Seraphen began as a land for dragons. The gigantic forms of the beasts were able to carve out the land until is suited their pleasure. There was coordinated effort that historians would explain as divine planning as to why the continent turned out the way that it did—but to the dragons, it simply must have been. Of those that first existed, several odd peculiarities began taking shape in exactly how the dragons carved their homes. The dragons back then were all of similar birth—white-scaled and their wings not yet formed for flight, but their own preferences shaped the environments that they would create. They were known as the God Dragons – those with extraordinary abilities to create anything they so desired.
In the north, Arrok who had the toughest claws and the sharpest teeth bared out mountains to create massive dwellings inside. It deemed the land of the molten mountain ranges as Pyrron—a land that future dragon spawn would bare similar roughness in their scales as red hues began to overtake the white.
In the northeast Nocta created the moon and hung it over the world. The light shone down over the rustic farmlands of Noctilum Novae. Nocta’s scales darkened to a deep black that absorbed the moon’s light and cast back the shadow to imitate its revolution.
In the east, Zephyr sowed forests and hills as far as the eye could see. Lush greenery sprouted from edge to edge of their domain. They grew to become the forests of Windruth. Their scales were dyed a deep green, and they were the first of the God Dragons to learn to fly.
In the southeast Quincelle shaped and hardened magma from the planets cores into metal—fashioning it over her own scales. Golden plating covered her lightly yellow tinted scales as she worked creating with fine metals. She—like her land—had known the wonders of metallurgy. Valencia was created as the land of innovation.
Whereas in the south, the dragon with the smoothest scales carved out fractions of its land to allow the sea to meld within. Magnus Marinus’ scales turned to a sapphiric-blue, and her claws most resembled that of other aquatic life. Her region came to be known as Oshus.
In the southwest region that would come to be known as Dandé, Darrios desired privacy above all else and so he shrouded his land with a cloak of immense fog. His scales were tinted a dark indigo and he crafted his lands in secret.
In the west, Nairé flooded thick hills with golden flowers and flatlands to build marvelous sights. His scales turned Violet and brilliantly reflected the sun’s beauty upon his land of Tora.
In the northwest, Anveil preferred the arid sands. She churned up storms of sand and crackling electricity to fashion glass. Her scales were hued the color of amber. The deserts had come to be known as Abu Kheppi.
And finally, in the center of all eight lands stood the final dragon—Endrose stood as the unifying force tying the lands to a single mass. He stood as the Day—the sun and the ruler of them all. His scales remained a blinding white and history shows that the future legendary sword Caliburn The Day and the legendary shield Aegis The Night were forged from Endrose’s scales. The central capitol was named Larinae, meaning all-encompassing in the dragonspeak.
Altogether this land became known as Seraphen and was home to the dragons for many years. Over time, the dragons adopted more comfortable forms to fit the growing population—smaller visages which they took to most often—the humanoid forms that currently outnumber the draconic persona of the olden days.
The human form became the standard evolutionary trait that began to breed and rule, but they still contained dragon blood—the resonance to the God Dragons of old. Long after the formation of Larinae as the Central Kingdom the God Dragons chose successors to carry on the symbol of their power. Endrose—who had taken the human form under the name of Arthur Endrose tasked a mighty wizard named Merlyn to capture their essences in several gemstones to feed their energy to the land. He stored his magic within different gemstones to insert in large lighthouse-like towers that were to be erected over deep veins within the planets core to bless each of the nine territories that surrounded Larinae.
Merlyn bestowed to Tora the amethyst gemstone dubbed Merlyn’s Space. He made the decision early on to not let the flow of magic run freely through the continent as the risk of allowing everybody access to power as great and life altering as magic without the proper care and study could lead to the end of them all. Merlyn’s Space distorted particles in the air of Toran borders giving civilians natural magical tendencies while they remain in Tora. This comes at a cost of physical health, so magic is taught with extreme caution and intense training, leading toward the next generation of wizards of the land to pick up the knowledge. The magic remaining within the borders was demanded by the Central King himself, as he feared granting magic would allow for an easy vie for the crown. Stability was paramount in establishing Larinae and the nine kingdoms. This was a restraint that Merlyn was willing to compromise on.
