Welcome to the World
Don’t worry that you don’t understand what is going on. The powers that be want it that way. Everything that you once thought of as life is little more than a thin film on the surface designed to keep you ignorant of the world as it is. It will not be easy to get you to see through the lies you grew up with, but now that you are here, you have a choice. Do you want to see the world as it is or let us return you to the sweet slumber from which you awoke?
Before you say anything, I need you to listen to me. You are special or you wouldn’t have found your way here, but this might be the most dangerous time of your life. As you might have surmised already, magic exists, removed from the eyes of the exiled masses of the world. We are not the ones in hiding. We cast you and your people out to save what little of the world we could.
Why are you looking at me like that? Surely, you’ve felt it before now? Something is wrong with the world. That is probably what brough you here.
Centuries ago, a great darkness arose to consume everything. Our greatest minds saw it coming and sought a way to defeat it. While many plans arose, they all shared one thing in common. If anyone is to survive, we must build shelters to weather the storm, so we did. That is where you are now.
If I am to be honest, no one knows where it all started. Don’t get me wrong, everyone has a story, a legend about the beginning, but it all happened so long ago, it is is impossible to know who if anyone is right.
Spirits and immortals have shared this world with us for as long as any can remember. Fae, dragons, Jinwu, and the Rephaim, just to name a few. They each have one or more version of how it all started, so if you will forgive me, I will spare you all that for the moment. Suffice it for the moment to know that many of the stories of Gods and Heroes you grew up with were based on these immortals or the humans you learned and practiced the crafts.
I would never lie to you and pretend that we lived in a paradise, when we don’t now. War, strife, and struggle have always been with us, but the nature of the world differs from the illusion you were born under.
That is why the officers who picked you up called you unsotha and wrecca, the untruthful and the exile, respectively. When the Roman Emperor Diocletian made his deal with the darkness for power, the die was cast. Only a few saw it, but our founders, the Giants Fritha and Scildend, did. They are the ones who devised the covenant.
The Giants foresaw a world devoid of magic, where the hordes of darkness hunted all the immortals to extinction. The servants of the new dominion would forbid mortals from studying or practicing the crafts. Once all that came to pass, there would be nothing to stop the darkness from consuming the world. The tyranny of Nyx ended not long before this unknown threat arose, and the elders knew they had to stop the loss of magic or their world would be lost forever.
With the aide of every kind of immortal, and countless spirits, the elders enacted the covenant. The elders sent heralds out into the world to invite people to join. Your ancestors had the choice to join or accept exile.
I can see in your eyes, you don’t think it is fair for you to suffer for the decisions of your forbearers. It isn’t, but it is the nature of life. Every generation inherits the world the last generation built for them, but as you can see, there are the rare exceptions. Occasionally people like you find their way home. If you stay with us and accept the covenant, you will escape the world corrupted by darkness. It may not be the best system, but it is the one we have for now.
So now you know that magic has always existed, and that all the monsters of ever heard stories about are real. Would you like to know more, or do you want to leave?
I have left you this copy of the Chronicles of the Elders to learn more about our world before you make your decision.
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