Raid Shadow Legends Lore: The Story of Valkyrie

The promise of immortality does not mean much to a Drake or a boulderworm. To bring them into the service of the Cult of K’Leth requires a different form of persuasion — administered by the end of a blade or the crack of a whip. Such is the duty of the Cult’s beastdrivers, who range across Teleria looking to track, capture and, if things go wrong, hunt its creatures.

Hadrux was one such beastdriver, being tasked with pillaging the Nomad animal trains that wound their way down from the Deadlands and across the Krokhan Desert. Other less-talented beastdrivers had botched their attempts at raiding these convoys previously, resulting in lightly armed guards being replaced with highly trained Lizardmen mercenaries. While confident in his abilities, Hadrux needed to pick his moment carefully. He sat in his Deadlands hunting hide,
hoping for a stray wagon or lost traveler.

For days, the wagon trains trundled by and Hadrux watched his quarries rumble away. But on his fifth day of observation, he noticed a change. The panicked whispering of the wagon drivers, the closed formation of the guards, and an ominous glow in the sky. In the far distance, the long-quiet Thundermount rumbled, fire arcing from its gaping maw while lightning lashed its peak. With both wagon drivers and guards jumpy and eager to leave the vicinity of the volcano, their disarray presented an opportunity to strike. Hadrux gathered his equipment and turned to leave. He was interrupted by a small figure, peeling open his hide’s flap.

It was a bipedal cat, garbed in hunting attire and clutching some paper in its hands. It talked of the need to deal with an otherworldly creature that had appeared on the nearby volcano, and had the potential to unleash a full-scale eruption. The cat poked at the slip of paper in its hand, pleading for Hadrux’s aid. The beastdriver, after recovering from his bewilderment, crouched down to calm the feline. He took the paper and inspected the cat’s erratic handwriting and hastily-drawn doodles. It showed how close an eruption was to happening and the potential movements of this mysterious monster. Scrawled at the bottom was its name: Alatreon. Hadrux had his new quarry, something far greater than the livestock herded by the Nomads.

Hadrux grabbed his most trusted and powerful piece of equipment, a hunting scythe considered the most formidable in all of Teleria, thrust the note into his pocket, and prepared to leave the hide. The cat, calling itself a Palico, asked if it could assist. Hadrux refused — hunts were best handled alone and if this Alatreon was as dangerous as this tiny creature claimed, a distraction would prove fatal. After Hadrux left, the Palico’s cautions followed him for a while, until they faded into the howling winds of the Deadlands. With the now roused mountain as his guide, Hadrux trudged through the unforgiving wastes, thinking of the glory that would be his, should he manage to drag this monster from another world back to his masters.

Hadrux eventually reached the base of the Thundermount, its slopes now blanketed with a bizarre mix of snow and ash, something that should be all but impossible. Storm clouds wheeled overhead, lit by forks of lightning, and lava flows bubbled down from the mountain’s apex. As Hadrux continued up the mountain, this elemental storm grew fiercer. If nothing else, Hadrux could take solace that he’d lived a life long enough to encounter something capable of causing such upheaval.

Hadrux soon spotted his prey on an island within a lava flow. Wreathed in frost and fire, the Alatreon saw Hadrux in turn and rent the sky with a roar. Before Hadrux could even draw his scythe, the monster took flight, and rained jets of flame toward him. It darted through the sky at terrifying speed, practically toying with Hadrux as the Knight Revenant dodged between its fiery blasts. He had to get down the mountain and to solid ground – one wrong step navigating the
lava flows and he’d be consumed by its molten grasp.

As Hadrux leapt over the flows, the Alatreon peeled off from its pursuit and flew down toward the volcano’s base. Confused at being given this reprieve, Hadrux looked around, and spotted a small figure in the distance — the Palico — attracting the monster’s attention by desperately jumping around and meowing. This gave Hadrux the time he needed to descend the volcano’s slopes. He exchanged a knowing glance with his savior before unsheathing his scythe. He fell upon the
Alatreon like a bladed cyclone, and the two clashed among the lava bubbling down from the Thundermount with lightning striking all around.

Hadrux never returned to the Knights Revenant, and his fellow beastdrivers never found any remnants of him. In their wanderings of the Deadlands, all they reported were sightings of a black-suited figure, wielding a dreadful scythe that crackled with unstable-looking energy.

This Alatreon Blademaster lore is originally posted by Plarium ingame.