《Blood Rising》Chapter 1: Prelude to Darkness
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It is said that life's first moments are in darkness and as you are born you escape the darkness by following the light. My glimpse of this path was fleeting and my life has since been consumed by the darkness which defines both the beginning and end of all things. The story I am to tell will not glorify myself as a hero for I am without a doubt the villain of this tale. A tale of loss, sorrow, love and bloody vengeance.
All events told take place in a world known as Proelia. A land of great beings which far surpass humanity and even greater dangers. After years of war the continents have been divided between the species with the exception of Ausmier, the southern southern continent known as the trading hub of the world where all species meet to sell the products which are unique to their continent. This is also the location of many races near extinction or otherwise looking to avoid the skirmishes often found on the other continents.
The most prominent, feared and hated species upon Ausmier would be the Sangalia. A race once known as the most proud and powerful in all of Proelia which has now been driven to hiding amongst the forests and mountains; rarely interacting with their neighbors or other species. The Sangalia are a species of an abnormal lifespan, in fact none except the Sangalia themselves hold any records of how long of a life they actually live and many say that they are in fact immortal beings descended from the God of Darkness Darkal.
A Sangalia is born with strength many times greater than a human however they also hold the ability to gain more power. Every time one drains the vitality of another living being their strength is given to the Sangair. When this is done in moderation on a weaker being will only the nutrients necessary to sustain life are carried on to the one who drains the life however when a much stronger being is devoured the Sangair may gain strength equivalent to that which has been drained. Legends of the past tell of eight great warriors of the Sangalia who were able to subdue and share in the blood of a dragon, the great God of the Sky. These warriors then split apart and began to conquer many regions single-handedly where the ruled for hundreds of years and tyrants of their individual domains.
The legend known as ‘Drako’s Bane” was the beginning of the downfall for the once great race. As the Eight Heroes grew more tyrannical over their six centuries of rule the people of their domains plotted their downfall. The humans, demi-humans, beast men, faye and demons all knew that individually they could not compare to the ‘heroes’ or the elite guard of Sangair and thus over generations trained in secret and devised a plot to free themselves. The first revolt was in the northern kingdom of the eastern continent which is known now as Muerton. The demons, those who are most capable of living in such an inhospitable environment lead the power behind the revolt and soon the entire Sangalia population was wiped out. The rest of the continent soon followed as the other races combined their power to fight and eradicate those they had now entitled as Darkal’s Leeches. The next continent was the west which is now Lucivien, where the Faye and their power over mother nature allowed them and the beast-men to swiftly conquer the area. The humans and their cockroach like vitality and never ending numbers soon took the northern continent of Gairen. The final continent, the southern region of Ausmier, was the quickest battle as all four of the great powers of the world worked in collusion thus ending the 600 year reign of the eight heroes.
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The revolution became known to history as the 'Hero's Downfall' and is a story taught to children to warn against greed and the dangers of overwhelming power. This event was the catalyst for the other species to shun the Sangalia and soon the species could no longer populate cities or towns on a main road. As the wars continued to spread the Sangair were brought near extinction and could only survive by hiding away far from other civilizations and soon even among tribes of their own kind the location of their brethren was lost.
Peace was not found within Proelia with the revolution however as now the four great races had a taste for war and the ability to rule themselves. With this power each race felt they deserved more land and authority than the other beginning a blood bath of which the world had never before seen. The wars began not ten years after the revolution when the Demon kin made a move to conquer the northernmost port of Ausmier which was governed by the beast-men. While the beast-men excel in strength and agility they have no magic to use and were quickly conquered by the blood magic common amongst the demons whom also have extreme regenerative capabilities making them difficult to kill.
The demons were not satisfied however and continued to move further toward the center of Ausmier and its capital of Risten where the faye and humans held a council to rule over the people of all Ausmier. As the armies met countless villages and small towns were burnt and the citizens were slaughtered at an unimaginable rate.
