User:Qmasterflex86/Project Dwi 01/Overview

OOC Note: The contents of this page are not in-game canon. They are meant for personal entertainment only. Full disclaimer here.

Introduction

Dwilight, the wild, untamed continent, filled with roaming packs of ravenous beasts, plagued by the relentless undead who find no rest, and occupied in dark foreboding recesses by shadowy and mysterious daimons, saw a storm when those powers, once so chaotic, no longer floated loosely along the currents of fate.

Monsters

The wild beasts gained awareness of their lives, their surroundings. Filled with new feelings and a strange sense of the vastness of the land and their relative smallness in comparison, the newly conscious monsters began joining together with fellow beasts. Many spread across the wilderness, seeking the farthest corners of Dwilight to discover just how large the land truly was. Some sought to understand the workings of themselves and their surroundings, dedicating themselves to the study of the natural world, and the workings of their own bodies. Others who gained a sense of possession lusted after the prospects of having all the fields bountiful in prey and open range to themselves. United under their common identities as the young progeny of Dwilight, the monsters, whether explorers, or researchers, or conquerors, moved as coherent gatherings across Dwilight, seeking new lands, and encountering strange and horrifying enemies.

In the barren wastelands surrounding the one foreboding volcano at the western coast, no beasts dared to stay long. Explorers among the monsters told harrowing tales. They spoke of several fearsome beings, some surrounded by flames that never ceased to burn, some behemoths of bone and blood, some dark, shadowy entities that could only be felt by the cold fear passing through one’s blood. There were weaker creatures, those of flesh and blood like the monsters. But those monsters foolish enough to harm or eat the mortal creatures soon found themselves turned to ashes. In time, the beasts that settled around Rettleville learned to avoid the lands they called “The Fiery Wastes”.

Though the forests of Nark and Thysan provided ample cover and homes for the monsters, there were forests to the east that no beast made as its home. Weinschenk and Eisenik, the dark woods surrounding the dark city Unterstrom, were rumored to be cursed. Monster explorers were few to such a threatening place far from their comforts in the west, and fewer still were those who returned. The survivors spoke of bodies of humans, dead ones that walked despite their conditions of decay. There were many walking corpses, weaker even than they were in life, and fragile. The monsters could easily shred them with their claws, but whereas the muscles of beasts tired and felt pain, the dead were hindered neither by fatigue nor sensations. And they were many, for many had died throughout the ages, and their bodies supplied a seemingly endless amount of soldiers. Worse still, the many corpse soldiers were led by beings of cold metal, whose hollow shells were indifferent to the monsters’ claws and fangs. The immortal metal bodies were relentless and merciless, killing the beasts as perceived savage animals unfit to live. Many monsters began to worry about the growing undead and their claims to restore their ancient kingdoms. Many more were glad only that those enemies were far away, hoping never to encounter them.

But time passed, and the monsters, mortal by nature, passed through many changes. In time, they degenerated to their savage ways, roaming in loosely organized packs across Dwilight. But the spark of sentience, once lit, always has a chance to reignite. Among the many wild beasts that thought of no more than their next meal, a few special beasts began to awaken to consciousness.

Undead

Long ago in a lost age, men indeed ruled Dwilight, though such men were much different than those now alive. But in that ancient time, men faced a horrifying enemy. Creatures born of fire and magic tore through the stone castle walls, and melted human steel and flesh alike. Even in such an era, men were still proud, and many tried to face their inhuman enemies with strength. As expected, steel is poor armor against fire, and the heat of the hellish creatures' flames killed many humans. It was only due to the greater numbers of humans and their ability to replenish their populations quickly that kept them from extinction.

Yet still they were losing the war even if they won occasional battles. The services of the enigmatic humans who resided in the mountains of Balance's Retreat were valuable, but ultimately even they were too few in number to spread through all of Dwilight. And they who were bound to walk on the land, were no match for the speed of the fire-wielding beings who could fly through the skies. In desperation, many kings of distant kingdoms across Dwilight at last united where before they never could. They came to a damning conclusion: In order to defeat these beings of fire and terror, they needed to become immune to fear and death. Against the appeals of the Balance Keepers, the Ancient Kings opened sealed archives, containing forbidden tomes from the legendary spellcasters of old, the rumored masters of the Balance Keepers, ancient even in those ancient times. With their greatest minds, they pierced the barriers between life and death, and doomed their kingdoms to a horrid fate, all with good intention.