Next, to Dandé, Merlyn cast together the dark indigo gem named Merlyn’s Shadow. With its majesty flowing through their land’s lifeblood, they would be totally and completely invisible to outsiders and other unwanted people—Merlyn himself and the Central King would remain the two exceptions to the magic of the gemstone.
Magnus Marinus in her human form took the cerulean Merlyn’s Wave back toward the southern edge of Oshus and utilized it to help those within its lands barriers to breathe underwater so that they could construct their cities under the surface of the waves.
To Quincelle, Merlyn gave the golden gemstone called Merlyn’s Bolt. With it the people within its lands would be able to harness electricity and temper grand machinations to envelop a technological paradise.
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To Zephyr, who remained in his dragon form until his death, Merlyn gave the gift of the emerald, Merlyn’s Gale. The gift came too with limits toward the borders of the nation itself, but upon placing the gale in the Windruthian tower, Zephyr saw the currents underneath their landmass start to rise into the sky. They were able to cultivate new land to expand their floating lands as far as the borders of Windruth sat—and deep below the forests would recover a natural habitat for creatures and the like to repopulate.
To Nocta, Merlyn gifted the pitch-black gemstone of Merlyn’s Time. It allowed the rulers of Noctilum Novae to manipulate the very fabric of time within its land’s borders. Merlyn knew this sort of power was very dangerous if misused, so he put a special limiter on the magic itself that allowed only the ruler of the nation to approve specific requests so that they could work together on a public effort. Its strengths were unparalleled for the rest of Seraphen, though. It would allow a constant streaming of sources of supplies into Larinae if relations were to remain strong. Merlyn himself chose to keep a very close eye on this nation in the immediate years following.
Darrios was given the ruby gemstone in Merlyn’s Flame to hone the legendary Pyrronian forges in the deep mountains of Seraphen. Arthur was very pleased to establish a great forge at so dependable a length that he immediately sought to commission work for the Larinaen elite force that were to be established.
And finally the last of Merlyn’s gemstones was given to Anveil from Abu Kheppi who received the gemstone of amber light, Merlyn’s Storm to grant natural protection against the desert’s many natural dangers. It was a treacherous desert-scape that was fraught with frequent sand and windstorms so brutal, the gemstone allowed peaceful travel and the foundation of a beautiful oasis at the apex of their capitol.
The totality of Seraphen was strengthened under Arthur’s rule for numerous years as the beginning of its economy had grown. Larinae acted as a central force that mandated its various demands on the different regions in exchange for the goods and services provided by a centralized mediator during conflict and for the magic that Merlyn had provided. Throughout this time the land grew prosperous for the fifty-two years he ruled as its Central King.
During his rule, Arthur had sired twins with his wife, Claribel. And by the year 156 these two—Clancy and Chase—had Larinae embroiled in turmoil during the time of the inheritance of the throne. Clancy was set to take rule as the elder of the two boys—a birthright that pitted the two boys as well as the entirety of Seraphen into a Civil War that lasted ten years until Chase’s surrender in 166. Clancy held the throne proper as Arthur had passed on halfway through the Civil War. The peace in Larinae would not last long as the outer kingdoms began to doubt Larinae’s strength and authority after the devastation of the war had affected all of Seraphen.
This comes to a fruition when Noctilum Novae’s fourth elder, Servos II called for public retaliation against Larinae not two years later in 168—a rebellion that is stamped out quickly by the recovered Clancy and the Larinaen Elite Force under his rule. This rebellion led to a near total crippling of the Novaen people. Merlyn had been keeping an eye as he knew he ought to, and it was at this point that their gift from the Central King was too much for them. He had cursed the black gem—Merlyn’s Shadow in his dying days and the nation has since known only darkness—time has frozen forever.
For over five hundred years Seraphen continued to grow and grow, and general life expectancies began to shorten per generation. As the number of lives increased, the number of conflicts simultaneously joined them and as such the continent of Seraphen was no stranger to war. In the year 528 the seeds of rebellion would soon settle over the land, so too do the seeds of one boy’s personal rebellion.
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Jace sure wanted to rebel against the fields he had been asked to plow. It was sooo boring. His day was to be like any other—a morning of immense struggles brought by the intensity of the sun. The land he lived on was off the surface of the planet—and so the turning side of the day seemed prime to irritate him.
