Before us, before man, there were the Watchers. The Watchers are almighty beings that live in a realm far away from our own. Beings that created us and breathed life inside the hollow shells we used to be back when this world was nothing more than a barren wasteland. Back when the Four Vales were nothing more but a big pile of coal and rubble. The world was dead and it was supposed to remain dead, for the Watchers had looked in their flames and they saw doom. Even the mightiest among their ranks, the Gods, did not know what was coming, but to fully understand this story, I will have to start at the beginning. The beginning, The Dawn of Man…

Prologue

First I will tell you something about the Watchers themselves. Nobody knows how their kind came to be, they have always been there and will always remain there. You might wonder where this ‘there’ is. Where do the Watchers live? Well, we don’t know. All we know is that the Watchers wander the skies above us, watching us, their creations. Not all of them live up there, but we’ll come to that later. The Watchers are not equal, some of them are better, greater than others. These are the Gods. The Gods all possess a certain ability that makes them so powerful.

There is the God of the Air, Lord of Wisdom: Shinden. Shinden is the wisest of all beings. He is always looking for ways to improve the world, to further develop our civilization. The God of Fire, however, is not so kind. Furnox is the Master Tactician. He has a mind for war, in a way he actually is war. One of the more savage Gods is The God of the Earth: Skar. With his horrifying looks, he is usually not considered a Watcher, since he has no human-like form. He prefers the company of the savage beasts that roam the Serpents’ Wasteland. He has the face and chest of a lion, the horns of a goat and the slithering body of a serpent. His mouth is filled with a poison that burns through rock and stone, allowing him to dig tunnels through almost every material. The Goddess of the Sea, Elisia, prefers the company of others. She is the Lady of Deception and therefore she is not limited to just one physical appearance. There’s also the Goddess of Growth, Eria, with a mind for all living things, both man and beast, though she prefers the latter since man always seeks to destroy and conquer. Raven, The Messengergod, has an exceptional memory which allows him to remember well… pretty much everything. He is also the Judge, since he is the only Watcher who can remember all of the laws. Last but not least there is the God of Light, Rhux. Rhux is the King, the Alpha, of all Watchers and has an exceptionally kind mind. He is also the one who sheds his light upon the Four Vales every day.

However, there is one more God. Sarthox, The God of Time. He is a formless being that controls Time itself. He knows both the future and the past and can walk in both times if that would please him. His task, his power requires him to be sealed off from the rest of the world, for always there shall be those who seek to control Time. There is only one sign Sarthox gives us, the nocturnal light of the moon. This Supreme Council ruled over all Watchers and there was peace, but when they found the barren wasteland that is our world, trouble started. The peace slowly started to break down. The first crack showed itself when Laurel, who was very close with Rhux, suggested the idea of creating life in the wasteland below. This idea divided the Gods, for the Watchers were not supposed to interfere with the things below. Rhux, Eria and Shinden encouraged the idea, but Furnox, Elisia and Skar disagreed, for they believed things should remain as they were. They believed that creating life, might end in the oppression of all Watchers. Raven and Sarthox tried to stay out of the conflict. When Laurel saw that things weren’t really going her way in the council, she looked down onto the wasteland and she knew that it couldn’t remain that way, so he persuaded Rhux to descend with her to the earth and create their world.

Rhux agreed, he couldn’t just sit idly by while the world below them decayed in emptiness. Thus, they created a pathway to the wasteland and when their feet touched the ground, they felt they had done the right thing. As for the miracle that happened next, we also don’t know too much about that. All we know is that all Watchers possess The Spark, some sort of life force. Every night we look to the sky and see thousands of lights, these are The Sparks. What we do know about this miracle is that Rhux and Laurel managed to combine their Sparks and they gave it to the Earth. Suddenly, the ground stirred and turned green. Trees came up from the ground, while the waters around them turned blue and were suddenly filled with life. All kinds of creatures emerged from the earth until eventually, men showed their face and Rhux and Laurel were filled with love for their creation. They helped them build and thrive. Under their care, mankind grew rapidly, but their secret couldn’t be kept a secret forever…

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The other Watchers, including the Gods, found out and they too descended to the Earth. Most of them rejoiced when they saw this beautiful creations, but not all of them. Saarthunix, a God on the rise, saw what Laurel and Rhux did and he called it a monstrous betrayal, for they did not wait for the council’s consent when they built their world. The council, however, decided not to do anything about it. This angered Saarthunix and with him, Furnox, Skar and Elisia. That night, when Laurel was among her creations, Saarthunix made himself a device that could take the life of another person. It was made out of steel and it was bent into one of the most hideous shapes ever seen. The tip was sharp and the blade was serrated. Saarthunix called it a ‘sword’ and its name was Death and when the time had come, Death pierced its way through Laurel’s heart. Her light died and with it, the eternal peace…

Rhux, torn by grief, bound Saarthunix’s soul to the blade he had used to kill Laurel and hid it in a temple deep inside the dark forests of the world. From that day forth Saarthunix was known as the Archdemon, the source of all evil. This sparked the great war, the first war this world had ever known. On one side were Rhux, Eria and Shinden along with an army of Watchers, while on the other side were Furnox, Skar and Elisia, with their army of their own creations: The Demons. They fought and sought to destroy one another, but what they did not expect was mankind. The men created their own weapons and armor and rose against the Gods, for they had killed their beloved Lady Laurel. While the Gods were too busy fighting each other, the army of men defeated them one by one, their bodies now trapped in this realm. Only Rhux managed to escape and when he saw what had come of his creation he was, again, torn by grief. He locked himself in his own realm and never showed his face to any of the Watchers again. Years passed and without the good will of the Watchers, mankind slowly started dying. Our lives were no longer unlimited. Rhux felt terrible about this and he opened his realm, The Beyond, for all benevolent souls. The evil souls went into The Fog, a dark mist controlled by the god of Time, Sarthox.

Thus, our world was created and we divided the land in four parts. In the North East there was the Vale of Autumn, to the North West there was the Vale of Spring, to the South West there was the Vale of Winter and last but not least, in the South East, there was the Vale of Summer, the Vale of Men and we called our land The Four Vales. Meanwhile, the Gods also resided in our lands and we decided to keep them in check, to make sure they wouldn’t rise again. The gateway still exists but can no longer be used. It is sealed off by Magic. Magic is a force we discovered inside the substance called Arcadium. These rocks are used to power spells. Spells can be used for all sorts of things, but their main purpose is war. Magic created soldiers so powerful, that they were capable of keeping the Gods in the Four Vales. Furnox, God of Fire, now resides in the Tooth. A volcano that lies just past our borders. Eria resides in the mysterious Autumnwoods, while Skar resides in the Serpents’ Waste, a vast desert devoid of anything green. Elisia resides in the Seas of Spring and Shinden made his home on the Pinnacle, the highest mountain in this world. Not all of mankind was against the Gods, though. Some of them joined the Gods as followers. The Pyromancers, mages of fire and brimstone, joined Furnox inside the Tooth. Some of our most talented mages joined Shinden on the Pinnacle, while those men chosen by the Goddess Eria were granted the gift of Lycanthropy (werewolves) and joined her in the Autumnwoods. These werewolves shed their human skins at full moon and turn into the wolves that roam the Autumnwoods. Creatures from the deep joined Elisia and creatures from the sand joined Skar. There would always be war, there was always unrest in the Four Vales and peace and unity were now nothing but a distant memory…