1 The Eras
The First Era is what we know it as now, but to them it was how the world was always supposed to be. This Era had very little magic, no intelligent life but humans, and an almost negligible amount of mana. Empires rose and fell across many continents, often separated. They fought with each other, having no other outlet for their greed and aggression.
2043 was when it all changed, when the world went from being content in their ignorance to suddenly being thrust into an entirely new game, with a very different set of rules.
The United States and the People's Republic of China, the two world superpowers, had been teetering on the verge of total war, with minor excursions in Taiwan, Korea, India, and throughout the South China Sea.
The European Union, having grown closer and closer to becoming a unified state, became more and more distant from both powers, forming a new counterbalance to the two superpowers, not quite joining them but being enough of a force to dissuade future conflict in the region.
However, as the world continued to edge closer to another great conflict, everything changed.
On the day the United States came to call Arkfall, the sky opened up and out poured a flood of mana that saturated the world beyond its capacity, resulting in an excess of magic few other worlds could claim to have experienced.
All of this excess mana developed in strange and unique ways, causing a massive change in the fundamental rules of Earth.
Large land masses began to move rapidly, destroying entire nations upon them. Africa collided into Europe, destroying the Mediterranean sea. Oceania and the small islands of the pacific would merge with Southeast Asia. South and North America would become one large continent, eventually curving to connect Canada to Greenland, which moved to merge with Scandinavia.
Land borders between every continent formed, with islands becoming a sudden rarity.
This shift destroyed civilization, made worse by the launching of hundreds of nuclear weapons. No one knows which country launched the warheads, or if it was more than one, but what was known is that it only hastened the collapse of the world's few remaining civilizations.
From the ashes of the old world, however, a new one arose.
When mana grew too dense in an area, it formed an Elemental Gem.
Crystalline objects, Elemental Gems would manifest specific powers relating to the region and events that lead to its formation.
When a human would interact with them, they could absorb them, leading to fantastic and wondrous abilities. With this sudden boon, more and more societies were able to form and rebuild from the old ruins.
This event would come to characterize the Second Era, otherwise known as the Rise of the Warlords.
Those who found gems first would establish themselves as kings of their regions, with more powerful gems leading to more powerful and influential regions.
With singular humans having the power of dozens, if not hundreds, of their countrymen, war and fighting became even more prevalent.
This only grew worse with time as these original Wielders grew in power and control of their elements, simultaneously fueling their desire for more land, more power, and more gems to build an army.
Despite the brutal and barbaric culture of the Second Era, it did provide a basis of civilization to grow and reclaim many lands nature had taken in the absence of the First Era empires.
Regional warlord lands became what could have been referred to as states, with their leaders almost always being powerful Wielders.
Oftentimes, the element of these rulers would influence the culture of the state, with these influences still being felt to this very day.
The Second Era, lasting not much more than 400 years, would come to a sudden halt, though, as the world had new plans.
The Third Era, much like the Second, began in chaos.
In regions where the mana did not form Elemental Gems, they instead formed into Mana Beasts.
Creatures of myth and legend manifested, and began to fight against these new kingdoms and states.
Many regions, in a state of chaos, turned away from the previous culture of simple domination and subjugation, knowing that more infighting would certainly result in a second collapse of civilization.
Alliances were formed, which led to unification, and eventually the formation of the first empires.
These empires, unified against the Mana Beasts, pushed back against the creatures, sustaining many casualties but also managing to reclaim lost lands.
In this era of shared conquest and brotherhood, a second series of cultures formed. These would eventually be known by the collective term "Medievalists," due to their similarity to views considered old even by the First Era.
Elemental Gems, appearing in higher quantities due to the sudden killing and therefore release of mana from Mana Beasts, became more easily accessed, with many of the most common ones selling on markets.
New businesses and communities known as Guilds sprung up across the new empires, mostly founded on hunting and beating Mana Beasts.
These Guilds, in their operations, found many new uses for Mana Beasts, such as creating weapons out of their bodies, which had fantastical abilities similar to that of the creatures.
However, due to the nature of these creatures' bodies, making guns and artillery became very expensive and difficult, resulting in a sudden influx of ancient weaponry.
Forgoing most modern weapons, these Guilds began using swords, bows, and other medieval weapons, due to their affinity to mana and wondrous effects.
With the increasing commonality of magical abilities, issues such as common disease and food shortage vanished almost entirely, leading to a huge boom in population across the globe.
Eventually magical illnesses would appear, but these are a more modern issue. In the Third Era, they had yet to manifest.
With the new populations, these empires became unstoppable in their ambitions, quickly expanding and integrating nearby kingdoms and smaller societies into their ever expanding regions of influence.
