War, hate and discrimination - or peace, love and acceptance. What would your choice be?

Although the answer seems fairly obvious, history is telling a different story. Our world has known misery and discontent, nations wage war and there is discord, struggle and conflict.

Long ago, when trouble was becoming the order of the day, when anger flared and there was sudden animosity between humans and magic beings, the magic community took a momentous decision: there was to be an instrument of peace, a magic instrument that would calm and soothe and bring harmony. Having worked out the concept, they took to the realisation of their project with great dedication. They constructed the enchanted harp.

Everyone in the magic community contributed. Dwarves and hobbits, faeries, unicorns and elves, giants and trolls, ogres, witches, dragons, sprites, goblins, they all gave of their knowledge and the gifts they bestowed were incorporated into the very essence of the harp: integrity, love, wisdom, honesty, patience, compassion, trust, humour, loyalty, understanding, honour and humility.

To make the strings, the mountain goblins mined unique crystal, and somehow achieved the impossible by making it cobweb-thin, yet supple. Elves tuned the harp, witches engraved harmony spells upon it.

Then the harp was plucked for the first time – and the effect was awe-inspiring. The universe shook, the earth stood still for a moment. The plucked strings had set in motion balancing waves of harmony and the cumulative effects surrounded and protected all living beings.

This ushered in the Golden Times. To maintain the positive response, the strings were sounded at the beginning of every new century. An incantation by a wizard accompanied this. Once three chords had sounded, peace would continue to reign.

Until one day, when the incantation from a wizard who dabbled in the dark arts compromised the influence of the harp. There was a ripple effect. People became moody and argumentative, friends quarrelled, neighbours bickered, they brawled and feuded. And then a devastating thing happened: after a bout of drinking a group of reckless mountain goblins crept up on the harp and ripped off its strings. To make mischief, for fun, for a dare? No-one knows. Both goblins and strings disappeared without a trace.

Although the lack of strings silenced the harp, the strong spells woven into its every particle could still exert a positive influence.  To protect the remains of the instrument a high-powered invisibility/hiding spell was cast after which the harp was never seen again. It was hoped by the magic community that the remnants of the harp would keep the balance between good and evil in the world on an even keel. Alas, this was not to be.

Because now, centuries later, the power-hungry dragon Lusus returns to his previous home in the South African Drakensberg, where it is rumoured that the harp lies hidden. He wants to find and destroy the harp, because that would make the rise of the dark powers possible. His aim is to set himself up as ruler over all magic beings and wants to subjugate humans, whom he despises. He is looking for help from the evil sorceress Morgan le Fay. She, however, has a different agenda.