To understand the fall of the Swords in the year 9323, we look back nearly fifty years to 9274, to the Caven Hills revolt in the Eastern Empire. We can trace the fall to this small skirmish. Heretofore, most historians traced the fall of the Swords to the annihilation of the Northern Empire in 9287, during which the Northern Heir Sword disappeared. However, from the Caven Hills revolt emerged the peasant Guarding Bear, a man with a talent as wild as the hills themselves. Revolting as much against inequitable taxation as his rigid society, Guarding Bear soon dominated Eastern Empire politics. Without him or his revolt, humanity would still be struggling to free itself from its nine-thousand-year cage. The way the revolt began is a story Guarding Bear can tell you himself. —The Fall of the
