The Stoneguard

For most of their history, the elves' peaceful way of life has been threatened. In the primordial phase of their culture, they warred constantly with the dwarof who once shared the forest with them. After that, they faced constant invasion from the humans of Pyris. The elves were a resilient people, who used their understanding of the land and the magic within to not only survive, but demonstrate why they are the most longest-lived people. When Serenity came to bring the elves' current form to the primitive lenof tribe, they discovered magical power pervades everything in the world, including metals and minerals. It was through this epiphany that they have developed their cultural affinity for metalwork and masonry. But early feats of civil engineering borne from necessity (because it was against the elves' ways to disturb the living parts of the forest) evoked envy from foreign humans. Travelers from Eris and the Eastlands seeking to learn their ways were a welcome occurrence that the elves accommodated gracefully. However, Pyrisians were eager to take advantage of their lack of use for lumber by invading their land to cut the trees they hold sacred. This threat gave rise to the Stoneguard, an order of sentinels who protect the western forests with magical powers derived from precious gems.

Each Stoneguard is anointed similarly to Resta's knightly traditions and equipped with four stones that are woven into their uniforms, usually in their capes. The rubies they carry contain raw power, which can be released in beams of destructive light. They are also equipped with sapphires which cast a healing light, emeralds which are used to create barriers, and topazes that can inflict a handful of mental effects such as sleep, pacification, fear, and confusion on others. With these powers, the Stoneguard has created a powerful defensive force that has kept their borders safe throughout the First Age. However, as the War of the Gods concluded and Serenity punished the elves for their part in the persistent conflict, the knowledge of how the Stoneguards derived their unique powers were among the secrets she buried in the earth. Along with their knowledge, she also buried the Guardian Stone that was the true source of their power, then a massive chunk of Ruby, and cut the remaining members of the Stoneguard from their abilities.

While the elves made do without the Stoneguard for most of the Second Age thanks to the Heron's embrace of isolationism over imperialism, the resurgent demand for lumber in the Third Age would lead to Colin Piers reigniting tensions with the people of Tanis over disputed land. This increase in hostility terrified the elves, who began to seek the knowledge of the Stoneguard with the most fervor they had experienced in over three centuries. But it wasn't until the Avatar of Serenity arrived with her goddess' blessing to regain this information for them that the Stoneguard could return.

Ekera would join forces with Keran--the younger brother of an Elder-caste councilor of Setria--and his dear friend, a forest scout named Larim. The three of them would journey together to a tower in the Marble Desert which had only recently become known for containing the last Guardian Stone of the Stoneguard. But without the means to recover the massive ruby, they learned that the only alternative was to sacrifice a life to create a new Guardian Stone. So it was that Keran gave up his life to become the massive chunk of emerald that floats over the Guardian Tower to this day and Larim gave up her unexplored love to become the first in a new generation of Stoneguard.

With a new Guardian Stone in the surface world for the first time in thousands of years, the Stoneguard have created a garrison along their northern border with the greatest power that anyone has ever seen. Their defense of the forest would have become complete at this point if their resurgence hadn't coincided with the revival of the Pyromancers, who have the power to extort concessions of disputed territory with the implied threat of creating wildfires (although it is largely maintained by Heronites that this perceived threat is baseless due to the inclination of the new lord of the Piers territory, Collin's son Aden, to pull back as much as possible in this dispute). As a result, the relationship between these two countries remain tense and are improving slowly only thanks to the friendship between Larim and Umi Karn, a prominent Pyromancer. If open war were to break out, however, the Stoneguard stand readier than ever to defend their land and all of the natural life that dwells within.

The Templars of the Blackstone Order

Templars exist in every corner of known world. Their purpose is to defend the honor of the gods, both as individuals and as a a collective. No act of sacrilege or desecration can be forgiven by these earnest, sectarian warriors. To become a templar requires intense training that would ideally allow one to hold their own against any of Comalan's superpowers, whether they be from Tanis, Heron, Resta, Midania, or Galeon. To a templar, the ability to put down anyone who makes an enemy of the gods is the highest calling. As such, they are especially hostile to blood mages and warlocks, who practice their arts in open defiance of the gods' condemnation. While separate orders of templars exist in each country, they are all united in the mission of enforcing the Fadalians' highest commands.

The templars of Resta represent one of the crown's three knightly orders, the Blackstone Order. They were founded in the First Age as the military of Necros, a long-since perished country that now composes the southern province of modern Resta. Their founder, a warrior named Karla Blackstone, mobilized a group of soldiers to secure the Pledge River when the Brokamac clan of Pyris invaded the land of Coronos to their immediate north. With a secure foothold against further Pyrisian expansion won, Karla held her defenders together for the length of the occupation of Coronos with inspiring words that preached the value of the continental east, where mortal life was said to have begun. It was this dogmatic attachment to the eastlands that allowed the first spellwarrior, Hem Maloran, to convince her to bring her soldiers to Coronos and aid in their revolution. With the Brokamac clan successfully routed, the Blackstone Order returned to Necros as heroes who helped to secure the chosen lands.

