The story of Alterra and its people

[nazgulking]

Alterra is a beautiful place which is home to the Ursan race.

The Ursan are bear-like humanoid creatures the have set their home in the snowy peaks of Frost Hollow. They have devoted themselves into mining and forging. All their lives resolves around the concept of "Only the Strong ones can survive".

Their natural greed, for new ways to improve their skills in the forging field, have made them go into the depths of all the terrains that Alterra can offer; from their mountains of their capital city to the forests of Vylwood, from the sand plains of Oasis to the swamps of Lake Loiue.

In their homeworld, due to their need of mining new type of minerals, they have met the yetis.
These creatures have always hated the Ursan, since they carelessly destroy the depths of their beloved mountains, and envyed them for the results they could obtain from the forging of beautiful armours, shields and weapons. Since the first writings brought by the wisest of the Ursan race we know that each other always ignored, delaying the inevitable clash, known simply as "the Incident". We don't know what actually made the situation go worse, but one day one of the Frost Kings of the yetis, the highest rank in the yeti society, have declared war upon the Ursan. A great battle was soon seen by those old mountains, but the victory was not held by either side and from the day of the Incident, the two factions are sworn enemies.

Beign so stubborn and sure of their state of beign just right, it is difficult to make a normal Ursan change their mind, unless there is a practical reason to do so.
Not all of the Ursan follow the way of their brothers. Some of them have followed the way of magic, which end up beign the self-proclaimed Druids, and the way of swiftness, which make bear go they way of the thieves and bandits.

The druids have crossed paths with many great magicians from the elven forests to the human distant island, but still can not master the spell that these races have learned in millenia of studies. Using staves, wands and their natural stubborn nature, they help their friends and brothers but do not seek glory for themselves or in the arenas.
The bandit bears instead have made their greed reach their highest peaks and took what they learned from the Avians of the sand plains of Oasis to satisfy themselves. No one trust them, even when they are helping the Alliance, because their final goal is to acquire all the treasures they encounter in their quests.

Most of all the Ursans reside still on those Frosty peaks but some of them have answered the call of the Queen of the Alliance of Alterra and are still helping into unveiling the mistery of the recent events that, from the rumors and whispers of an unnamed fear, deals with the same entity that have led to the first Great War of Alterra, which no one wants to talk about.

The Alliance is just that, a name, but Ursan are known to have a great memory and from that historical moment the Ursan circle of the Mighty ones have permitted selected humans to be welcome in their homeworld.

[nazgulking]

Alterra is a beautiful place which is home to the Avian race.

The Avians are bird-like humanoids that have a story filled with many misfortuned events that eventually led to what is an open wound for all of them: The Great Exile.

They have a natural tendency to be curios. This trait of their race have always been a major benefit, making them the best marksman of all the known lands. They like to be swift and to gain what they want in the shortest time possible. This way of getting things done have led their former capital city "Golden Beak", deep into the forests East of the plains of Oasis, to be a place reknowed for their annual festivals. These moments have always led to the meeting of fabolous people that one day formed one of the best known of the travelling companies: Nuri travelling company. Since then it gathers the best artists of all races to make them travel the world and make all the people watch in awe what they can offer. Their leader, as a rule passed from parent to son is to be called Nuri, as the name of the first founder of the company.

Their empire of knowledge brought the art of woodworking and archery to become legendary. Avians have always been formed in city-states; every one of them having their own rules, but Golden Beak was the one with most influence since it was ruled by its magnetic ruler, known as Av'ian (Name from which all their race took the name).
Av'ian was a fair and just ruler, so carismatic that no one was to go against his will, no one apart from his brother.
He was so at odds with him that he searched all the globe a way to get rid of his brother. After venturing into the depths of the desert, west of his homecountry, he eventually found that answer.

Trace of an ancient race was left in the pyramids. These structures were nothing more than beacons that needed to be activated to call these ancient beigns into the realm of Alterra. After having deciphered the misterious glyphs left by the race of the Shadows, he found a way to destroy Golden Beak with a weapon left by the ancient ones. Before he could achieve his evil plan these beigns, called by him, came to the pyramid and deceived him by pretending to giving him the power to overthrown his brother. In the end they transformed him into their loyal servant Anubis, whose mind was brainwashed to just serve the "Ancients".