Cities grew fast, built off of First Era ruins, but in new styles. Gone were the skyscrapers of old, and in their place grew buildings more reminiscent of medieval towers, castles, and fortifications, without many of the strange First Era technologies, such as using metal for architecture.
Similar to Rome, artistic expression in buildings was common practice, with vibrant cultures exploding in these bustling centers of human engineering.
With human cooperation, eventually innovation became much more commonplace. It was found that a human could consume the same Elemental Gem multiple times to unlock more abilities, upgrade existing abilities, or even change their biology.
As humans consumed more and more Elemental Gems, mutations appeared. Children born to parents who were both Wielders were able to absorb more than one element, with more and more generations allowing more elements to be absorbed.
These Multi-Wielders were able to fuse their elements into newer, and stronger, variants of the initial elements. Common elements, in the hands of this new generation, were able to become far stronger and rarer elements.
This, however, was nothing compared to what came next. In the foundries of a large human capital, the city of Erlen, blacksmiths successfully forged Elemental Gems into jewelry, armor, and weapons, creating artifacts that granted their wielders magical abilities far less versatile, but also more powerful.
The empires began hoarding Elemental Gems, limiting their usage and acquisition to only those in high standing, forming a nobility.
Those with talent in magic immediately became local heroes and celebrities, often incorporated directly into the higher echelons of this hierarchy, used to fight Mana Beasts and other states for their emperor.
For the next 2,300 years this was how the world developed, following these trends as empires rose and fell, unifying and dividing, waging war and defending peace all as time moved onward.
Eventually, enough battles happened in a single area to cause a large enough release of mana to cause the first planar distortion, ending the Third Era and ushering in the Fourth.
In this Fourth Era, new races appeared from these distortions.
First it was the elves, then the orcs and the dwarves, and eventually an untold number of strange and foreign people with unique magical abilities, histories, cultures, and technologies.
At first, relations were peaceful, as both humans and elves had never met another race. They established some trade, and even a few cities that let both people mix.
Yet as always, feelings changed. Greed from both sides led to the First Planar War, with both sides trying to conquer the planar distortion and consolidate control in the immediate area through the gateway.
For years, both sides fought. The humans, more unified in their ambitions of victory, eventually claimed the distortion as their own, establishing the city of Victoriam as their hub in the Elvish world.
Vastly different from our own, it took decades before any expansion could be done in this new land, but expansion eventually did come. More magically inclined, the elves initially beat back the humans, but versatility won over in the end, allowing the creation of the Kingdom of Leistis, a puppet state of the Empire of Tyrin, the owner of the distortion.
This would not be the last distortion, with many more eventually appearing.
Some races, such as the orcs, were immediately violent and aggressive, leading to wars that are ongoing to this day.
Other races, such as the dwarves, preferred peaceful isolation, with only some trade occurring between themselves and whichever kingdom or empire controlled the distortion.
Some distortions connected to the same plane, leading to an expansion of existing conflicts or existing trade agreements, as races vied for dominance or cooperation.
Various soldiers and leaders in these conflicts became known as Heroes, and then Champions, for their overwhelming contributions and strength.
Of these champions, 13 stood out the most.
Known as the Thirteen, these Champions were essentially armies in and of themselves, able to destroy or raise an empire on their own.
Recognizing this, they mostly became peacekeepers, policing and maintaining the stability of Earth and her sovereignty while not interfering in Imperial or Kingdom conflicts.
That was until the Ravagers came.
Mana Beasts, far stronger and more intelligent than any other, revealed themselves.
Consolidating power in the Beast Lands, parts of the world too dense in mana and Mana Beasts for empires to hold for long, the Ravagers managed to become unstoppable forces.
Unifying their strength, the armies of hundreds of empires and kingdoms came together with their champions, and with the Thirteen at their helm they fought against the Ravagers, managing to kill many and trap the rest.
Victory, however, never comes without a cost.
The Thirteen, and most of the world's Champions, Heroes, and armies fell in the fighting, leading to many states collapsing as those with more survivors took advantage of the chaos.
This was over 4,000 years ago, and marked the end of the Fourth Era.
The Fifth Era, our current era, has not changed much from these times.
Elemental Gems still form and are collected and watched by kings and emperors, with a black-market forming for those who don't agree with their hierarchical methods of obtaining magic.
Wars against Mana Beasts and other species still are waged, with the casualties and magic disease often balancing the rapid population growth magical farming and medicine has allowed.
Heroes and Champions rise as elements, magic abilities, beast gear, and artifacts grow in power and strength, with their respective leaders harnessing their abilities to grow their realms.
And yet with all of this, the biggest question remains: When will the Fifth Era end, and what else may change this wondrous new world?
