Two thousand years ago, after a long age of peace and prosperity,
the world fell into an age of darkness during which time dread creatures
known as Dragonlords arose from the abyss and squabbled and fought for
possession of the land. The Age of Dragons is believed to have begun
because foolish mages meddled with things best left alone but it was eventually
ended by a council of mages, who managed to create bindings upon the dragonlords
that would imprison them eternally. The places of imprisonment were
carefully hidden and then all record of them destroyed, all entrance to
them removed. True, dark evil was eliminated from the world and The
Age of Peace was restored.
Five hundred years ago, miners digging for precious metals in the Dragonback
mountains unwittingly broke the seal upon a magical tomb. Sealed
within, trapped for a thousand years, was the dragonlord, Balpherus.
The flesh of his body had become dust centuries past but Balpherus's spirit
was able to escape the remaining magical bindings. The mine where
his tomb was uncovered was totally destroyed by the terrible magics he
unleashed in making his escape and the area around it so twisted and warped
that it became known as Scar.
Though mages at the time strove to find and destroy Balpherus's spirit,
all their attempts were for nothing. He was just too cunningly hidden.
Over the centuries, Balpherus remained hidden, working his evil plans,
hatching his evil plots, moving from body to body as he needed to.
Two hundred years ago, he succeeded in breaking the magical ward upon another
tomb, this one where his dark elf minion Malvena had been imprisoned.
Malvena had always been a servant of evil but finding her master, Balpherus,
much weakened by his having to take on mortal form, she cast him aside
and escaped his control.
Both Balpherus and Malvena have since established groups who work covertly
or openly to bring them to power over the world. These are the clan
groups [DRAGON] and [FEAR]. In response to the threat that the freed
Dragonlord Balpherus and dark elf Malvena presented to the world, several
groups arose to guard against them. While not strong enough to destroy
Balpherus or Malvena, these groups protect and hold territories that might
otherwise fall to evil.