《Land of Blood: Returning of Origins》Chapter 1 - Prologue: The Continent of Zebois
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The continent of Zebois, an enormous continent housing over 3 billion beings. A continent with hundreds of Countries and Kingdoms spanning across its lands. It's a continent where the struggle for power and strength happens everywhere, where Elemental Power and Magic Spells carve a Mage out of a man, where Legendary Weapons and Fighting Techniques can turn a chicken into a Warrior. It's a place where many heroes rose while others turned to dust.
In the beginning, Zebois was home to only four great races dominating the other lesser races. Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and Demons. Those were the four races that dominated the continent and waged wars against each other for territory, riches, resources, and supremacy. This situation had continued since Saintess Valcra Lé Zeboisté, "The Founder," passed away four thousand years ago.
And the only reason the four great races ended their wars and joined forces was, the 'Dregoreth.' Cruel, Strong, and Smart. The Dregoreth, also known as the 'Dregoriotts' were the descendants of the Demonic Dragon Neffareth, and so they claimed. They invaded Zebois with absolute might, taking root in the heart of Zebois, slaughtering whoever dared stand in their path.
In nature, the Dregoreth are extremely vicious. In stature though, they are no different from Humans or Elves. The only difference would be their immense physical and mental strength. Dregoreths have a lifespan ranging from six to eight hundred years, unlike Elves who only have a lifespan of 500 years. Their lifespans also made them superior to the other races. As for why their lifespans were longer, it was because they were born from the Demonic Dragon Neffareth's union with someone from the Humanoid Race.
In terms of their physiques, Dregoreths possess some visibly peculiar characteristic on their bodies despite being categorized as a humanoid race. The first thing would be horns which could grow on the forehead, the back of the head, on the shoulders, or even on their elbows, and back. While the length of the horns varied.
The second peculiar thing would be their dark, thick skin partially covered with Draconic scales. The more scales covered their skins, the higher the respect, and popularity they had, and the stronger they would be. Some old Dregoreths said: "The thicker their Dragon's blood, the more they resemble a true Demonic Dragon".
No one knew who spread those words. But the words already became a basic measure for every Dregoreth fighter to be pit against the four other races. Not only that. The mightier Dregoreths would usually possess a stronger desire to slaughter and destroy, making them a Dregoreth War Chief, or even a Tribe Chief.
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The only part the Dregoreth race lacks would be Dragon wings. The only Dregoreths to have wings were the first descendants of the Demonic Dragon. Only 18 of them are known in history. They have a lot more intelligence, more spiritual and magical power than ordinary Dregoreth, and they have a pair of wings to lift them to fly.
The 18 Dregoreths were called "Dregoreth Emperors" by the Dregoreth race since ancient times. But after 500 years, these Dregoreth Emperors suddenly left. With the succession of Dregoreth race inhabiting the Continent of Zebois, they flew away to their Origin. Leaving only their exhausted "Floating Citadels" and a little number of descendants to lead millions of their people.
In the "First Invasion," Demonic Dragon Neffareth led his 18 sons and daughters while also bringing 18 gigantic Floating Citadels housing the 700,000 Dregoreths to invade Zebois. He landed at the center of Zebois and personally started the havoc. This added more chaos to the already chaotic land.
With the great difference in power and natural instinct, the Four races ended up working together. They repelled the brutal attacks from the 18 Dregoreth Emperors, and their troops while also bringing along their absolute fear of the entity, "Ancient Dragon Neffareth."
It was unknown whether there were still more Ancient Dragons living in this world, but people of Zebois knew of one existence, Demonic Dragon Neffareth. A Legendary Ancient Dragon from the past who is still alive and kickin'. Making a family of his own, and impregnating hundreds of humanoid spouses of his.
There is yet to be any concrete explanation as to why Neffareth took fancy to mate with humanoid species. But it doesn't really matter. He may act so as to make a strong army, and the invasion might also be to gain new territory for his army to live in and train themselves.
