In the beginning, there was a single united continent known as Yura, shaped and breathed to life by Lunare, a primordial moon goddess. Her mortal creations lived peacefully, with no wants or desires and blessed with harmony, yet Lunare felt she cursed them to puppetry. Saddened by their stagnant lives, Lunare plucked out her own eye - a Moonshard - and shattered it, bestowing free will upon humanity.
For centuries, the people flourished - building, questioning, evolving. In time, the Kingdom of Yura rose from their newfound ambition. But ambition has its price. A group of mortals that had been exceptionally chosen by Lunare as pillars of magic conspired to steal Lunare’s remaining eye, believing it would grant them dominion over the goddess herself. They believed their already bestowed powers were beneath them, and desired more.
They succeeded at a terrible cost that altered the fate of the world. It blinded the goddess for eternity, and with that darkness, sealed her away from the mortal world. The Moonshard split in half as it fell from her socket, with one half vanishing into the quaking earth; the other exploded outward, unleashing a surge of wild magic into the world. Yura fractured from the tremendous force and splintered into three great lands. The largest part of the land became known as Rivain for the Northern regions, and Monroe for the South, the two regions fused together in the shape of a crescent moon. The West and East were smaller slits of land that primarily formed in the coasts of the land, with West aligning more with the North, and East with South. In the openness of the crescent was an enormous island deemed as Tudor, and the entirety of the land became the Kingdom of Calypsa. The third piece of the splintered world that sat across the oceans, however, became the Kingdom of Seraveth.
Calypsa waged war against Seraveth as the conspirators had come from their region before the split, both for the desecration of Lunare and the battle of resources, which became known as the Conquest. The group of mortals that had personally stolen the second eye became more powerful than ever, causing the majority of casualties. Despite the brutality and superior martial skills of the Northern legion and the unsurpassed dexterity and charm of the Southern champions - all commanded by the Imperial family, the Conquest lasted nearly a decade before Calypsa reigned victorious. As reparations, the people and royal dynasty of Seraveth were forced to give up their magical abilities and hand over any remaining magical items and artifacts - though very few remained viable after the war. Rumors circulated that one of the original members that caused the fracture had escaped to far lands with their powers intact, but as time passed and no new magic surfaced, it was assumed they had died off without leaving any descendants.
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The aftermath of the Conquest led to a hateful rivalry between Rivain and Monroe’s rulers. It was not enough that geographical and societal bigotry between such opposing territories began to rise, as did blame of strife. Accusations of Monroe’s people scavenging Rivain’s iron and gold refineries amidst the chaos of war; while Northerner’s blamed burning down villages for sport whenever soldiers became bored in the field. The Imperial family also bestowed the higher combat honor status to Rivain for their war efforts, leaving Monroe even more bitter. The rumors spread among nobility like wildfire; since then, the North and South have been cold enemies flying under the same nation.
Thirty years after the Conquest, Calypsa extended an olive branch to broker peace between the two kingdoms, but the Seraveth never responded. The people of Seraveth were forced to adapt to a life without magic, relying on their own strength and ingenuity to survive. From then on, the Imperial family of Calypsa remained the only lineage that possessed magical abilities and possessed the vault to the very few remaining artifacts of the world; while powerful Houses such as Rivain, Monroe and others, passed on magical powers through their descendants.
Drafted shortly after the end of the Conquest by the Imperial family of Calypsa was the Accord; a desperate attempt to repair a decade of rivalry and bloodshed. It proposed unity between Houses and commoners through shared trade, noble marriage, and cultural exchange. Once a year for ten days, any families of significance would be invited to Tudor to participate under a Neutrality Law. Each generation since has been raised in the Accord’s shadow, walking a tense line between cooperation and collapse. Nobles from both sides are encouraged to work together, to marry across borders, to rebuilt lost bonds. But old wounds fester; and when magic, rivalry, and love get tangled in the ruins of war, it brews for the next bloodshed.
