Stage of the Open Air 5th Edition

The Beginning – the City is Founded

Over 3000 years ago, our homeland, the continent of Entasia, pulled itself up from the throes of death. The Great War, the Clash of Gods had ended. The war had raged so long that not even its survivors knew where it began. Who was defeated, who won and who lost—these details have been blown away by the sands of time. Some documents have been recovered from that period, but they offer us little insight into the minds of the generals willing to march to their deaths. The few and scattered survivors only cared that the War was over and that it was time to start rebuilding.
All cities had been destroyed by the war. The land had been nearly wiped clean – all that remained was the ash and rubble of what was. As plague, famine and drought swept the land, the only survivors were the farmers that lived off the grasslands. Tiny farming villages formed all over the continent of Entasia.
A young man named Robert Formatia had a dream – a dream that the land would be united under one flag. Entasia could again begin to rebuild itself, lying metal and stone on top of ash. In the center of the continent, Robert founded a city. He called it Aedifica, the World Capital. Word spread of Aedificia, and people flocked to it by the thousand.
Our calendar, incidentally, starts with the founding of Aedificia. Year 1 is the first year of the New Era, beginning with January 1st, the day Robert raised a white flag of peace over his city.
Robert named himself Emperor of the Formatian Empire. And so it was that the first nation came to be. Aedificia grew in size and power, engulfing the hamlets around it as its borders were pushed out to accommodate its swelling population.
As the years marched on, journals from that era and other historical documents tell us that Aedificia’s government grew somewhat corrupt. Emperor Formatia’s chosen nobles imposed comprehensive laws that were nearly impossible to enforce. And though Robert was a wise ruler, he refused to divide the city into districts to be ruled by his nobles. It was nearly impossible for one ruler, no matter how wise, to rule a city that size. It was impossible to make a decision that everyone could agree upon. The city grew dangerously close to civil war. The presence of such all-encompassing laws resulted more chaos than order. There was crime in the streets, and the law was brought down swiftly and harshly.
Though in the few hundred years, Aedificia would iron out many of its problems, this blind justice planted the seeds for what would become the Benitian Kingdom.

Marching Towards the Sunrise: The Benitian Kingdom

In the southern quarter of Aedificia there lived a young boy named Eric Benitia. At age 16, he was a very charismatic speaker, swordsman, and leader of men. He spoke of a greater good – the deep goodness within the living spirit. He said that these harsh laws and the punishment of those who don’t follow them – these are taxes on both the family and the soul. He said that in order to live his life as a good person, he needed to leave. Eric Benitia and two hundred followers marched from the city of Aedifica. They marched east, towards the rising sun, in hopes of finding virtue with their isolation. Eric Benitia led his men east until he reached the edge of what is now known as the Silva forest. On the summer Solstice of the year 85, he put his flag into the earth founded the city of Solstice, what was to become the capital of the Benitian Kingdom.
King Eric Benitia the first was a wise and just ruler, and became the first Paladin. His legacy still exists today in the Benitian Kingdom – a land where holiness and goodness are the highest virtue.
A Paladin is a knight chosen by the Council of Paladins to uphold the virtues of true Goodness. It takes half a lifetime of training and purity to become a Benitian Paladin – and then it usually takes the remainder of the lifetime to complete the holy quest that is set upon new Paladins. Every Paladin is born with a cause which they must pursue all of their lives. In the case of the royal line, the cause has been to maintain peace and goodness within the kingdom – a tall order indeed. Other Paladins are given tasks such as destroying the ogres within the Silva forest, or setting up and maintaining a shelter for orphaned children.
In the year 1171, the capital city of Solstice fell to unknown terrors. The city itself was burned and evacuated. Some rumors tell of an undead scourge, but so few survivors escaped that had a believable tale of what they saw. The newborn prince Eric Benitia III escaped from the town with his aunt. The King and Queen, however, died either in battle or in the horrible fire.
The city of Solstice was declared as a forbidden zone. Any who attempted to scout into the city did not return. There was a growing fear that those scouts who kept disappearing but not resurrecting were forming an undead legion that would later threaten the kingdom. No one was allowed to enter Solstice, the embarrassment of the Benitians. In 1250, a large stonewall was built surrounding the forbidden zone. Ankhrest, the second largest city in the Kingdom, became the capital city.
Today, the Benitian Kingdom is ruled by King Eric the thirty-fifth.

