Unleashed Magic
The history books say that almost eight hundred years ago, in the time also known as The Age of Magi, thousands of Magi roamed the lands and planes of existence with but a thought. Their power, it says, was so great that the most powerful of Magi, alone, could level mountains & create kingdoms and even the lowliest of their number could conjure mythical creatures to do their bidding or evoke the raw magic of the world to bend the elements to their will. For two centuries they searched out the secrets of the universe, growing more and more powerful with every question answered, and the ordinary man either flourished or perished as the Magi altered the world around them without fear of the repercussions. Hear stories grow vague, history books burned and relics destroyed, but one thing is clear; a Mage was born who longed for power more than anything and who was both willing & able to take that power through force. In a war that rocked the very foundations of the world, that altered the continents so much that nothing would be the same again, Mage fought Mage for survival until the very powers they wielded were their destruction. Any Magi that did not swear themselves to this Conqueror were killed, their grimoires absorbed and their magical belongings taken until nobody lived to stand up to him.
As with all men however, the Conqueror could not live forever. Despite his best efforts, his magic grew but his body withered until finally he just disappeared... The few remaining Magi, servants of his that were not killed in his attempts to find longevity, fought over his grimoire and his sanctum until they had wiped themselves out. Mankind was free to rebuild without the threat of magic wiping their cities off of the face of the world... Or so they thought. Thus began the time known as The Age of Unchecked Magic.
Without Magi to control the magic that naturally occurred throughout the world, it destroyed unchecked and without discrimination. Whereas Magi could use the power for good, if they so chose, the very essence of magic was so wild that it could not create without a Mage to control it. Realizing that they needed Magi and that there were none in existence, mankind travelled underground; living in caverns and tunnels where dangerous creatures made their homes and Dragons were said to roam. For two hundred years Humans fought daily for their very survival against demons and monsters more powerful than them until one woman stood up and returned to the surface. She would never tell anyone of what she found there, of where she searched, but after a decade she returned to the underground kingdoms with grimoire and equipped with magical items so powerful that she lifted the kingdoms of Man out of the darkness and back onto the surface of the world. Alone, this Saviour controlled the unchecked magic and over the years built up layers of defence over her kingdom while training dozens of Magi to, one day, take over from her and protect the world. Thus began the time known as The Age of Tamed Magic.
The most powerful of these Magi, a young man, took her staff of power and her tower upon her death and sent out those he had learned with to expand their kingdom and take control of the world back from the unchecked magic that had razed it. One by one, these Magi vanished from the world leaving the young man to protect his kingdom alone. Somehow, the powerful wards put into place by the Saviour prolonged her students life as they had her own and although he aged more than one hundred years passed before his body began to sicken and become frail. Sending out knights to search for potential students, the Archnage feared the worst; the battle of Magi so many years before had wiped out almost all traces of magical talent from Mankind. He recalled how difficult it had been for the Saviour to find he and his fellow Magi and with them gone... Fifty years passed before word returned to the Archmage of discoveries; several young men and women who showed signs of being gifted with The Art. Rejoiced, the Archmage sent for the knights in exile to return to him with the potential students and weeks of celebrations took place over the kingdom of Lothelann as they travelled to the center and the tower of the Archmage where one of those students would take the old man's place upon the symbolic throne of Lothelann...
