Chronicles of Valdoria

When the strength of humankind began to fail, Banor appealed once more to the elder gods. Uman searched beyond the familiar laws of creation and found paths leading toward distant planes, places untouched by the rule of the known world.

There he discovered that souls could be called across those mysterious distances and offered a life among humankind. Through enchanted gates, new adventurers arrived carrying courage, curiosity and the particular recklessness that sends someone into a cave after hearing an ominous noise.

The newcomers brought fresh hope to the defenders of the world. Villages survived. Roads were reopened. The undead were driven from some of their ancient strongholds, and the great settlements began to flourish behind stone walls and guarded bridges.

In time the descendants of Banor ruled from Thais. Commerce reached distant shores; scholars collected forbidden histories; guilds rose around swords, spells and the strange art of remaining alive in places where caution would have recommended going home.

Peace, however, was never complete. Orcs returned to the roads. Dragons abandoned their secluded lairs. The undead stirred wherever grief and old magic met. People built new cities and quarrelled over borders, sometimes forgetting that they shared far more enemies than differences.

It is in this uncertain age that the chroniclers of Valdoria begin their own accounts. Their realm is not a world apart from the old legends, but a place within their long shadow, where an ordinary traveler can still discover a ruin that changes everything—or lose a backpack of gold to a creature half their size.

Perhaps Zathroth still waits for the final ruin of all things. Perhaps Fardos still believes creation can overcome its own mistakes. The future has not been written for either of them, and that is the gift of time: the next chapter belongs to those who choose to act.

If these pages have reached your hands, traveler, then your place in that unwritten chapter has already begun. Remember the old stories, take a light into the darkness, and decide what kind of legend you will leave behind.