Revolution and Exile: The Malean Wasteland

In the year 90, five years after the Benitian Capital was founded, there was much unrest in Aedificia. A commoner named Martel Malean lived in the most crime-ridden section of the city. A harsh law designed to discourage lawlessness enforced higher taxes on high-crime regions of town. Martel was a poor man who had turned to robbery and assassination to make a living. He, like Eric Benitia, was a great speaker, and led another kind of revolution. Poor merchants armed with knives and farming tools began to ransack and burn guard outposts. Martel led a blood war on the city – making a loud statement and leaving a trail of blood behind him. The guards of Aedifica declared open war on Martel’s quarter (then commonly known as the Black quarter). Anyone attempting to enter or leave the quarter would be detained – the Emperor was dealing with this threat as if it was a plague – keep the infection quarantined and wait for it to blow over. Martel was the most wanted man in the Formatian Empire.
In a final push, Martel and his militia (now over three hundred enraged men) stormed through the city streets, slaughtering any who were in their way. They charged into the Imperial Castle and killed the aging Emperor Robert II. Over one hundred of Martel’s men were killed in the escape, but they made it outside the city and began their hike south. They moved south until they came to the mountains, and then they hiked into the desert. And so, in the year 95, the settlement in the Malean Wasteland was formed.
Martel and his followers formed the unnamed cities in the Malean Desert. A huge tower was built, in which Martel lived alone. He eventually locked the tower, never to be opened again. It is rumored that Martel still lives within the tower today.
The Maleans became allied and melded with the Shadow Beings of the desert called the Shadow Swarm. The Shadow Swarm is a great hive-mind – its skill in battle is unmatched and its numbers are enormous. Towns of commoners are kept and bred like animals in villages throughout the Malean desert. When the Shadow Swarm needs troops, it infests the minds of those commoners. One who has been infested changes mentally and physically, becoming another drone in the army of the Shadow Swarm.
Some people, however, are not forced to enter the Swarm and retain their individuality. These people usually come from outside the wasteland and are hand-picked for their ruthlessness and power-hungry soul. A small group of people known as Anti-Paladins exist as an antithesis of everything the Benitians stand for. Anti-Paladins are some of the greatest liars and actors in the land, masquerading as the righteous paladins and working themselves into Benitian society, and some whisper, even onto the Benitian Council of Paladins.

Whispers in the Wood: The Materian Forest

The death of Robert II gave rise to Robert III. Robert III was known as Robert the Builder. He pushed for the expansion of the crowded city of Aedifica, and the Formatian Empire began to expand. Settlements and cities cropped up outside of Aedifica. The land was fertile, and the monsters weren’t too harsh. The population grew and grew, and the land was peaceful. By the year 115, the Formatian Empire was three duchies large.
There was a trend, almost a religion, growing in the northeast. It was a movement towards the loving of nature and the appreciation of peace and balance. The land north of the Kingdom of Benitia was part of the great woodland called the Materian Forest.
The northernmost duchy contained a large forest called Materia. The baron of the Materian Forest was a High Elf named Elwelor. In the winter of the year 124, the forest was abuzz with rumors about the disappearance of Elwelor and his six courts men. For the entire winter, search parties scoured both cities and forests. Some nobles thought they should declare him dead and name a new ruler.
Winter eventually melted away into spring. On the vernal equinox, Elwelor returned to the city, clothed in green and brown. He announced that he was now a Druidi, the enlightened council that would rule the Materian Forest. He announced that the Materian Forest was now a kingdom separate from the Formatian Empire, for he had no intention of being ruled from afar by men who did not understand Balance.
Elwelor’s six disciples, who had also been missing, reappeared a month later, also calling themselves Druidi. The Druidi met as a council and determined how the land of the Materian Forest should be governed. They decided that the Laws of Nature shall rule, and though local laws shall be held, no laws shall be passed that are not in accordance with nature.
Elwelor and the Druidi met with Emperor Formatia III and his dukes, who were not pleased with this development. The meeting took place in a grassy clearing in the deep woods. They spoke from sunrise until sunset and until sunrise again. Legends say that all the creatures of the forest gathered around the clearing to watch the Druidi speak with the Formatian nobility.
When the meeting ended, The Materian Forest was a kingdom unto itself. Emperor Robert was not angry – he extended his good will to the Druidi and left them with his favorite emerald ring. To this day, the eldest of the Druidi council wears this ring.
Since then, the Materian Forest has flourished, being a home for those who live as one with nature. Though towns and cities still exist, trees spring up between buildings, houses are built in the branches of great redwoods, and people generally make their homes around nature, not over it.
The Materian Forest is still ruled by the Council of Druidi, who are mostly Sylvan Elves.

