The Ancient Realms
The Ancient Realms are the oldest of the worlds, where Gods, Demigods and ancient magic have shaped the stories that followed. From kingdoms of ice and fire to the dark swamps of Terra Bayou and the spirit world of Starlantis, each realm holds a story of its own. Here, old legends are still alive.
We may be done with the past, but the past isn’t done with us.
Chapter 1
The Ice Kingdom.
There was once, in a kingdom where the snow never melted, a princess named Pintina. She was the daughter of Malphoria, Queen of the Ice Kingdom, and lived in a palace of frost and silver, where the winter winds sang against the trees and the nights seemed to last forever.
But Pintina was a curious child, and there were things beyond the palace that interested her far more than the lessons of a princess ought to have done. When night fell, she would slip away to the Snow Apple Orchards, where the branches glittered beneath the moon and the cold was so deep that even the stars seemed frozen.
There she would wait for the Fire Phoenix.
No one knew quite how the Phoenix entered the orchard. The door was always locked, and no key was known to open it. Yet each night the Phoenix would appear, and Pintina would play with him among the snow-covered trees. She never told her mother, and the Phoenix never told anyone either.
Then, one morning, the Fire Phoenix was found dead.
No one knew who had killed him. And so Darko, the Ringmaster, called for a Goblin Ball, declaring that amongst the revelry the murderer would be found.
Pintina was there when the guests gathered. And when she was seen pulling the head from one of her dolls, whispers quickly became accusations. Before long, the Ice Princess herself was declared the murderer and taken away with a sole snow apple as her only memento of The Ice Kingdom.
Yet there were some things that Pintina did not know.
And there were some things that Amak, the Ice Elf, knew very well indeed.
Wherever the Ice Princess went, Amak the Ice Elf followed, reporting back to her mother, Malphoria.
Chapter 2
Ember Rule
There was, beyond the Ice Kingdom, a place where the Gods of Fire were worshipped with great devotion. It was called Ember Rule, a kingdom of gold and fire where the Acolytes of the Gods dressed in splendour and tended to the every whim of those who came to visit.
Pintina was brought before the Gods of Fire to answer for the murder of Ebon, the Fire God. But Ebon was no ordinary God, for he was also a Phoenix, and a Phoenix cannot truly be killed.
The Phoenix reappeared, then transformed into his human form. Ebon, the Fire God, was alive!
And with the return of Ebon came another discovery. Pintina was not the daughter of Malphoria, as she had always believed, but the long-lost daughter of Ebon and Paiva, the Fire Gods of the Ancient Realms. The crime against Ebon was removed, and Pintina was pardoned.
Darko, the Ringmaster, called for another Goblin Ball, this time to celebrate the return of the Fire God's daughter. The guests gathered amongst the gold and splendour of Ember Rule, and by their petition Pintina was welcomed into her rightful place as a Fire Demigoddess. Paiva was overjoyed to have her daughter returned, and Pintina was finally amongst her true family.
But Amak, the Ice Elf, was not pleased.
Before long, a rumour began to spread through Ember Rule. Someone was planning to steal the Fire God's heart. Whispers passed from one Acolyte to another until Maude, the Poppet Peddler from Terra Bayou, was accused of the crime and taken away by the guards.
Yet while the guests watched Maude being escorted from Ember Rule, no one noticed what Pintina was doing.
For Pintina had stolen the Fire God's heart.
And when the guards carried Maude away towards the swamplands of Terra Bayou, Pintina followed
The Phoenix reappeared, then transformed into his human form. Ebon, the Fire God, was alive!
Chapter 3
Terra Bayou
There was once a place where the swamps stretched as far as the eye could see, where the Arbre grew amongst the waters and the Animeaux wandered through the reeds. It was ruled by the Baron Marias and the Baroness Selete, whose hearts had long been untouched by compassion, and whose land had become a place of darkness and death.
It was into this place that Pintina arrived, after being lost amongst the swamps for countless years. The Baron and Baroness were holding a great celebration, and Darko, the Ringmaster, called for a Goblin Ball in their honour. When the Barons saw the Fire Demigoddess, they gave her a challenge to prove that she was truly the child of the chosen.
