Legend of Lodoss: Prince of the Fallen Land (novel)

Legend of Lodoss I: Prince of the Fallen Land
Author	Ryo Mizuno
Illustrations	Akihiro Yamada
Japanese title	ロードス島伝説 亡国の王子
Romanized title	rōdosu-tō densetsu bōkoku no ōji
Publication information
Original release	8 August 1994
Chapters	Prologue The Dark Clouds The Prince's Decision Demons' Movement Returnees
Pages	288
ISBN-13	978-4044604158
Novels
Next →	Knight of the Sky

Legend of Lodoss: Prince of the Fallen Land is a light novel written by Ryo Mizuno, with illustrations by Akihiro Yamada. It is the first novel in the Legend of Lodoss (ロードス島伝説, rōdosu-tō densetsu) novel series, a prequel series to the main Record of Lodoss War light novels.

　Duke Bruuk of Skard has been missing for some time and the dwarves of the Stone Kingdom, an underground settlement to the south of Skard, have been eerily quiet as of late. In his father's absence, Crown Prince Nasher of Skard attempts to take control of political and military matters and decides to investigate the Stone Kingdom.

Synopsis

　In Skard, a small duchy in the region of Moss, Crown Prince Nasher is trying to take command of his father, Bruuk, his forces when reports of mysterious deaths keep coming in. The neighbouring Kingdom of Stone, a dwarf settlement to the south with which Skard had good relations, hasn't been heard from in 10 days. Moreover, Bruuk's court mage Wort and mercenary captain Beld, have been imprisoned by Bruuk. In his father's absence Nasher decides to investigate the Kingdom of Stone with a detachment of Skard's forces. Nasher visits Beld and Wort in their cells, but discovers they have escaped.

　Beld and Wort, meanwhile, have arrived at a tavern in Muskett. From there they each decide to go their separate ways for now. Wort returns to his tower at Lenoana Lake. Wort and Beld, renowned for their knowledge and prowess respectively, were hired to train Nasher. Both were impressed with the crown prince and expected him to surpass them.

　In Tarba, Alania, the Temple of Marfa has been severely damaged due to a harsh winter and an earthquake, caused by king spirits Fenrir and Behemoth. Neese, the temple's priestess, seeking a way to fund a restoration of the temple, wishes to obtain the Mirror of Truth, one of the five ancient treasures of the kingdom of Kastuul. For the past 500 years the treasure has been guarded by Bramd, one of the five chromatic dragons. The dragon was cursed by the last governor of Kastuul to guard the treasure and it experiences extreme pain whenever someone gets near. Neese, with the aid of several priests, manages to lift the curse, freeing Bramd and obtaining the treasure.

　In Valis, Flaus and Fahn are sent to the Delta Palace near the Fargo river. Thirty years prior the son of the King of Valis was killed and partially devoured by a minotaur. The King's soldiers defeated and heavily wounded the minotaur. Unable to cope with the loss of his son the King began to see the minotaur as his son. He left the body of his son behind, but took the minotaur with him and placed him in his son's room. The minotaur was later sent to Delta Palace, in the King's mind to practice for knighthood, and has remained there ever since.

Flaibe fighting Zalbard and two Hellhounds in the Kingdom of Stone.

　In the Stone Kingdom, a dwarf kingdom settled underground and consisting of many tunnels, the Iron King Flaibe is the last of his people to fight against a sudden emergence of demons. His entire kingdom has been wiped out and the tunnels of the kingdom are littered with bodies of dead dwarfs and dead demons. After defeating a Zalbard and two Hellhounds Flaibe finds an exit. As this happened, Flaibe recalled Duke Bruuk of Skard and his daughter Reena visiting the kingdom about a month ago. They left to visit the Lake Above the Clouds, but never returned to the Stone Kingdom to say hi on their way back to Skard. Once outside, Flaibe continues his losing battle against more demons, but is saved by Nasher and his army. Flaibe collapses and is taken to Skard.

　Some days later Flaibe regains his consciousness and tells Nasher what happened in the Kingdom of Stone. Nasher arranges a meeting with the knights and officials of Skard and proposes his idea to merge with the duchy of Venon to the north. He explains that the Stone Kingdom was a much stronger nation than Skard was and if the Stone Kingdom was destroyed by the demons, then so will Skard. Moreover, Venon was part of the so-called "dragons’ covenant". If one of the duchies that is part of the covenant was attacked, then the other duchies will come to help that duchies. By merging with Venon, Skard can rely on help from the duchies of Moss. Nasher meets with Duke Jarbay of Venon, who accepts his proposal. Jarbay's son Alondo was made lord of Skard. Before this, Nasher had been missing, reportedly fled out of fear of the demons. In actuality he secretly left to Valis, with the still recovering Flaibe and the herbalist Tatus.