A Quiet Bull: The Chaos Hordes

Barbaric peoples inhabited the vast grasslands to the west. Ambassadors from the Formatian Empire attempted communication with these peoples, but had met with failure. Each region of the grassland has its own tribe and its own views on the Formatian culture. Many of the tribes did not want anything to do with the easterners, and shunned any ambassadors. Some ambassadors were even met with violence.
While in the hordes, the Formatian ambassadors and their parties witnessed great and terrible beasts. Among them were giant lizards the size of buildings, and great cats that were the size of an elephant. In some places, huge featherless birds soared overhead on bat-like wings. One terrible beast called the Great Tusker was rumored to be able to destroy entire villages, but the ambassadors thankfully never saw this lizard.
One of the few things all Barbaric tribes and clans have in common is the presence of and leadership by Berserkers. Berserkers are powerful and nearly undefeatable warriors who are truly one with their own blade. Rumors persist that an angry Berserker can take a direct hit with a ballista bolt and continue fighting.
After resurrecting in Formatian sanctuaries, the ambassadors agreed it would be best to leave the chaotic hordes to squabble and war amongst themselves. Many believed that if the barbarians ever united under one flag, that nation would have little problem sweeping over Entasia. Luckily, the barbarians seemed to have little interest in expansion.

The Beginning of the Kingdoms of Leech and Illuminati

In 1127, two noblemen from the northwestern outskirts of the Formatian Empire had gone exploring in the name of the Emperor. Tybalt Vale and Drey Methus (and their pioneering party) found a huge obsidian obelisk in the middle of expansive cold grassland.
At the base of this obelisk, there seemed to be an ancient grave marked with a simple, blank headstone. Tybalt and Drey, against the wishes of their party, began to excavate the grave, hoping to find some information about what this location was. In the ground, they found a simple iron chest with a thick tome within.
The few survivors of the expedition report that upon reading the first few pages of the tome, Tybalt went mad with excitement. The party made camp at the base of the ominous black obelisk so that Tybalt and Drey could further examine this artifact.
The next morning, two of the party members were missing. There was a huge red stain on the grass under the noble’s tent, as if pints and pints of blood had been let there. Drey and Tybalt refused to speak about it but loudly ensured the party’s safety. Guards were posted the next night, only to be missing the next day. Meanwhile, Drey and Tybalt were not sleeping- they spent their nights reciting passages and incanting spells from the ancient tome.
On the third night, the pioneers had much trouble sleeping, but they slept anyway. Reynari, an elven tracker, managed to resist his urge to rest, and snuck outside of the tent to go sleep elsewhere, perhaps somewhere safer. At sunrise, Reynari heard a great cacophony of screams coming from the tent, and he rushed back to the campsite. He found all the pioneers to be murdered, rapidly bleeding in their bedrolls. Drey and Tybalt seemed to be using the drained blood in some sort of dark ritual. Reynari ran away, racing back to the Formatian Empire.
Months later, rumors spread through the outskirt villages of a pair of dark mages abducting people in the night. People were disappearing by the dozen. A year later, entire villages simply disappeared. To this day, legends persist that people rose up from their sleep and began walking northwest, as if guided by some strange magic.