His family’s shack rested at the crest of the tallest hill outside of the main shire—and his own room was aimed right toward the rising sun. Though, it wasn’t him that woke up first from the blinding rays of the morning, but instead the family’s pet, Ursol. It looked like a breed of sheep mixed with cat—thick wool keeping it warm as the gales picked up around the village, but small enough to act as a second blanket within bed.
Ursol liked Jace the most but saying so was a given considering how his uncle disliked anything that moved that didn’t directly bring him food or profit. Jace’s mother had fought for her son to keep the creature on the trade of Jace’s help on his uncle’s farm.
When the morning light broke through, Ursol perked his head up and his ears heightened in awareness. He cooed and hopped up on the bed, shoving his head against Jace’s side.
Jace groaned, moving his hand aimlessly trying to convince Ursol to stop. When it was clear that Jace wasn’t going to get up from Ursol’s prodding, he bent down and pounced on Jace’s chest. He sputtered up in surprise. Ursol was pretty small, but the extra wool added some extra weight to his attack.
“Fine, fine. You have won. You may claim your prize,” Jace muttered, chuckling his irritation away.
Ursol perked up and cocked his head. His eyes glowed with excitement as bright as the rising sun. Jace swung his legs over the edge of his bed and gripped the edge of his bed. His body was sore from the previous days’ work. He had tilled the land for a long chunk of the day as punishment for mouthing off to his old Uncle Silar.
The name even brought a headache on—if he could avoid hearing it again he would be much happier…but he knew that wouldn’t be possible. His Mom needed her brother as he took them both in after Jace’s father was presumed dead on the surface. His father, Amatin, was a soldier for the central kingdom. He left three years ago on a request from the central king Percival Endrose to investigate threats of rebellion stemming from the northern rockies of Pyrron. He left, and things for Jace and his mother have only gotten worse.
With Jace’s father out of the picture, his family stopped receiving the stipends from the central kingdom Jace’s father’s work used to bring in. Their land had to be seized by the chieftain to convert their goods back into community resources. That led toward their current living conditions. Jace’s mother picked up work as a delivery carrier—ironically carrying the parcels from the surface that at one point had included the money they had survived on.
And Jace…he worked the fields day in and day out and saw not a single copper for it. Silar took in the fruits of their combined labor and put it toward his own personal payments.
While the others his age had to only worry about what service they would serve Windruth, Jace had simply only to think about how tired he would feel tonight after he pushed away his feeling tired now. It was a compounded feeling that seemed to explore in him how deep exhaustion could run.
A pounding sounded once, twice, and then a final time on the wall and Jace tensed, his shoulders tightening and Ursol became rigid beside him. It was his least favorite sensation in the world, and it originated from Silar’s room which sat on the opposite side of the wall. The knocks were always fueled by his uncle’s irritation, impatience, or short temper. He knew his Mom hated more than anything the conflicts that arose between Silar and Jace—she was caught in the middle of conflict that was not easily solvable. So, he could only work to keep his head down and avoid the complication as much as possible…at least, until the day was done.
Jace had a plan, but he had to wait until nightfall in order to pull it off. He stood and stretched and dressed himself for the day’s work—slipping into loose clothes he could tie back on demand, and he bent down toward Ursol, cupping his head in his hands.
“After tonight I’m going to be gone. Silar isn’t going to hesitate to kill you once it’s clear I’m gone. But you have to stay until that point…you hear me? If you go then it’ll be clear that I’m gone way earlier than I want them to think. However, you have to get out if it looks like he’s going to try to get rid of you.” Jace pleaded with the small creature. “You have to go somewhere safe. I’ll find you when I get back, okay?”
He had hoped upon hope that he was understood. Ursol was smart, but it wasn’t like he could confirm he did. If things were different he would have taken Ursol out with him, but he knew where he was going he would not be able to care for and feed Ursol. It was going to be tough as it was getting food for himself. With a final pat he stood up and turned toward the door.
He took in a sharp breath and headed out the door to meet up with Silar on the outside. He knew the day’s work was going to be grueling, but it was going to be worth it. When his plan worked he was going to finally fix all that had gone wrong in his life.
He was going to be on the surface searching for his father.