History of the world of Lineage/Gracia
Gracia
The goddess Eva loved the world, and Aden especially, and its creatures so much that she summoned the Kamael, a race that was never meant to be set free. Her wish was to turn their true purpose to a better end, using their enormous strength to protect Aden from the growing flood of monsters.
The results were irreversible. But who could blame her for such a desperate act? Twisted creatures seemed to spring up as thick as summer wheat, threatening villages, towns, even the continent's frontier cities…
There was something even Eva herself had not foreseen: despite their numbers, the monsters were not overpowering the forces of Light. From the Forbidden Gateway in the east to the icy, windswept lands of Rune far to the north, the civilized races led by Humans took up arms and, against all expectations, were winning the desperate struggle for survival.
Strangely enough, the seeds of their doom lay in their very success. The Humans were proud that their civilization had surpassed even that of the ancient Giants, and yet they wanted more. In their greed, they tried to tame the supernatural power of the Forbidden Gateway of Shilen, the queen of monsters. Thus the Humans unwittingly became a far greater threat to the world than any of their god-made enemies…
In perfect hindsight, Eva's rash decision to summon the Kamael, beings created to destroy the gods themselves, seemed careless and short-sighted. They were potentially a far greater threat than the monsters they had been sent to fight, and an even more potent danger to the established order of the world.
Their awakening came at a price. The Kamael, after all, are children of neither Light nor Darkness. Pushing them into the service of Light upset the natural balance. Just as there can be no light without shadow, or summer without winter, so the Kamael's advantage for Aden shifts the balance elsewhere…
But the gods had chosen Aden as their special preserve: Einhasad's promise to Emperor Shunaiman, the banishment of the Shilen cult, the magical mastery of the Ivory Tower, the counsel of the Lady of the Lake and the Black Knight, even the rise of the castle system. All these things brought prosperity to the society of Aden, and, ominously, they were all confined to Aden alone.
The Fate of Aden
Without any warning, the everyday confidence of the people of Aden was shaken. Rumors of sudden disasters spread across the land: whole fields of healthy crops died overnight, unknown epidemics took their toll on villages, the weather became strange and unpredictable.
People began to pay attention to what they had previously dismissed as the ravings of madmen. Now those very dire prophecies of revelation and doom took on a new and terrifying meaning. The sages tried to reassure the people, but their words were not very convincing: they peered into their crystal balls and read the cards, and they too felt a bad premonition deep in their bones. The Orc shamans predicted that the long winter would at last descend.
Meanwhile, the adventurers dreamed…
In those dreams they fought an endless battle against dark enemies whom they slew only to see them rise again. Those travelers who lasted until morning woke up puzzled but unharmed; as for those who were defeated in that strange dream world, they were not so lucky. Some felt as if they had just endured a night of heavy drinking. Others actually found themselves covered in real wounds. And some never woke up again.
This phenomenon was not limited to travelers. Stories spread across the land of all kinds of people who had visited this mysterious realm in their dreams. Some were lucky enough to open their eyes at the morning cockcrow, but luck passed many others by.
The sages studied the bodies of those killed in their sleep and listened to the accounts of the survivors. They put forward many competing and contradictory theories, assumptions and guesses, but one fact was unanimous: this was the harbinger of a great evil advancing on Aden. To discover the exact source of the threat, the sages feverishly studied the stars, peered into crystals and even consulted the Orc shamans.
The Discovery of Kamaloka
It was a terrible sight, but the sages' efforts finally bore fruit, as the true signs of the crisis began to appear one after another. The deadly dreamland, they established, was a realm created by the power of darkness.
It crept into Aden like a thief in the night, able to do so because the seal imprisoning the goddess Shilen was weakening. It was not of this world, but clung to it like a parasite. And it was growing in power and strength.
The sages called it "Kamaloka", the place between the world and Hell. It was a fitting name: the monsters encountered there were nightmares made flesh. The sages called them Kaneus.
More disturbing still was the report of some sages that there was not one Kamaloka but many. Each revealed in detail a particularly complex structure with even more Kaneus.
The sages unanimously regarded Kamaloka as a threat. Some grasped the truth: it was a dimension torn from the cosmic ether by Shilen's power. Though similar to the underground dungeons of the Seven Signs, they were even more dangerous: those at least were controlled by the Priests of the Seals, while this hellish dimension was beyond anyone's control.
According to the Priests, the doomsday scenario centered on the possibility of Kamaloka's power joining with the dungeons of the Seven Signs. If that happened, they said, it could shatter the great seal of Shunaiman.
The task was clear: Kamaloka had to be stopped before it collided with the Seven Signs.
Although the sages still didn't fully understand the strange dimension, they reasoned that anything born of power could be defeated by power. The brightest minds of the continent began to draw up a plan together.