Blood Falls On the Snow: The Leech Tundra

And in this way, the cities of the Leech and Illuminati kingdoms were formed. Small villages were filled with people who had marched from as far as the Benitian Kingdom, their trance-like sleep walk guided by some powerful magic. In 1130, cursed snow began to fall within the tundra, and the snow did not stop for more than one day per week. The temperatures dropped far below what anyone could stand, and many died from the cold.
The self-crowned King Vale began to cast magics which would warm the area around a magical rune. He put these runes in the centers of the Leech towns, and they kept the people alive. But it was not really living, as the people lived in squalor and fear. At any time, a person could be taken at any time to The Tower of Vale, where they would never return.
It seems that the magics which kept the warmth runes working, and the supernatural snow falling, was powered on the blood of the innocent. The stronger and more willful the sacrifice, the more powerful the magic would be. As such, King Vale bred hope of escape into his people, starting rumors about people who had escaped from the Tundra. These rumors, however, were false – few people could brave the tundra, as the poor captives of King Vale were not allowed to wear warm clothes, and did not have the material to do so anyway. The only way to live was to peacefully and quietly farm the land heated by the warmth rune.
King Tybalt Vale found many allies throughout Entasia; people willing to do anything for power. He approached them, offering them titles and land within his Tundra so long as they loyally served him. The Kingdom grew in number and power.
Groups of loyal bounty hunters were trained, called the Blood Hunters. The Blood Hunters were assassins who traveled all over Entasia, searching for the most powerful and the most renowned adventurers in the land. These people were captured and dragged back to the Tundra, where they were tortured until their will was broken. At this point of despair, they were optimal for use in Blood Magic rituals. Rarely, when the prisoners were killed too early, their spirits and willpower were invested into the weapon they were killed with, creating weapons containing mortal souls – weapons that could think for themselves. This is the origin of the tragic soul-blades that many adventurers have heard of today.
The Formatian crown has made several attempts to destroy the kingdom in the Leech Tundra, but all have met with failure. Expeditions into the Tundra are met with a fiercer cold and a deeper snow than nature could have created. The terrain is violently inhospitable, characterized by chasms, dangerous wildlife, and waist deep snow. Spit will freeze before it hits the ground. In this way, the Leech Blood Mages sit unchecked within their icy tundra.
There are many unanswered questions, but the Leech seem to prefer it that way. Diplomatic relations with the outside world are few and far between, and often enigmatic in nature.

Dances With Shadows: The Illuminati Kingdom

It seems that the knowledge Drey Methus gleaned from the tome was not so much of Blood Magic, but of Illusion. He formed a similar kingdom alongside Leech, also drawing many people from all over Entasia to be both his allies and his slaves.
King Methus is considered to be the first Illusionist. An Illusionist, as the people came to know and fear, is someone with complete mastery over light and sound. Early in an Illusionist’s training, basic illusions are constructed via magic pen and parchment – an illusionist sketching a dragon will cause an illusionary dragon to manifest. King Methus and his courts of Illusionists kept his people in check though elaborate illusions, causing his people to worship and fear Methus as a divine Force. Willfully, painfully, they farmed the cracked and dry land, building him an empire of stone and blood, mortared with terror.
The illusions were so realistic that people would actually die from terror when killed by one. In this manner, King Methus could form an army of few, which fought like an army of many.
In 1164, the aging King Methus wrote the Rite of Methus, which allowed an Illusionist to feed off the blood from a human sacrifice. This ritual echoed of the ancient tome from which all this evil magic had come from.
When the Rite of Methus was performed by a pentad of Illusionists, an area as large as a town became attuned to an Illusionist’s mind. A master Illusionist could create and destroy illusions merely by thought. A slight gesture could create a castle, and another nod could summon an intangible dragon to topple the castle.
Waves of uncertainty, panic, and mistrust washed through the kingdom. At some point, everyone asked themselves, “Is this real? How do I know?” People would wake up to find their environment changed and drowned in false color. Their friends and loved ones would simply fade away, revealing that they had actually been interacting with an illusion for an undetermined amount of time. Hours? Days? Weeks? What was real?
Several revolutions against King Methus were attempted, but were met with failure. Most of these revolts were quickly obliterated when an Illusionist would disguise himself as a revolutionary and get the information needed to quickly and effectively stop the treason.
It is traditional for an Illusionist to be embalmed, mummified, and buried in a pyramid after his death. There have been, however, countless instances where an Illusionist’s death is faked to give more credibility to an illusion. As such, the snowy land is dotted with pyramids. Occasionally, even death cannot kill an Illusionist, and he rises again as a mummy. These mummified undead are given back their title and land within the Illuminati Kingdom, so long as they re-pledge themselves to the King.
At the time we estimate King Methus died, (somewhere in the 1170s) he was in mid construction of a huge pyramid which would be the Royal palace. This palace was finished around 1212, when the Illuminati council was formed. Five of the best Illusionists in the Kingdom named themselves leaders and took the throne in the Illuminati pyramid. These five transformed themselves into mummies, and continue to rule the land today.

