Greetingsto you commoner, merchant, adventurer, warrior, noble or even king. These words are for you. May you draw from it the wisdom of our past and not reproduce its errors.
Always keep in mind that a large number of people have sacrificed everything, sometimes even their life, so that you can read these words. Out of respect for their sacrifices, I will try to remain as objective as possible. Soak up this knowledge and, thanks to it, forge your own legend.
Finally, whatever your status on Orya, don't forget that on Kandorya it no longer has any real importance. Only the accumulation of all our actions will determine our future, the power of some and the weakness of others.
Kandorya
Continent rich in eternal promises
that legendary beings trample with joy
sharing misfortune with the living
on this mysterious land emerging from the mist
Place of glory for those who will be able to tame it
World where time itself seems to be diffracted
Weare, today, on the edge of the abyss.
A merciless war opposes the different deities, entities, magical creatures... Each one, sure of his legitimacy and his right to live on this earth, refuses to have to kneel down in front of the others.
A time fault seems to prevent any travel to Orya, the native land of the settlers.
Time would pass faster and faster on Orya according to the few people who managed to return there. I myself have seen this phenomenon.
More and more rumors are circulating about the return of the dragons: beings, if I believe the legends, with immense power.
Chapter I - The cycle of awakening
The Kandorya Front
Our story begins in the 1230s on Orya .The Mulkesh Empire is at its height and seems to want to dominate all life on earth. Merchant Guild notable Eldric-Nine Lives gathers ten other heroes to recover a legendary relic. Its so-called power would awaken long-forgotten ancient gods. The heroes then hoped thanks to this to stop the Mukesh armies. After much research, they finally discovered that the object was locked in a dark tower in the Mayjay desert.
The heroes, determined to save the world, faced the elements of this wild and merciless land. Once there, dark creatures and powers guarded the place. The quest was deadly: of the eleven heroes, six died, and in the confusion, Eldric-Nine-Lives and the artifact disappeared. For several years, no one heard of him or this dark object. However, during this same period, Emperor Mulkesh significantly slowed his expansion. This fearsome tyrant seemed to be concentrating on other projects.
Colonization
(Year 1 of the new settler calendar – i.e. 1250 on Orya)
Eldric-Neuf-Vies reappeared in the late 1240s, when the island of Kandorya was discovered by the Merchants' Guild. In living memory, this land had remained invisible and inaccessible. However, the Merchants Guild had managed to regain possession of an item that allowed them to access it. Thus under the direction of Eldric, they founded the city of Edenorya and began to colonize the surroundings.
Shortly after, they had the surprise and the misfortune to find themselves facing an army of the Mulkesh Empire in full colonization of this new land .As usual, the Mulkesh demanded total submission and began to exterminate the recalcitrant. Not being powerful enough to counter such a force, Eldric proposed to his superiors to invite all the peoples of Orya to come and colonize these lands.
Thus, guided by the Merchants' Guild, the new settlers landed en masse and began to expand on the island.
Eldric established the Edenorya fair: a commemorative event of the landing, all nations were asked to forget their differences for a few days and come and share their discoveries.
It was in this context that I landed to participate in my first fair in Kandorya.
No sooner had we settled in than the Mulkesh armies set out to try to impose their law on the settlers. For the first time in history, many nations, despite being enemies, joined forces to repel the common invader.
In the days that followed, the remaining heroes, former acolytes of Eldric, came to him to ask what had happened to him. They learned that Eldric had retrieved the relic: a large scepter with a skull on one side and a goat's skull on the other. After the battle in the dungeon, he managed to escape with the item. Unfortunately, nothing escaped the Mulkesh spies lurking in the shadows who stole the scepter from Eldric.
In parallel, creatures appeared, because the settlers had, inadvertently or voluntarily, awakened the former masters of the island: the Pragmas.
On one side: Daerys the Collector, and on the other: Eneris the Queen of Kersis'Kal, ancient name of the largest city occupying these lands more than a millennium ago.
Lady Daerys managed to retrieve the scepter. The latter, seriously weakened and subtly controlled by the daughter of Emperor Mulkesh who came to Kandorya, made the most chaotic use of it, raising hordes of undead. The settlers had no choice but to take up arms to defend their lives and those of their families.
The Queen, for her part, seemed to dread something locked under a stone table and asked for help to keep it in this state. Studies and analyzes of the time showed that this table dated from the end of Kersis'Kal.
The Queen and the Collector eventually clash, each recruiting followers. Taking advantage of the general chaos, the Mulkesh used the scepter to send the darkest creatures to exterminate the colonists. Once again we united and succeeded in defeating their plans and their army. Princess Mulkesh fled with the scepter. These various struggles had a very heavy price, and four of the last five heroes perished.
