Once upon a time, mankind roamed the Earth alongside many fantastical creatures, powerful and sometimes dangerous, yet majestic. Some of you may know them as creatures of mythology and folklore, but in truth they were, and many still are, very real!
It was a relatively peaceful coexistence at first, with few hostilities and attritions caused by the natural competition for food and resources. But it was clear that they were in many ways superior to us primitive humans, for they could tap into the very energies of creation and access the ancient power that holds reality together against the chaos… a power capable of granting wealth and prosperity to those who could control it: magic. Initially, we witnessed their magic in awe; but then the awe turned into envy… and envy seeds hate, whose fruit is violence.
Mankind might have been lacking in strength and power back then, but we did not lack in ingenuity, which leads to discovery and invention. And we learned quickly, so knowledge could spread fast and wide… over time, we created our own “magic” to rival the creatures we antagonized so hard. We made wheels and chariots to match their speed, created mighty weapons to match their claws and fangs, forged armours to match their scales and thick hides… And we all united under the same banner and around one single bastion: the Tower of Babel. Having achieved strength in numbers and technology, we fought them head-on, and won.
Of those fantastical creatures, some survivors used their magic to take refuge in other worlds and realities, while others went into hiding, lurking on the humans that had wronged them… Either way, with them gone, a new era for humanity began: Earth was finally all ours to rule.
However, without a common enemy to unite us, new hostilities and attritions were born: huge amounts of power and wealth were left to be gained, and thus became highly contested. People ended up waging war against themselves, and the Tower of Babylon fell. Divided into tribes, clans and states, the humans took different paths and shaped history on their own, forgetting about those fantastical creatures and their magic, which became myths and legends…
They did not forget about us though, and kept watching from afar, waiting… pondering… strategizing… time and patience being their best allies. Centuries passed and turned into millennia, but their determination to reclaim “their” old world never faded. When mankind reached what seemed to be an exploitable low point in history, right after the so-called “Great War”, they returned.
Their resurgence was met with disbelief at first, then fear… and then, as more and more of us fell under their advance, vengeance. A second World War broke out, more terrible and violent than any other, since the belligerent’s goal wasn’t victory, but extermination! Once again, mankind resorted to its ingenuity to gain the upper-hand. We stole their magic and dared to combine it with our science; if magic is what holds reality together, it can also destroy it after all… The research lead to a single device, which was then test-fired directly over the enemy lines. The subsequent event, now known as the Crimson Dawn, shook the Earth and the universe itself: lives and objects weren’t just destroyed on both sides that day, but erased from existence…
The aftermath of the Crimson Dawn was a hasty and unanimous truce: no one wanted total annihilation, and both sides couldn’t fight any longer after such intense years of war. To ensure the truce, a “super partes” international organization was later formed to overlook in matters of world stability, diplomacy and military balance: the Guardians of Gaea. Even when controversial, the Guardians’ interventions have always managed to aid those in need, de-escalate critical situations, prevent new large-scale conflicts and buy yet another day of peace in a world as scarred by the war as the hearts of those who live in it…
We now stand on the edge of a new era, one where mankind roams the Earth alongside many fantastical creatures once again; both striving for collaboration, peace and prosperity… yet fearing the end of the truce.