[ WP ] The hero was killed , the princess was sacrificed , and the evil king rules the land . For the average citizen , though , things have taken a turn for the better .

**'' The thing I remember most, of the invasion, was seeing the dead march in perfect rows, right through the royal square. Their shields were still bristling with our white-feathered Aeonian arrows. `` ** 
 
 `` The skinny ones, like spiders, climbed the walls of the castle to pull the banners from the parapets. The big ones pulled the gates of the keep from their hinges, and from what I hear, they slaughtered the royal family without a hint of ceremony.'' 
 
 `` There was n't any fanfare, or victory song, or any of that. It was all very quiet, as far as conquests go. If you did n't bear a weapon against them, they would n't even look at you. They did n't touch any women, and they never slept in our beds... or at all, for that matter. With the exception of their hooded masters, they would n't take any food or drink.'' 
 
 `` By the next morning, our dead were walking the countryside. They had cracked open the catacombs and pulled the bodies out of all the graves during the night. We had heard stories of the Dark Conquest, but the truth was so much... stranger.'' 
 
 `` They had put the deceased to work in the fields. The honored dead of noble families and the nameless peasants buried in family plots returned to their respective estates. By the end of the fall, we uncomfortably celebrated our most prosperous season in history, as great lumbering fleshbeasts carved our fields with wrought-iron plows and dug fresh irrigation. They worked day and night, and well into the winter; they could be seen hammering fenceposts into the frozen Earth even in snowstorm.'' 
 
 `` Our new hooded masters did not ask labor or rent from us. They demanded only our dead. They described themselves as revolutionaries.''