As for Neffareth's reason to breed these Dregoreths, people could only assume. But those assumptions were mostly around Neffareth preparing his army to wage war against the other Ancient Dragons. Because it's the only reasonable explanation as to why an extremely arrogant Ancient Dragon would let his offsprings live in a colony on the same land with other lesser humanoid races. This assumption led people to think that Ancient Dragons were still alive, hiding somewhere in this vast world.
With the dawn of the First Invasion, Kohn Lodhar, a Dwarven country located in the centermost of Zebois, got conquered in only a day, without much resistance!! Not too many of its people were able to evacuate in time and became casualties.
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After flawlessly conquering Kohn Lodhar, the Demonic Dragon pulled away from the battlefield and watched from the sidelines. But he didn't watch the show for too long. Soon, he left the continent because he got too bored. As expected of the arrogant Ancient Dragon Neffareth. He always looked down on humanoid creatures as if they were ants.
Besides Kohn Lodhar, the countries surrounding it also got invaded. It didn't take long for those Dregoreths to conquer those countries in the heart of Zebois.
Four hostile great races raised a truce and built an Alliance. Ignited by a widely known and famous Dwarf King from Uscar, named Groodic Deadmaul. In the past, his heroic tales made the land tremble beyond crazy. At that time, because of his inhumane arm strength, he had won thousands of battles.
Every country and kingdom from the four major races assembled their armies and weapons, including some individual famous heroes and champions of the continent. They gathered and marched towards the already invaded region of the continent, and began their campaign to drive away the evil invaders.
Contrary to the Alliance's expectations, despite their enemy's barbaric method and seemingly unintelligent thinking, their enemy was overwhelmingly strong. While the Alliance held relatively strong technology in weaponry, and also had great strategists, and an army ten times bigger than the invaders, there were a lot of casualties from the Alliance's side. In the end, they were only capable of holding them off. They failed to wipe the invaders out and failed even to drive them away.
Even after a thousand years, the Alliance still stood strong. Yet, their enemy also had set deeper roots in Zebois. After the initial stage of the First Invasion, and realizing that the Dregoreths strength exceeded their own, the Alliance started amassing their wealth and materials to build a gigantic wall which took 200 years to construct. The Alliance built this wall to encircle and barricade the hostile alien race.
The walls, thick and tall, were in fact sturdy enough to last for almost a thousand years of war against Dregoreths, expected to stand ten times longer than that.
The Alliance realized that the wall held great merit in defending against the Dregoreths, and is one of the important factors in the four race's survival in the Continent of Zebois. So, they always kept the wall in good shape and improved its defense carefully. To this day, people of Zebois call it "The Sky Wall."
After the thousand long years of war against each other, the Alliance also came to know their enemy more deeply. By entrapping and capturing, then interrogating some of Dregoreths important figures, the Alliance came to know of what they were, their origin, their leaders and a lot of information regarding their characteristics and traits.
They also learned their biggest worries, the real identity of the "18 Winged Dregoreths" whose authority was absolute in the eyes of the Dregoreth race and were many times stronger than the strongest Dregoreth without wings. The Alliance never knew about the reason for their sudden departure though.
It was a great news for the Alliance that the 18 Dregoreth Emperors had flown away without making a fuss. But with that, the Alliance had another thing to worry. The 18 Dregoreth Emperors may return anytime with reinforcements.
The Alliance also found out another important fact. Their enemy's number had increased significantly. From a mere 700,000 to more than 3 million in just one millennium. 3 million might not be comparable to the total number of inhabitants the 4 major races had in Zebois, but such huge difference in number couldn't completely cover their inferiority in power. For that reason, the Alliance kept intensely and massively producing weapons, recruit soldiers and train the most elite of elites, while also constantly researching the art of magic, and elements of nature.
Aside from everything between the Alliance and Dregoreths, each one of the four major races never stopped their secret desire and effort to learn of the Great Secret of Origins, the legacy of the deceased Founder, Saintess Valcra, and obtain her Power of Origins.
They never knew that their greed for power and knowledge was the spark for their doom.
From there on, our story begins.
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