Amaroth- the Silver World. An absolute utopia, filled with beautiful purple mountains (In which massive silver veins could be found), rolling green hills and plains, white-gold deserts, and a massive, magnificent ocean that surrounded the pangea. The only thing more beautiful than the landscape were it's inhabitants: stout and hairy dwarves, elves of all sizes and colors, faeries with glittering wings, the ever-adaptable humans, the strong half-giants, the mysterious merfolk; the amount of species that inhabited the World Before could not all be written on paper with ease. Sprawling white cities hugged mountains, built upwards in waves; The merfolk had established an underwater empire featuring their odd glass buildings; stout and square huts dotted the landscape of the deserts and the lush foliage of the highlands were filled with farms and livestock. Amaroth was supposed to be perfect.

Sadly, in modern times it isn't widely known what life in the World Before was like- it's been nearly a century and a half since the coming of the Worldbane, and much of the generation that had witnessed the event have passed, save the few races that live to extreme years, such as the elves and dwarves, though such races haven't been seen but a few times since.

Today, one could look out over the bleak and empty wastes and wonder if this place used to be Amaroth at all. Such was the might of the Worldbane- even mountains had crumbled beneath their feet. Much of the vibrant color has been sucked out, replaced with never ending grays, browns, and oranges. Even the sky has paled to a faint white-blue, when you catch glimpses of it between massive, dark clouds.

The former cities have been buried under rock, sand, or dirt, the creatures brought by the Worldbane now inhabiting the dangerous ruins- if they don't kill you, the ruins themselves will. The bodies of the fallen still lay where they were slain, turning these death-traps into practical catacombs.

This is the Weeping World.

Welcome to the Weeping World- where you must will yourself to live another day, and steel yourself against the creatures of the night.

Once called Amaroth, this land is now referred to as the 'Weeping World', for the landscape is an accurate representation of the average outlook on life: gray. Death is a regular thing here, be it from exhaustion, the ruin-dwellers, bandits, rogue mages, suicide, starvation- the list goes on. The peoples are almost accepting of it, and there are many who pity those who must live long lives, such as the Dwarves and Elves.

While the general architecture of the landscape still stands- the mountains are still mountains, the deserts still vast- everything seems to have been dipped in a sorrowful shade of gray. The once golden sands now lay a pale-tan color, the majestic mountains turned brown and gray, and the once lush and green foliage of the rolling highlands has long died out, withering away to time. Only the sea was spared, though it's been a long time since anyone has heard from or seen any of the Merfolk. Like so many other species, it is thought that they may have been wiped out in their entirety when the Worldbane descended.

Small villages have since been created on the ruins of several of the once-great cities, though they do not promise safety. Bandits roam much of the land, taking what they need by force and offering no quarter. Mercy has no place here. Many have resorted to giving into chance and scavenging the vast ruins that are now guarded by the hellish beasts that the Worldbane brought with them, hoping to find something from the World Before that could help them, something that could bring hope. If they return, it is often empty handed. Even powerful mages are given no pardon- many of them carry the burden of exile, scorned and blamed for ruining the world, though many also carry the burden of acting as protector from gods-know-what.

Welcome to the Weeping World, where the hope left with the Worldbane.

'Far above the mortal sphere
Dreaming without a care
Far above the weeping world
Sleeping amidst the light of stars

Too far away to hear our calls
Too far away to care at all

On the burnished thrones they sit
Might in their blazing eyes
Vault of heaven at their feet
Undying flames inside.'
-Niilo Sevänen

It isn't entirely known exactly what the Worldbane was, many say it was a race of angelic-like beings while others say it was a single, massive, god-like figure, but it is certainly known that it was the coming of the Worldbane that brought the chaos and destruction that led to the Weeping World. Their coming had been prophesied since the first mages set foot into the Chasms and were foretold of the apocalyptic event, though the stubbornness and folly of the mortal races led to them trying to resist fate. What wasn't prophesied, however, was that some would survive.

When the Worldbane came, many fled, but an equal many stood and fought against it, or them. Even the collective might of all the species of Amaroth wasn't near enough to prevent the destruction of it, though some say that it is due to this resistance that the survivors lived.

So the texts say, Amaroth fought valiantly against the Worldbane across various sections of the world for nearly a week, until only small pockets of survivors remained to catalog the event should any survive. It wasn't long until they were found, as well, and the texts that were written during this period are among the most sought after in the Weeping World, for those who don' t know history are doomed to repeat it.

When it/they were finished, the Worldbane retreated from whence it came, leaving behind it a corruption that twisted and deformed the remainder of the land's animals- these very beasts still inhabit the ruins today.

the Chasms: Studies of the arcane arts had always been a regular thing- in fact, many of the World Before would claim that it was the arcane arts that spawned some of the first technological devices that ran off of arcana. Any mage of the World Before knew of the great elemental planes, or Chasms, that lay before them. These warrens could be accessed by a mage through the use of a Focus, the single item that the mage took with them into the Chasm during their Archtonement. Foci were often small wearable baubles- such as necklaces or braces- but many mages liked to carve out staves and use them as their focus. Some would even go so far as to take a full breastplate or even weapons to use as foci.

Mages use their Focus to "tap into" their attuned Chasm. Tapping could be as simple as rubbing the gemstone on a ring or as flashy as spinning their staff overhead, even speaking an incantation. Once tapped, a mage may manipulate or move things from the Chasm into the physical world, a process called Shifting. Through Shifting a mage may throw a fireball out of their staff, shoot beams of light from their ring, or even summon otherworldly creatures. But before a mage receives his or or focus, he or she must live through Archtonement.

Archtonement was a way of attuning oneself to an elemental Chasm, granting access to that plane of power. Once attuned, a mage could not reverse the process, though it was possible to be attuned to several Chasms. Archtonement was a very secretive and ritualistic process that involved invocations spoken in a very strange language that very few knew- however, it was well known that is was a very rigorous process and not all survived.

For one, the individual being attuned had to be completely naked- only one item was allowed to be brought upon first entering a Chasm and it would be that item that acted as the mage's Focus from then on out. Binding someone to a Chasm required the sacrifice of a physical aspect of the mortal, normally a body part.This sacrifice created a pact between the Chasm and the mortal and allowed "rites of passage", as well as the use of a Focus to tap into the Chasm's power.

And secondly, Chasms sometimes could act as a living being and would resist the entrance of an unknown mortal- the mage would then need to overpower the Chasm or have his mind destroyed by it.

However, modern mages are a fairly rare sight. When the Worldbane appeared, many mages either fled into their Chasm (via sacrificing their entire bodies, destroying their physical being but becoming an elemental in another plane) or went to help confront the beings, only to be slaughtered along with millions of others. Those that survived, however, are looked upon either with suspicion or with reverence, depending on where they are.

In some villages they serve as healers, priests, or even entertainers. These mages are often looked to in times of trouble, and the collective mages that act in favour of others (Be it protecting, healing, offering guidance, etc.) are nicknamed Guardians.

On the other hand, however, are the opposites. There are many mages who are rebuked by local villages for being too brash or dangerous with the use of their magic, and there are some who simply prefer not to stay in a single village, preferring to travel alongside the scavengers or even bandits. These mages are collectively known as Wanderers.

It should be noted that whether one is dubbed Guardian or Wanderer is not based on what type of magic is used, it is [/i]how[/i] they use it.