Splinterlands - The History of Civilized Combat

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(Edited)

197 AS
A Lyverian Priest named Xantar Silva took a special interest in an especially ancient form of magic called Essence Magic. Once upon a time, essence sorcerers used this magic to control the thoughts of wild beasts, leading the fish into the net or the jackal into the trap, but Silva thought that he was on the verge of a way to transport the essence of a creature away from its physical body. He left immediately on a pilgrimage to the Seed Crater, where he sat with the monks and waited while they asked his questions of the stars.


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202 AS
After several years of seclusion, Xantar Silva emerged from his small cabin in the Western Wood, confident that he had unlocked the secret of essence summoning. In his cabin, he had kept only two companions: An enlarged rat named Carlo and a small sheep called Lorl. In his experimentation, Silva was able to summon the essences of each of them to battle. It was a battle that the rat repeatedly won; sheep are not meant for combat. But the magnificent thing was that the real Carlo and Lorl continued about their business as if nothing peculiar was happening. The essences doing combat in the front clearing were merely projections. Even though one or both of them would be gravely injured or killed, the essence body would simply disappear after a few minutes. If he concentrated very intensely, Xantar could even summon two essences of the same creature at the same time.

203 AS
Xantar Silva did not over generously share his secrets, nor was he quiet about them. The Spirit of the Forest eventually hears about everything that happens in the Earth Splinter. She heard quite quickly about the young summoner who was peddling ancient magic to anyone who would listen in the Lyverian streets. Most people had dismissed him as a raving lunatic, but if she did not hurry in to extract him, the information would certainly fall into the wrong hands. Appearing as an old sorceress with an enticing business proposition, the Spirit of the Forest took Silva to a safe distance from the city’s walls, then transported the both of them safely to the Hungry Wood. There she could take all the time necessary to make the young man understand what he had found.

215 AS
Exactly twelve years after he began his stay with the Spirit of the Forest, Xantar Silva finally left the Hungry Wood. He was now the Magi of the Forest, blessed by the Spirit herself to not only carry her word wherever he went, but to work across the Splinters toward the fulfillment of the great Unity Prophecy. In his time with the Spirit, the Magi was given many magical gifts, the most important of which was his enchanted long life. She assured him that he would not live forever, and that the more time he spent with the Eldest Tree, the longer he would live.

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222 AS
As was laid out in the original plan he devised with the Spirit of the Forest, the Magi began the school in the Western Wood for summoners that is known today as Summoners’ Green. There he was able to lead the first generation of Splintral summoners in the right direction, the way that the Spirit of the Forest had led him for so many years. The first class of summoners were beyond satisfactory to both the Magi and the Spirit. The Spirit of the Forest was proud, but under the surface, dark schemes were brewing.

226 AS
Having witnessed the exemplary graduation of yet another class of summoners from the Green, the Spirit of the Forest was sure that this was the solution that she and the other Ancient Ones had been seeking for eons. It would be an end to violence and the key to reuniting the Splinterlands. The Spirit of the Forest traveled to Draykh-Nahka, where she spoke with the Green Dragon about these secrets. She was a fool to think she could trust him.

240 AS
With the help of an especially innovative and genius class of summoners, the Magi of the Forest used essence magic to devise a system called Civilized Combat Games. They thought they were merely creating a game, but Civilized Combat (which would later evolve into tournament battle) would turn into an epic and always unfolding story in which the whole Splinterlands is invested.

307 AS
Claudius Greenforth was destined to be the next great summoner, but he was tragically lost to the Swamps of the Living Moss. The Magi, in his attempt to save the boy, ended up transforming him into the Swamp Thing. The Magi vowed to find salvation for Greenforth by freeing him from the swamps. Although he obsessed over it for some time, the Magi was unsuccessful in freeing the young summoner. While he was trying spells to release Greenforth from the swamps, the Magi discovered another key to essence summoning: Physical realities need not apply. A summoner must simply realize that physics can be bent and it becomes so. This meant that giant monsters can be shrunken down to fit an arena, and that monsters who live underwater could be summoned to open air. The Magi immediately reported this new breakthrough to the Spirit of the Forest, who quietly relayed the information to her Dragon friends, who promised her peace and safety.

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387 AS
A terrible year called the Season of Starvation claimed not only all the crops in the land, but the magic as well. The art of summoning, which was being practiced across the Splinterlands by the wealthy and educated, came to an abrupt halt as the long Nojic period began. The Spirit of the Forest was downtrodden, fearing that they had missed their chance with the proliferation of summoning magic. Summoning During this time, summoning became impossible, even by the most gifted mages. The loss of magic made many people of the Splinterlands feel that the future was bleak, flinging them into a spiral of depression from which they would not escape for over a hundred years.

502 AS
The first people to rediscover the ability to summon essences were the Goblins of Gobson. The Goblins had never relied upon magic, and summoning was performed accidentally when a small group of scientists called a mighty rhinoceros to the middle of their laboratory. At the same time, as the Mana wells deep beneath the Planet finally replenished, healing and summoning powers were rekindled all over the Splinterlands. The Nojic period was finally over and magic had returned.

507 AS
A renegade group of Goblin Engineers who had become obsessed with magic left the city of Gobson and headed west to the River of Life. There they settled in West Wood, where they were watched closely by the Magi of the Forest. These Goblins became known as the Goblin Sorcerers of Westwood, and their migration is now remembered as The Big Travel.

631 AS
In Draykh-Nahka, civil war had raged for many years between the Naga and the Dragons. It was in 631 that the two finally reached a compromise by forming the United Gloridax. The Dragons had been studying the art of summoning for many generations, and when the Golden Treaty was chiseled, they finally began to move forward with their massive plan for control of the Splinterlands. The games would bring the world together in a perfect illusion of peace, and all the while, the Fire Blood would reap the unseen rewards.

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730 AS
The Dragons, who are accustomed to playing the long game, spent the last century solidifying their games and proliferating them throughout the Splinterlands. By 730, everyone understood the principles of civilized combat, and they were clamoring for some kind of organized competitive event. As was always prescribed by their plan, the Gloridax constructed an arena worthy of Helio’s glory at the foot of Mount Mox. Very few knew the magical significance of essence battling on these holy grounds, known by the Ancients as the Planet’s wedge. The Dragons began finding skilled summoners from all over the Splinterlands and calling them to Mount Mox for invitational civilized battles. Participation was never required, but those who refused often died soon after in tragic accidents. The Magi of the Forest, still headmaster of his summoner’s school in Anumün, was never invited to compete with the Dragons.

804 AS
After summoner’s combat had been well-established (using the original system stolen from the Magi of the Forest) for 75 years, the United Gloridax announced the inaugural season of the Grand Tournament for Glory. The tournament would be a never ending competition of summoner teams pitted against other teams, with each summoner representing a Splinter and each Splinter representing an element of magic. This oversimplification of the magical elements and the method of requiring each summoner to choose a single element were both brilliant pieces of the larger Gloridax scheme.


820 AS
It has been 16 years since the beginning of the Tournament at Mount Mox. These games, that boasted to bring peace to a chaotic world, have turned into the greatest reason for bloodshed and division that the Splinterlands have ever seen. The civilized combat that I curse myself for inventing so many years ago has become a corruptor of souls, a cog in the Dragons’ mechanical plan to take dominion over the living of this Planet. And the fools who play this game still know nothing of the truth of Dark Energy. What have I done?
-from the Magi of the Forest’s Diary


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