Shortly after they were driven by Anubis himself to Golden Beak, killing all the avians on their path. Av'ian before seeing the slaughtering of his people or see them enslaved took the gift made by the Queen of the elves: the stopwatcher. This magical artifact could stop time and make just selected people by the owner of the artifact to actually move. Av'ian chose to make its people flee their homeland. It could save his people but not himself, since the watch to work must be held still at all time to be used.
The last words of their beloved ruler was "Always look forward and never forget the time is consuming". When enough time passed and Av'ian felt that enough of its people were safe he stopped the watch and he was swarmed by the forces of the "Ancients".

Avians fled from the forests to the desert and founded the city of Oasis.
They say that the magical pool in the center of the city was formed by those who shed tears for their beloved and carismatic leader.
Still now the memory of Av'ian is still strong. Even if he did all what he could to save the Avian race from certain death not all of his brothers and sisters survived the so called "Great Exile". Some became slaves of the Ancients, others became shadows at the mercy of the Ancients and other are just but disappeared.

After so much grief, they were helped by the elves that gave them the means to build a new life for their people in the desert. From that day forward the Avians are what are known now and still seek revenge against the "Ancients" that razed all their towns.

When the Queen of the elves called for help the Avians were more than willing to help them after they gave them a hand in a time of need. They went through the Great War with great losses but an even greater victory ahead. They broke their former habit of living in city states and almost all the Avians live now in Oasis.
Some of them have met the Ursans of Frosty Hollow and have tried to follow their teachings becaming blademasters.
Others have tried the hard way of the magic and with their, now, friend humans have formed the circle of the sages, composed by humand archmages and Avian wardens.

They seek now some rest from their griefing past within the Alliance of Alterra, trying to not make the same mistakes of the past and, maybe one day, reconquer their old homeland, which now is a mere wasteland.

[nazgulking]

Alterra is a beautiful place which is home to the Elven race.

The elfs are a squirrel-like humanoids who have mastered the way of the arcane and are the ones that, involuntarily, started the "Great War".

Knowing the elfs as they are now, it hard to believe that their ancestors were tree-dwellers with no predisposition to the way of magic. It all began with Bale the Great first King of the Elves. Very few is known of his origins but all we have is that He created the elf society and he founded their capital city "The Fort".
The society of the elves is mainly made by females, but once in a while a male child will be given to birth. Only the Males can rule over the elf society as King, while Queens are the best enchantresses that get their title by the demonstration of their great value. Since the first writings there always been just one King and one Queen only.
Many people from the outside critized this system: why a male should be given the right to rule all others? Because all the elves have chosen this way and from that moment forward this law still applies.

The Elven race is enthralled by the wisdom and they seek it all their life long. They are the wisest of all the races that step foot on the soil of Alterra; for this reason, when there is a dispute, they are always questioned to resolve it. It is incrediblly easy for them to make a new formula, concoction or spell by just concentrating a few minutes, while the best archmages or wardens struggle to do it in a week of hard work. They are always willing to help others and make their knowledge accessible to others.

A major part of their powers comes from the orbs scattered across their forests.
It seems that the mere presence of these objects grants them a great amount of magical power. These fabolous artifacts were actually manifactured by Bale himself with mystical dark crystal whose origin could not be questioned. It seemed that all the times he was asked about them he become extremely unstable and irritated. He could never understand himself why he was always getting angry by those questions. Also he could not say how he was able to manifacture those orbs, because when doing so he was always going in a trance-like state, with no memory of what he was doing in the process.
The only thing that was clear as fire is Him seeing glyphs all around him. Once he even crafted dresses with those glyphs, giving the bearer the greatest of all powers.

One day he began to hear voices in his head, but one was more clear than others "Son!". Indeed he never met his parents, so driven by curiosity he began to go all around the globe to find answers to his questions. Eventually he found them among the Avians. He remebered that sad story of their people and was captured by one detail. The brother of Av'ian encountered some glyphs in his quest to crush his brother in the pyramids not so much distant from Oasis.
He investigated the pyramids himself and he decipher the glyphs, not yet aware of what he was unveiling.
The story he was reading was a very odd one.

