The Trials of AP

(AP should here be pronounced 'ap', rhyming with 'nap'.)

It is said of him that in his youth, Nikolaus was visited in a dream. Three sages approached him, naming themselves the White, the Pink and the Saint, and told him - each speaking in turn - that to find true success and glory, he must pass the trials of AP.

When he awoke, Nikolaus set out to fufill the sages' demands. On the first day, he journeyed to an frost-filled valley, full of mist and shadows, far from the lands he called home. After vanquishing a series of hideous beasts, he entered an icicle-covered cave deep in the valley. There, he found a score of other such journeyers; each here, they informed him, to pass the trial. Some of their faces were familiar; others were strange. Then Nikolaus was banished to a shadowy realm - where he could see the others, but knew that to speak with them would be instant failure. He laboured there for hours, struggling with his knowledge of the runes of the Ja'va people to fufill the trial's arbitrary and difficult demands. He stumbled out of the cave sweaty and exhausted.

On the second day, he traveled to a place not far from his hometown, and was startled when, following the Saint's instructions, he found a great underground amphitheater, filled with scores upon scores of others - all there for the Trial of AP. He saw many that he knew, and indeed found a position near an good comrade, who had been so crazed by the ordeal as to bite and headbutt Nikolaus upon seeing him. Soon, though, Nikolaus was once more cast into the shadow realm, where he struggled to inflate hot air balloons, find areas inside regions, and rotate smooth curves around lines. He and his friend emerged from the trial together, both dazed by the difficulty.

On the third day, Nikolaus returned to the amphitheater, finding again a similar group of people, though there were many faces different. This time, though, he was seated between his friend from the last occasion and the to-be-hero Desmond, a man now his friend, though later to be his most bitter enemy. All of them, Nikolaus discovered, were guided by the words of the Pink, who made an appearance in the flesh, urging those in the amphitheater to greater vigor. They talked even as the mists of the Shadow Realm descended, daring horrific punishment for their camaraderie. This time, Nikolaus laboured over knowledge locked in musty tomes, harvesting his knowledge of the past for the slightest fragments relevant to the demands of the Trial of AP. After the mists rose, Nikolaus and his friends left together, chatting merrily - a far cry from their later relationship.

A month after the last trial, Nikolaus again dreamt of the three sages. Each congratulated him, in turn, on his accomplishment, and then the Pink presented him with his reward: the Ratte-Blade, Galgamoth, which's name Nikolaus would later take for his own. Thus did the Trials of AP lead Nikolaus to his fate.