The Road Lead Ever On: The Protean Alliance

In the year 1333, Formatian prospectors reported copious amounts of precious metals on the southeastern peninsula of Entasia. People left their homes by the hundreds, establishing mining colonies in the rocky foothills and light forests. Since this land was so far unclaimed by the Formatian Empire, a Tselk named Rio D’Larrio declared himself King of the newly found Kingdom of D’Larrio. Others took his lead as the kingdoms of Brennan, Navinar, Veragoth, and Clairmoore were founded.
Due to the high quality and quantities of gold, silver, and copper within the five kingdoms, the kingdoms became rich and prosperous. The small kingdoms swelled with Formatians and Benitians tempted with the promise of fortune.
In 1467, a bloody war broke out between Brennan and Navinar. The other kingdoms began to mass up soldiers for they feared war could break out at any time. It was clear that the five kingdoms could easily turn on each other and war would not end until the land was clear again.
Luckily, in the year 1515, the Protean Alliance was formed, a treaty between the Five Kingdoms. Named after Winston Protea, King of D’Larrio, the Protean Alliance declared that there would be widespread peace between the kingdoms. Any kingdom that declared war would be met with the wrath of the other four kingdoms in the alliance. All five kings swore on this document and promised that they would entrust their heirs with respect and dedication to this promise. There has been peace in the Five Kingdoms ever since. Because the Five Kingdoms usually agree on policy and would defend each other at any cost, they are often referred to singularly as the Protean Alliance.
The Protean people are a jolly people, loving adventure and freedom more than anything else. A product of this culture has produced the High Bards, jacks of all trade who travel the Alliance ever in search of adventure.

Freedom in Anarchy: The Libeyan Commonwealth

In the year 2015, a huge clan of barbarians migrated out of the Chaos Hordes. They settled to the east, residing in the foothills between the mountains south of the Formatian Empire and the Malean Wasteland.
This clan, named Clan Libeya, wanted to become a part of the “civilized” world, and wanted to separate themselves from the petty squabbles of the barbarians of the Chaos Hordes.
The Libeyans, as they were called, had some very strange laws within their society. They believed that no one man should have the right to control other men. They disliked the concept of nobility, and went on to build their culture around this.
Each tribe of Clan Libeya became a town. Towns themselves did not have leaders, but rather were made up of truly dedicated people who were willing to work and suffer for the good of the community. If a farmer had food, he was glad to share it. A cobbler would make shoes for anyone who asked. A nation was built this way on a foundation of good will, generosity, and sacrifice.
Foreigners quickly learned to abuse the good intentions of the Libeyans. Travelers would come from town to town, taking what they needed and not giving back. Some Libeyans themselves became lazy and lived off the good will of others.
Eventually, the Red Warriors came to be. Each town selected one warrior, a warrior who had both the strongest arm and the strongest mind. These people became the law-enforcement for each town, making sure that those who do not give back may not take. Every year, the Red Warriors meet and discuss news from their respective tribes. They train together, both in brain and body. The warrior-philosophers go back to their homes and defend it with a fierce sense of duty. Legends of the Red Warrior’s might have spread through the continent, and their power is deeply respected.