"Milions of ages ago a Great Being, which calls himself "Saunaz", created the world we all know. He was coming from a distant planet where all people of the race he was affiliated with were reseracher, just like the elves. He, more than others, was inspecting the ways to create the perfect race. He first created the "Ancients" and they prospered among the plane of the "Rift". After them having reached the highest peak of their civilization he moved to the plane of the "Cosmos" and founded what he called "Arretla" and made 4 different races, each one with a major trait: One was to get Strengh from the Earth, One from the Air, One from the Fire and One from the Water.
He watched his creations grow and build cities and societies and decided to put among the fire-dwellers his best creation, "the one which from the Strengh of wisdom could sparkle the life into this realm".
Unfortunately his first creation were getting out of control and taking an unexpected turn. They were craving for more power. In a moment of madness Saunaz drove the Ancients into his own home planet. The ancients razed the planet and took all knowledge of the Great Beings for themselves.
After such "marvellous" discoveries he moved to the plane of the "Void" and there is waiting for his true son to awake and make him finish his test on the plane of Cosmos"

After reading this Bale understood and the son of Saunaz awoke. "Son finally you have found me, it is time for me to finish what I have started"
In that moment the Sun became as dark as the pits of Frosty Hollow and a big gate was opened between the Void and the Cosmos.
The Great War just began.

[nazgulking]

Alterra is a beautiful place which is going to meet its doom in what in the annals of Alterra is going to be remebered as the Great War.

Bale was aware of its true origin now. One second after his "father" teleported him in the plane of Void.
What he was seeing is much like the name implies: miles and miles of wastes. A dark aura was all around him. Instead of trees, big columns of Obsidian. Instead of water, there were black marshes, instead of light there was but darkness.

"Only few can walk these lands without losing their minds. Come to my tower. Come my Son"

And there it was. Glimmering in the distance there was a tall spiky tower with no apparent entrance.
Suddenly a door opened in the black structure a long staircase was awating him.

Cold. That was the feeling that he felt going up those black stairs. A sense of nothingness.
At the end of the staircase there was a big room illuminated by violet torches.
Sitting on its Dark throne there was Saunaz. He was inside a black armour encased in a prison of Obsidian. The cage was imprisoning its feet and hands, not letting him move from his throne of darkness. The helm was not letting Bale see his father eyes or face.

"Come"

Bale approached the throne and telepathically his father was talking to him.

"After so many Eons my time have come. Time to finish."
"Time to finish what?" inquired Bale.
"Time to finish the life on this pitiful land"

A sense of chilling pervaded Bale.

"My experiment on this plane have taken too long, time to gather all the life in the plane of Cosmos and charge this tower"
"Why? You are a Great Beign, you should devote yourself to the research of wisdom of life, not use it to destroy it!"

"Me? Ah! I'm not a Great Beign, I am something far more superior. I have used your father's body to encase my soul and... Do you see this tower made of black Obsidian? It had been made of the souls I have collected during these eons through the planes. Using a process invented by your father it cristalize the souls of the dead and make them objects to create an even greater power."
"Who are you, then?"
"I am The Void"

Seeing what the Void was poiting at, Bale tried to kill him. The Void was much more powerful than him and dodged the attack and encaged him in a black prison.
"You fool! You are not a dweller of this plane, You are a Void-dweller! You are my Son and I won't permit that the feelings you gained on that plane to blur your vision! If you are not going to help me willingly, I will make you do it! I've learned to use the life of others to pursuit my objectives and this have never let me down. I will make you understand it by making you see Arretla burn in black flames! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Terrified by that vision and not been able to move he did the only thing that was able to. Using his amazing powers he talked telepatically to the Queen of the elves.

"My Queen a dire time is ahead of us! And war will be brought to our lands. I am imprisoned in the plane of the Void and its black flames are going burn our beloved Alterra. Listen to what you have to do..."

The queen requested the help of all the species inhabiting Alterra: Ursans, Avians, Human and Elves. All answered the call.
No one was certain of what it was awating them, but they gathered as many warriors they could.

