The Age of Discovery
Agreed to have begun at the first recorded monster sighting and slaying. This period saw the overwhelming appearance of the monstrous hordes and numerous civilizations that were most definitely not human.

To combat the ever increasing numbers of monsters attacking human settlements, the territories joined under a single banner and sanctioned The Hunters’ Guild: a guild dedicated to the sole purpose of seeking out and destroying the enemies of humanity, wherever they may be. The Guild does not discriminate and accepts all volunteers, provided they are able-bodied and acknowledge that by setting out on hunts, they march to an almost assured death.

Around the same time that the Guild is formed, humanity makes first contact with another civilization of the world: dragons. They’re large, reptilian beasts not unlike the monsters that menace the world, differentiated only by their intelligence and bearing of arms. The dragons express no interest in allying with the humans, although, they war with the mindless hordes just the same. The enemy of your enemy…

The Age of Despair
Despite the best efforts of The Hunters’ Guild, it becomes clear that humanity fights a losing battle. Whole territories are lost over the years as there are more monsters roaming the lands than the Guild can contend with.

Humanity begs that the dragons directly aid them in their cause, but, as they are to everything in the world, the dragons are apathetic and the pleas fall on deaf ears. The once large civilization of the humans dwindles to the cluster of cities founded around the base of Mt. Halibound, where the great hall of the Guild rests.

The Age of Hope
The renowned wizard, Atmeus IV creates the first manabuss—a device that greatly simplifies the casting of magic—and shares the details of his work with The Hunters’ Guild. In just under a year, the first generation of gunslayers, armed with manabusses, set out on their first hunts to a rousing success. The situation for humanity is still quite dire, but the gunslayers of the Guild have shown the light at the end of the tunnel.

Traditionally, magic is the realm of wizards. Magic in this world, while powerful, is held back by the casting process, which requires the use of a casting circle, long incantations, and excellent stamina to coerce ambient mana into action. This is on top of the lifetime of study required to understand magic well enough to cast anything of significance. Despite this, the Guild still used magic, but it was limited to setting traps that had to be manned at all times, or healing spells in a hospital in the absence of medicine or at the very back of the battlefield.

Gunslayers are much more mobile and offensive, thanks to the quick, simplified casting methods provided by their manabuss. They are just as potent as wizards, but lacking in the time or attitude to be as knowledgeable. Gunslayers typically only invest themselves in one or two families of magic as a result, such as mastery over a specific element of nature, or spells to manipulate time. Because garment holds no bearing on their casting ability, they’re often clad in whatever makes them feel safe enough. Some might wear full suits of armor, while others will wear a few leather pads and be done with it.

The manabuss is the one and only weapon used by the gunslayer, handcrafted and maintained by a wizard of the Guild. They are, well, shaped like guns and tend to feature protrusions on their forms similar in nature to a bayonet. Gunblades.

By use of prefabricated, general purpose casting circles and numerous, enchanted, precious stones all built into the device, it rapidly interprets whole incantations, abbreviated to short phrases (‘ra foie’ or ‘prota’ or ‘fa el megid’), and launches whatever spell has been cast from the jewel at the end of its barrel. It’s…it’s a magic gun.