Phyreon, a world that once was ruled by magic, a verdant and colorful world, were many species lived in harmony, ruled by magic and dragons, the world was at a never ending peace.
The dragons ruled with blessings, giving their energy freely to all other species, this energy was called Prana, and was the life force that drives the world. Only the dragons could convert Mana and Aether into Prana, and all sorts of miracles could be created using Prana.
The Elvs, would use the prana to help plants grow, imbuing them with healing magic, and with many other gifts. They were once called the keepers of the green woods, or fairies of the forest. They were a beautiful species, with no gender, instead, their children would grow out of the trees that they cared for the most.
The Maris, also called the gem bringers, would use the prana to change rocks into precious gems, and then, sculpt those into radiant devices, called as Orgns, it was said that a well made Orgn could change the landscape on its own. But the Maris used it only as mean to fend off karma beasts, and to protect their own land. Some even created Orgns capable of creating alcohol out of fruits, or heating up a pool to use it as a bath. They were the race that most made use of the Prana, and also one that holded the greatest respect for the Dragons that freely shared it.
The Milis used the power of prana to build their flying cities, using the prana on the sand of the shores, creating great glass like cities, were they could fly around the skies, as free as they could, without being shackled by the land. They were prankster by nature, and would sometimes take the form of others, just to have some fun. But even mischievous as they were, they respected the dragons, and never caused any harm to other species. To help the balance of the nature, they would bring rain with them, everytime they passed over the land, turning the salt water from the sea, into a pure and clean rain, that poured down from their glass like cities.
For the dragons, Prana holded no meaning, since they could mold the Aether and Mana on the air to create miracles of their own.
The dragons were a immortal race, unlike the other species, they could not bear offsprings, but every so often, they would leave a single egg, and turn themselves into pure Eferis, a power greater than aether, mana, or prana. Once a dragon turned into Eferis, a huge wave of energy filled the world, and some of it was absorbed by the new egg, helping it hatch. The rest, was absorbed by the land, on places that were branded as "Dragon Veins"
For thousands of years, the world was in perfect balance, and nature flourished, alongside each race.
The only thing the sentient species of Phyreon had to worry about was the Karma Beasts. Those were monsters created by negative Prana, no one knew how negative prana was generated, but the effects it had on living creatures was harsh. First, it would infect the creature, turning the mana and aether around it into a poisonous mist, that the creature itself would absorb, causing it to grow stronger, but removing every sense of self, turning into murderous monsters. And if they were not destroyed, and managed to achieve enough strength, they would explode themselves, spreading more negative prana, and creating more and more karma beasts.
This was not the only problem they caused. The explosion of a strong enough karma beast, could tear the fabric of reality, causing fissures, known as Gates, to appear.
Most of the times, those gates would close themselves over time with no issue. But, in a remote place on the border of the continent, overlooked by all races, a great amount of karma beasts were left undefeated, and a series of explosions led to the opening of a huge gate, and from it, came the species known as human.
They were not native of Phyreon, in fact, no one knew were that species had come from, they were similar to the Milis in shape, but they could wield not only prana, but also mana. Unlike the dragons, they would not convert the mana and aether into prana, but only use it, leaving nothing in its place.
The humans took to this newfound land as their own, and started creating cities, strongholds, castles...
They cared not for the other races...
They cared not for the nature...
They just ravaged through it all, using what they could, and leaving nothing in its place.
They were arrogant, pride filled creatures, and used the great gate as they liked, coming and going from their own world. Using everything they could from Phyreon, and then returning to their own world, as if this was their playground.
This angered the Dragons, that for the first time, joined hands with the other species.
A war ravaged the world, and the dragons, allied with the 3 races, was on the verge of pushing all the humans back to their own world, but sadly, that never happened.
The great gate closed itself, trapping the humans that still remained into Phyreon, and the energy of the gate closing, caused huge damage to the most ancient of the dragons, that fell to the ground.
A human, by the will of fate, was near the dragon, when it felt, and as he had watched his fellow men die in the war, he was overwhelmed by rage, and charged at the dragon, spear in hand. The spear managed to pierce the dragon's heart, and both the weapon and the human, were covered in it's blood.
This was the first time a dragon died, leaving no egg behind.
The human who was drenched in his blood, managed to absorb all of the dragon's Prana, and the spear, took in all of the dragon's Eferis, leaving nothing to the earth.
That human was the first blood mage, and the driving force that changed the aspect of the war, and the face of Phyreon.
After 500 years, that human mage was still alive, feeding on the energy of other dragons. He become the emperor of the continent, and enslaved all other races.
He destroyed all of the floating cities of the Miris, killing almost all of them. The Elvs, he turned them into farmers, that could only grow the food the humans wanted, and with this, almost no Elv child was born from the trees, causing the Elv population to drop to the ground.
For the Maris, they could still turn stone to jewels, but were forbidden to create Orgns, the jewels were only used to appease the human greed. And, with that, the creativity, and artistic mind of the Maris was lost, turning them into lifeless slaves, who were not even allowed to learn how to read.
The human nature however, was far too greedy to be keept in check, and the first emperor was killed by a group called "The council of Sages", who managed to kill dragons on their own, they would wait until a dragon laid their eggs, and would killed the young dragon upon birth. This made them weaker the emperor, but what they lacked in power, they made up in numbers.
With the emperor's death, Humankind become even more obsessed with power, killing every single dragon they could find.
And soon, no more dragons could be found.
