Record of Grancrest War (Episode 5) – Forest of Eternal Darkness
Theo and Siluca’s first job working for the Earl of Artuk is to visit the Forest of Eternal Darkness and find out what’s going on between the werewolves and the vampires. Something is up and the Earl wants it dealt with.
What happened?
It turns out that the werewolves and vampires are having a bit of a disagreement about how to deal with the return of the demon lord. Both fought against him the last time, but things have changed. The vampires no longer wish to fight and seek to ally themselves with the demon lord much to the annoyance of the werewolves. To make things worse, a black witch is helping the vampires and has just kidnapped two young werewolves.
Enraged at the abduction of her daughters, Clara, the queen of the werewolves goes to meet with the vampire and demand their return, however, the black witch is determined to have some fun with her first.
Theo and Siluca arrive at the vampire castle and are welcomed in by the lord. He tells them that he no longer wishes to fight as he wants to continue to live and without the chaos energy that created the artists, he would become just another normal person. However, he does tell them where Clara is before leaving his castle forever.
They head to the dungeons below the castle and find the black witch toying with Clara while keeping her daughters tied up to ensure she doesn’t fight back. Theo and Siluca stand up against her and prepare to fight. The black witch releases some gargoyles, but when that doesn’t work, she launches her broom like a missile at Theo. Amazingly, he diverts it and frees the werewolves. The black witch flees, leaving the castle completely abandoned.
What did you think?
I liked that we got a brief explanation of the artists and how all non-natural beings are a product of chaos energy. It opens up all sorts of avenues for this series to go and the fact that vampires and werewolves were first is great. I am totally on board with this development and enjoyed the episode.
Once again, however, things are moving pretty quickly. Theo and Siluca were sent to look into the issue, but now appear to be living at the castle in the Forest of Eternal Darkness. Irvin has moved in and so have the two werewolf girls that they rescued. Is this what the Earl of Artuk wanted or did they just decide to take it and worry about the details later?
What have you learnt?
I love all the arcane, especially things like witches, werewolves, and vampires. I also love when there is a reason for their existence and Record of Grancrest War has done an incredible job of making them plausible within this world. Often times, you don’t need to, especially with fantasy stories, but I appreciate the effort and how in doing so they’ve tied their existence to the main threat to this world. That also gave the vampires some quite believable motivation to side with the demon lord. It’s all meshing together nicely and that helps the suspension of disbelief that is required for fantasy stories.
Other reviews in the series
- Season One
- Episode 1 – Contract
- Episode 2 – Ambition
- Episode 3 – Battle Flag
- Episode 4 – Decision
- Episode 5 – Forest of Eternal Darkness
- Episode 6 – March
- Episode 7 – The White Prince
- Episode 8 – The Congress Dances
- Episode 9 – The Black Princess
- Episode 10 – Blade of Betrayal
- Episode 11 – The Fall of Castle Unicorn
- Episode 12 – A Treaty Formed
- Episode 13 – To the Homeland
- Episode 14 – The Liberator of Sistina
- Episode 15 – Return
- Episode 16 – Outpost
- Episode 17 – Two Heroes
- Episode 18 – Leader
- Episode 19 – The Awakening of a Noble
- Episode 20 – Pitched Battle of the Three Forces
- Episode 21 – Purge
- Episode 22 – The Holy Grail
- Episode 23 – Castle Walls
- Episode 24 – Grancrest