Soon from the gate between the Void and the Cosmos a black mob appeared. They were zombies, skeletons, demons and other monstrosities. They were millions and milions.
At that time the Queen understood the plan of her King. He asked all the warriors to help the people of Alterra take refugee in the Fort.
There was time to gather them since the Portal opened near the old homeland of the Avians.
The plan was working. With their magic powers the elves created a vault in the Fort able to contain all the people of Alterra and the Ursans, Avians and Men helped the free people of Alterra to take refugee in their vaults. The only ones that did not answered the call were the yetis,the crocs and the dwarves.

When all was done, there they were ammassing around the Fort. The dark forces of the Void. mindless servants of Its will.
The Queen talked to all the warriors and told them the plan:

"My dear friends. The time to hold back the forces have come. Bale have been trapped by unknown forces in other plane, but was able to tell me how to use his crystals to overcome the enemy force, but I need you to hold them back as long as you can.
There will be a time when your names will be written in the annals of history, go brave warriors! You will not be forgotten"

A lengendary vision. On one side in the front lines there were the Ursans, with their gem-encrusted shields and plate armours, side by side with the humans. In the back the Avians with their bows were ready for the battle.
On the other side a big black Mob with grunts and one clear voice saying "MEAT!"

A moment of hesitation... and GO!

"Go! Go! Go!", "I'll have Zombie head in my sandwich tonight" The Ursans were shouting and charged at the enemy, while the humans stayed a tad back to help the frontlines to decimate whoever gets past them.
They were cutting limbs and heads and a rain of black blood was covering the sacred forests of the Elves.
The Avians in the back helped to keep the undeads at bay killing them from afar, zombies and skeletons alike.

All semed pretty easy at the beginning, but then they came trolls and huge hulking undead frankensteins. They were hitting hard and were crushing the frontlines, thanks to their clevers and pitchforks. Still the Avians were helping them by making them full of holes thanks to their swift arrows.

With all their hard work, they could never hold back the milions of forces that were pushing against the Fort. Time by time The Alterra forces were loosing ground. They were actually ouside the main doors of the Fort and one of the Ursans' lieutenant shouted: "Dang you elves, how long is taking you to make a damn miracle happen?" and looking at the center of the main plaza of the Fort , he saw the elves were assembling a giant black crystal upon a pedestal.
Suddenly an earthquake shaked the land and the Queen shouted: "Warriors! Come near the crystal!".
They obeyed and after closing the main doors of the city the Queen sealed the vault and created a magical shield all around the crystal. A great violet lighting was creating around the crystal and began tracing a circle. The circle was almost completed when the forces of the Void break down the main doors and clash upon the magical shield of the Queen.

No one knew what the cristal was about to be doing, but the dark force were trying to break the shield down when, just in time,the circle completed and a light brighter than a thousand suns shined and from the crystal began an enourmous black explosion.

Everyone shut their eyes and hold their breath.

[Nick41324]

Thats dedication if u ask me....

[Jessica162]

awesome! but would be nicer if they were in paragraphs...reading them really hurts my eyes lol

[nazgulking]

Say what? .... Done

[NoobianOfAlterra]

amazing story! hope to see more...btw all your 'mystery' are 'mistery'

[nazgulking]

amazing story! hope to see more...btw all your 'mystery' are 'mistery'

One less mistery, with the history of the Avians unveiled

[NoobianOfAlterra]

Alterra ia a beautiful place which is home to the Avian race.

The Avians are bird-like humanoids that have a story filled with many misfortuned events that eventually led to what is an open wound for all of them: The Great Exile.

They have a natural tendency to be curios. This trait of their race have always been a major benefit, making them the best marksman of all the known lands. They like to be swift and to gain what they want in the shortest time possible. This way of getting things done have led their former capital city "Golden Beak", deep into the forests East of the plains of Oasis, to be a place reknowed for their annual festivals. These moments have always led to the meeting of fabolous people that one day formed one of the best known of the travelling companies: Nuri travelling company. Since then it gathers the best artists of all races to make them travel the world and make all the people watch in awe what they can offer. Their leader, as a rule passed from parent to son is to be called Nuri, as the name of the first founder of the company.

