreground frightened miners and their families look up to watch the battle in horror; flames leap across the ground and several miners lay already dead on the ground, slain by the Andryllans for trying to defend their mines and villages.
CAP: “BUT SIX YEARS LATER HADRIUS’ PEOPLE RETURNED TO ELPYTRA AND LAID CLAIM TO THE MINES.”
CAP: “NO LONGER DID THE EXILES GLIDE ON THE SHOULDERS OF THE KIND OLFARI. THEY HAD FORGED THEIR OWN PACT WITH THE VICIOUS BEASTS OF ANDRYLLA, WHOM THEY CALLED MALFARI.”
Panel 4. The Andryllans have conquered a portion of Elyptra: they drag women and children across the ground like bloodthirsty Vikings raiding a helpless village. They are stealing not only a major Nyzium mine, but also the women and children necessary to ensure the propagation of life on their new world, Andrylla. One of the Andryllan Malfari watches this scene of horror with detached interest, casting an evil mood across the scene (the reader doesn’t know this, but the Malfari are actually controlling Hadrius and his men, driving them to such brutality).
CAP: “THEY PLUNDERED THE ELYPTRAN MINES, ABDUCTING THE MINERS’ WOMEN AND CHILDREN TO FOSTER AND FORTIFY THEIR OWN SOCIETY ON ANDRYLLA. THE MIDDLE REALM WAS FORCIBLY DIVIDED INTO TWIN TERRITORIES, WHERE MINING AND WARFARE WERE THE ONLY CONSTANTS.”