People who have lived free for untold centuries speak in hushed tongues of rare glimpses of monsters.
Fields untended are found in the morning, ravaged of their crops. The sounds of startled animals at night become a forewarning of finding carcasses at day, or finding nothing at all.
Gradually, people begin to cluster together for safety. Walled villages abound, wherein the unmistakable ring of blacksmiths' hammers becomes a fevered battle cry.
It is a time when those who would be known as heros set forth valiantly to slay what might be slain; and others, who might survive to hear themselves sung of as heros, buy armour from blacksmiths.