Fallen

Thousands of years ago, on the small continent of Rexral, a group of twelve mages landed on the shores of the island. The small empire at the time, Raxus, invited the mages into their court and heard their story of escape from a far off land that feared magic and executed any that weld such a power. Raxus, being a much more tolerant people assured these surviving mages that they would never have to fear such actions here and welcomed them to settle into one of the five holds. The mages graciously accepted the offer and in turn, offered their own services to the emperor himself.

Over the years the empire used the power of the mages to influence things for the betterment of the people and yet, the common folk began to notice ever so slight changes in the emperor. The once vocal and friendly man began to become reserved and private, choosing to speak through others. Then things began to abruptly change, the emperor announced that he was elected a council to make decisions with him and the twelve selected were the mages, concerning nearly all of the people on Rexral. Unfortunately for the people. the emperor was completely cut off and no one beyond the mages was able to reach him.

Things went from bad to worse as ordered came through that the emperor was now requiring all magic users to announce themselves and report to the main hold and the mages for inspection of their abilities. The people were told this was for safety and betterment of the realm as they were planning on using combined power to boost the farming yield on the continent to end any issue with hunger in the people. This turned out to be a lie.

The mages that reported to the call were never seen again and before long word came the emperor died of a disease that ate away at his body for the last few months. The mages then took direct control and before long, the real horror began. Beasts that had never been seen before began to invade the realm, monsters, demons, all thought to just be terrible legends but no longer. It was finally enough, the people of Rexral took a stand and decided the mages needed to finally go.

Thus started a war that lasted nearly a thousand years, off and on people would fight and fail to defeat the twelve dark mages that controlled the former empire of Raxus. Finally, the day came when the people of Rexral won, having spent time to form an elite group of fighters known simply as the Warriors of light, a group of eight people infiltrated the hold where the mages lived. Using a mixture of a purer magic, stealth, and will, they were able to kill nine of the mages before confronting the final three. After an intense final fight two more mages were killed and the last made a attempt at survival opening a portal to escape the warriors and instead entering the realm of darkness where these beasts had been pulled from.

While the victory wasn't complete the people of Raxus rejoiced at the freedom from the dark mages and began to try and heal the fractured and damaged land. The warriors of light dedicated themselves to hunting down not only the final mage but also the beasts that they had unleashed on the realm. While the empire of Raxus never rose again, five kingdoms popped up in it's place. Each different from one another but all taking with them a piece from the now fallen empire they were once apart of.

The Kingdom of Luton held the warriors of light, and being built upon the ruin of Raxus's old capital, focused on military to fight back against the hordes of beasts that roamed the land. Berin tried to return to the peaceful way that Raxus's last emperor attempted to lead, focusing on the people's happiness and cultural advancement. Yalen delved deeper into understanding of magic, trying to see how to more effectively fight against the dark magic that lead to Raxus's destruction as well as supporting the use of magic as a whole. In polar opposite of Yalen, The Kingdom of Naeria forbade the use of magic as well as exiling any magic users from their land, now living in fear from what the users were capable of. Lastly, was Tatus, rather than calling themselves a kingdom, the people elected to form a republic set with all the systems needed to check the ones in charge as to stop any one person to silently take control ever again.

These five kingdoms, despite their difference lived in harmony once more, some like Berin did try and keep close connections with the other kingdoms others like Naeria chose to be more reserved, focusing only on repairing their loses internally. But even with the rocky relationships, peace did hold between the for years to come, and better yet, the beasts that had at one point nearly ruled the land were now under control, only being heard of in few situations and hunted down just as quickly. However, just as before, the peaceful world the people of Rexral lived in did not last.

Without warning, or cause, Luton invaded Berin in a surprise attack on the cultural center of the continent. Berin scrambled to pull together their weak to defend themselves but by the time they had pulled back to the capital, the stronger Luton forces had surrounded them and swiftly put them to the sword. To the peoples horror, the royal family of Berin was murdered without hesitation and then the armies turned their attention to the survivors of the military and even the innocent civilian population. With no hope to reason with the invaders any survivors of Berin began to flee, looking for safety in another kingdom.