Chapter 26: 26. Interlude I

Capital Continent Elderwood

The capital continent of Elderwood is a vast mass of land, and has always held both the least and the the most valuable pieces of real estate on planet Ross. That's not to say there were not plenty of other continents, but Elderwood was more than five times the size of the nearest contender.

Virtually every time an empire had come to grow past its local ambitions the goal was always control of Elderwood. But the races who awaited on arrival where naturally some of the most hardened conceivable. You essentially needed to get lucky and catch an exhausted and isolated civilization who had just spent themselves defeating some other threat.

The state of conflict stretched back further than locally recorded history, the one thing all races could agree on was that the constant threat of war had put their development into a hyperactive state, albeit in an incredibly one-tone direction, and that this must be why so many sapient races contended for the same land. You just couldn't push a species too far on this magical planet without risking a magic reaction in turn.

That was not to say that the people doing the recording of history were a numerous bunch, nor particularly popular. When one kingdom rose to prominence it was seldom in their best interest to be reminded of their less than glorious past. And it might seem it was rather strange how every major race eventually seemed to get this almost cyclical turn at dominance, but the biggest reason for this was known to all; [Quests].

Sure, some, like the Ogre clans, were regular contenders for the belt of biggest and baddest, but they were notoriously poor at maintaining empires above a certain size for any length of time, due to their reliance on the rare great Khan. But on the other hand; nobody had ever gotten close to wiping all the Ogre clans out. Something that quite a few races, who no longer maintained a presence on Elderwood, could not claim.

The biggest example of a [Quest] driven event in recent memory was the arrival of Humanity from burning ships in the sky. Every race had gotten the same [System] notifications, despite all having vastly different [Systems] of their own, there were still characteristics they had in common. When the strange aliens arrived, wielding magic weapons and sending what seemed like Spells that destroyed and poisoned vast swathes of land, it was the first time in known history that all the native races united in a common goal. Earn the [Quest] rewards for slaying the interlopers.

When the [Quest] was completed, and no more humans could be found, things quickly returned to normal. Although the destruction caused in the ensuing conflicts was greater than usual due to all the high level individuals who had profited from the great genocide and its rewards. The dust settled and one of the species who came out on top was the Cloven. The reason was unknown, but more than any others the Cloven displayed a greater variety of weaponry and adaptive means than any other race could keep up with, despite all their high levels. It was explained as the Cloven having been able to level an unusually large number of primordial [Druids], but this did not explain the great number of new plant life that was introduced to Elderwood at this time and never again since.

Unknown to all, a shard of humanity remained hidden on Elderwood. The first to find them were the Cloven, but they received no [Quest] to slay these ones. The reason was their complete discarding of the technology that had delivered them here, they stood before the mighty Cloven with barely a thread on their bodies, and having built villages in hostile lands where hordes of predators were forced when the Cloven cleaned house. Their resilience was impressive to the Cloven, and their ability to live without relying on the destruction of nature, rather adding to it with materials from home, made them seem acceptable, a deal was reached. It took many decades for trust to build, but some individuals even earned the right to be taught magic from the greatest [Shamans] and [Druids] of Clovenkind. They were the exception, but eventually the golden era of the Cloven came to an end. They grew more guarded.

One of the few allies they still trusted was Humanity, but sharing their magic became more taboo than before, the limits you had to overcome as an outsider to the Cloven grew far greater. One individual by the name of Antonia, who had a streak of lucky encounters, was taught the old magics, but she used this knowledge in service to Humanity in an unexpected way. Humanity remained vulnerable in this age, and their allies looked to their own backyards, so Antonia created a [System], something that had never been done on Planet Ross before. The rest of the races all just had theirs, some claimed credit for having invented it, but nobody believed them. The [System] had always just been. But they all also knew Humanity were excluded from this natural order, they were not from this place and had never displayed the use of a [System] before. Their ingenuity was undeniable, but the home-made [System] of theirs remained unproven and it took many centuries before humanity earned the respect of being considered a potential threat by the largest empires, without relying on their Cloven allies.

When that day came humans made their mark on history with a vengeance, their whole race entered a golden era and grew across Elderwood like many other races had before them, and they inherited grand cities and learned new magics, improving on both in the process. But every era comes to an end on planet Ross, and especially the capital continent. Elderwood geopolitics eventually turned against the human empire and new contenders from neighbouring continents, wielding strange weapons and Classes, took their turns carving away at the local giant.

Humans were considered one species among many at this point, who had their turn at dominance and failed to maintain it, only a few species with very long memories even recalled how humanity had first arrived. They started stagnating, and eventually they could all be found in their heartlands in Doc Forrest, dreaming of better days and contentedly remaining in slumber unless provoked.

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