A great chalice was prepared, and the guests spent the night creating a potion that would either bless or curse the one who drank from it. If they believed Pintina worthy, she would be blessed. If they did not, the potion would bring about her death.
At the end of the celebration, Pintina drank from the chalice and survived.
But the power of death that had spread throughout Terra Bayou had entered the potion, and as Pintina's life began to fade, she took that power into herself.
Pintina died, and the power of death went with her.
The Psychic Bodhisattva, from Starlantis, who had been sent to protect her, had decieved Fantouche, the Earth Witch who had been working to protect the Demigodess. And so, with Pintina no longer among the living, there was only one place she could go.
For Starlantis is a place where no living creature may enter.
Only a spirit may pass through its gates.
After countless years wandering the swamps, Pintina finally arrived in Terra Bayou.
Chapter 4
The Voyage
There was once a vessel that sailed between the worlds of the living and the dead. Its captains were Nyx and Erebus, who knew the waters well, for they had made this journey many times before. No map could show its course, and no compass could point the way. Those who boarded were carried towards a place known as Starlantis.
It was upon this vessel that Pintina found herself. She could not remember the final moments of her time in Terra Bayou, but believed the Baron and Baroness had brought about her death. Bodhisattva, the Psychic who had once been sent to protect her, stayed close by, offering comfort while keeping her own terrible secret.
And Pintina was not the only one who seemed lost. Darko, the Ringmaster, was also aboard, though even he could not explain how he had come to be there. Having travelled with Pintina through the Ancient Realms, he knew her well, but the voyage ahead was as much a mystery to him as it was to the others.
Amongst the passengers wandered the Psychics, who offered glimpses of things yet to come. When Pintina sought their counsel, they revealed that the Baron and Baroness had not poisoned her. And so she began to question those who had witnessed her final days.
There was another aboard who had taken on a new calling. Maude, once the Poppet Peddler of Terra Bayou, was now Charon, the Ferryman. He carried a purse of coins for those seeking passage into the next world, though none were given freely. Those who wished to pass must first complete a task for the Ringmasters in exchange for a coin.
As the vessel sailed further from the world they knew, Pintina looked out across the waters ahead. Far in the distance, she noticed a light upon the sea. At first she thought it was a star, but it grew brighter with every passing moment.
Another vessel was fast approaching.
Beyond the shores of the living, the waters carried those who sought passage to the world beyond.
Chapter 5
Carnivalia
There was once a vessel named Carnivalia, captained by the Ringmasters, which sailed between the worlds in search of its own realm. In the darkness, it came upon another vessel upon the waters. It was the Ship of the Damned, carrying Pintina, Darko and the other passengers on their journey towards Starlantis.
The two ships drew alongside one another, and at Darko's instruction, the passengers were swiftly brought aboard Carnivalia. Soon, the vessel had disappeared into the darkness, leaving the Ship of the Damned far behind.
There, Pintina found herself amongst a curious company, for the Ringmasters had gathered many strange creatures during their travels. They had found them drifting at sea and offered them shelter, for their homes and kingdoms were no longer to be found.
Amongst them was Slydda, the little Ice Doll from the Ice Kingdom whom Pintina had loved as a child. There was also Brendike, the Fire Demon of Ember Rule, Glisser, the Snake Woman of Terra Bayou, and the Bearded Woman from the Ringmasters' own realm. Each had come from a different place, and each had found themselves far from the world they once knew.
But there were others aboard Carnivalia whom Pintina had not expected to find. Malphoria, Queen of the Ice Kingdom, and Amak, the Ice Elf, had been waiting for the Ship of the Damned to arrive. They knew Pintina was aboard and had been waiting for the chance to confront her once more.
Before long, Theia, Goddess of the Moon, performed a great ritual upon the deck of Carnivalia. With her magic, Pintina was restored from the spirit world and given back her mortal form, albeit with the visage of a Ringmaster. But the ritual had an unexpected consequence, for Darko too seemed to be changed by its power. Though he could not explain what had happened, something about him was no longer quite the same.
And so Carnivalia continued its voyage through the darkness. The Ringmasters could find no sign of their own realm, nor of the worlds they had once known. All around them, the lights had gone out, until only one remained, shining faintly in the distance.
