History of Magic
Magic is present everywhere in the world. It is in every living thing. Natural sources of energy are also natural sources for magic. For example, running rivers, wind, and volcanoes and other natural sources of high heat are all reservoirs of magic. For many years, humans didn’t know how to perform magic, only knew of its existence from natural magical phenomena and from seeing magical creatures use it. However, this changed with the discovery of Runes. About 500 years ago, the original Rune Tablet was found. This tablet had all 500 Runes, and 5 lines of what appeared to be sentences. It was discovered that by focusing and channeling your energy into these sentences, a spell could be performed. The five spells on the tablet were levitation, summoning an element, shield, heal, and disease. This was how humans learned that they too, were capable of magic.
After discovering the Rune Tablet, humans began studying and experimenting with different combinations of runes to create new spells. At first, the Runes were a closely guarded secret. However King Orion Alston from the Kingdom of Yoendra made the decision to make the runes public knowledge. He would also go one to create Isunia, the world’s first magic university, which became the leader in magical studies. During their studies, they continually ran into an issue that hindered their progress. Written runes could only be used to cast a spell once. After one use, the runes would disappear. The tablet appeared to have been made of a special stone that could retain the runes. In addition, the “Rune code” was incredibly complex and difficult to decipher. With 500 runes, the amount of combinations seemed endless. However, they did find that certain kinds of spells tended to use the same set of runes. For 200 years, research on magic runes progressed slowly due to the complexity of Runes. Then Mana, the first Runecrafter was born.
The Rise and Fall of Mana
Mana would go down in history as the greatest mage that ever lived and none before or after have been her equal. Mana was born to farmers and from a very young age showed an incredible talent for magic. More importantly though, she had a never before seen understanding of runes. She would later be known as the first Runecrafter. At the age of 13 she became the youngest person ever admitted to Isunia. Over the next 30 years her work would directly contribute to the largest boom in new spells and the organization of a collection of base spells for every magic affinity. Mana discovered that Runes should not be treated like learning a new language. Instead, the use of runes was more comparable to math. Creating spells required complex calculations, and with her help, magical researchers were able to come to a basic understanding of how these calculations worked. In addition, she would make three important discoveries that would change the face of magic forever: a way to quantify and measure magical energy (which was eventually named mana, in honor of her), how to store that energy (in the form of magic gems), and the magic circle.
The magic circle is considered the single most important invention in all magical history and is used in almost every magic spell. However, when it was first invented, it was only useful for allowing larger spell casts using less mana and Mana was the only one able to use them. This is because the first version of the magic circle required complex calculations to be made each time it was used. It made her nearly unbeatable in battle. After all, how could you beat someone who could create bigger spells, while using less mana?
Although there were those who were jealous and feared her power, her achievements outshined any fear surrounding her for many years, Mana was beloved, not only by those in Yoendra, but all around the continent. Statues were erected in her honor. People held festivals to celebrate all the advancements she had made in magical research.
However this all changed when Mana met and Bonded with a young dragon. Although Mana had unparalleled spell casting ability, she had a relatively small natural mana pool, and she tired quickly when casting spells. With the dragon’s near infinite stores of mana at her disposal, she became strong enough to defeat an army on her own. There had already been a growing number of people who believed Mana should be on the throne, and now that she had the power to face his armies, the king began to fear that she would either overthrow him or ally herself with an enemy country. The king gave Mana a choice. Either swear absolute loyalty to him and allow herself to be marked with a spell of obedience, or die. Mana refused and fled the capitol. After being on the run for two months, she was offered shelter at Isunia, a place she once called home.
When Mana arrived at the university after months of being on the run nonstop, she was immediately caught in a trap and met with the full force of the king’s armies, Isunia’s best mages, and armies and mages from the neighboring countries. In the ensuing battle, Mana managed to escape, but not before but not before both her and her dragon were wounded. After the battle, an extensive search was carried out but she was never found. Many assumed that she had succumbed to her wounds and died.
However, two years later, Mana appeared in the capital, with a draconic appearance. After fleeing, Mana’s dragon had given her his Heartstone, combining their powers together. In less than 2 hours, using both her immense magical prowess and dragonfire, Mana completely decimated Yoendra’s capital. There were no survivors. She was never seen again.
Feelings about Mana remain mixed. Some hail her as the greatest mage of all time who was driven to madness by those who desired and feared her power. Others only remember her as the murderer who killed tens of thousands and nearly destroyed a kingdom. Following the destruction of the Capital, it became illegal to bond with high ranked magical creatures and consume Heartstones across the continent.