But it is true that often good intentions lead to terrible consequences. At first, nothing happened. Many lost hope. Many continued to die. But when the last of the kings died, the last participant in the doomed ritual, the ground suddenly quivered. And from the earth burst forth many warriors in different states of decay, as though the earth had regurgitated the humans who had been sent to death in the decades prior. Suddenly, it seemed as though death itself had rejected the dead humans, returning them to walk the earth, to fight the enemies who sent them originally to their deaths. Leading them were the Ancient Kings, reborn and reforged, who shed their weak human bodies of flesh and blood for cold shells of steel and magic.

Thus magic at last was fought with magic, and from it, the War of Fire and Steel was waged. Fire still melted through steel, but those who died once were immune to fear. The dark beings of flames and terror lost a key weapon they had against their mortal foes, and experienced many more casualties than ever before. Thus while the Ancient Kings never truly triumphed against the Netherworld's Invaders, they whittled the numbers and contained them to a small area of the land.

Despite cheating death, like all things, the undead still must one day succumb to time. The corpses that moved with a singular purpose against the fiery ones decayed to dust, and the metal shells of the Ancient Kings rusted, the magic that bound them in unlife scattered across the winds. And so it was that the era of humans who resisted the terrors born of fire ended.

Their story was buried as they were. But those who are rejected by death never are allowed the peace of sleep. And so throughout history, in different times, different lands, there were stories of the ground releasing those cursed never to die. And memories sometimes persist. Kings of long ago at times yet seek to reclaim their thrones, whether alive or dead.

Zuma

In the War of Fire and Steel, there were, ultimately, two distinct groups of humans. One group, the majority, was composed of the united kingdoms of men, opposed in ideal and execution against the terrors born of fire. And the minority was composed of men who saw no future in fighting those of fire.

Those who decided not to resist survived while those who fought died. Those who died became cursed to live again and die again. Those who survived lived on in the shadow of the terrors born of fire.

Those humans became infused with a fragment of fire, becoming no longer fully human, yet still tied unquestioningly to this world. Thus those born of earth wandered close to the fire that naturally burned those of earth. Yet they survived for they served a purpose to the terrors born of fire. They succumbed to their fear, yet in fear was wisdom hidden. They would be the ones who inherited the land of Dwilight for centuries to come, at least until the arrival of those like them, yet not entirely the same. Until once more those who were like the ancient contemporaries who died, and were cursed to die again, arrived from across the great oceans.

But this is not a story of those times. This is a story about the survivors in the time between the final gasps of the Ancient Kings, and the arrival of humans many eons later. This is a story about the Zuma in the shadow of their masters, the daimons. Of the lives of men who own not their own lives, yet remain human.

Balance

There is a reason why the art of spellcasting is rare in the mortal world, relegated to the domain of wandering but isolated wizards whose abilities are limited to only a few complex and often unimpressive rituals. The reason is not only because of the limited information available to humans about magic. Just as important is an organization rumored to have existed during the twilight of the original god-like spellcasters.

Once upon a time, a time before the formation of the world containing Dwilight, there were beings who commanded the formation of realities. But in their twilight, their pride became their undoing. Many worlds collapsed, and many spellcasters were torn from existence. Such a catastrophe was never before seen, and never witnessed afterward. The few surviving spellcasters entrusted chosen beings in their separate realities to prevent such a disaster from ever happening again.

In the reality containing Dwilight, those chosen were select humans, called Balance Keepers, selected purely by chance and met begrudgingly by the spellcaster responsible for that world. Those humans were given very limited access to spells: Those they would need to combat their enemies. Banishment, against the rogue familiars of the spellcasters who made their way into Dwilight and were terrorizing the uninitiated humans. Holy Light, against the foolish humans who chose to sacrifice their humanity for the power to resist the daimons. And while the spellcaster gave the Balance Keepers rituals of Fear and Curse of Rust, their only true weapons against their mortal enemies were their swords and their courage.

And with their remnants of magic, secondary to their stronger duty as defenders of their worlds, the Balance Keepers secretly passed on their ways to each generation in the lofty fortress of Balance's Retreat. These were humans tasked with a heavy duty to protect, but they did not protect their own kind. Their enemies were those who threatened the world, regardless of what form they took. Just as often as they slew monsters, the Keepers felled humans with their blades of steel and determination. All of that, in the name of beings who once nearly destroyed them all.