And so they turned their vessel towards that final light, for it was the only hope they had left.
The Ringmasters came upon strange creatures adrift upon the waters and brought them aboard, offering shelter to those who had lost their worlds.
Chapter 6
Starlantis.
There was once a place beyond the worlds of the living, where the spirits of the departed could gather. It was known as Starlantis, a place suspended within the Ether, where no living creature could enter and no mortal could find its way. It was towards this place that Carnivalia had sailed, following the last remaining light in the darkness.
When the vessel arrived, Pintina found herself in a place unlike any she had visited before. A great storm was gathering, and the air was filled with a strange and terrible power. Darko was there beside her, but the Ringmasters were nowhere to be seen. It seemed that Pintina had finally reached the end of her journey, though she was yet to understand what awaited her.
One by one, those who had travelled with her through the Ancient Realms came forward to tell their stories. Amongst them was Malphoria, Queen of the Ice Kingdom, who had followed Pintina from one world to another, always trying to stop her.
At last, Malphoria revealed the truth.
Long before the Ice Kingdom came to be, there had lived a lonely elemental who wished to become a Queen. She had grown weary of following the counsel of her parents and turned instead to the study of witchcraft. She longed for a kingdom of her own and a child to rule beside her.
And so she travelled to the world of Ember, where she found a child born of all the elements, floating within the Ether. She claimed the child as her own, named her Pintina, and brought her to the Ice Kingdom, where she would one day rule as Princess.
But the spell that had brought Pintina into the world was not without consequence. When Pintina was taken from Malphoria, her handmaiden Bodhisattva smuggled away the essence of the Snow Apples, hiding it within Pintina's dress. The Snow Apples took away Malphoria's power and began to weaken the very spell that had given Pintina her life.
Now, as Pintina had travelled through the Ancient Realms, she had gathered the essences of the Gods. With each one she took, the spell grew weaker, until at last the elements were brought together and the magic that had created her began to unravel. The storm gathering over Starlantis was no storm at all. It was the end of the world as they had known it.
Then came Ebon, the Fire God, who reminded Pintina of the choices she had made along the way. He spoke of her friend Maude, the Poppet Peddler, and how Bodhisattva had returned him to Terra Bayou, where he was later murdered. Pintina had believed that stealing the Fire God's heart would help save the people of the swamplands, but the consequences of her actions had reached far beyond what she could have imagined.
The Baron Marias then came forward, and though his words first seemed to take responsibility for Pintina's death, he revealed something far more troubling. It had been Bodhisattva's purpose to poison Pintina and bring her to this very moment. The journey, the deaths and the gathering of the essences had all been part of a greater design.
At last, Bodhisattva stood before them. She claimed that she had done nothing wrong, that she had merely brought all the brothers and sisters together. Yet whether she had reunited them or brought about their destruction was a question that remained unanswered.
There was now a terrible choice to be made. The Gods could be returned to their original forms, restoring the balance and saving Pintina, or she could be torn apart forever by the power of the elements she had gathered. The decision was placed before those who had witnessed her journey, and the fate of the Ancient Realms rested upon their answer.
And so Pintina and Darko were left to face the darkness together.
Pintina could not understand why the Ringmaster's hat had been the last of the elements she had collected. She turned to Darko and asked him why.
"Because I am your brother," he told her.
Pintina was bewildered. If he was her brother, why was he not part of the elements like the others?
"Because no one came to claim me. I was here to guide you."
And at last Pintina understood. Darko had been beside her throughout every world, guiding her journey when she had never known who he truly was. While the others had been claimed by their realms, Darko had remained, waiting for the sister he had never known.
The spell was now upon them, and the worlds were about to be changed forever. Pintina asked whether they would die.
But Darko told her that they would not truly die. They would simply be rearranged into something new. Even if their bodies ceased to exist, they would remain in another form.
As the darkness gathered around them, Darko asked whether this would be the last time they would see one another.
Pintina could not say.
"Don't forget me," he said.
“Some part of me will miss you” she replied.
Darkness came quickly. Nothing remained.
As the essences gathered, the worlds began to unravel, until only a single light remained in the darkness.
Then darkness came.
Nothing remained.