Introduction
The world as it is known — simply called the Continent — is a realm shaped by water, stone, and ancient will. Its heart is the Mainland, a vast piece of land that rises from the Restless Waters like a slumbering titan, while to the southwest lie the four isles of the Niamedian Archipelago, battered by sea storms and heavy with old secrets.
Ever since the dawn of time, magic has throbbed through this land like blood through a living body. It has woven itself into the land’s very being; seeped from the depths of the earth, coiled within ancient roots, whispered through the beating wings of birds, and nestled itself within the souls of the people who first inhabited these lands — the Old Ancestors. It was them who first awakened its presence; who learned to bend and shape it to their will, and wield the gifts they carried in their veins. From their mastery rose the first powered bloodlines, and with them, the very first primitive societies and lands of the Continent.
But magic is a fickle inheritance, and as unpredictable as the Restless Waters which the world had risen from. As knowledge of magic sharpened and new skills were discovered, the powered lifted themselves above the powerless folk, proclaiming themselves rulers of the world. Pride stirred conflicts; conflicts swelled into wars, and wars led to centuries of ruin. It was during this era of chaos, blood and fire, that the very first nations were forged. The ambitious Vascavanian Empire rose in the east, its elementalists bending fire and storm to its will, while in the southwest, the isolated isles of Niamedia fortified themselves upon dendromancy and necromancy. Far to the north, shapeshifting tribes retreated into the harsh tundra, their struggles their own, untouched by the political turmoils in the south.
For generations, treaties — thin and fragile as the parchment they were written upon — held the great powers back from open war. Yet beneath this uneasy calm, courtiers schemed, armies reinforced themselves, and the cold war between Vascavania and Niamedia never truly ceased. Still, peace — however brittle — allowed for mingling of bloodlines and the birth of new powers, stranger and mightier than any in the former centuries.
But this diversity remains a double-edged sword. As powers continue to mingle and deepen, so do the shadows gathering beneath the Continent’s surface, and everyone knows that this age of quiet will not last forever…
