Before Present Times: A Brief History of Arcadia

"In an Age long forgotten, where gods and goddesses roamed the realms of men, each god or goddess grew fond of the various races of the world. Humans, elves, drawves, and druids were among the most favorite for the divine ones. While this still holds true in the present age, some of these gods and goddesses favorite other races such as the orcs, trolls, and goblins to name a few.

At first, the divine ones co-existed with these moral beings. They taught them to read and write, to sing, to paint, to farm and so on. These moral races proved meaningful for the gods and goddesses as the mortals brought them pleasures of many types. But as the moral races multiplied, some grew expoentially faster such as the goblins and human. For this reason, conflict began to stir as the resources and land began to dwindle. For the differences in appearance, customs and languages conflicted as the fertile lands began to wither. Inconveniences turned to annoyances and finally into anger.

Irrationality filled the hearts of the mortal races. And they started to turn on each other as the food and resources became ever so scarce. The mortal races began to feud and war with each other over the remaining lands and recources. Each race prayed to their respective divinities for help, an edge to best the other races. And soon enough, the divinities began taking sides and the corruption of their favored races leaked into their hearts and minds.

For the first time in this age, the divinity descended from the divine realms to the realms of mortals. They took to the battlefield, slaying millions in their wake. Some granted gifts in the form of classes to the mortals so that they may even harm the divine. Others gave weapons and knowledge to best other races. All of this was to gain an edge over their enemies and restore their favored race to prosperity.

In response to these gifts, great alliances were established that consisted of three factions. The first faction consisted of humans, elves and dwarves. The second faction formed a federation of goblins, orcs and trolls. And the final one held no affliation except for their own individual race. Among the 3 great factions, countless small clans and tribes were formed. Kingdoms were established and finally empires arose.

Meanwhile, the divnities who both fought directly and by proxy through the bestowment of gifts onto their favored races also formed alliances in mirror of the mortal races. Thus, the age known as The Golden Age of Classes became.

For as the mortals formed empires, the divnities began a ritual to inherit and teach the next generation of proxy fighter who in today's times would be called Champions or Heroes.

As the great Champions and Heroes arose, the mortal races prayed for more and more power to gain an edge over the other races. Out of the love for their favorite races, the divinities bestowed more and more power to the mortal races until an event known as the Great Flight took place. When the factions unleashed these powers upon each other, many empires were obliterated and peoples killed. The

magnitude of destruction was devastating. For the first time in mortal memory, gods and goddesses bleed, suffered and ceased to exist. Fields withered, water poisoned, and the sky rained the ashes of the fallen.

Somewhere in this destruction, they appeared. Demons, ghouls, and devils appeared. No one knows how they became but they came nonetheless. No mortal was safe and even the gods and goddesses themselves were killed by these fiends. But one thing was clear. These abominations craved destruction and they multiplied. Individually, many of them were weak. But they made up for it in quantity forming massive hordes stretching as far as the horizons. They threatened the balance of the 3 mortal factions. In an unprescendant move, the gods and goddesses called forth a council between the 3 factions to face this new threat. They decided to band together under one banner to meet this foe. Together, they formed the alliance of Arcadia to push back these abominations to the ends of the earth.

The alliance build a gate of some sorts to prevent this plight from ever attacking the realm of mortals again. In an act of great benevalance, the gods and goddesses used up their immortality to seal the gate forever. Some with their bodies and souls. Others with their essence. To ensure that the seal would remain, they gave the mortal realms 5 classes of divinity. To the Druids, the Gaia class which infused one's self with nature and the very earth itself. The goblins received the Harbinger class which infused one's self with collecting and harvesting. The elves received the Elementalist class which infused the very essence of the elements into their blood. The dwarves received the Forge class which invoked the image of creation into their hearts and minds. And finally, the Humans receieved the Paladin class which brought forth healing into all beings including the divinity. These five classes were the gifts for the mortals.

Several other classes were brought forth, some of which were equally powerful and elegant as the five great classes. But, these five classes ensured that the seal remained and prevented the plight from returning.

And so, after the formation of the Great Seal, the gods and goddesses left the mortal realm in order to protect what was left of their divinity. They migrated back to the divine realms. And so the Age of gods and goddesses ended, and thus the Age of mortals became.

The great alliance of Arcadia splintered and once again, conflict arose. But, you see, tt was the humans and goblins who became agressors causing a war between the two races. Much of the elves and dwarves remained neutral, having suffered great losses during the war against the abominations. they focused more on their craft for beauty, smithing, archery and magic. The druids went back into seclusion as their traditions upheld. But an alliance of orcs, goblins and trolls were made. Thus, the realms of men and those of the goblins, orcs and trolls went to war with each other. And it was to the point that the Paladin class that was given to the humans was lost, the last practitioner dying on the battlefield and using her last strength to heal the injuried on both sides.

When word broke out that the last Paladin class practitioner was lost, the elves and dwarves intervened and out an end to the war between humans and the goblins. Having forgotten their purpose to guard the Great Seal, one of the five great classes was lost and the ability to renew the Seal with it. And so, the mortal realm prepared and waited for the ineivitable collapse of the gate. Days turned to months, months into years, years into centuries and so on. With each new generation, past was forgetten and lost to the strands of time. They became stories, myths and legends. Something to tell a younster before bed. And so time went on for the realm. The great Alliance Arcadia faded into legend. And thus, time went on"

~ A Biref History of Arcadia, oral traditions by Livvy of the Imperial Library of the Holy Min Empire, Human Realms.