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.
The Phoenix reappeared, then transformed into his human form. Ebon, the Fire God, was alive!
Chapter 2
Ember Rule.
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
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
Nachtwald is a land of highlands and deep forests, where darkness arrives early and the night holds its own mysteries. Its people are accustomed to living beneath wide skies and among ancient wilderness, where truth can be difficult to find and even harder to face.
In Nachtwald, truth is valued but not always welcome.
Chapter 5
The Ringmasters Carnival.
Falkenmark is the domain of the Fae, a land where the boundaries between the natural and the otherworldly are not always clear. Its people live alongside ancient magic and traditions that reach far beyond the mortal world. Here, courage begins in the absence of fear, and the willingness to face what lies beyond the familiar.
Chapter 5
Starlantis.
Nachtwald is a land of highlands and deep forests, where darkness arrives early and the night holds its own mysteries. Its people are accustomed to living beneath wide skies and among ancient wilderness, where truth can be difficult to find and even harder to face.
In Nachtwald, truth is valued but not always welcome.