One day, a star fell from the sky, and an unfortunate small country was destroyed, burned down completely.
This event shocked the world. Many famous mages and scholars went to investigate it, but besides the ruins of a country, they failed to find anything.
Weeks later, the mages concluded that the 'starfall' was a natural phenomenon and that it was not going to happen again in a while. According to them, it was normal for starts to fall occasionally.
There was nothing to worry, they said.
Until the Blight appeared.
Terrifying manaless beings that devoured everything they touched.
In one day, they ate a small city. In one week, half a country was devastated, and in one month, a fifth of the continent had been destroyed.
They devoured mana and swallowed souls. Magic was almost useless against them, and only the strongest mages were able to cast spells strong enough to threaten the monsters.
Before the terrifying enemy that threatened to destroy all the life on the planet, the five main races formed an Alliance to combat them.
Humans, Beastmen, Elves, Demons, and Beast. The races sent their strongest combatants and their most powerful armies to face the monsters. For the first time in history, the five races had joined hands.
The war was incredibly harsh. The number of deaths could be counted in the millions, and the countries destroyed surpassed ten.
Two-thirds of the world powerhouses perished in battle. They sacrificed their lives to stop the Blight from advancing.
Finally, the gods sent an oracle.
The Blight, invaders of another world rejected by the mana. Only by annihilating them completely, turning their bodies into ashes, could peace be returned to the world.
So, the gods made the biggest sacrifice possible.
Of each race, one god stepped forward to bring an end to the cursed plague.
Five gods fell in the day that years later would be known as Godsfall.
Each one of them used a very powerful magic spell in the territory affected by the Blight, burning their own souls in the process and finally erasing every trace of the Blight completely.
But the powerful magic used destroyed the land completely. The mana in a fifth of the world turned chaotic, making the climate harsh and killing the creatures unable to adapt.
Fearing the Blight's resurgence, the remaining gods created a mountain range to block the access to that part of the world.
The Abandoned Lands.
So was how it was called.
A place forgotten by the gods, where only cursed creatures lived.
With time, the abandoned lands turned into a place of exile. The punishment for the criminals that could not be executed. Where the trash of the world was sent.
Then, its name changed to The Exiled Lands.
After the war, the world entered a period of peace. The numerous deaths were enough to stop even the most ambitions ruler from desiring war.
But at the same time, The Blight became the biggest taboo in existence.
Quickly, people without mana started to be discriminated against. The first few years after the calamity, all the children born without mana were killed. Even their parents were not spared.
They carried the curse of the Blight, they said.
Cursed Children, so they were called.
Mothers drowned their children so nobody discovered the curse. Fathers beheaded their sons to get forgiveness.
The churches preached against them. Kill the children of the devils, kill them, kill them!
For tens of years, hundreds of children were killed.
Until finally, one hundred years passed.
When the Skysword Queen gave birth to twins, the entire palace celebrated.
But when the boy was checked for magic power, he was discovered to be manaless.
The king, in anguish, killed all the people that knew about it. He then created a magic tool to hide the child's condition from the world and forced all the servants to swear a magic oath to never reveal the truth.
But even like that, rumors about the child started to spread, and people started to doubt.
Hence, the king made the choice he had been thinking for years.
When the prince was eleven, he suddenly disappeared.
It was reported as a sudden death, but some people knew the truth.
The kingdom had a cursed prince, and he was abandoned in the exiled lands.
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I'll be a bit busy the next few days, so releases can be a bit unestable...