The story thus far...

Before the advent, Drew had been a typical enlisted member of the Coast Guard, stationed at the cyber security operations center in DC. He had been enjoying a peaceful night watch when the electricity went out and blue screens appeared before his eyes. They told him about the system, how the Earth he was on had been split into a third dimensional slice and evaluated his abilities, giving him a title, Red Mage. Then it gave him a number of powerful offensive xatherite, crystals that could be used to cast spells, and after a short tutorial left him alone, deep in a military bunker and absolute darkness.

The bunker was now filled with massive cockroaches, car sized spiders, strange undead werecreatures, and orcs. Luckily for Drew, he found other survivors. Unfortunately, the brutal fight to flee the building killed half of them, leaving an Ensign and healer named Sarah Rothschild, and an OS1 named Katie Sabin as the only other survivors. In their last battle with the boss of the dungeon, Sarah was injured and knocked unconscious. Drew and Katie managed to find food and shelter in the base's exchange. Katie stayed with the comatose Sarah while Drew went in search of another healer to heal Sarah.

Traveling through southeastern DC, he killed a group of Trolls who, lead by a powerful Shaman, had been sacrificing humans. Interrupting the ritual and killing a number of trolls, Drew then encountered another survivor named Daryl. Who led him into a building where they weathered a powerful mana charged storm that ate flesh. Daryl asked Drew to help him rescue his wife and a number of other captives. Working towards that goal the group rescued a work crew of survivors who had been sent to gather food. With the help of a healer in that group, a Navy chief named Bill Mather they returned to Sarah.

After waking Sarah up they met with another group of survivors, two Cops sent out by a group of survivors who had taken Nat's Stadium as their home base named JP and Robbi. The newly formed group returned to the other survivors on JFB Bolling and after a number of bloody fights, discovered a back entrance into the DIA building where the captives were being held. During this time Drew was whisked away in his sleep to meet with a Human Protectorate Admiral named Ares who asked Drew to become his squire and gave him two xatherite. One of the xatherite was a fairly simple, if very powerful mental shield, while the other; Aeon, was a divine crystal with the mysterious description, "The beginning of the path."

Ares told Drew that he was special, Red Mages being a particularly rare and valuable resource whose lives were worth more than billions of other humans and told him to gather excellent subordinates that would keep him safe through the trials ahead. Drew slotted both xatherite. Rejecting the admiral’s claim that he was too important to lose, Drew charged head first into a fight against hundreds of trolls. With the benefit of the Aeon xatherite he nearly single handedly killed them, afterward he collapsed.

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While he slumbered Ares warned him against using Aeon until it was attuned to him as well as a warning not to trust Ares' siblings. In particular Hades. Waking up the group split their forces, leaving most of the non-combatants behind, Drew and a small group managed to delve deep into the DIA building where they managed to rescue a room full of children.

Pushing deeper into the building Drew managed to kill the Troll Shaman, after a duel overlooking the pit the trolls had the humans digging and the strange structure they had uncovered. The duel was designed to delay Drew, and while he fought the trolls exterminated hundreds of humans, completing a ritual. The ritual sent a pulse of blue light throughout the dungeon. The survivors regrouped and planned their escape to the Stadium, the only safe place they knew of.

While they waited for a mana storm to pass Drew investigated the mysterious structure the trolls had been unearthing. Discovering that it contained a ley line node, Drew was able to take control of the node. Talking to the version of himself from the first dimensional slice. Drew discovered a path to safety, as well as an ominous deadline. Claiming five other nodes would allow him to create a safe habitat for humanity, but it was a race against time, as a mysterious World Boss known as the Dark Titan would soon arise in DC and try to claim the nodes for himself.

As they talked, the humans killed by the trolls began to rise as Wereghouls. Prompting a furtive escape, Drew suspected that the ghouls, or at least their pack leaders which he called Wereghasts were intelligent, and may remember some of their previous lives. Not wanting to kill what remained of the family and friends of the rescued captives he urged the Officer in Charge, a Naval Captain named Snyder to evacuating the survivors into the danger of the night.

* * *

The first days of advent were a winnowing. Many of those thought to be strong were brought low, and many who were weak were washed away in a sea of blood. The weeks that followed were the tempering. They turned the poorly forged warriors of the old world into the Hundred Heroes that would save the new. The greatest of the Heroes, Jason the Destroyer, was hammered between the forces of the nascent Dark Titan, who began to stir from his slumber, and the never ending tide of the Mana Caught. It was during the tempering that he became eligible for the inheritance.

This is a story from the time before the Greater Age, before the Hundred Heroes were made strong in the fires of the First Age's death. A tale of the tempering, a tale for the bright day, for the shadows grow darker. This is the story of those first forged who created the inheritance.

-Taryn Hollingshead, Seer of the First Gate