A Hero, a Zero, a Legend: Prolouge

         If you've never heard of a man named Rhode, then you need to get out more. Long ago, you may have been part of a large majority of people, all striving to become the next great hero, or to hide from the relentless assault of one of the other races. Today, however, all who hear the name Rhode, know the man, know his accomplishments, and know why we remember him. Over the course of a single life-time, Rhode changed the way each of the three races deals with each other, and paved the way for the other, less predominant races to emerge from hiding. By all accounts, Rhode saved our world from the brink of destruction, but he wasn't always a hero.

         Indeed, before he was a hero to our world, Kaorai, even before he was a hero to his own people, Rhode was a rather...shall we say unsavory character. He drank, he gambled, and he was no gentleman with the ladies, even when on orders to behave himself. It may sound impossible that the man I just described became the hero of our world as we know it, but that is the truth, and as a historian, I strive for nothing but the truth. Because of my devotion to the truth, I must make one thing abundantly clear, as so many seem to forget or to muddle this fact. Rhode was a Feilaeran, a wolf from the Mountains of Aenor.

         It may seem silly to some, but the humans, stubborn as they ever have been, consistently refuse to believe that the one who saved them from total annihilation was anything but the most gorgeous, fair-haired, righteous human that ever walked the earth, and that he never was the vile creature that originally was Rhode. The idea sickens me, honestly, as it does the rest of the non-humans in our world. The fact that the humans teach their young lies and deceit about their greatest hero is a dishonor that they will never live down, but I suppose not much can be done about it. This has always been the way between the humans and the rest of the world; the greatest heroes are human, blonde, and perfect, and all else are reviled, disgusting creatures, like the animal-men of the Feilaern and Kashaern peoples.

         The racism between humans and everyone else goes far back in time, almost to the beginning of recorded time. I would tell the story of the incident which drove all the races apart, but that is another tale, and another historian's to tell. For now, sit back in your comfiest spot, hold this book as gingerly as you please, and allow me to tell you the tale of Rhode, the Hero of Kaorai.