The Fragmented - 1. Chapter 1 : The Fragmented

It is said Malegia and Ajja made the world and set in its place, and once they had pronounced the world good they shaped guardians from the energy of the void and commanded them to care for their creation. Tired from their great work they split their powers between their guardians so they may rule it in their absence, and they slept. So it is the gods came to be.

Ages of prosperity passed and kingdoms came and went. Mortals were born; they lived, they died, but in the greater scale nothing changed. The gods looked down on a great world, unrivalled by anything else ever seen by mortal or immortal alike.

Ancient cities spread across the world, bordered by forests older than memory and scattered with the ruins of fallen kingdoms. Innumerable races wandered the landscape, which was split by great rivers and mountains whose peaks disappeared into dizzying clouds. Great heroes had come and gone, epic wars had been fought, great monuments erected, the mysteries of the world solved and the answers forgotten again, and powerful evils vanquished.

In this time, a young boy - a prince of a small kingdom - grew obsessed with magic. He ached to learn everything he could. The prince was talented at his chosen craft and while still young he learned more than any master in his kingdom could teach him. Aching to learn more, he ventured out and scoured the lands for magical knowledge. He found much and grew powerful but he discovered that no matter how much power he gained he was not the most powerful. Others always stood before his self proclaimed destiny.

Jealousy twisted the heart of the Prince and he conspired against the only beings who remained more wise in the ways of magic than himself. The gods. The gods were old and tired, and they had grown weary of the world and retreated into a long sleep. It was this that doomed the prince, the gods and the world alike. For the prince wished to ascend to godhood, to wield the greatest powers in the world, and to never be forgotten. He built an army, unnoticed by the careless gods. He recruited those angry against the gods like he was. Mortals and immortals alike. Warriors, mages, priests and beasts, demi-gods. Even spirits, daemon and lesser gods. Any who held a grudge against the pantheon.

When his army had been built they marched across the world. The mortal kingdoms could do nothing to stop him. Some brave armies stood against him, to defend their gods honour. They and their kingdoms were struck down by magic. Plagues infested the lands of those who challenged the prince and after those first brave souls had stood up and been struck down, fear gripped the hearts of those who remained and no mortal stood against the prince any more. Though the priests of the gods prayed, the sleeping deities did not waken.

Some creatures of magic foresaw what would come and knew none could stand against the prince. So they retreated and in this time strange happenings began to occur. Ancient citadels disappeared by the power of their magical denizens,and barriers were raised around the homes of the dragons, daemons and spirits. Demi-gods and those few gods not aligned with the prince, and who remained awake, fled to their own realms. The ancient forces of evil trembled even as the prince approached the gates of the divine realm and they sealed the underworld. And so dead of the world could not rest and now haunted the lands. It is said even the Council of Mages feared the prince and they abandoned the world with a great spell that tore their fortress from reality.

Pestilence spread in the armies wake, and the great upheavals in the forces of magic stirred chaos. Before the prince had even begun his war the ancient order of the world began to crumble.

The prince, when he arrived at the gates to the realm of the gods, finally awoke the sleeping deities. The great powers he wielded challenged them, and when he cast spells to break down the gates, they were roused.

The great king of the gods, Segenna, was outraged by this challenge. He descended upon the armies of the prince with a great storm. Though many of the mortals in his army fell the prince soon banished the lightning and thunder summoned by the god and broke down the gates to the divine realm. His army poured through into the realm, and the war began. The gods battled, and their power was great, but the army was greater.

The queen of the gods, Nita, was slain by the gates of the realm. The great release of magic broke the gods defence and tore chunks from their realm and many of the lesser gods fled the battle in terror. It is told that Segenna and the prince dueled as the chaos spread, arcane fire consuming the palace of the deities as they battled.

The prince was victorious. His magic overcame that of the gods and he stood victorious as they fell. In final revenge as he lay dying Segenna impaled himself upon his own blade and with a spell channel his soul as a weapon.

The eruption of magic incinerated the army of the prince and the prince himself. But it did not stop, defying the will of its dead creator, and spread like a disease. The divine realm fractured like a pane of glass and began to fall from the sky upon the mortal realms. Great cities were crushed beneath shards, forests rendered into deserts, and the disease of magic spread far and wide. Realm after realm fell to pieces in the same manner. Only the places of great magic were spared - the homes of powerful daemon and spirits, the haunts of magicians, the holiest places of gods.

Each realm fell like a house of cards, until nothing remained but fragments hanging in the void. Pieces of disparate realms, broken from their tethers, floating amongst the aether. Here a city, there a sacred tree, sometimes a temple or an ancient ruin. The world broken and changed forever.