Prologue
Written by Aedric Selvaran, Loremaster of Privia, on the 1st of Artus, 145 years after The Great Awakening (AGA)
As the first of many journals to come, I will summarise what I have learned of the creation of our world, fragments of relevant lore, and the events that have shaped where we stand today. I have learned these truths through exploration, through the words of those older than myself, through the guidance of Demi-Gods, and even from our creators, Aion and Alora.
I cannot speak of what came before. Only our creators could comprehend the existence that preceded the world we call Mystavaria. From what I can tell, they have shared none of it.
What I can speak of is what followed.
With the creation of the land came many challenges. Life could not be sustained by soil alone, and this soon became apparent to our creators. One Faerie, the first, suffered through those earliest moments of life, for she was the experiment. To this day, I have yet to learn her name.
Through the creation of the Demi-Gods and their realms, the land became a sanctuary for life. These beings were shaped to sustain the realm of reality, and their connection to the Pillars of Creation appears essential to this role. What little I've learned of the Pillars remains incomplete.
The third life to appear in Mystavaria was the trees. Forests grew with incredible speed, and through them, life flourished. Flora, fauna, and Faeries thrived. The forests themselves developed a sentience of their own and taught the Faeries magic. From this knowledge emerged Sylvan Magic, a subject I will expand upon in a later journal.
Once the realm had stabilised, Mortalkind arrived. We are the youngest race in Mystavaria, though not young anymore. Our emergence came only five years after the Great Awakening, the creation of reality.
When Mortalkind began, there was no stopping us. With the help of the Faeries, we built the village of Arborvella, named after the great tree-god of the same name. It remains a place of protection and welcome to this day.
Next came Privia, my home, so named for being the first village established by Mortalkind. As our people spread across the land, many settlements followed. Two of these eventually rose to prominence as the great cities of Meliura and Praestantia.
Meliura came first, a luminous city of white marble built upon the ocean's edge. Its people held firm laws, especially regarding magic. These restrictions angered many of the mages and seers, who wished to pursue power and understanding in their own way. Rather than rebel, they simply left.
Some of the Seers returned to Sulastella, where their art was born. Others followed the Mages north. Together, they explored and named new regions until they crossed the Vimur River, west of the Aethercrest mountain range. There, they discovered a land nestled between three towering mountains, visible from nearly every corner of Mystavaria. In this secluded valley, they founded Praestantia, the City of Excellence, devoted to the pursuit of discovery free from the constraints of morality.
In Privia's early days, we too discovered magic. We found that it did not merely flow through everything: it was everything. From this understanding, new schools of magic emerged. Among them, Dream Magic stood out as the purest form. All magic, and indeed all things, are forms of Dream Magic, including us.
This led to the discovery of what we call the Dream Realm. It is not the true Dream Realm where Aion and Alora originate, but it is a place where dreams flow freely.
Think of it like this: look at your watch. The face shows ticking hands, this is reality. Open the back and see the gears, that is the Dream Realm. It is the mechanism behind the visible world. We access it when we sleep. When we dream, the door opens and we are there, hidden from reality within its inner workings. Here, magic flows with purity, and Dream Magic becomes fully realised. Those capable of wielding it may cross freely in sleep and return when they wish.
The Dream Realm mirrors reality, but imperfectly: hazy and surreal. Our possessions appear there, yet outside the forests, life can only exist on one side or the other: awake or dreaming. It remains a place of wonder and mystery that we have yet to fully understand.
And now, we arrive at the present.
I have walked this land for 140 years. I have buried friends, witnessed great changes, and believed my adventuring days long past. Then today, everything changed.
I died.
My weary body gave out, and I collapsed. In death, I dreamed, as all do. I entered the Dream Realm, as I knew souls did in death. I was pulled away, as others have described, toward some unknown destination. But then, I was caught. Something stopped me.
I was led to a tree, and as I touched it, I dreamed again, this time within the Dream Realm itself. I do not remember what I dreamed of, but when I woke, I stood where I had been born: before the glowing heart of Arborvella. I was alive. I am alive. Young once more. My aged, wrinkled form is gone. In its place stands my youthful self, unscarred and reborn.
Something has changed. I do not know how or why. But I live. Others do as well. Mortalkind has become... immortal.