OUT OF THE THREE Great Sovereigns on the Eastern Continent, The Dragon Empire was the most powerful, wealthy, and influential.
Centuries ago, the continent was divided into smaller parts, with hundreds of countries and armies spread out, each ruling and guarding their territory with extreme jealousy.
Their relationship was like a bad romance, constantly bickering among themselves, arguing over land, trade routes and precious resources. Rivalries were fierce, and their alliances shifted more than the seasons.
Sometimes, their politics and disputes got so bad, they ended in bloody wars that only made them reinforce their borders from their neighbours, and drove the countries even further apart.
But all that drama came to a head when the Feast of the Beasts rudely crashed the party. Monsters, undead, and a mad Necromancer King with a grudge descended on the entire continent, killing royals, nobles, and commoners alike without descrimination.
Their divided armies were harvested like wheat, and the Eastern Continent was almost wiped off the map.
One by one, many strongholds fell, and the enemy only grew stronger for it, giving new life to their dead soldiers and unleashing them on the kingdoms they had once sworn to protect. Hope faded faster than a cheap dye job in the rain, and the people grew desperate.
Menor, the king of Gorath, as the Dragon Empire had once been called, was the one to swallow his pride and approach the magical beasts that roamed in Keagor, the ruins off the borders of the Eastern Continent, where men feared to walk.
Desperate, he brokered a peace with the Dragon Lord, Dijord, who had ghosted humanity a long time ago. But the Dragon Lord wouldn't lift a claw to aid them in the war, not unless they got their act together.
He gave Menon the condition that the humans must end their bickering and unite for once, otherwise, they might abuse the powers their alliance would bestow on them.
With no choice left, and to save themselves from complete annihilation, the squabbling countries convened, reluctantly deciding to unite their forces in order to stand a chance of survival.
They handpicked the cream of the crop, the strongest mages with royal blood from each country. The stronger they were, the higher their chances of surviving the bonding process with magical beasts without going mad or dying.
Over eighty men were chosen, each, bearing the colours of their proud nations.
The chosen eighty were tested. Many failed spectacularly and ran mad, others just well... died. But those who succeeded returned transformed, bonded to magical creatures such as drakes, basilisks, wyverns, hydras, and sphinxes.
Only one had successfully bonded to The Dragon Lord, Dijord - it was Sareal, the son of Meron. With the might of their bonded magical beasts, twenty warriors returned to the battlefield, aided by a united Eastern army.
They turned the tides of the war, and drove the Mad Necromancer King and his army back, slaughtering every single one of them.
The alliance with the Dragon Lord and magical beasts did more than just win the war; it sparked a renaissance of magic and technology that reshaped the Eastern Continent. Their greatest scholars, mages and forgesmiths worked together, ushering a new age of innovation.
The result was a society where magic wasn't just a tool of warfare but a foundation of everyday life. Floating cities, enhanced warriors, and communication devices that linked the Continent together, driving the spread information, were all products of this golden age.
The squabbling countries were broken apart and united under the Three Great Sovereigns.
The Dragon Empire, leading in technology, innovation and magic.
The Emerald Dominion, famous for their dislike of magical beasts and preference of technology.
And the Federation Union, which relied on elemental magic over technology, also considered the loonies of the trio.
In this new era, magic was categorized into three distinct forms.
Beast Bond Magic (Symbiotes): This form of magic relies on the bond between a human and a magical beast. The bond grants the user enhanced physical abilities, magical powers, and a connection to the creature's unique skills.
The bonding ritual tests both parties, requiring perfect harmony and trust. The downside is that failure results in either madness or death.
Arcane-Tech Magic (Technomancy): this represents the fusion of magic and technology. Technomancers use enchanted devices, constructs, and alchemical inventions to perform feats that blend science with magic seamlessly.
But this power comes at a cost. Overuse can burn out the user's mana core, or worse, turn their inventions against them in catastrophic malfunctions.
And finally,
Primal Magic (Elemental and Natural Magic): known as the oldest form of magic, drawn directly from the natural world and the elemental forces that shape it. Its practitioners regard themselves as the guardians of balance, much to the annoyance of the other Sovereigns.
Their powers are potent but sometimes volatile, and the deeper one draws from the primal forces, the more unpredictable and dangerous the magic becomes.
The rise in the Emerald Dominon's technomancy sparked a competitive tension with the Dragon Empire, because it threatened their dominance.
The Federation Union's elemental mages often clashed with both technomancers and symbiotes, viewing them as reckless and disrespectful of nature's balance.
The royals who relinquished their thrones for survival were compensated with noble titles, creating three major power forces in the Continent: royals, nobles, and mages born with exceptional elemental abilities.
Since the Feast of the Beasts, it had become tradition in the Dragon Empire for aspiring young noble mages to be taken to the Ruins of Keagor, once they reached the age of sixteen, to find a magical beast they will be bonded with - or die trying.
Many of these nobles sent their children to Kaegor in the hope that they would be chosen by a magical beast as legendary as the Dragon Lord, Dijord, allowing their house to rise and reclaim the power that had been taken from them.
It wasn't rare to find nobles popping out children like lottery tickets, often birthing as many as they could to increase their chances of rising through the ranks.
Upon Menor's death, his son Sareal, ascended the throne. Anticipating the return of old power struggles, the Emperor abolished the hereditary system that allowed the children of rulers to inherit the throne of the Dragon Empire.
Instead, Sareal decreed that only those chosen by the most powerful magical beasts of Keagor, and anointed by the Dragon Lord, Dijord, could claim the throne.
And for centuries, so it was.