And the world began to see the effects of the lost balance.
The Prana in the air got weaker by the year, and Mana and Aether would also disappear, as the humans could not convert them into Prana, and there was no more Eferis to be absorbed by the dragon's vein, so no more Mana, no more Aether, and no more miracles could be created.
The humans began to overlook the magic aspect that they first enjoyed so much, and started looking into ways to make their life easier instead.
Thus, they created steam powered devices, that made their life easier, polluting the air with the smoke from the burners.
They did not care, since this made their lives easier.
1400 passed since the last dragon was seen.
No one remembers magic anymore
The 3 original races, were but a fragment of a distant memory, they had no choice but to blend in.
Only the humans remained.
They changed the story, to hide the fact that dragons once existed, to hide magic, to hide the atrocities they brought to the world.
The original races had hidden so deep in the human society, that no one could tell the difference anymore.
And the world was no longer verdant and colorful, but instead, it was grey, and harsh.
Only the few who still had magic ruled the world, hiding from plain sight, ruling from the shadows, immortal as they had become, they would bend the story of mankind to fit their purposes, to fulfill their wish, to continue ruling, even if it meant had to sacrifice the many, for the sake of the few.
This was the world that Der was born into.
He was born in the slums, having neither a name, nor a family. He was picked up as a slave by a wandering noble, who taught him how to fight, how to read, how to cook, and how to kill.
Der was only a tool, to be used, and disposed of when his master no long needed him.
He was aware of this fact.
But still, it was better than dying on the street out of hunger.
His master was a eccentric one, always looking into the past of the world, curious, and braver than any other noble.
He wanted to unravel the mysteries of the world, and have all the knowledge of the world at his disposal, even at the cost of his own life.
That's the reason he taught Der to kill, in order to protect him from the assassins the council would send from time to time.
Everytime his master learned something new that the council wanted to keep as a secret, waves of assassins would come, and Der, along with many others, would fight to protect his master.
But the council was too powerful, and had too many secrets.
His master was too much of an eyesore, so, one day, they had enough.
As his master was looking at the ruins of a old temple, in the middle of the continent, a giant shadow covered the sky, and in a few seconds, a huge bright light blinded all of those who were at the ruins, both inside and out, and a huge pillar of flame engulfed them all.
Der was on a supply run, he was alone, and by sheer luck, was left out of the massacre.
The council used one of the few remaining Orgns, to destroy the land, the ruins, and Der's master, all at once.
They didn't notice Der, since he was still quite far from the explosion, and left.
By the time he managed to get near the explosion site, the ground had already cooled down. And nothing had remained. All his friends, were dead, his master, was dead. Not even a single speck of dust remained from them.
Disoriented, and in despair, the young one jumped down on the hole that was left on the ground, in hopes of ending his own life. With no master to guide him, he had nothing to live for.
But the world is a strange place.
And fate, loves to pull pranks.
As if by a god's will, Der was spared, he did not die from the jump, and instead, was saved by a most peculiar artifact.
The spear of the first emperor.
The very same weapon that killed the first dragon, and absorbed all of his Eferis.
The spear created a miracle on itself, making it so that Der could reach the end of the hole he had jumped at, safetly.
Not only that, it healed all of his scars, and, enveloped both Der, and a strange rock, into a white light.
Dear felt safe, embraced, loved...like never before.
The light healed even the wounds on his mind, and his soul.
But more than that.
The light, taught him a few secrets.
The spear had not only absorbed the Ancient Dragon Eferis, it had also sucked out his soul.
The first emperor never knew of this, but, and decided to create a temple for the spear, as a means to show his power, and to deitify himself.
The spear, that holded the soul of the ancient dragon, used this a way to gather all the power he could, to try and create a egg, that could hold all of the Eferis of the dragons.
But the human greed made his plans harder, since the council of the sages wanted people to forget about the first emperor, they locked the spear in the temple, and made it into a forbidden ground.
The hunt for the dragons also made it far too hard to collect the Eferis.
And as such, the egg could never hatch.
But, mankind brutal ways, holded the key to save the egg.
The magic used to burn the ground, was used by the spear to start the hatching process.
This would take all of his power however, but, fate brought Der to the spear.
And so, the spear engraved Der soul with his own, showing him all of the memories of the ancient Dragon, how the world was before the humans, and then, before going into a deep sleep, asked Der to help the newborn dragon, to protect him, and to guide the world back to balance.
Fate is a complicated thing.
Not even the Ancient Dragon could know, that Der was more than a simple human.
He had deep inside him, the blood of the 3 original races, mixed with human blood.
This was a memory that was sealed inside him, the council of sages were the ones who created him.
He was never really born in the slums.
He was created in a lab, by the council of sages, but deemed as a failure, since he could not convert Mana into Prana, even after getting all the blood of the 3 races.
His master found him, almost dead, and healed him, sealed his memories, and actually tried to protect him from the council that he was once a part of.
He was never the one who protected his master, but the other way around.
His master sacrificed his life, to keep him safe.
Just as the spear did, for that egg.
And, just as Der was sorting out his own feelings, the egg hatched. And a red light, made of Eferis, flow from the dragon, to Der, and from Der, 3 lights, a green one, a brown one, and a white one flowed into the dragon.
The spear disappeared into Der's hand, and he fainted.
This was only the beginning of a world shattering fate.
One that would bring destruction and rebirth to the whole world of Phyreon.
And one that would bring about the legend, of the first Contractor of the Dragon God.