Their empire of knowledge brought the art of woodworking and archery to become legendary. Avians have always been formed in city-states; every one of them having their own rules, but Golden Beak was the one with most influence since it was ruled by its magnetic ruler, known as Av'ian (Name from which all their race took the name).
Av'ian was a fair and just ruler, so carismatic that no one was to go against his will, no one apart from his brother.
He was so at odds with him that he searched all the globe a way to get rid of his brother. After venturing into the depths of the desert, west of his homecountry, he eventually found that answer.

Trace of an ancient race was left in the pyramids. These structures were nothing more than beacons that needed to be activated to call these ancient beigns into the realm of Alterra. After having deciphered the misterious glyphs left by the race of the Shadows, he found a way to destroy Golden Beak with a weapon left by the ancient ones. Before he could achieve his evil plan these beigns, called by him, came to the pyramid and deceived him by pretending to giving him the power to overthrown his brother. In the end they transformed him into their loyal servant Anubis, whose mind was brainwashed to just serve the "Ancients".

Shortly after they were driven by Anubis himself to Golden Beak, killing all the avians on their path. Av'ian before seeing the slaughtering of his people or see them enslaved took the gift made by the Queen of the elves: the stopwatcher. This magical artifact could stop time and make just selected people by the owner of the artifact to actually move. Av'ian chose to make its people flee their homeland. It could save his people but not himself, since the watch to work must be held still at all time to be used.
The last words of their beloved ruler was "Always look forward and never forget the time is consuming". When enough time passed and Av'ian felt that enough of its people were safe he stopped the watch and he was swarmed by the forces of the "Ancients".

Avians fled from the forests to the desert and founded the city of Oasis.
They say that the magical pool in the center of the city was formed by those who shed tears for their beloved and carismatic leader.
Still now the memory of Av'ian is still strong. Even if he did all what he could to save the Avian race from certain death not all of his brothers and sisters survived the so called "Great Exile". Some became slaves of the Ancients, others became shadows at the mercy of the Ancients and other are just but disappeared.

After so much grief, they were helped by the elves that gave them the means to build a new life for their people in the desert. From that day forward the Avians are what are known now and still seek revenge against the "Ancients" that razed all their towns.

When the Queen of the elves called for help the Avians were more than willing to help them after they gave them a hand in a time of need. They went through the Great War with great losses but an even greater victory ahead. They broke their former habit of living in city states and almost all the Avians live now in Oasis.
Some of them have met the Ursans of Frosty Hollow and have tried to follow their teachings becaming blademasters.
Others have tried the hard way of the magic and with their, now, friend humans have formed the circle of the sages, composed by humand archmages and Avian wardens.

They seek now some rest from their griefing past within the Alliance of Alterra, trying to not make the same mistakes of the past and, maybe one day, reconquer their old homeland, which now is a mere wasteland.

Wow this is some amazing story! Great storyline, but what I liked most was your structuring, how smooth the whole thing was and the way you grip the readers! A++

[nazgulking]

Eheh thank you MOAR will be coming soon...

[TheChairmaker]

Eheh thank you MOAR will be coming soon...

Want MOAR to come soon! Great job

[nazgulking]

Thanks Since the week-end is just at the door, I'm confident that I will finish it by Sunday Expect some fireworks, especially in the last part. I'm thinking to use one of the actual guilds present in the forum as a part of the history of Alterra

[TheChairmaker]

Thanks Since the week-end is just at the door, I'm confident that I will finish it by Sunday Expect some fireworks, especially in the last part. I'm thinking to use one of the actual guilds present in the forum as a part of the history of Alterra

Nice idea Excited to see the other parts!

[nazgulking]

Here we go with unveiling the Elven story. Next will be the Great War chronicle... stay tuned

[TheChairmaker]

Alterra ia a beautiful place which is home to the Elven race.

The elfs are a squirrel-like humanoids who have mastered the way of the arcane and are the ones that, involuntarily, started the "Great War".

