Before the Rebellion. Before the sea rose in fury. Before strangers came hungry for Thaloria’s land and magic.
There was the road.
Book 1 of The Realm of Thaloria Saga tells the beginning of the fall of the five crowns. Through the eyes of Simon of the Road, a travelling bard with a quick tongue and a talent for surviving trouble, the story follows the last days before Thaloria breaks.
Beside him walks Edda, a sharp-fiddled companion with better instincts than most kings and far less patience for lies.
Together, they travel through Ironhaven, Mistwild, Runegrim, Shadowspire, Cryptgard, and finally to the Sacred Grotto, where the five great powers of Thaloria gather beneath a sky filled with omens.
What begins as a journey for music, food, coin, and survival becomes the first witness account of the fallen star, the changing kings, the rise of banners, and the first opening of the Dungeon roads.
This is the story of the five crowns.
This is the story of the fallen star.
This is the story of when the kings fell.
About Book 1
In the Gentle Age, Thaloria was held by five great powers.
Ironhaven stood for order and strength.
Mistwild guarded memory, beauty, and old magic.
Runegrim burned with forge-fire beneath the mountains.
Shadowspire kept its ledgers, secrets, markets, and blades.
Cryptgard waited in mist, bone, and silence.
The Concord of the Sacred Grotto held them together.
Then the star came.
It did not simply fall from the sky. It changed the realm. It fed the hidden hungers of kings. It turned protection into possession, memory into stillness, strength into conquest, fear into law, and death into command.
Simon and Edda do not begin as heroes. They begin as musicians on the road, watching, listening, and trying to stay alive. But in Thaloria, the road remembers, and those who witness the beginning of ruin cannot easily step away from it.
Chapter List
Prologue – The Bard on the Broken Road
Simon of the Road introduces the broken realm of Thaloria and recalls the five crowns, the Sacred Grotto, the fallen star, and the first signs that the roads themselves had begun to fail.
Chapter 1 – Ironhaven’s Last Feast
Simon and Edda arrive in Ironhaven for a harvest feast and wedding at Lark’s Gate. There they see King Alaric Stormforge and Queen Lyra before the darkness takes hold, while the first summons to the Sacred Grotto reaches the human crown.
Chapter 2 – The Green Halls of Mistwild
The road leads into Mistwild, where the elves listen from the trees and old powers stir beyond the borders of ordinary sight. Simon and Edda meet King Thalorien, Queen Sylthiel, and the first hints that the hidden courts of the forest are watching.
Chapter 3 – The Fires Below Runegrim
In the mountain halls of Runegrim, Simon and Edda witness dwarven strength, forge-fire, old stonework, and the unease beneath King Haldrek’s kingdom. The mountain holds, but deep below, something has begun to open doors.
Chapter 4 – The Black Stairs of Shadowspire
Shadowspire is a city of smoke, ledgers, traps, and bargains. Among the goblins, Simon and Edda see the sharp mind of King Zarkul’s realm, the watchful power of Queen Kazzara, and the ugly truths hidden beneath clever names.
Chapter 5 – The Bells of Cryptgard
The road sinks into marsh and mist as Simon and Edda enter Cryptgard, the realm of skeletons and grave roads. Beneath King Azmorth and Queen Nevara, bells ring below the earth, and something in the dark begins to sing.
Chapter 6 – The Council at the Sacred Grotto
The five crowns gather at the Sacred Grotto, where old peace is tested by fear, pride, suspicion, and omen. As kings and queens speak beneath the ancient Concord, the star above Thaloria begins to move.
Chapter 7 – The Star That Fell
The star strikes the Sacred Grotto and changes the heart of the realm. In the ruin that follows, the old world survives only in fragments, and the kings come face to face with a power that should never have been touched.
Chapter 8 – The Touch of Kings
The kings wake changed. Each ruler sees a different path to saving Thaloria, but the fallen star has fed the hunger already waiting inside them. Around them, the queens begin to understand that something terrible has entered the world.
Chapter 9 – Five Dreams of Ruin
Simon sees the dreams that pull at the five kings. Each dream begins as protection, preservation, strength, justice, or mercy, but each bends toward control. The star has shown every king a way to save Thaloria, but not where to stop.
Chapter 10 – The First Banner
The first banner rises not in rage, but in order. A single act of protection becomes a claim, and the land answers. From that moment, every crown begins to understand what banners can do.
Chapter 11 – The War of Small Roads
The war does not begin with one great battle. It begins with roads, bridges, wells, warnings, tolls, patrols, closed gates, and small claims made in the name of safety. Thaloria starts to divide one step at a time.
Chapter 12 – The Dungeon Road
The first Dungeon road opens in the most unlikely place, proving that the broken magic beneath Thaloria is listening. What begins as a dispute over land becomes a warning that the Dungeons are learning from the fears of the realm.
Chapter 13 – Battle at the Broken Grotto
An argument at the Broken Grotto becomes the first true battle between the divided powers of Thaloria. The old Concord does not die all at once. It dies by rule, exception, necessity, and distrust.
Chapter 14 – The Realm Divided
After the battle, every kingdom names the truth differently. The realm fractures, the roads grow dangerous, and rumours spread of older and wilder powers moving beyond the five crowns. Thaloria has been divided, but the kings are not the only powers in the world.
Begin the Story
Start with the Prologue and follow the road through the first fall of Thaloria.
The kings are still smiling.
The banners are still cloth.
The star is still only a light in the sky.
For now.