As mentioned in my latest journal entry, I've begun rewriting the Crimson Sword story. Here is, not the actual story, but two pieces of backstory that make the introduction: The Legend of the Crimson Sword and the Prophecy of the Sword

The story will be uploaded a chapter at a time, then, as each book is completed (who knows how long that will take), they will be uploaded as PDF files in their entirety.

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One thousand years ago, the Legend says, the False Gods ruled the world. The demons were cruel, and under their rule, females were accorded less worth than slaves. The Goddesses came down among the people – Aser the Lioness, Sheda the Rat, and Anéath the Mare. Sisters of the Moon, they forged a blade from the waning crescent before Midwinter, when She is closest to that annual death. With the blade, they slew the demonic False Gods, freeing female-kind from the tyrrany of the male.

The blade they forged was thus tainted, stained with the hellish blood of the Demon Gods, and, though they dared not release that taint into the sky, neither could they bring themselves to harm even such a small part of their sister, the Moon. So it was that the Crimson Sword was sealed away, where its taint could not harm the world, and that between them, Sheda and Anéath watch over the night in their Sister's place.
-Legend of the Crimson Sword,
as told by the Priestesses of Sheda

When is born to the hornéd ones
A daughter of the night,
When is born on the wandering plains
A sister to the fight,
When is risen from the field of fire
A curse of blood and pain,
In the hands of the hornless knight,
Crimson Sword shall bleed again.
-Prophecy of the Sword
attributed to Anéath the White