Emerald Sword Saga
The Emerald Sword Saga is a fantasy story about which the first five albums of the Italian symphonic metal band Rhapsody (now Rhapsody of Fire ) are entwined and which was written by its founder Luca Turilli . The background story was always printed in the booklets of the albums. The theme is the battle between the powers of heaven and hell . The protagonist is the ice warrior . The story is told by a magician named Aresius .
The story is told on the albums Legendary Tales (1997), Symphony of Enchanted Lands (1998), Dawn of Victory (2000) and Power of the Dragonflame (2002) as well as on the EP Rain of a Thousand Flames (2001). Author Luca Turilli does not see his story as a fantasy, but as a kind of parallel reality. He works his feelings into the story. He feels what is about to happen and then experiences the action in his mind.
On the band's following albums up to 2013, the saga was continued in the Dark Secret Saga .
History of the album
Legendary tales
Here the reader is introduced to the story. Creatures from Hell threaten the Middle Lands . Victory is hopeless and so all hope is placed in an ancient prophecy . An Ice Warriors had the magical Emerald Sword ( Emerald Sword find) that behind the ivory gates is hidden and the person who owns it, helps in every battle to victory.
You choose a mighty warrior of northern blood and he immediately sets off on the arduous path. He is also supposed to lead some troops from Irengard to Ancelot first , for reinforcement. During a rest on the way there, the hero makes a detour to the forest of unicorns , where a battle in favor of his forefathers has already turned out. Then the army marches on to Ancelot, but comes just too late; the citadel residents have already been killed. Then the hero rides towards his real goal: the search for the holy weapon, the emerald sword. On the way there, however, he must first find the three keys of wisdom in order to be able to open the gates that hide the sword. So he travels to the city of Elgard , where the wise magician Aresius is already waiting for him and explains everything important to him so that the hero can finally set off on his journey.
Symphony of Enchanted Lands
This chapter deals entirely with the search for the three keys of wisdom. The warrior receives the first key when he looks his deepest fears in the eye in the mirror of the shadows without losing his mind. Then he has to fight against Tharos , a red dragon that guards the second key. He almost succumbed to him, but then he can give him the fatal blow, but hesitates. He gives life to the dragon and so frees him from a spell. The dragon is released from his spell as key master and gives him the second key of wisdom in gratitude and shows him the way to the third key.
The hero finally reaches an illuminated altar with his men, but they are at a loss because a legendary artifact is needed, the Ikaren, to be able to continue on the further path. By chance the warrior notices that you can combine the first two keys and come out - the Ikaren. It is placed in a designated gap on the altar and a play of light reveals a secret passage nearby. This is how the warrior and his men finally reach the ivory gates. There they travel through a forest, through waterfalls and a desert and are suddenly attacked by ghosts and the living dead. They narrowly defeat them before the hero flies on with the help of Tharos.
They fly to the dark fortress of the Abyss , where they are attacked by winged demons. The hero drops onto the tower and fights an ancestral guard there, while the dragon fights the demons. When the hero is almost killed, Tharos rescues him with a fatal ram attack on the guard and the ice warrior stabs the now unprotected Emerald Sword into the body. The fortress collapses and the two heroes fly away. On the way, Tharos says that he has injured himself too badly and will die very soon, but that he is happy to have helped the ice warrior. The hero is dropped and rides back to his home. His anger against the dark Mr. Akron is great.
Dawn of Victory
The hero rides with a new army towards Ancelot, which is on the verge of defeat. They come to the aid of the defenders and, thanks to the sword, can decide the battle for themselves. But afterwards the grief is great, because as the ice warrior learns, Airin , the princess of Ancelot and some highly respected knights of Dargor's army were captured and brought to Hargor , the realm of Akrons . Since there is nothing that can be done for them, one must wait for the demands of the dark lord, who soon afterwards demands the holy sword in exchange for the hostages who would otherwise be tortured to death.
It's a tough decision, but Harold and Arwald finally pull Hargor, however, where they expect a nasty surprise: All the knights are impaled Service. They fight desperately against the attacking demons, but are caught and tortured. They wake up tied up in a cave in front of an altar on which lies Princess Airin, who is raped by Akron and all his demon knights. The cruelty is so great that even Dargor doubts the matter. Then the princess is killed by being thrown into a basin of Sgral , an all-corrosive acid . Next, Arwald is tortured and thrown into the sgral, but with his last strength he throws some of the sgral onto the ice warrior's chains, which then pop open. The warrior escapes with a saving jump into an underground river and flees to the forest of the unicorns, where he is safe and can relax. The all-important sword is now in the power of Akron.
Rain of a Thousand Flames
The queen of the dark horizons is revived, she is a dark witch . The cities of Elnor and Thorald are destroyed by the humans, King Eric falls in a battle against the demons.
Power of the Dragonflame
The wounded hero is healed by Aresius, while the dark wizard Vankar , Aresius' archenemy, succeeds in using the sword and dark magic to open the portals that otherwise separate the haunted lands from the kingdom of Akrons. Under the leadership of the evil queen, the host of undead and demons invade the human world and lay everything on their way to rubble and ashes.
The Algalord Council gathers an army of the bravest warriors under the command of the Ice Warrior. They desperately fight the beasts until the hero has the chance to stab Dargor when he is trapped. Here, too, he hesitates again and lets Dargor live, as he is only the result of a poor upbringing by Vankar. But Dargor, who grew up with the lie that his counterpart killed his family, does not understand this act and knocks the warrior down. This later wakes up with his soldiers and the defeat seems inevitable. They pray to the gods of steel.
Two days later, Algalord, the holy and final city, falls and its inhabitants are executed. Akron brings the ice warrior to the swamps of Acheros , where he tortures and mutilates him. Now Dargor wakes up as if from a trance, reciprocates for the sparing of his life, then first kills the queen of the dark horizons and then storms off on Akron. He succeeds in throwing him to the ground, where the hero is lying, who steals the Emerald Sword from Akron, stabs him in the right eye and then grabs him in a stranglehold. Dargor must end the matter by opening the platform on which they fight so that the two adversaries fall into the swamp below. The ice warrior gratefully sacrifices himself to kill Akron. Meanwhile, Dargor conjures gargoyles that crush all demons in the land. Vankar also finds his death in the process. When the work is done, the gargoyles fly to the portals to close them in the form of rocks. The people celebrate their triumphant victory. The gods are thanked, the heroes are remembered and the cities are rebuilt.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rhapsody of Fire: Visions from the Enchanted Lands [DVD]. SPV / Magic Circle Music, Hanover 2007.