　In Valis, Fahn and Flaus were tasked to check on Rutier, a small village close to Roid, which had recently been attacked by an unknown force. Once there they discovered most villagers were killed. Fahn entered the house of Dalkan, the village lord, but found Dalkan, his wife and their daughter had all been killed. Inside the house he encountered a gargoyle-like demon. After a fight, the demon fled.

　At Lenoana Lake, Wort and Beld are searching through the remains of the ancient kingdom hoping to gain valuable information about the demons, when suddenly an old white-haired warrior appears. Beld and the mysterious warrior engage in a fight, and the warrior manages to inflict a rare wound on Beld. Eventually Beld overcomes the warrior. The warrior vanishes, but before doing so he says to Beld, "you look like a man that will be needed, barbarian hero of the Forest of Darkness", a nickname Beld has not yet earned.

　Nasher, Flaibe and Tatus arrive in Valis. At the Pharis sect Flaibe is fully healed. The men also learn of what occurred at the village of Rutier. A worried and confused Nasher, together with Flaibe, heads to Wort's tower at Lenoana Lake, where he is finally reunited with Beld and Wort. Wort tells Nasher of a set of ruins of the ancient kingdom to the south of the Stone Kingdom, which was created as an underground prison for demons that were once summoned by a sorcerer summoner called Aznadeer. Nasher, worried about Skard, decides to return to Moss, to meet with his relative Duke Mycen. Flaibe, Beld and Wort accompany him.

　The quartet travelled through the Wind and Fire Desert, then through the free cities of Raiden, which had also come under attack of a demon, to finally arrive at Highland in Moss. Nasher met with Duke Mycen and his son, the crown prince Jester, who immediately recognize Nasher. Mycen invited the quartet to a feast. At the feast the people of Highland learn that an elf village in the neighbouring Mirror Forest had been attacked by demons and Venon is invoking the dragons’ covenant and requesting troops from Highland, because of an impending demon attack. Mycen and Jester decide to split their forces in two; a portion stays behind to defend Highland against demons coming from the Mirror Forest while another portion goes south to aid Venon. Mycen and Nasher are among those to travel south. Wort and Beld stay behind. Also at the feast, Wort shares some of his thoughts concerning Duke Bruuk with Beld. Wort suspects Bruuk may have been the one to release the demons. He considers Bruuk ambitious and with a fascination for demons. Because of Wort, Bruuk knew of Aznadeer's demons in the labyrinth. Of all of Wort's books, Bruuk had taken just one: the Book of the Demon King. Beld advices Wort to not share this with Nasher.

　When Mycen and Nasher arrived at Skard, so had Fahn and Flaus. It had been 10 days since reports had arrived that the demons would attack, but night the demons finally made their attack, rushing towards the south gate of Skard's castle Grain Hold. Nasher, Flaibe, Fahn and Flaus decide to head to the castle dungeon, one of the areas that was not yet guarded by any knights. In the dark dungeon they meet a mysterious masked warrior-mage who refuses to share their identity but assures the party they have a common enemy. When the demons breach the dungeon Flaibe and Fahn take on the one upper demon, Regram, while Flaus and Nasher team up to defeat the lesser demons. The lesser demons are swiftly defeated, but Fahn and Flaibe struggle against the upper demon. The mysterious warrior-mage steps in to help, defeating the demon with one powerful spell. With the demons defeated, Flaus inquires further about the warrior-mage's identity, but the warrior-mage refuses to show their face or share their intention, only saying that, right now, their only purpose is to fight the demons. They add that tonight's victory is for the Moss' knights, but sooner or later they will collapse, before vanishing completely.

　The party rushes up and continues their fight against the demons. Moments later the knights of Moss declare victory and cries of victory are heard all over Grain Hold. Suddenly, the cries of joy turn to cries of terror. A demon army of ten thousand, the main army, arrived. Nasher wonders why they didn't attack as one. Two horses from the army begin the come forward. The riders are a little girl and a middle-aged man with a crown on his head. Nasher's face turns pale and beads of sweat appear on his face when he recognizes the riders as his sister Reena and his father Bruuk. Nasher and the party immediately escape the castle via de dungeon, before the knights realize too that the son of the man leading the demon army is among them.

Characters appearing

• Nasher
• Reena
• Bruuk
• Chancellor Hugo
• Captain Silas
• Beld
• Wort
• Neese
• Bramd
• Fahn
• High Priest Genart
• Flaus
• King Warren
• Flaibe
• Duke Jarbay
• Prince Alondo
• Tatus
• Duke Mycen
• Prince Jester
• masked warrior-mage

Gallery

Artwork from the novel by Akihiro Yamada.

Character card from the novel King Flaibe artwork by Akihiro Yamada from the novel Wort and Beld artwork by Akihiro Yamada from the novel Flaibe, Nasher and Tatus by Akihiro Yamada from the novel Fahn and Flaus by Akihiro Yamada from the novel Duke Mycen and the heroes by Akihiro Yamada from the novel