Lore

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History

The six nations exist in the aftermath of the fall of the Third Empire.

The First Empire was populated by the fey, the spirits and the gods. Little is known of this time, and few care much about it.

The Second Empire was ruled by the titans, which created humanity. In time humanity toppled their masters and destroyed them, and thus ended the Second Empire.

The Third Empire was populated and ruled by humans. It stretched from the World's Spine to the Dragon Sea. As the empire grew older, it began to wage a war against anyone that might threaten the purity of the human race, culture or stability. The descend of the empire was gradual, with warlords breaking away from the empire and fighting it and each other. In the end the heartlands of the empire became uninhabited by the war. The Third Empire was ended, and many of its secrets and weapons lost or hoarded by single factions.

Approximately 300 years have passed since the dissolution of the empire, with new nations gradually rising in its place.

Civilization and the Wilds

Humanity is limited to the areas that they have separated from the wilds. Roads, fields, cities and certain magical constructs all contain the stabilizing power of civilization. The farther you move from these, the further you move into The Wilds, the world of spirits, minor gods and fey. The further inside civilization you are, the more protected you are from their predations, for the spirits and fey cannot abide civilization and as a rule stay away from it.

Living in isolated villages, or traveling the trade roads between pockets of civilization, one might be beset by the fey, but in these places they play by the natural laws of man, and sturdy swords or the proper magics may turn them back or destroy them. However, the farther one travels from these places, the deeper one enters The Wilds, where the rules and natural laws of the spirits apply. Time, space and the natural order start to follow the whims of the local spirits, and a man can easily be ensnared or destroyed.

In the past, the Third Empire had tamed a much larger area than what humanity currently possesses, and in places in the wilds one may still find their structures and artifacts.

Magic

Energy is all around us providing movement, light and life. This energy can be harnessed by those that have learned the proper techniques. The two major schools are those of the Circle Mages and the Wild Mages.

Circle Mages are disciplined and patient, capturing and shaping their magic through the creation of physical diagrams that guide the magical energies. This enables the safe use of magic with no side effects from the energies used.

Wild Mages do not bother with physical tools, instead working and controlling the magic on the fly. While masterful wild mages are able to fully control the magical energies in this way, many lesser wild mages will fail to consistently control the magic, often resulting in unintended side effects. On the other hand, there is no doubt that Wild Magic is faster to conjure and more flexible in its application.

Despite their disdain for wild mages, many circle mage traditions actually do teach the wild magic method as a back-up for when quick results are needed.

Priests receive their magic directly from their deity which form the magical energies on the priest's behalf, thus making their magic both safe and fast.

Other localized kinds of magic exist, using different techniques or tools to channel the magic. These are usually focused on channeling specific Magical Spheres.