Finally, rumors of the awakening of another Prama reached my ears: Salamos the Builder, who would be the brother of the Queen and the Collector. Despite my investigations, I was able to gather very little information about him. Some unverified rumors tend to link him to the cult of Belios. But to what extent ?
The Awakening of the Void
(Year 2 of the new settler calendar – i.e. 1251 on Orya)
Back at the fair, and once the "slight" inter-faction tensions had calmed down, the more or less united Pragmas came to seek help to reinforce the magic power of the stone table .In the scraps of memories they seem to find from fair to fair, the Pragmas taught the settlers that the table was nothing but a powerful cork impeding one of the most powerful currents of thought in the Void. Worn out by time, perhaps from our arrival on the island and our chaotic use of magic, the cork leaked energy, gas, or whatever from that Void, but hitherto unknown creatures appeared. The settlers nicknamed them the Whisperers: beings in white clothes, with long tentacles, emitting a slight rattling noise, so nicknamed because they bend over their victims as if to whisper a word to them in death.
ThePragmas surrounded themselves with warriors and ritualists. Each had his task: the warriors repelled the creatures while the Pragmas, helped by the ritualists, had to perform three rituals in order to seal this plug again. Once the first two rituals were successful, what was locked up was seized with panic (maybe it was driven mad by this millennium of confinement or maybe it was in its nature?) put all its power in order to free itself. He managed to take the mind control of some settlers who turned their weapons against their brothers. A fratricidal struggle of rare violence ensued. Some Pragmas doubting success decided to flee, teleporting away from the fight, abandoning the ritualists to certain death. Others, however, managed to save their followers.
This is how the Pragma coalition lost the battle. The prison shackle was broken and what it contained escaped. Some time later, those who were under the influence regained their free will. According to numerous studies, it seems that there was no sequelae for the victims. control them. (Although heavily decried, this theory seems to be the most probable so far).
Likewise, I remain convinced that there are other plugs on the island, put in place by the Pragmas during their war against the Void, but due to their partial amnesia, it no longer seems possible today to create any or know where these shackles-prison have been placed.
However, not all Pragmas had this goal: Archibald, grandson of the Queen and Salamos, used his power to traumatize and bring chaos back to the settlers. Brave knights aided by the Ritualist Guild confronted him, freeing the peasants from his dark grip.
Despite their struggle, Archibald had managed to escape, not without capturing the burgomaster Eldric-Nine-Life, with the help of dark winged creatures.
Meanwhile, sensing the failure of the Pragmas, the ONEs (the alliance of Orcs, Dwarves and Elves) had managed to summon Sepheria. According to their legends, it would be the first living being who walked on Orya, Primordial Being, who gave them life. However, Séphérie seems to have only a deep contempt for humans, who would be for her -I quote- "only a devastating scourge for the planet".
Sepheria used all of her power with the help of the ONEs to weave a magic and temporal bubble so that the Void or any other creature could never return to Orya. Some rumors say that she was very discreetly helped by another entity whose power is beyond comprehension.
This bubble now encompasses the island and its surroundings, preventing round trips between Kandorya and Orya. To date, only the Wolf, the flagship of the Merchants' Guild, seems capable of making the trip. All attempts to remove this bubble or circumvent it have failed miserably, going so far as to cause the death or disappearance of those who attempted it.
Another phenomenon worries me: since its implementation, time seems to pass faster on Orya than on Kandorya,
In the spring of the year 3, I made a trip aboard the Wolf, which took me several months, when only a fortnight had passed on Kandorya. If I believe the reports of the round trip of the Wolf between the autumn of the year 3 and the spring of the year 4, several years would have passed on Orya, compared to six months on Kandorya. The most advanced research on the subject suggests that the phenomenon seems to grow exponentially over time.
The return of entities
(Year 3 of the New Settler Calendar – i.e. 1252-1254 on Orya)
Returningwith the Wolf in the spring of Year 3, I discovered with other colonists the news of the despicable murder of the Concorde and the return of our dear burgomaster Eldric-Neuf-Vies. This one proclaimed that he had been saved by the representative of the Void, Anonymus, against creatures named Fataes Noires and Archibald who had kidnapped him.
Thus, in gratitude, and against the advice of his closest advisers and friends, the burgomaster authorized the Void to have an embassy in the same way as all factions at the next fairs.
Afew months later, once the fair opened and inter-faction tensions subsided, new entities emerged: the Totemic Gods, humanoid beings whose physique is close to the various creatures of the animal kingdom. Father Océanos among the Pirates, Stigmatus and Kfar among the Barbarians. Ancient creatures with powers as complex as they are immense, they seem to be the last representatives of their species.
The same number of entities appeared: the Primordials of the ONEs, Aetehor came back to life. Today, many ethologists are asking the question: was it not a simple Pragma creation? Other minor Pragmas also appeared.
