• tab For centuries the ancient races of Etherea have been separated by vast oceans, located on large islands that to them made up the entirety of the world. These races have formed their own kingdoms and ways of life, independent and unaware of the possibility that other races existed beyond the vast oceans. That was all about to change though...

    tab A powerful mage and academic of one of the races began to study the ways of the Shadow Arts, an ancient way of life and study of magic long forgotten. Through ancient texts and scrolls he delved deeper than any person was believed to have gone. Despite warnings and ridicule from his fellow people he continued to research and dabble in a dangerous and almost all but forgotten way of magic. One night he was visited in a dream by a dark figure that revealed to him the other races. He told many of his fellow people and the Elders of the races outside their island, but this only enraged the Elders and made the others mock him. The mage's rage only fueled his desire to find a way to communicate with these races.

    tab A month after his first dream he was re-visited by the dark figure. In this dream he was told that he was to bring life back to the Shadow Arts and reveal the past and truth as to why and how the races that once were together were separated. Upon waking he jumped out of his bed and went to the Elder's Library, killing the guards he stole one of the ancient manuscripts and headed out to the furthest coast line from the Elders’ city. There he hid and studied the scripts for days trying to find a way to communicate with the other races. He tried many spells and potions to create a way of communication between the races but none of them worked. He thought he had finally found a way to communicate with them when he accidentally opened a powerful portal to the unknown land of Etherea. The mage entered the land in a furry of excitement and partial madness. His proof that he was right was here and nothing would stop him. He was determined to fulfill his destiny and prove everyone wrong. He followed a shadowy figure across the lands and opened up three other portals, each to another race's homeland. The portals required powerful magic and energy to open which left him weaker with each one.

    tab When he was finished he was exhausted and weak; he went off into the darkness of Etherea and has not been heard from since. Many people of Etherea believe he was merely a legend and that the portals were opened up by a disturbance in the magic flowing through the land and air. Others think that the Elders opened up the portals as a test and to cleanse the homelands, seeing who all would obey them and stay in the homelands.

    tab However, each race began to explore this new world. Hundreds of people poured through the portals in the first years of its opening despite the commands from their Elders. The Elders, fearful of what would come, placed guards at the portals. They would not allow any to return and threaten the way of life on the homelands. The exiled explorers and entrepreneurs feared the other races and began to construct large outposts as their home for trade, farming, and training in the ways of combat. They created their own libraries of knowledge and began to train new explorers and generations to fight for their way of life and protect their great outposts. The Elders too created large outposts, but these were military forts that surrounded the portals and assisted their guards from not only denying access to the portals from their own people, but from the other races as well.

    tab This is where our story begins; it has been years since the opening of the portals but Etherea is still fairly unexplored. Many adventurers have set out to explore as much of Etherea as possible but there are many dangers in Etherea other than enemy races. Great chaos and evil is secretly growing in the land of Etherea in a magnitude that even the Elders have never seen…