Alvira Concepts: 2012

To lessen the confusion of what goes around in Alvira, I have created a loose backstory on this world. It's not the whole history of Alvira but the most important part of it. Now here it is:

Alvira was said to have been created from darkness. However there have been many arguments between the different races about how Alvira came to be. Some say Goddess of Light came down and gave life to the lifeless void of darkness. Some others say that a mighty God rose from the ashes of darkness and with a thunderous roar, gave rise to the mighty beasts that roamed the world to create new lifeforms. But the most common belief in amongst most Alvirans is that life was created with a Big Bang.

But all the Alvirans know this:

The first humanoid race who ever existed in Alvira were the Chimeras. Unlike any other species that roamed in Alvira, they were great shape shifters. In the beginning, they would shift their physical appearance to another animal for survival. Then the Chimeras have dispersed throughout the continent of Brasqua. Exploring the other species and learning their ways of living. As time went by, the race slowly evolved into the likeliness of the animals they relied on for survival while still holding stubbornly onto the basic anatomy of their original. However, over time, their ability to shape shift vanished and there, they gave rise to the diverse races of the Brasqua continent.

However, on the Far Eastern part of Alvira, a new race arose from the blood of massacred Arons, a deer-like creature of legend. The mixture of the extinct beast's blood and the fertile soil of the Mynian continent gave rise to the new race called Ang Mai. The race have distinctive horns and lightweight slender bodies of the Arons.

In the North Western Alviran Continent of Narhaval, primitive Narhein Elves emerged from the breath of the ancient tree spirit of Narhaval's forest. However, curious the race, they migrated towards east and south. As time passing ever so quickly, their bodies started adapting to their surrounding environment, thus creating diversity amongst different regions.

In the far Northern Ice Lands, a new breed of humanoid rose from the blinding blizzard snow. According to the Legend of the Snow, they came into existence from interbreeding the Narhein Elves and the now-extinct Frost Dragons. Their ultimate mother, a Narhein Elf named Hawa was said to be a beautiful elven peasant girl who was kidnapped by a Frost Dragon Lord, Krazkov. But instead of being eaten by the large scary dragon, she was taken care of like his own daughter. As the girl grew to be a beautiful young lady, a young dragon, Nashir, took notice of her and later had children together. As their children grew, they grew to become 2m tall with dragon scales, white hair and basic anatomy of an elf. This race is now known as the Isolytes.

In the South lands of Tropics, humanoid races have evolved from a great fish rose from the oceans. This was said to have made possible due to the stored energy of Magicks in the Chiki Islands. This strong aura of Magicks has catalysed the evolution of fish to humanoid state. These races were known as the Shi’akas.

From the great volcanic eruption of the Middle Continent, blood and flesh of the Earth weaved with the thick smog of Magick aura. From the molten lava, a great humanoid specie was brought to life. With body built strong like steel, with brute force of the Behemoths, they are known as Braschaa.

Lastly, mystically falling from the sky, a handful of a new specie came from the world of “Gaia”. In the beginning of their arrival, the Elves believed that they were angels, and worshipped them as if they were a gift from the Goddess. They call themselves humans, but rest of the Alvirans calls them Gaians. They have first settled in a small region of the Narhaval continent where the Elves dominated. The two humanoids interbred and formed the new race called Vinn. Vinns are great archers like the Elves but has physical appearance of the Gaians. They peacefully lived amongst Elves and Gaians in the continent of Narhaval.

However, the Gaians were fast growing race. Quickly they had taken over most of the Elves’ territory. After few disputes between the ownership of the land, Gaians have migrated throughout all of Alvira and have naturally became a dominant race because of their numbers. Some say that the Goddess of Light has shined her favour on this race thus granting them fertility and ownership as a dominant race.

Soon, due to the overcrowding and the conflict for territory in Narhaval, war waged between the Elves and the Gaians while Vinns were caught in between to take sides.

After 100 years of bloodshed and hatred, a Vinn named Harlen Lore unified the two races under the Great Kingdom of Valhoera.

Outside the border of Valhoera, other individuals took this as an example and unified to create new great kingdoms, Krondor, Yvesland, Palador, Reswick and Terren.

However, the young kingdoms were unstable. Due to this, Valhoera divided into Frank, Desmond and Orland. For Terren, the old king was overthrown and due to the fall, it was renamed as Harcourt. Reswick later invaded Palador.

But after more famine and war between the kingdoms, dark ages entered and civilisation fell into ruins. But from the ashes, curious Gaians collected observations and studied their surroundings. On the same time, the Joojles race does the same thing. After millennium of using Magicks for technology, the Gaians started to examine them closely, questioning the supernatural occurrences. By hundreds of years, they managed to find answers to things that were considered “mysterious” and set up a theory of elements.

Then after 500 years of research and eventually collaboration of knowledge from the Joojles, Alchemy was born. Thanks to Alchemy, technology bloomed and hastened the once dilapidated kingdoms to thriving civilisation. While the technology thrived, Kingdoms slowly recovered with the help of the technology. Soon the 320 nations of Narhaval started building their own culture, art and identity. Also, the nations started collaborating ideas, creating a common language.

Because of this, the practice of Magicks became less popular as the teachings had some conflicts with the findings of Alchemy. In spite of declining popularity of Magicks, the followers were still very vigilant and loyal to the teachings.

But it wasn’t long until when Alchemists started disregarding Magicks as “useless”, “unreliable” and to some extremes, “fiction” and “placebo”. From there, the nations all agreed to put a ban on Magicks for the fear that another fall of civilisation will occur. However the loyal Magicks supporters argue otherwise, claiming that Magicks, when nurtured and used properly will be useful to all humankind. This was deemed evident in the continent of Brasqua, especially between the four powerful tribes of Kjurnba. Their Magicks were proven to be deadly, when confronted, their souls eaten away by the “Baaj”. However the Alchemists state stronger argument against Magicks. It is a dangerous weapon and falling on the wrong hands can cause devastation.

So in the continent of Narhaval, Magicks became illegal. Those who still practice face harsh consequences. But the Magicks are still being practiced underground by small number of eager supporters.

However, Magicks are still commonly used in Brasqua as their main dependence in their lives. They rely on it mostly on gathering food or using it against the warring tribes. In continent of Myna, the people use the best of two worlds. They combine Magicks with Alchemy to support their technological advances. The knowledge of Alchemy was brought into Myna by the Alchemists of Narhaval. Previously being heavily reliant on Magicks, they managed to incorporate the two knowledges and manage to bring up some great ideas and innovation. As for the Middle Continent, the people neither use Magicks nor Alchemy. They rely solely on tactics for war and physical strength and simple ideas for other things. However, in spite of lacking the two knowledges, they are great with crafting by hand and still acquire good technology based on physical observations and calculations.

Now Alvira has more than 7 different humanoid species, 121 races and 543 subraces. Amongst it are more than 800 nations and territories within the 6 continents.