Finally, the Void embodied in Anonymus was also present, informing those who wanted to hear it that only Knowledge was important and welcomed those who wanted it. However, only those who proved themselves worthy were able to rise in Knowledge, the others perished.
These different entities each worked on their own.
Anonymus created the Obelisk of the Void: a pearly-colored object advocating on the plain, and therefore I do not know to this day the usefulness. The Pragmas created their Pyramid which, according to them, stabilizes magic. The Totemic Gods gathered their followers. Finally, for their part, the ONEs got their hands on ancient Dragon eggs and created an incubator to hatch them.
Thetensions between all these entities were great. A being named Baldar appeared and offered a talk. It would seem that each of the great entities accepted it. Perhaps they had sensed in him a representative of an even more powerful entity. This was confirmed when he announced during the ritual of the balance that he was only a simple Spark of Life coming to bring the word of -I quote- "IT". During this ritual, he brings together the entities around him and a mysterious balance, offering them a balance where each entity would live in harmony with the others.
All refused such a balance:
The Pragma coalition, the last owners of the island, say at home, ready to share their land with the settlers, but do not want to compete with anyone.
The ONEs, who would be the first beings to have walked on this earth, consider humans as parasites who have massacred their people many times and who take up more space every day to their detriment.
The confederation of the Totemic Gods, which would have been betrayed in the very distant past by the ONEs then by the Pragmas, refuses any possibility of compromise and wishes to live free.
The Emptiness desires above all Knowledge. This concept of compromise is an aberration for him. Things are or are not.
This rupture and such promiscuity of hatred and resentment could only reflect one thing: the beginning of a conflict that still bloodies our island today.
It was in this context that our dear Mayor Eldric decided to step down.
He left the territories of Edenorya and left in anonymity to explore this legendary island, even abandoning his loving wife.
Chapter II - The Cycle of War
The War of Knowledge
(Year 4 of the new settler calendar, i.e. around 1260 on Orya)
Peacehaving failed, each of the creatures prepared its troops, recruiting among the settlers. Rumors of war surfaced during the year, supported by reports indicating an escalation of the conflict. The battles ending as quickly as they began, the settlers, few in number to effectively monitor their land, were powerless, and in the end ended up suffering (burnt fields, devastated farms, collapsed mines…).
Seeing the conflict getting worse, the Merchants' Guild attempted a winter council, which was a resounding failure.
The fair still took place. The settlers were surprised to discover that the ritual circle, present in front of Edenorya for three years, then presented a gaping crack.
It is from this fault that "IT", in order to channel this tension, made appear four new Sparks of Life and created four banners representing each camp. "IT" entrusted the Sparks of Life with the creation of a strange object called Symbol of Knowledge.
The factions therefore clashed on the lands of Edenorya. Once again, fratricidal conflicts appeared. According to their respective points of view, the brothers clashed to protect and impose their divinity. The Void, already considerably weakened, failed to impose itself, unlike the ONEs whose power and strategy seemed irresistible.
Likewise, once their Symbol of Knowledge was built, guided by Sparks of Life, the entities entered the Labyrinth of the Void. After many trials, they managed to activate it and discovered that the symbols contained bits of their past.
Edenorya, seeing his lands set on fire and bloodshed, tried to intervene, calling on his most loyal friends. But the entities came to a consensus, except for the Void, and confronted the coalition of the city and unaffiliated humans. This battle of titans opposing, on the one hand, Guildian magic to the united power of the entities, and on the other, opposing the physical forces of almost all the fighters present at the fair, ended in a status quo in favor of Edenorya. : the burgomaster, while he was only courageously protecting his lands in flames, was ousted.
Another rumor is spreading more and more about Kandorya: Negens, the great White Dragon, is back .In many of our writings he is shown as a demonic creature, but these four years on Kandorya have taught me one thing: not to take all stories at face value.
And if Negens was not the monster that we are described? Why did "HE" want to be created the symbols ? Where do the real origins of this conflict and all these tensions come from? And above all, who is this “HE”? What is his goal ?
Likewise, explorers are back. I fear that once again the factions will tear each other apart to be able to claim these new territories.
Todaythe future looks bleak. I hope that by reading these lines, you have a better insight into the events and my fears for the future. I will continue to walk the fair in search of the truth in order to tell it. To do this, I had to make the greatest and most terrible sacrifice there is: I had to leave my brothers in arms, my friends, my privileges and my past so that nothing could hinder my quest for knowledge and of truth. Some will probably try to silence me, but what do I care about their anger at the power of words and justice. I will continue the mission that I have set myself whatever the cost. This will be my legacy for future generations. May they finally find and live in peace.
And you, what legacy will you leave on Kandorya ?
Thorbadin Bloodbeard
Winter of year 4 of the settler calendar