An Introduction

[flippedside]

Identity has been around for a while, with various changes in appearance and set-up. To keep things simple for both new and old RPers, I wanted to give a brief overview of the world and the general storyline. Just a reminder first, though, that all sorts of random and interesting stuff can be found in the Library and History boards.

This, however, is our story.

For generations, the emperor and his empress have reigned in Tannoch, the capital of Rhyallia. Their rule is enforced by strength, law, and the mysterious earth stone, a greenish gem that is said to have the power to change the earth. The myth of the stone has grown old, though, and many doubt the actual power of the earth stone--preferring to live their lives as they can.

A small group--called the Priests and Priestesses of the Stone--practice magic that uses the power inherent in the earth stone. There is a theory that the energy of the earth itself is somehow collected and trapped inside the stone, and the priests and priestesses are constantly trying to find new ways to tap that power and use it to their own ends. So far they have not been terribly successful.

Ancient legends suggest that there were once five stones that correspond to the five shape-shifting elements: earth, air, fire, night, and water. Some continue to hunt for the missing stones, using bits of ancient lore and legend. Most disbelieve such tales as myth.

But there is a far more ancient--and deadly--lore that is about to shred through the apparent peace of Rhyallia.

Here is where the real story begins...


In ages beyond the memory of anything living, there was a great war. The Void, the nothingness that utterly hates life...awoke. When it awoke, it charged seven mysterious gems with power innate to certain creatures. Five of those stones would eventually drown in human blood, causing wars both physical and magical as humans fought for power. The strange magic inherent in those five stones would eventually turn the humans into the creatures they are now--shape-shifters.

But the other two stones belonged to creatures that live on in the legends and nightmares of Rhyallia. Dragons, phoenix, centaurs, and things even more unimaginable once lived (not always peacefully) in the same world as the humans. Their essence was somehow connected to two more stones--star and storm. The creatures of star and storm hid these two stones, and the humans have never learned of their existence.

When the void first awoke, it shattered part of the earth, and changed some of the creatures living on it. One of these was a human who gained incredible powers...including power over death. A great war was fought, and eventually he and his kin--those like him, with the power of the void, rather than an element--were entombed in ice, as they could not be killed.

They were forgotten, over the centuries.

What was not forgotten was the animosity between the humans and the other races and creatures of the world. It was a human who had started that first great war, and it was humans who had gone to his side, destroying the other creatures. It was humans who continued to war, even when everyone else retreated as far as they dared to the north, and it was humans who caused the destruction of much of the earth.

The creatures of the Northern Wastes have not forgotten...and they have long memories.

~

Now, nightmare creatures, once touched by the void through falling stars, are awakening in the Northern Wastes. Perhaps time has eroded whatever arcane magic once entombed them, or perhaps the void has woken again. It has been a slow awakening, centuries long, perhaps, in which ancient, star-blessed creatures have slowly risen to devastate the hidden lands to the north. The ancient guardians--the dragons--long weakened by their own conflicts, were at last all-but wiped out when the first of the deathless creatures awoke and escaped its prison.

In Rhyallia, a minority has rebelled against the emperor and empress, though they have done little against the ruling nobility. Instead, Rhyallians continue comfortably in their lives, unaware of a growing threat in the heart of the Northern Wastes, and of a mysterious change that seems to be occurring within the earth stone itself...