Once Leonia was the central nation, the brightest star that out shone all others. This was in the time of magic.
Leonia was the fountain from which all magical energies were born. It was the greatest source of etheric power, it was the birthplace of the two Great Mythical Birds - the Stormcrow and the Phoenix.
The Stormcrow was born amidst the Thunder Mountains of Worldcap, birthed in storm and lightning. Once men could look upon the Stormcrow as a physical being, and those with enough power even knew it by its true name – Ullinor, the Lord of Lightning.
The Stormcrow fed half of the world’s magical essence, drawing its energies from the very air and sky. Through its power great mages could control the weather, summon savage storms to consume an enemy, and even move mountains. The Stormcrow was the embodiment of the tempest, the greatest of all beings. Bar one.
Ullinor had a brother, a twin, the Lord of Fire – The Phoenix.
If the Stormcrow was the yang then the Phoenix was the yin, equal halves to one majestic whole.
Where the Stormcrow embodied the dark, the Phoenix was the light, a roaring inferno amidst an endless forest of kindling. Born from the ashes of the very Earth, Aidracil was the equal of its brother in all ways, drawing its energies from the heart of the planet and burning the heavens with its esoteric light.
One supposes it was inevitable. That two all-powerful beings of such incredible magnitude could co-exist without viewing the other’s greatness with jealousy and avarice is perhaps unthinkable.
No man remembers the spark that ignited the conflagration, but a war to end all wars was fought between the Great Birds and their followers. Thousands perished, yet neither being could gain an advantage over the other. The Phoenix’s armies of warriors, mages and mythical beasts crashed incessantly with the equally tremendous hosts of the Stormcrow, but despite decades of bloodshed an unending stalemate ensued.
Until one day, when men feared that the war would last for all eternity, one warrior, Calagath the Betrayer, the mightiest of champions, forged a weapon of insurmountable destruction. The Deadstar – a weapon designed to end all life.
In their final battle the Deadstar was unleashed, and with it the Phoenix and the Stormcrow were banished from all existence forever.
With the loss of the Stormcrow and the Phoenix their magical essence was extinguished. All magical creatures, who were sustained by their power, fled the Earth leaving mankind to face the new age alone.
But man was no longer able to fend for himself. Without magic to fortify them, their great cities fell, their empires crumbled and their people were impoverished. Man fell into a new era of darkness and for two centuries they scrabbled to bring themselves back from the abyss.
There was one nation of man who flourished in this time of adversity. The Winterhearts, a clan of savage warriors from the North, had forever shunned magic, preferring to live a simple existence in the frozen northern mountains. With the collapse of mankind’s power the Winterhearts and their followers struck, grinding south and burning and butchering all that stood in their path. Enraged at centuries of perceived slights, the Winterhearts took satisfaction in carving a path of slaughter through their once magical masters.
With strength of arms and savage brutality, the Winterhearts crushed all opposition and established themselves as Lords of Leonia. The Winterheart kings ruled with tyrannical might and mankind was ushered into a further age of misery.
Two households, the Stormborns and the Fenrirs, once the mightiest of Leonia’s families and close to the essence of the Great Birds, finally took a stand. Uniting their forces they precipitated a great civil conflict and the soil of Leonia once again drank the blood of its people in their thousands.
In a war that would claim the lives of the mightiest heroes, Romulus Fenrir and Eadred Stormborn eventually cast down the old Winterheart King and sent the remnants of his forces crawling back to their frozen northern home. Lacking the strength to fully eradicate the Winterheart lineage, the world was once again poised on a knife-edge as the rebellion’s two great leaders looked to prepare the realm for a New Age. In a stroke of noble gallantry, Eadred Stormborn stepped aside and handed the reins of power to Romulus alone, thus ending the civil war that had torn the kingdom asunder.
Romulus became the new king of Leonia and carried the sole burden of uniting his melting pot of fractured alliances and war torn citizens into some semblance of a unified kingdom.
It is on this delicate stage that the Rise of the Stormcrow is set…
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