Knowing the elfs as they are now, it hard to believe that their ancestors were tree-dwellers with no predisposition to the
way of magic. It all began with Bale the Great first King of the Elves. Very few is known of his origins but all we have is that He created the elf society and he founded their capital city "The Fort".
The society of the elves is mainly made by females, but once in a while a male child will be given to birth. Only the Males can rule over the elf society as King, while Queens are the best enchantresses that get their title by the demonstration of their great value. Since the first writings there always been just one King and one Queen only.
Many people from the outside critized this system: why a male should be given the right to rule all others? Because all the elves have chosen this way and from that moment forward this law still applies.

The Elven race is enthralled by the wisdom and they seek it all their life long. They are the wisest of all the races that step foot on the soil of Alterra; for this reason, when there is a dispute, they are always questioned to resolve it. It is incrediblly easy for them to make a new formula, concoction or spell by just concentrating a few minutes, while the best archmages or wardens struggle to do it in a week of hard work. They are always willing to help others and make their

knowledge accessible to others.

A major part of their powers comes from the orbs scattered across their forests.
It seems that the mere presence of these objects grants them a great amount of magical power. These fabolous artifacts were actually manifactured by Bale himself with mystical dark crystal whose origin could not be questioned. It seemed that all the times he was asked about them he become extremely unstable and irritated. He could never understand
himself why he was always getting angry by those questions. Also he could not say how he was able to manifacture those orbs, because when doing so he was always going in a trance-like state, with no memory of what he was doing in the process.
The only thing that was clear as fire is Him seeing glyphs all around him. Once he even crafted dresses with those glyphs, giving the bearer the greatest of all powers.
One day he began to hear voices in his head, but one was more clear than others "Son!". Indeed he never met his parents, so driven by curiosity he began to go all around the globe to find answers to his questions. Eventually he found them among the Avians. He remebered that sad story of their people and was captured by one detail. The brother of Av'ian encountered some glyphs in his quest to crush his brother in the pyramids not so much distant from Oasis.
He investigated the pyramids himself and he decipher the glyphs, not yet aware of what he was unveiling.
The story he was reading was a very odd one.

"Milions of ages ago a Great Beign, which calls himself "Saunaz", created the world we all know. He was coming from a distant planet where all people of the race he was affiliated with were reseracher, just like the elves. He, more than others, was inspecting the ways to create the perfect race. He first created the "Ancients" and they prospered among the
plane of the "Rift". After them having reached the highest peak of their civilization he moved to the plane of the "Cosmos" and founded what he called "Arretla" and made 4 different races, each one with a major trait: One was to get Strengh from the Earth, One from the Air, One from the Fire and One from the Water.
He watched his creations grow and build cities and societies and decided to put among the fire-dwellers his best creation, "the one which from the Strengh of wisdom could sparkle the life into this realm".
Unfortunately his first creation were getting out of control and taking an unexpected turn. They were craving for more power. In a moment of madness Saunaz drove the Ancients into his own home planet. The ancients razed the planet and
took all knowledge of the Great Beigns for themselves.
After such "marvellous" discoveries he moved to the plane of the "Void" and there is waiting for his true son to awake and make him finish his test on the plane of Cosmos"


After reading this Bale understood and the son of Saunaz awoke. "Son finally you have found me, it is time for me to finish what I have started"
In that moment the Sun became as dark as the pits of Frosty Hollow and a big gate was opened between the Void and
the Cosmos.
The Great War just began.

OMG I LOVE IT! You do have a few typos though. "The Great Beign" should be "The Great Being". There're a few others. I love the story *orders nazgulking to write the Great War* That sounds really interesting

[nazgulking]

Yeah i know the typos are my worst enemies. Can you pm me them?

[nazgulking]

Actually I need another post to finish the Great War... as for now enjoy the first part of the Great War
What do you think, should I continue writing?

[TheChairmaker]

Absolutely maybe copy them into a Word document and look for typos like that, it's easier than doing it on the forums cos the boxes don't show much text I couldn't see that many typos/spelling errors, so just check 'em like that. But yeah, keep writing - you shouldn't give up something you're good at

[nazgulking]

I have to say that English is not my mother tongue. I use this as a way to keep myself up-to-date and to give STS a reason to make a deep story for the games they are making I hope you have liked the last chapter, because the conclusion is at hand