Chapter 18 - 17: The Past (1)

"A long time ago before the major races were at peace the world was ruled by the dragons. However there was not enough land for all the dragons to rule so they fought a huge war and all the other races were caught in the cross fire. At the end of it all only 6 dragons remained. A dragon for every element, they were the strongest off their race. With time the dragons became old and some began to look for ways to prolong their life span. These dragons did cruel experiments on the other races which incurred the wrath of the divine beings. In the end 4 of the dragons made a deal with the demons to gain immortality. These were the fire, air, water and dark dragons.

The demons were constantly seeking ways to get into the mortal world and so they asked the dragons to help them in their research as they were the wisest of any race on Merrum. The dragons thinking that they were fooling the demons obliged and made a deal with the seven arch demons of the under world. However the demons were even more cunning than the dragons. They knew that they couldn't step foot into the mortal plain so they took over the dragons' bodies. The dragons would surely live forever but at what cost?

The possession of the 4 dragons started a massacre that lasted for centuries. Some races decided to join the demons in their massacre. These races today have fallen and are known as monsters. They were the orcs, the goblins, the arachnids, the gnolls, the trolls, the harpies and the giants. Along with these races the demons brought their servants from the underworld.... the undead. The first of this new race were the vampires, however they were too prideful to be controlled by the demons so they rebelled and went into seclusion, starting a kingdom of their own.

Back at that time none of the mortal races apart from the dragons could use magic. The mortal races were doomed to lose the war. However the divine beings could no longer sit idle and watch the mortal world be destroyed so they started to grant some humans parts of their divine power. These select few were known as the celestial knights, but the divine beings were biased in their way of choosing. The divine beings favored the human race as they were the last and most "perfect" race created by the supreme being and so they only chose humans to be the bearer of their powers.

The celestial knights in turn only took in those humans who were willing to worship the supreme being leaving every other race to fend for themselves. This was the start of what today is known as the Celestial church.

The dragons seeing that they would soon die and the world they had lived on for centuries would soon follow decided to start teaching people of all races magic. This brought the rise to the first mages. Now having magic in their arsenal of powers the major races decided to band together. These were the elves, the humans and the dwarves.

Despite how strong their magic was they were still unable to even force a stalemate in the war. The sheer numbers of the undead and the fallen races overpowered them. So they went back into hiding. Years passed and Merrum became a wasteland. The races had become proficient in magic but they still lacked the power to overthrow the demons in their dragon form.

Seeing that they had successfully taken over the land the demons looked to the seas. However they were stopped by the guardians of the sea. Just like the dragons ruled the land the leviathans, krakens and world serpent ruled the oceans. They didn't care for what happened on land but would never let the demons occupy the sea. So the demons were put to a standstill. The demons in their rage began to make preparations to call the Demon king to Merrum to take over the sea. They wanted to take full control of Merrum, both the land and the sea.

After many years and sacrifices the ritual was complete. The demon king was brought to Merrum. The war for the oceans began, the king of the oceans, the world serpent fought a fierce battle with the demon king. However because the ocean became corrupt with the demons other worldly energy he lost the battle. But the Demon king paid a huge price, his life force had been badly damaged and his immortality lost. So he went into a deep slumber." said Neel.

"I bet you are probably wondering son. If the demon king won how are we here today? The story doesn't end there."

"The world serpent had offspring. The offspring being less prideful than their father decided to go on land to ask the major races for help in defeating the demon king. At this time the major races had broken their alliance to take care of their own. The world serpent's offspring took on humanoid forms and went in search of the humans first. The humans were capable of using all types of magic and were therefore the most favorable to have on their side. The humans agreed and their strongest warrior the Grand Magus followed the offspring of the world serpent to the elves. The elves were less willing to help. They had found refuge in a forest protected by mystical energies.

In the forest there were races that were naturally attuned with Merrum. They taught the elves their mystical powers. These races were the plant people and the beings of the forest. After several attacks on the forest the elves finally agreed and the elf queen the strongest among them followed the new group. The last stop were the dwarves. The dwarves were naturally proficient at earth magic, even more so then humans as they had learnt all the secrets of the earth dragon before it had died.

The dwarves lived underground and had made a kingdom. The king of the dwarves welcomed the group and they told him their story. Seeing how powerful the group was he thought that they just might be able to defeat the demon king. The dwarves were excellent forgemasters and had found many metals in the ground. Among them was a vampire who had defected from his race and had found the dwarves by chance.. Funny enough he was the best at creating weapons out of them all, he was known as the devil forgemaster and he crafted the group the best weapons he could."