The Four Winds

Long before the first ships reached the mainland, the old soldiers of the king raised a small garrison on a green island in the western sea. They called it Rookgaard, the rook's garden — a place to train those who were not yet ready for the world.

The island is guarded by four winds. The North Cliffs, the Western Cape, the Eastern Point and the Southern Shore mark where the land ends and the sky begins. Beyond them the sea winds blow so hard that not even a phoenix can cross them. Whoever lives in Rookgaard lives under their protection.

Today the garrison is led by Commander Aldric, who waits for every new arrival in the village square. Rats are breeding in the sewers, trolls raid the crops, a grave robber disturbs the dead in the old crypt, and beneath the village something the soldiers only call the Rat King sends its children against them. Aldric needs recruits.

Most recruits finish their trial and ask the Oracle for a vocation. A few choose to stay. At level 12, still without a vocation, those who completed every mission may ask Aldric for the title of Rookgaard Explorer — and for a phoenix of their own to fly over the island they chose.