Dragonrune

The fallen embers tell a story, one within the Kilnlands beyond the smoke-ridden veil, one of cycles of life and death, one of rebirthing flames. Kingdoms rise and fall, ages come and go, and even time can end and restart as the flame fades and is renewed. These cycles are linked to the Eternal Flame, a mysterious manifestation of life that divides and defines separate states such as heat and cold, or life and death. The powerful Dragonrunes the gods wield were smelted from the Eternal Flame and the vast magma deposits of the Kilnlands, used to unite mortals under dragonkind, and then to establish kingdoms. Souls are inextricably (and inexplicably) linked to fire, and the facets of life these souls come to live out are ordained and granted by the created runes. Souls are life, and life is fire; it stands to reason that souls are fire, as well. Life's purposes and intricicies are manifested by the Dragonrunes, and the Dragonrunes were forged by flame; perhaps the Dragonrunes that the gods govern these lands with provide meaning to the souls they're intwined with. Without the Eternal Flame, without the Dragonrunes and without souls, there is no life.   The onset of an Age of Dark, the time when the Eternal Flame has fully died as its created runes it now lives within are snuffed from existence, prophesizes the world is to end as either the Dragonrunes or the Eternal Flame are extinguished. The world has ended, and it’s ending again.   Five hundred years ago, the Fracture brought ruin to the Kilnlands. In a single day, an age of wonders came to an end as the sparks of civilization burned to embers around it. Countless innocents died, the face of the world was reshaped, and the gods themselves faded into legend as their Dragonrunes shattered across the lands. Through ages of struggle, the peoples of the Kilnlands survived, but the world isn’t what it was. Those nations that remain linger in the shadows of their ancestors’ wonders. Only slowly have they begun to push back centuries of darkness and rediscover how the world has changed. The Dragonrunes live on within the people as marks upon their skin, as the last vestiges of the Eternal Flame other than themselves. However, then came the Dragon Armies, legions of soldiers devoted to extinguishing the Eternal Flame's shattered pieces once and for all.   These two armies clash on a fog-shrouded battlefield, heralded by the sound of hymms and litanies on one side, and by an ominous, startling roar of a thousand beasts on the other. A dragon, its scaled wings spattered with blood, alights on one of the fallen ruines as it watches the battlefield. The dragon looks up, curious, and flies into the sky. A land embroiled in war expands beneath it, and yet, within the shroud of conflict, the dragon sees twinkling pockets of light. Of kindled flames.   The dragon sees souls that shine bright with courage, kindness, and determination. It sees souls lustrous with greed, fear, and anger. And most of all, it sees souls radiating with a desire to discover their place in the world amongst the dying cinders. The dragon sees the Land of Kilned Runes.