The Chronicles of Inthandonia, Part 4: The Wizard Wars Lakeside Temple In the far north of Deggia is the land of Kaania, cool and misty and serene.  This strange and little understood nation is split by a series of interconnected lakes and man-made canals and thus Northern Kaania is essentially an island seperate from Mainland Kaania. Not far from the capital city of Redron, on the northern shores of the Lake of Kaa is the Temple of the Eight Million Compassionate Souls. Here dwells a group of monks known as the Dancers of Fate. These monks were said to be able to affect the unfolding of time through the supreme focus of their minds whilst in a deep trance-state bought on by their slow meditative dances. The monk's records are difficult to translate but appear to say that Bolgaradol Smeckter arrived one misty evening at the temple gate. The monk's were initially nonplussed as even in their deepest trance states they were unable to clearly discern the webs of fate and signification that wound tightly through the wizard's highly charged aura. After meditating upon the situation for a week or so they decided to indoctrinate Smeckter into their mystery schools and teach him the Path of the Eight Million Compassionate Souls so that in time he may be able to unravel his own tangled and twisted destiny. So it came about that Smeckter passed the next Seven years of his life (from age 33 to age 40) in the ascetic and serene environment of the temple, learning the mastery of his own mind and the deep trances and meditations of the Fate Dance Masters. It is said that he became the greatest Fate Dance Master of all time but to the uninitiated this means very little. The legends surrounding the man Smeckter all confer a greatness to his abilities that is difficult to fully credit despite the unbelievable feats that he was to perform later in his life. Amongst the rumours and legends of this time is the suggestion that it was here at the Temple of the Eight Million Compassionate souls that Smeckter first heard about an object known to the monks as "The Artefact". Whatever the truth of the matter it does seem fairly certain that after his seven year apprenticeship with the Dancing Fate Masters Smeckter elected to undertake a pilgrimage to see this 'Artefact' for himself, a decision that would irrevocably lead to the start of the Wizard Wars. ++++ The tall Pagoda is my own model and the two smaller buildings ship with the program. The reference to the '8 million compassionate souls' is my mark of respect to the Taiwan Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation. These wonderful folk came to Christchurch with much appreciated relief packages after the February earthquake. The package included a lovely warm double blanket which I like to wrap around myself and think "This blanket was given to me by 8 million people" (the number of international members of this charity group) which is a rather nice feeling!