Furious at the actions of the demons the faye began to invade Muerton, the home of the demons, however their nature magic was at a loss in the desolate lands of the eastern continent and their invasion quickly repelled. The faye withdrew to Lucivien and gathered their forces. The humans which did not centralize on any continent began to gather together in the north at the easternmost part of Gairen creating a kingdom known as Bainrender which was to become the capital of all humanity. Being the most capable of reproduction they had much larger numbers but lacked the inherent magical abilities or enhanced strength of the other races except for the magic of the witches and sorcerers which were rare, approximately one in every five hundred humans had the ability to use magic. However as the beast-men began to invade Gairen to recuperate the losses from the demons the humans were read with their magically enhanced weapons and armor and as they pushed the beast-men back they were able to build upon more territory of the north securing their borders and increasing their numbers.
These battles continued on for 80 years without change, villages were burnt and countless lives continued to be lost for nothing more than the arrogance of the four great races and their desire to conquer the land. The people of the world however began to see that this bloodshed could not continue, and they looked to see who would be most suitable an ally for their race so that they may end the bloodshed once and for all.
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The faye were the first to offer a treaty to the beast-men. Both species preferred the glory of mother nature and as they loved the earth they found themselves able to coexist without fear of each other. Upon the conclusion of this treaty the beast-men which had been divided across all four continents retreated to the west and created their own kingdom using the southern half of Lucivien. Their capital would be known as Lunas and the northern half of the land would be ruled by the faye and the capital took the name of Terras. It took ten years to clear the land of all demons and humans, the two species which show little to no regard for nature and were destroying the forests and the soil for the poorly grown crops.
As the faye and beast-men had allied the humans and demons also shook hands. Both species were heavily war like and thought more about their own gain than the loss which would occur with more war. As they cleared the Gairen and Muerton of enemies they began to argue amongst each other as to which lands should go to whom. Deciding that the northern content most suited the needs of the humans as they had already established many towns during their battles with the beast-men the demons were naturally settled in Muerton. With this conclusion all races turned to the south and the battle for Ausmier would soon begin.
At the beginning of the bloodiest battle of all 100 years of 'Proelia Divided' all species already had a home, and as such did not have any need for the land in Ausmier. Wanting to halt the war a council was created amongst the four great races which would decide on a division of the the land. This ended quickly however when the dwarves, a small tribe of people which spent their lives mining the mountains and creating weapons made an unexpected discovery. The great mountain range spanning all of Ausmier had at one time been a famous home to countless Dragons and thus was named Dragon's Roost. When a dragon dies their immense magic seeps into the earth and is a great boon to the land cause crops to grow stronger and larger than in any other soil. No one had yet known that if the magic seeps into the mountains it would create a metal more powerful than any yet discovered in Proelia, mithril.
When the dwarves first showcased their discovery in Risten they used the magic attacks of the faye and the strong sword strokes of the beast kin to show it was not only strong, but provided a never before seen natural defense against magical attacks. The news of mithril set fire to the people and soon everyone wanted to know of the metal and how they could mine it for themselves. Quickly the talks at the council quickly broke down and the races again began to assemble for war all with the same thought that if another race gained this metal than they would have power far too great in comparison to the other races.
The battle began in the plains of of Ausmier with the alliances held over the past 20 years. This would be the final battle and the losses would be immense. The demons lost roughly 30 percent of their people, the beast-men and faye losing almost forty and humanity suffered a devastating loss of sixty percent of their armed forces. The plains the battle was fought upon would be known as “The Sacrificial River.” A truce was made, and talks were held to split the rights to the mountains in four among the four great races and the mining began. Thus peace was created upon Proelia.
If we can take a moment and hold you realize that for the past one hundred years nothing has been said of the Sangalia. Many people believed that at this point they had became extinct due to the four great races. As the battles for land had been waged any Sangair villages that were located were razed and the people within the slaughtered without mercy. The Sangalia were truly now at the edge of extinction. Only a handful of villages remained and their former glory was all but lost. The people themselves degraded to hunting the animals of the wilderness for the blood they needed to survive. This is the environment I was born in, I was the final descendant of a line which was once kings among all living creatures now barely more than a beggar, destitute and lost.
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