2 – The Fall and the Malediction

In the last years of the Age of Relics, a great alliance arose against the Astarians between all the remaining kingdoms of the world. Osterath was besieged, and the combined might of their enemies, and the betrayal of the Erisyr and Oerikan people, who had joined the empire, proved too much for the great city. The power brought to bear in those last days of the war was unlike anything the world had witnessed since the Age of the Everlasting. In a last desperate attempt to break the siege, the Everlasting Relic at the center of Osterath, the Throne of Astaris, was activated in conjunction with all others that had been brought to the city. At that moment the world changed forever, as reality shattered. That day and its consequences would forever be known as The Fall.

The energy that emanated from the Shattered Throne of Astaris created a wound in the world that can never be healed. As reality ripped apart, revealing the chaos beyond the veil of existence, Osterath and the surrounding lands were engulfed in a storm of uncontrollable magic. That storm still rages on, and the cursed lands under its influence became known as the Malediction. Within it, dangers abound. The terrain is inhospitable at the best of times but the magic infused in the land makes it so the Malediction does not limit itself to environments that could be conceived by sane minds, and all manner of nightmarish landscapes are possible. Some say that the Malediction manifests these from the worst fears of those who decide to face it, or worse still, from the depraved depths of the souls it has claimed. For over a thousand years, the Malediction has remained barely explored due to these dangers, but things are starting to change now.

Although most Relics were lost to the siege of Osterath, some remained and were passed down to the survivors, from generation to generation, until they became Legacies. Some brave souls can use these Legacies to stabilize the Malediction just enough to explore it. They go forth, in search of secrets lost to the ages, and the power their ancestors once wielded. These are the Seekers, heroes for a new age of the world. Seekers’ connection to their Legacies gives them the ability to sense other Relics, even within the chaos of the Malediction, making them valuable assets to their factions, but their power has also been the cause of some concern. Some say no single person should wield the terrible power the Seekers have at their disposal, and that they are likely to bring about a second Fall. Others think the Seekers can restore the world to what it once was, in the Golden Age of the Everlasting. Either way, the Seekers hold the key to the future of Agnar, but know not what lies behind the gates, an era of peace and prosperity, or the doom promised by the Fall.