The current date is 6/21/3150.
You are knights in service of King Dragan, ruler of the Kingdom of Drakengard. A mighty dragon captured the king's daughter, Princess Prim, and is holding her in his volcano stronghold. You won't get close without a fight, since the dragon has a whole army of goblins and orcs at his command. Worse, several important towns have already fallen to the dragon's control, one of which is home to the kingdom's Legendary Dragon-Slaying Weapons. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to slay the dragon and rescue the princess!
At the start of the story, humans are the only playable race, since Drakengard is a human nation. Players may create new characters from other races as they visit those nations. So for example, if you visit the elves' nation Aetherion, you may create an elf character.
While Aion is bursting with magic, people capable of casting it are relatively few, and thus far relegated to the realm of NPCs. The knights are among the strongest soldiers in the kingdom, able to best any other soldier in single combat. You won't be slaying whole armies all by yourselves, though, so when you're up against numerous opponents, you'll need to fight judiciously, and maybe even recruit the locals.
RacesHuman: The most well-rounded combatants, and the longest-lived. Aion's environment is tailored for humanity, so humans tend to live long, live healthy, and age much less. Drakengard is the strongest human faction, holding most of the highly coveted southern lands as well as Southaven Tower. Human mages are rare, and the few that exist are highly sought-after.
Elves: This species trades physical strength and lifespan for enhanced senses and magical power. So while their bodies do not age much at all, they die about 30 years earlier than the average human. Their strongest warriors have the physical capacity of an untrained human male. What they lack in physical power, they gain in magical proficiency, and they have that in spades. The mightiest elves could tear up whole cities with their power, and their senses are second to none among humanoids. They cannot breed with humans, but that certainly doesn't stop them from trying...
Dwarves: This species trades lifespan and stature for enhanced durability and hardiness. While they live about half as long as humans (~60 years), they can heal almost any injury, even loss of limbs or organs, and can digest almost anything. They grow a good deal of hair on their bodies, which, combined with their short stature, grants them a degree of stealth. Female dwarves develop most of that hair on their heads instead, and so their head-hair can grow absurdly long.
Orcs: This species trades lifespan for strength and birth rate. Few orcs live past 30, but their muscles do not atrophy, so orcs can grow absurdly strong toward the end of their lives. One mother can give birth to dozens of children, and sometimes whole clans owe their existence to a single matriarch. The species is just as intelligent as humans, but it's often lost on their bloodthirsty, tribal lifestyle. Evil overlords like to use orcs as disposable footsoldiers.
Goblins: Unlike the above four races, this species possesses no human soul, but rather an animalian one. As such, they have an order of magnitude less intelligence than any of the four humanoid races. Diminutive, weak, and somewhat stupid, they should have been little more than a footnote in history had not a certain enterprising sorcerer bred them en masse for his own personal gain. They are a violent species and highly susceptible to Void possession. Possessed goblins are known as hobgoblins, and unlike their ordinary brethren, possess true sapience equal to any humanoid. While it is possible to find a "good goblin," conventional wisdom says that the only good goblin is a dead goblin.
LoreHavens: There are five towers on the continent, named Midhaven, Northaven, Southaven, Easthaven, and Westhaven. These five Havens were constructed by the Ancients in an era long past, each one a vast sky-scraper built of a strange, indestructible substance. The towers possess no visible entrance, but certain mages have detected the presence of invisible teleportation rings that may grant entry. To date, no one has been able to enter a Haven. According to cave art discovered in recent excavations, the ball-like structure atop each Haven tower is a defense mechanism capable of firing deadly thunderbolts that even the gods would tremble at. They have never opened fire in recent memory.
Factions:
Drakengard: The kingdom that spans the whole of the southern territory. Lush and brimming with resources, it is the place where humanity first colonized this world. The kingdom is divided into twelve provinces, each governed by a noble lord. They used to be independent nations in their own right until the Unification War a couple centuries ago, which brought them under the control of King Edward Dragan, the legendary Hero King. His great-grandson Gerald Dragan now sits on the ancestral throne. He has proven himself a decent king, if a bit spineless at times.
Aetherion: The forested lands to the east, occupied by the elves. With all the nightmarish spells cast on it to keep visitors away, only the bravest souls dare to pass through it. Should one reach inhabited land, they would find a breathtakingly beautiful realm where technology and nature intertwine. Beneath the beauty and graceful facade lies a toxic culture of betrayal, backbiting, and brutal power struggles. The elves try to keep it under wraps to maintain their public image as godlike beings, but only non-elves buy it. They are deeply divided, with over several dozen independent factions and no less than three competing monarchs claiming to be the "One True God." The common folk generally couldn't care less, but their nobility are always dragging them into useless and petty wars.
Riftgard: The green, mountainous region to the west, occupied by the dwarves. It is named for the mysterious portal situated in the heart of Mount Magmoor. Magmoor is, as the name suggests, an active volcano where the great dragon Caradras makes his lair. This is NOT the dragon we're gunning for in this story, and for good reason - he's leagues smarter than the one that took Princess Prim. The dwarves that live under his protection are a peaceful lot, preferring to perfect artistic endeavors over warmongering. Their capital, Undermountain, is one of the great wonders of the world, an expansive and cavernous city where it is said that gems surpass sunlight, and the lowliest commoner's home would make a monarch blush. Not that outsiders would know, since Caradras maintains an impassable ring of fire around the mountain.
Fellmore: The cold, bitter tundra-desert where the orcs call home. While its earth is rich in metal ores, it is nearly barren of anything else. Nonetheless, the orcs have managed to make it (barely) hospitable with careful resource management and smart farming methods. Unfortunately, many orcs decided that they could farm each other for additional resources, leading to rampant cannibalism. When they're not eating each other, they're trying to invade everyone else. Not all orcs are behind this culture shift, with some trying to live honest lives, but those orcs rarely go on the warpath, and thus are rarely encountered.
While there are a few dozen Dragonslayer items scattered around the world, there are a handful that most people already know about through myth and legend.
- Dawnblade: A mythical longsword whose edge is infinitely thin, unbreakable, and cuts through every substance in the world like butter. The blade shimmers with a golden hue that makes it impossible to miss. According to its User Manual, the weapon assigns ownership to the first person who grabs the hilt, and shuts down anyone else who tries to take it. Its last owner was its creator, and only its creator can reset ownership.
- Duskblade: The sister weapon to the Dawnblade, likewise unbreakable. This longsword inflicts un-healable wounds, and any living thing cut by its blade is cursed to die. Its combat properties are otherwise equivalent to any other high-quality sword. Since the weapon possesses no unique visual features, it has been lost to time.
- Aegis: A large, unbreakable shield that reflects anything that strikes it. There is a trigger on the handlegrip that activates a spherical protection field in a 1-meter radius (though doing so negates the shield's reflective power).
- Titan: A necklace with an ancient medallion that, when grabbed, materializes a suit of powered armor over the wearer from head to toe. The armor vastly enhances the wearer's strength, speed, and dexterity to near godlike levels, and possesses a mysterious protective field able to stop nearly anything this world can throw at it. The ancients considered this their weakest armor.
- Luna: A silver bow that fires magical light-arrows. The arrows are not affected by wind or gravity, and thus fly straight and true. Up to three may be fired at once. Each arrow possesses enough piercing power to rip through multiple armored targets.
- Magic Gauntlets: A pair of gauntlets that tap into the user's bloodstream, allowing even non-mages to cast magic. They can draw from ambient mana in much the same way people naturally do, which allows the user tremendous freedom to cast whatever spells they want at minimal cost to themselves.
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