Aaaah, that hits the spot. Now, where was I? Oh, right, the journey of the Korbal and their fight against the Dark Queen.

As I told you, the Korbal did not join the assault on the Gate of Tears, they moved on a hard and arduous route, circumventing it. They did so, knowing that they would be cut off in the lands ruled by the Dark Queen. But they marched, driven on by the knowledge that, if the main army of the crusade was stopped, they would be the only force capable of stopping the Dark Queen.

The battle at the Gate of Tears was a disaster for both sides. The forces of the crusade had taken heavy losses due to the ambush sprung on them and the simple fact that the forces of the Dark Queen were far more adapted to the frozen battlefield in the mountains. However, in their desperation, the gahtered angels had launched a final attack that cost the Dark Queen dearly. A radiant beam of light, burning through the sky, striking the Dark Queen and triggering an avalanche, burying most of her advancing army.

Due to the losses she had suffered, an all-out assault was impossible so she had to take her revenge in a different manner. And that she did, using what had worked best for her, ever since she had started her journey. No longer relying on troops and forces, she went all in, calling upon the demons that had guided her and demonstrated what the Frozen Fortress truly was.

Using her Fortress as an amplifier, she worked a great and terrible spell, trying to visit her revenge on those who had opposed her. Not just the mortals, no, in her hubris, she wanted to punish the gods themselves for sending their angels against them. And they were her first target. But even the Dark Queen was not arrogant enough to attack the Gods directly.

No, she unearthed an ancient and terrible being, long since sealed by the Gods below ground, bound in darkness to never harm the world again. In her hubris, she started to unseal it and wanted to make it her agent of destruction. When the Gods felt their ancient foe again, they knew that they, themselves, needed to act, to go to war once more, if there was to be any chance of restoring the seal.

A huge battle was fought, high in the air above the jagged mountains around the Frozen Fortress, fought between Angels and Monsters, fought between the Agents of the Gods and the Demons called by the Dark Queen. Thanks to the Frozen Fortress, the Dark Queen was able to make her stand, to resist the might of the gods and managed to reach a stalemate.

The Angels fell in droves, some devoured by darkness, others shattered by ice, it was a battle they would not easily recover from. But for the glory of the gods, they made their sacrifice, using their own life to prevent the Dark Queen from succeeding in her insanity. Some say that their sacrifice was in vain, but no, their sacrifice was needed. They paid the ultimate price, preventing the Dark Queen from reviving the monster she had unearthed and slaying the demons called by her, but at the same time, without their agents, the gods were powerless to stop the Dark Queen's working at the source.

Now, with the gods powerless in her realm, she turned towards the mortals, the people that had once been her own people. If she managed to drive them from their land, she would be able to fortify her lands, to make them unassailable by either the gods or their agents.

So she called upon nature itself, not communing with it, like her people did, no, she summoned and dominated nature itself, calling upon the wind and snow in an attempt to darken the lands and destroy the union with nature the people relied upon for their lives.

Great and powerful was her magic, calling upon ancient, forbidden lore, calling upon it to lay waste to the forest, to bring a winter that lasted for years, a deep and dark winter to choke off the light the forests relied on.

But it was not to be. For millennia, the people of the forest and the forest had existed in union. Now, they were threatened in union and the forest itself rose, lending its power to Yulius, the leader of the people, giving him the strength to oppose the Dark Queen. But it was not quite enough, Yulius was slowly losing. He was in the heart of the forest and the Dark Queen atop her Frozen Fortress and slowly but surely the winter winds were blanketing the forest, sending it into hibernation, into a deep slumber to never wake again.

But in her focus on the far enemy, on the bright light that was Yulius and the forest, the Dark Queen never looked close to home, never saw the Korbal as they marched through the dark and the cold, marched upon her fortress.

The Korbal made their way to the fortress, sneaking when they could, fighting if they had to until they finally reached the entrance itself. Dark Magic was thick in the air, thanks to the amplifying effect of the fortress. It saturated the surroundings, so thick that it almost choked the Korbal on their approach. The magic made reality thin and let the demons that normally roamned nightmares seep into our world. Nightmares of endless hunger, nightmares of frozen solitude, trying to find the fulfillment that they lacked in their own realms.

And the Dark Queen was smart, she used those nightmares, bound them to the doors and the walls of her fortress. Only if one overcame the nightmares would it be possible to advance. Trying to break the fortress itself brought all nightmares against them at the same time.

It was a brutal battle, brutal, callous and deadly. Over time, slowly but surely, they made their way upwards, coming closer to the throne atop the fortress, closer to the Dark Queen herself.

After a seemingly endless battle, they managed to make their way to the top, to face the Dark Queen herself. Their arrival saved the forest, as it stopped her from focusing on her magic and forced her to deal with them. At the same time, the fight with Yulius and the forest prevented her from simply annihilating the Korbal as soon as she became aware of them.

We only know little about their true battle, only what the sole survivor of the Korbal could tell us, the sole survivor who was unable to make it to the last battle. Against the final nightmare, a twisted thing of claws and ice, he had been wounded, crippling him and preventing him from making it to the top of the fortress. His wounds would have been a hindrance for his comrades, forcing him to stay behind. The battle raged for hours, howling wind and raging flames, shattering ice and crumbling metal, magic powerful enough to rend space and shatter reality around the fortress, until finally, there was silence.

No wind was howling, no snow falling, just silence. The wounded soldier forced himself to make his way to the top, not knowing if he simply wandered to his doom or if he may be able to help his comrades.

As he climbed, a cracking shattered the silence and he realised that the fortress around him was crumbling, cracks forming in the ice around him and chunks began breaking off.

Finally, he made his way to the top and saw a shattered, broken expanse. And on that expanse, he saw his comrades. All of them, meticulously impaled with icicles and frozen in place afterward. But there was no sign of the Dark Queen, just his dead comrades atop a crumbling fortress. In his pain, he prayed, prayed that the gods listened, prayed for his comrades to be spared from a grave in the crumbled ruins of the fortress.

A golden light engulfed him, him and all his comrades, a light bright as the sun at noon, forcing him to close his eyes. And when he opened them back up, he was no longer on the fortress, he was in the temple of Sunna, the Goddess of the Sun. His comrades lay alongside him, their bodies whole again, but without life and he heard the voice of the Goddess.

“Rejoice, last of the Korbal. Your comrades are by my side, where they will know no evil, no suffering. You will remain, to tell those around you of their victory, to warn them of the Dark Queen, for she is not defeated, only banished.”

The sole survivor discarded his name, calling himself only Korbal from that day on and he heeded the Goddess call, warning Yulius and those around him of the danger and they heard him.

To pass on the warning, they created a reminder, an observance during the longest night of the year, a reminder that somewhere out there was a monster, hidden in the darkness, that wanted to destroy them, destroy the forests that sheltered them.

So now, before the longest night, we prepare a tree, gild it with light, with silver and gold, to remind us of the grace of the gods that delivered us, decorate it with angels to remind us of those who sacrificed everything to keep us safe. During the night, we pray to the gods to keep us safe for another year, pray that the Dark Queen never returns to haunt our land.

On the next day, we celebrate, giving presents to those around us to rejoice, to remind us of the gifts given by the forest, the Korbal and Yulius. To honour him, we call the festival Yule, or the Festival of Lights, to honour those who walked through the darkness to protect the light that shines upon us.

Now, children, let us pray to the gods for another year of peace, another year of light.