In the Giran Assembly, representatives of the Ivory Tower contacted the Priests of the Seals, demanding a Council: since this darkness threatened all life on the continent, the Priests had to share their knowledge of the Seven Signs with the Mages of the Ivory Tower. The Priests agreed.
Armed with this information, the sages of the Ivory Tower discovered how to get into Kamaloka and quickly spread the knowledge among the captains of the guard of the various villages. But their forces were not, and never would be, enough for a task of this size. As always, it fell to the world's adventurers to save it from danger. They fought for money, for fame, for honor, but whatever their struggle meant, so did their victory.
However, this was not a complete solution. The sages realized that Kamaloka threatened more than just physical well-being; the invading darkness attacked the minds of its victims, gradually destroying their sanity.
The sages of the Ivory Tower scrambled to find a way to fight this threat, but weeks passed without success. Finally, the Kamael elders proposed another way.
They argued that trying to fend off the enemy's attacks, whether physical or mental, was pointless. Better to strike straight at the enemy's heart, they said: better to neutralize the enemy before it draws near. Subsequently, the mages of Hardin's Academy hired masses of sleeping travelers and used them, cruelly perhaps but certainly effectively, to find the best route for a deep strike into Kamaloka.
Fortune smiled on their efforts, and through a series of lucky breaks they finally found the combination they were looking for. In fact, their results exceeded all expectations: they managed to create a new dimension adjacent to Kamaloka, to which the world's adventurers could teleport. They called the discovery Rim Kamaloka.
Now travelers could challenge Kamaloka with greater confidence and less risk. The threat seemed suppressed, if not entirely destroyed; however, the full nature and origin of Kamaloka remained a mystery, as did the Kaneus, which seemed to come back to life endlessly.
Of course, this worried the sages. The adventurers laughed at the dangers and rejoiced in their victories… and the spoils of victory. They felt increasingly in control and worried little about the sages' fears.
The Origins of Darkness
West of Aden lay a land called Gracia. Long ago, the empire of the Giants flourished here, making this place a paradise on earth, a land of flawless wonders of technology and magic that rivaled the realm of the gods themselves. But when the Giants dared to rebel against Einhasad, she smashed their civilization to pieces with the Hammer of the Stars.
Later, Gracia became infamous as the wretched place where Emperor Shunaiman of old Oren exiled the worshippers of Shilen. It is a hard, rough and barren land, where survival takes luck and skill in equal measure. For the peasants trying to eke out a living from the dry soil, the intrigues of the noble families and the feuds of vain warriors mean little and only add to their hardships.
The divine protection granted to Shunaiman, Emperor of Elmoreden, and his realm in Aden did not extend to this land. There was little time or reason to look beyond the borders of field and forest, and little hope in anything but being left alone by lords greedy for recruits or grain.
But suddenly, Gracia was thrust onto the world stage again.
After the death of Parish the Great, the first king of a united Gracia, the throne was contested by Carneiar, the king's heir, and Keucereus, the king's brother. The resulting civil war brought a new level of suffering to a people already used to hardship. Worked like slaves, robbed by both sides and left defenseless against monster attacks, the people of Gracia grew ever more bitter toward their rulers.
Then the harvest was lost across the whole territory, and hardship gave way to famine.
As these troubles grew, darkness began to whisper to the people of Gracia. The followers of Shilen, long hidden but still devoted to their dark mistress, began to spread their gospel of destruction. Relentlessly, their influence spread across the land, and the seeds of discontent blossomed into hatred.
Factions in Aden skilled in necromancy and the Dark Arts of the Dark Elves also infiltrated Gracia. They sensed that Shilen's time was coming, and they planned to present Gracia to the goddess of death as both a sacrifice and a weapon.
But the scales of the gods could not bear such heavy darkness. The scales shifted, creating a crack in the very fabric of the world. Through it, Shilen's power of death and darkness seeped into Aden. Only the Seven Signs prevented complete immersion in darkness; Gracia, however, had no such protection. It was plunged into darkness and chaos.
Having digested its last meal, the darkness turned its eye in another direction…
The darkness struck monsters, ordinary people, members of royal families, travelers and even mages. Although she didn't fully understand the meaning or origin of the darkness, it was her anxiety about this supernatural darkness that drove Eva to summon the Kamael.
Eva believed that Einhasad was keeping Shilen from awakening. But she didn't realize that across the great sea, in Gracia, Shilen's realm was already descending upon the world. Even after shrouding that land, it still had the power to create Kamaloka.
Like the highest crest of a huge wave, Kamaloka was merely the first sign in Aden of a far greater threat beyond its shores.
The land of Gracia was reborn as a land of darkness and death…
