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Once, on a continent where magic and fantastical beings were not uncommon, there was a mysterious mineral discovered in the region of Mount Esmar. The stone was found to grant powers far beyond those of normal magestones. In fact, it amplified mages' existing power and was even said to allow those born without magic the ability to harness the elements for themselves. This stone was named esmaril.
With Esmar being owned by none, war fell upon the north. The kingdoms of Nuanore and Eregos sent armies who fought bitterly over the right to the land and the esmaril. No more of it was mined, and the war seemed as though it would go on without end, until one day, disaster struck.
It was fire magic that landed too close to an exposed vein of esmaril that caused the great explosion. When all of the light and the noise died away, there the Decay began to spread.
It was like a dark, magical poison that slowly spread across Esmar. Everything it touched began to decay. Plants withered away and the land grew barren. Animals died, or worse, grew twisted into creatures of nightmare.
Everyone who had not already escaped or fallen during the war fled for their lives. The war was put at a standstill, and the armies of the two kingdoms watched from afar as the Decay continued to spill further out of the region of Esmar. There seemed to be no way to contain it.
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Then, seven years ago, five people who could not be more different from each other were sent on a desperate quest to save their world from the Decay, and they succeeded. But when they returned, it was discovered that four of them had betrayed the kingdom of Nuanore. They had desecrated all of the esmaril so that none of it could be used for the greater good of the kingdom.
The leader of the quest, the young heir of an ancient Nuanorean house, brought the truth to light and proclaimed to the world that the kingdom would no longer be threatened by these treacherous outsiders. For the one who had incited the others to villainy, the mage from the kingdom of Eregos, had been executed. The king's half-elven Chief Mage, led astray by her lust for power beyond her right, was also killed, while the half-dwarf and the elf whispered to have mysterious healing powers were locked in the king's dungeon. They could never harm the people of Nuanore again.
And the young lord disappeared from the public eye, returning home to his ancestral lands.
The Nuanorean people now looked to their wise and mighty king, Garem Ranning, for new direction. The war with Eregos would not begin again, for there was no longer any esmaril to claim, but the kingdoms would remain bitter enemies. The realm of Nuanore would have security and prosperity through its own strength, and it would be on guard against any who would dare to disturb its hard-won peace.
--<>--
But what if I told you that this story was not entirely the truth?
The mage of Eregos was indeed killed, but the former Chief Mage escaped the king's guards and fled into the untamable wilds, where she could not be found. The half-dwarf and the ancient elf were indeed imprisoned in the royal dungeon, but the young Nuanorean nobleman was also confined to his family's estate and doomed to be the king's puppet and the final lord of his line, the fate of his people uncertain.
King Garem's proclaimed era of peace did not last long. Just a few years after the end of the quest, there were strange and dark occurrences in the region of Esmar that could only be explained as the remnants of Decay. It was inevitable that destruction would fall upon the continent once again, unless a group of people who had the knowledge of how to destroy the Decay before could stop it . . .
This is the tale of four world-weary people who were forced to embark on a second quest to save the world--and the kingdom that betrayed them--from the remnants of the power only they had the ability to stop.