With Necros now secure to the north, Karla Blackstone took her troops back to the capitol of Necros and garrisoned its newly constructed castle, which was named for its newest hero. When the Plague of Suffering wiped out many citizens of both Coronos and Necros and compelled their leaders to join houses, Blackstone Keep became the Blackstone Monastery, a center of training for both clergy and new generations of Restan templars. It is in Blackstone Monastery that Resta maintains a reputation of excellence in all things divine.

Among all of the world's templars, the Blackstone Order has the highest standards of both strength and religious zeal. This causes them to produce the least fully recognized templars of any country, but the most powerful by far. The majority of their templars are followers of the Doctrine of Rage. This means that most Restan templars, including one of their most famous, are anointed in the faith of both Chaos and Salica. The knights of the Blackstone Order also particularly despise the spellwarriors of the Hem Order on a systemic level. While many outsiders assume that this is because of a historical rivalry between the two knightly orders that resulted from the merging of Coronos and Necros, the truth is that the templars distrust the Hem Order's undisciplined experimentation. For their part, the spellwarriors are proud of their heritage and consider the Blackstone Order's stigmatization of the power that allowed Coronos to liberate itself to be an insult to Restan history.

 While the average duties of a Blackstone knight involve dispensing justice to those who desecrate something divine, the dogmatic, sectarian nationalism of Resta makes defense of the kingdom a part of their duties. In times of conflict, the Blackstone Order is called upon to serve as Resta's naval forces. With a resource-rich kingdom behind them, and many years of hard discipline drilled into them, the templars of Resta can expertly sail ships that eclipse mariknights in power. Despite this, the Blackstone Order envies Midania's navy for their magically-enhanced speed and secret navigation techniques.

Out of a sense of necessity, Restan templars focus on mirroring the versatility of their counterparts in the Hem Order. Whether they are serving their country at sea, or their gods on land, you can count on the knights of the Blackstone Order to carry out their duties with practiced excellence.

Adventures in Comalan: Turtle Island

For years following the Archknight Rebellion, the unification of Midania's republic of island clans has been the desperate objective of the sai'mul who longed for the recognition they earned for their role in ending Karen Blackstone's reign as Queen of Resta. It was unfortunately for most of this time that the sai'mul of Mainland Midania failed to make any meaningful connections with the other islands that once flew the banners of the Akisian Empire. Credit for the progress that allowed Midania to finally join with Katrine, Sister, Eagle Isle, and Ravager Isle in their new nation would ultimately go to the Mariknights, as well as the Avatar who sanctioned their revival. They would acquire the lost secrets the original mariknight fleet left behind on a deserted island in a remote corner of Midania's territory known as Turtle Island. This has allowed the newly formed fleet to reclaim its supremacy over the world's oceans and facilitate safer travel between the islands.

Since the Republic of Midania's official foundation, Turtle Island has been designated as an unincorporated territory. While it remains a place of some importance to the Mariknights and the Midanian government, travel there is restricted to those on official business. This island's shores are defended by Mariknights with the same ferocity usually reserved for the country's precious hopefish population. Little is known about this place, even within the public of Midania itself, but few would miss the almost perfect dome of stone that composes the island's only peak and comprises its namesake. But apart from the common knowledge that the island resembles a massive turtle, the island's entire nature is one of the world's largest mysteries. But ask the adventurers who claim to be experts on the island and you will hear only the tale of the people who once lived there before the dawn of the Akisian Empire.

It is said that in the First Age, a river ran along top of the mountain and created a gigantic waterfall that emptied into the ocean. It was under this waterfall, in a secluded cove that early mages first began to experiment with water magic. By manipulating the flow of this waterfall, the tribe of Turtle Island are said to have drawn Salica's attention to the islands in the first place. As the first practitioners of the Doctrine of Storms made their covenant with their new goddess, a strange light that was believed to be a sign of Salica's feelings for the people of Akis began to grow in the sky over Turtle Island. Believed to be a potential source of power, the first Emperor of Akis sent his sturdiest fifty boats with full crews of hardened corsairs to occupy this land. His ambition was to create a legacy that was great enough to erase that of his father-- the last chieftain of his once-modest island.

But when the corsairs attempted to assail the island, they were repelled by water mages and acolytes of Salica's new doctrine, who enjoyed nearly limitless power thanks to the might of the ocean itself. With their control of the water, they were able to keep the Akisians from landing entirely, although their attackers were undeterred by their miraculous abilities. For a year, the fleet rotated ships to keep the island under siege until the frustrated Emperor sent his entire fleet to overwhelm the island. Day and night, ships attempted to make a landing until the defenders fell from exhaustion. Turtle Island became the first island annexed into the Akisian Empire, but this heavy battle came at the cost of allowing the people of Turtle Rock access to influence their new countrymen with the Doctrine of Storms.

