Pre-Sundering
The Land was whole and on it were four great Realms; that of Men whose lives were short yet burned brightly; the stoic Dwarves and their mastery of fire and forge; the nomadic Orc Tribes, both savage and majestic; and the Fae who dwelt in the great woods, as old as the trees themselves.
At the centre of the land rose a large tower crafted of
smooth rock atop which sat a crystal, ever reflecting the light of both suns
and moon upon the Land. The Tower had
existed long before any historic record or verbal tradition could recount and
over time became the neutral ground where the four realms would convene and
hold council.
As time passed and the realms became more advanced it was
the Dwarves who first discovered that the Crystal was more than just a beacon
and held other more mysterious properties.
So did the races come together in a great endeavour to discover the enigma
of the Crystal, each bringing something unique; the strength of the Orcs; the
ingenuity of the Dwarves; the magic of the Fae; and the vision of Men. A great machine was built and soon the
purpose of the Crystal was discovered, it was a portal to other worlds of
strange landscapes and unfamiliar stars, each of which had a Crystal at its
centre.
These worlds were rich in new resources and at first all
prospered with the newfound discovery. However
over time each realm tried to gain more influence over control of the Crystal
in order to better reap the great bounties that existed on the other side. The Council of the Tower, who had up to this
point independently governed the Crystal and its use, fell upon itself with
bitter infighting which heralded the start of the War of the Crystal.
The Sundering
Each Realm vied for control of the Tower, fighting a bloody
war all the way up to its very steps and in the process created a vast region
of desolation around it. Eventually, and
only after each Realm had suffered hitherto unknown losses, it was decided that
the Council of the Tower should reconvene so the heads of each Realm and their
advisors could meet and bring peace back to the land. This was not to be.
A Prince of Men who had fought during the War of the Crystal
and who had seen first-hand the horror it had caused his people did not agree
with the reforming of the Council and saw no reason as to why the Realm of Men
should not take the Crystal for themselves, for it was he who had held the foot
of the Tower when the truce was called and was so close to claiming it for the
Realm of Men. Nevertheless, when he was
called upon to join his King at the Council he obeyed without question but a
shadow lay over his heart and a cruel plot brewed in his mind.
The Prince carefully manoeuvred men loyal to himself into
positions within the King’s entourage and once the doors were closed as the
Council met beneath the light of the Crystal they struck. Taken unawares the other delegates were
quickly subdued with only the Orcs suffering any loses due to their
unwillingness to be cowed by ‘mere’ Men.
With the attention of the room firmly on him the Prince went into a
ferocious tirade, years of pain, anger and bitterness finally set free until at
the end he drew his broadsword and smote the Crystal to its core. The energies of the Crystal surged through
the Prince ravaging his body and soul, finding nothing but darkness and in turn
reflecting that back across all the Realms, then the Crystal fractured and with
it the Land.
As the delegates of the Realms fled the Tower each seized a
fragment of the Crystal in a desperate attempt to salvage something from this
catastrophe before making good their escape as the Land tore itself apart. All that is but the Prince and his men who
stood unmoving as the Tower quaked with the upheaval, enthralled by the now
pale light of what remained of the Crystal, cold dead eyes and grey flesh a
dark reflection of the men they once were.
War of the Sundered
Realms
With the Realms now forever sundered from each other they had only one means of acquiring the resources they needed to survive, travel through a Crystal portal. Each realm developed their own means of travel through their fragment of the Crystal based upon the great work they had all undertaken however just as the Crystals they used were but parts of a whole, scarred and tarnished, so was Crystal travel now a dangerous endeavour as the portals created were no longer entirely stable. This however wasn’t the only side effect of the Sundering, for the pale light of the ruined Crystal that bathed each realm sent out a perpetual aura of despair which crept into the hearts of all those who saw it and so grew a bitterness against the other Realms whom they had been so close to creating a new peace with.
It was with this growing enmity that two of the Realms first
met on another world, there to take resources back to their suffering people, and
the War of the Sundered Realms began.
Each Realm began a campaign of militarising the worlds they travelled to
in order to horde all the precious resources for themselves. It was during this time that Realm controlled
worlds began to be assailed by an unknown force. Preceded by a dark fog they would attack
without reason, not interested in the resources that had been gathered or even
the fortresses and outposts that had been built but ever did they try to reach the
portal that would lead back to the home world.
During such an attack on an outpost of Men was the identity
of the dark force finally discovered for the Captain who commanded the outpost
was old and had spent many years in the service of his King. He caught sight of someone he thought long
dead or at the very least lost to a forsaken destiny, the former Prince of Men,
now transformed by the Sundering into a monstrous entity, the Castellan of the Pale
Tower.
While the other Realms had built their Crystal portals so too did the Castellan’s minions labour to build one of their own. Slaved to the will of their lord, they worked tirelessly to harness the power of the ruined Crystal for the Castellan hated what he had become and saw only one way to reverse the effects of the Sundering, re-forge the Crystal anew by taking back that which had been stolen, the Crystal fragments at the heart of each realms portal. With these in his possession he would be made whole again as Master of the Crystal and control not only the Land but all the worlds that lay beyond the Crystal portal.
