text: The Ruins of Itegan The Hilfonders are a noble family and stewards of the western plains region called Ousia. Named after the river Ousia that flows through the center of the region and eventually runs into the Great River Cardine upon which lies Edhellin the shining Capital of the Rendallian Empire. Aela Hilfonder is the second of 6 children born to Richard and Cynthia Hilfonder. She is olive skinned and raven haired. She has huge, dark brown eyes that were filled with excitement and life. Ever since she was a small child, she loved to learn. If it were up to her, she would spend all day every day out exploring the grounds of their keep, River Watch, and spend all night exploring her father’s library by fire light. She loved the stories of the heroes of old. The ones who slew dragons and conquered entire lands. She loved stories of adventurers who would board a ship destined for a land never before seen by man. But her favorite stories weren’t in any of her father’s books. Instead, they were the children’s stories and fairytales that granny ‘Em, a nanny of sorts that Aela’s father told her has taken care of all the Hilfonder children since before even he was born, would tell her before bed. The stories that spoke of a time long gone. A time when magic filled their world. Where men and elves and dwarves and all kinds of people lived together in harmony. A world where the trees could talk, if only you were patient enough to listen. She loved them so much because they made her world seem so much more exciting, because many of ‘Em’s stories happened in places that were familiar to her. ‘Em’s stories often took place in the ruins that dotted Ousia, and all of Rendallia for that matter, before they became ruins and were just cities or towers. She always ended her stories with something about how there may still be hints, traces of magic left in those ruins for the curious and pure of heart. Much to her mothers disappointment, Aela never grew out of her love for those stories. And, having graduated from the university at Edhellen, she has dedicated her life to exploring the history of Rendallia, specifically the ruins that were so often the setting of Granny ‘Em’s stories. This was it, Aela had started her first real archaeological dig of a ruin not too far from her home, Riverwatch, named Itegan. Despite the volume of ruins in Rendallia, little was actually known about them and their origins. Itegan was a smaller site as it only contained evidence of one structure, however based on what remains of the structure it appears to be a rather large tower or possibly a fortress. Aela was thirteen days into what she had planned on being a thirty day dig, less than half-way done and she and her small team had already unearthed dozens of pots, tools, and even a handful of smashed human remains. The state of the remains led Aela to believe that the tower collapsed around whatever poor souls inhabited it. The odd thing, Aela noted, was that there was no evidence as to how or why the tower fell. No evidence of a siege, or even a battle. In fact Aela found no weapons at all anywhere near the site. Which seemed, to her, very odd considering the purpose of a tower this size would almost certainly be militant in nature. She also found a number of what appeared to be some sort of work stations, the purpose of which she couldn't quite figure. All in all she couldn’t wait to bring these samples back to the college and discuss her findings with her old professors. On the twenty third day, Aela and her team had broken for a late lunch. They were all anxious to continue the dig as they may have just uncovered a subterranean level to the tower that had yet to be explored. They were just in the process of cleaning up the meal when hundreds of miles away Erick the tavern keeper heard the sky open and saw the lights start to form in the sky in the direction of the Capital Edhellin. For Aela and her team the noise was so far and faint it barely registered for any of them. What did, however, obtain their undivided attention was the faint at first, but intensifying with every second, green and purple light that started to glow from every inch of the site. At first Aela was simply enthralled. She couldn’t believe her luck! It was her first official exploration of a Rendallian ruin and she seemed to have uncovered some sort of anomaly. Could ‘Em have been right? Was there still magic laying somehow dormant in the ancient ruins? If so, how exactly had she uncovered it? Unfortunately the rapid fire line of thought was cut short when the ruins which were now positively iridescent, began to shift and float and rearrange themselves. At this point Aela began to worry for the safety of her team and herself. “Run!” she shouted. “Towards base camp! We don’t know if this stuff is dangerous!”. So they ran, Aela and her 9 dig assistants ran as fast as they could back towards their camps where they had slept the last twenty three days and watched as the toppled ruins of that ancient tower began to somehow reassemble itself into a massive spire. Huge stones buried by dozens of feet of dirt and rock began unearthing themselves and Aela couldn’t help but think about how many weeks of digging it would have taken her and her team to uncover even a single one of those stones. Then the ten archaeologists were left standing there in awe, staring at the newly risen tower. It was minutes before any of them could muster a word but in the silence they were all thinking the same things. Did they somehow start this by digging up some long forgotten artifact? Or was this a worldwide phenomenon and they just happened to be in the right place at the right time. And finally, was this the only resurrected ruin, or had Rendallia suddenly become home to dozens of rebuilt ruins both known and unknown.