Path to Power

In the ancient and dangerous realm of Hythoria many races of sentient and mindless creatures dwelled together in a turbulent coexistence. In the massive continent there were several petty kingdoms that had been carved out in the sprawling expanse, but the largest three were divided between the kingdom of Vitrainia, which was ruled by the race of Men and their warmonger King, the kingdom of Exonia, ruled by the cold and indifferent Elves and their Queen, and the large swath of Wastelands that had been conquered by the multitude of Orc tribes. While smaller fiefdoms sprang up all over, these were the three chief superpowers that governed the fate of the continent.

Conflict was a constant factor. The race of Men had no qualms about conquering and instilling themselves as overlords above the various smaller races of beings they crushed and battled. Courtly intrigue and vicious inter-house brutality dominated the world of Men, but somehow their tyrant king and his kin managed to remain in power for generations. Their capitol city of Nornhold was large, but as a people they were widespread with towns and villages all over the continent.

Their largest opponent was the collective hordes of Orcs that made their home in the Badlands to the far south. Orcs were an inherently violent race, standing taller than most other peoples with green skin and a mouth full of fangs and tusks that they frequently used to tear their enemies to shreds. They were a tribal people with a strange and combative culture that encouraged and brutality. The danger came when the savage warriors grew tired of killing their own kind and ventured forth in a path of bloody destruction. Orcs had long been a scourge to the realm that had only been curbed by the aggressive expansion of their human rivals.

The Elves, for their part, watched all play out from the confines of their golden cities in the mountains, viewing themselves as godly beings above the suffering of others. Ethereally beautiful, long lived and possessing a greater connection to nature, they saw themselves as the real inheritors and rulers of the world.

But over time forces other than embittered, power hungry mortals sought to intervene. Ancient deities began to find power in the mortal realm, and their mystical blessings rained down, waiting to find the right mortal to help be their implement of change...