The Racez

Humanz:

The first of the humanoidz racez, humanz emerged at an age when magicz was mild and peaceful. The flow of manaz that filled Zestria was subtle by today’s standards; however, hidden behind this apparent stillness was a power incredible enough to create life. Humanz always had an affinity towards working the landz, raising animalz and building towns, so it comes as no surprise that they would favor the Grasslands as their territory.

The humanz are clever creatures- they created coinage for trading, invented the first wagons and built the first castles- all so they could further explore the continent and claim its riches as their own. With that also came a sense of belonging. Humanz organize in social groups and let their cultural origins dictate much of how they behave. To humanz, following a leader and helping your fellow humanz is extremely important.

Unfortunately from the spirit of humanz progress also comes greed and violence; at the same rate in which humanz help their own, they also take from others, making war a common occurrence throughout the landz. Humanz are the most common race of the realm for a simple reason: they are very good at what they do, be it helping or harming.

Elvez:

Centuries ago there was an alliance dedicated to the study of magicz in Zestria, commonly referred to as “The Council of Five.'' The council would travel the landz to meet with expert magicians of all kinds to both learn from them and also to teach whatever they could. In time, they grew in fame and all of the realm knew of them and their achievements.

Since this story is ancient, names have been forgotten and all that remains are the titles of each member of The Council of Five: The Pearl Sage, The Dusk Witch, The Moon Sorcerer, The Sun Mage and The Oathbreaker. Although the fifth didn’t always carry this title, through his careless actions he brought dishonor and shame to his name.

The whole council had vowed to never wield dark magicz, since it was a source of corruption and destruction. But the Oathbreaker was a greedy soul, and when he saw his own techniques being overshadowed by his fellow council members, he decided to stake everything against them. The fifth gave in to the temptations of dark magicz and became mad with power, and powerful he was…

Through the use of the forbidden spells the Oathbreaker went from the weakest of the five to being powerful enough to fight all four of the other council members at once. However, the remaining four devised a plan to defeat him. During the battle the council was teleported to the Dragon Aerie where the four magicians called upon the aid of the dragonz, and with joined forces were able to destroy the Oathbreaker and his foul magicz.

When the dust from the battle settled the now Council of Four looked around and saw themselves changed- their manaz had seeped into their skin turning them into exotic long-eared humanoidz. They were the first elvez to walk the landz of Zestria, and all their descendants would bear a talent for magic and a desire to protect the realm. Slowly that tradition seems to be fading away and some elvez are even dabbling in the forbidden arts of dark magicz.

Orcz:

The orcz are the youngest of all the racez of Zestria, as they were never actually meant to be a people and were in fact created through the use of magic to be weapons of war. When Melgor the Black Sun began his first campaigns to conquer the landz of Zestria, he was extremely successful but soon he realized that his military strategies wouldn’t be enough if he wished to conquer the whole realm. Much of the overlord’s time was wasted when his armies needed to rest, and many retreats could be avoided if his soldiers were stronger and sturdier.

So the Dark Emperor had a most devilish idea- if he could create soldiers strong enough to endure days of battle he would crush his enemies easily, and could conquer Zestria at a rate once thought impossible. Through the use of dark magicz the Black Sun created the first Orcz war bands from the humanz which inhabited Mandoss Crag, deeming them a strong and resilient people and worthy of becoming his elite soldiers.

Orcz would remain most of their early history as slaves, vulnerable to the whims of the emperor, who controlled their minds through magical binds. However, when the rebellion against Melgor started, a most astute technomancer saw a breach in the emperor’s defenses, the one they called Etherman met with the strongest of the Emperor’s Warlords: Urzog.

Warlord Urzog was a terrifying warrior, but also a man of very simple mind and heart, so when the technomancer undid the magical restraints that controlled his mind, Urzog was quick to side with the rebellion. During the Emperor’s last stand against the rebels it was the duo of Urzog and Etherman which dealt the final blow against the tyrant and freed all orcz.

Free to roam the landz but carrying a heritage of war and savagery, the orcz became the most sought out mercenaries of Zestria, but some retired to lead peaceful lives in tranquil landz.

The Magicz

No one can tell for sure how life began in Zestria- there are theories of a long and complicated process of adaptation and evolution, others claim that it was some conscious force which willed everything into existence, but the most widely accepted theory has to do with the essence of the world, something which the wizards and shamans call “Manaz.”

Manaz is the fundamental element which composes everything- elvez, as well as humanz, orcz, and even dwarves are made of manaz. It is no mere coincidence however that these humanoidz have a certain preference for different types of landz; the manaz from the regionz which the humanoidz normally inhabit seems to better “accommodate” those who are natives of the regionz. That led to the conclusion that the racez were born of the very landz which they inhabit and made them very protective of their territory. On the other hand, attacking someone’s landz is not only an act of violence but also a personal offense.

The Pure Magicz:

If Manaz is the essence of everything in Zestria, Magicz, or at least its pure form, is the art of manipulating the properties of said essence to create incredible effects. The laws that govern magicz are fundamentally mathematical, meaning that a skilled magician will have to learn how to subtract, add, divide or even multiply manaz in order to generate magical spellz.

In the same manner mathematicians use pen, paper, abacus and even measuring tools the magician needs special tools in order to operate the wonders of magicz. These tools can take many forms but usually are found as staffs, wands or amulets. Only very simple magicz can be generated by will and hands alone, and this method of conjuring is usually considered crude and gauche by more talented magicians.

The great advantage of pure magicz is that its possible effects are almost infinite, and its versatility is only limited by the magician’s skill and willpower- when a magician creates a spellz he spends some of his own stamina and mental energy to generate the effect. In that sense, magicians can read minds, call lightning from the clouds or make a whole army fight for longer before becoming exhausted, provided the magician has practiced for long enough and is capable of exerting that amount of energy.

The Dark Magicz:

All magicians learn a simple rule from the very beginning: respect the laws of manaz. That in fact has a very practical reason; it is known that when magicians go around trying to break and bend how magicz works they either fail spectacularly, or worse… They succeed.

When a magician is able to find a loophole in magicz by chance or by virtue of hard work, they are presented with a dark spellz- a magical effect that is extremely powerful but can have devastating effects to the magician or the world around him. The first danger of dark magicz is that by its reality defying nature, the truth of dark magicz will burn itself into the magician's mind, altering his way of thinking to a more warped and alien perspective.

The second danger is that while pure magicz relies on manipulating manaz, dark magicz depends on the destruction of manaz. This means that if the practice of dark magicz continues on, it will someday lead to the death of all magicz in the realm, and its wonders will remain only a distant memory in forgotten history books. So to all apprentices of magicz let it be said: steer clear of the urges of the dark arts or risk losing your mind and life to this vile practice.