While the story that Turtle Rock is where the Doctrine of Storms originated is popular in most parts of the world, this is a fact that is critically debated among Restan theological scholars as well as the more remote citizens of the Midania. Indeed, while the events of the story are widely considered to be true, there is some confusion about the timeline of Salica's earliest interactions with Comalan among her devoted. Although no waterfall remains as evidence of the once-sacred source of water magic, one thing about Turtle Island remains clear: the ferocity of the mariknights who patrol the surrounding region and the absolute secrecy with which the island is regarded in the modern age speak of more than just historical reverence. That makes Turtle Island an enticing, but quite illegal, destination for any of the bravest adventures with the vision to hire the most skilled sailors to evade its naval patrol.

The Festival of Spring

As each new year dawns, young floral sprites emerge from their seedlings while their older peers return from a winter spent in human form so as to survive the cold. It is during these first few weeks that people begin to join the fey in arranging the Festival of Serenity, also known as the Spring Festival or Festival of Spring. As the third week of the season begins, people flock to Orion's Trinity Square and Resta City's Gilded Keep to commune with the local fey in gratitude for their contributions to the lives of mortals. As the bridges between mortal and fey life, the floral sprites play host to all manner of celebrants, serving tea and sweets while serenading them with their otherworldly voices and playing hide-and-seek with the children.

This tradition dates back to First Age Terris, in which the first bond was formed between elves and eversprites. When the lenoff and dwarof clans still clashed over a forest that was very much considered Crane's experimental region, the fey creatures he designed suffered the most. The ancestors of the dwarves in particular once hunted them for sustenance. It was the lenoff clan's peaceful coexistence with the fey that ultimately led to their dominance over the forest. While the dwarof were driven deeper into the earth, the lenoff shared the surface with these creatures in joyful harmony. It is said that this cooperative relationship between races was what initially drew Serenity's attention when she first laid eyes on Comalan.

The relationship between elves and the fey became the basis for Serenity's growing sympathy for the creatures that Chaos and Crane created. It is for this reason that the protection of magical creatures became enshrined in the Doctrine of Tranquility, marking any sin against them as the most grievous. This association between Serenity and the fey carried over into Resta's traditions when its citizens began to welcome Serene worship. This is the source of the floral sprites' role in the holiday.

When the floral sprites were first discovered in Coronos, they were met with indifference until their magical transformations were discovered. This began the practice of capturing floral sprites and other fey creatures by mages wishing to study their magical properties. Seeing humans as far too violent to approach, the fey began to go into hiding. The positive association between humans and elves caused this mistrust to extend to elvenkind as well and, as a result, mortals went for over forty years without seeing a single magical creature.

When common knowledge of the fey began to refer to them as extinct, an acolyte named Beatrice Whitetree made the first contact between humanity and floral sprites in decades. By then, Coronos and Necros had become Resta and Serene worship had become common in the region. This acolyte was among the first Blackstone Monastery trained in the Tranquility Doctrine, which made her encounter in Flora Field a most fateful one. While wandering among the flowers, she began to feel sick with an allergy to one of the flowers there.

Despite their fear, the sprites were unwilling to watch a human die. It was for this reason that they came out of hiding to heal Beatrice. When she came to, she told them stories she had learned in the Monastery in gratitude. Displaying her faith in Serenity reminded the sprites of the elves who once showed kindness to the fey and convinced them that humanity had changed. With Beatrice as their advocate, the floral sprites formed a connection with human society, offering their magical knowledge in exchange for the right to exist in peace.

This new arrangement brought the fey back into the light of day all over the continent and a festival was declared in Tanis in celebration. There, the elves and fey ate and drank as peers for the first time in a raucous party that created lasting memories for all involved. The floral sprites who attended this first festival introduced it into Restan tradition the very next year. This event has become far more restrained in recent years than in the first celebration, but the significance remains the same. The Spring Festival is a yearly reminder that the differences between mortal and fey only have to divide those with room for hatred in their hearts.

The Windlords

A gentle breeze. The faint sounds of footfalls with unseen sources. These are the signs that only the most perceptive will uncover when a Windlord is around. They travel the many lands of Comalan in secret without any discernible number to their ranks or limit to their reach. Hailing from the veritable metropolis of Aeros Academy, these spies and champions of transparency fulfill what many consider to be a vital service to the people of Galeon: making the information that people need accessible to all. They are the watchdogs who inform people of any dishonesty of the people in power the world over, and the official intelligence agency of both Galeon and its Erisian ancestors.

The Windlords as a whole call themselves the Order of Aeros, which finds its origins in the First Age. Back then, many people of Eris had been inspired by a class of intellectual elites known as the Windtalkers to meditate on high, windy hilltops, which are believed to this day to be spots of communication with the Gods. They sought mental and spiritual enlightenment from the mind of Crane himself, as the Windtalkers claimed to have found. It is widely believed that Windtalkers would make up stories of their treks of discovery, but the people who followed in their alleged footsteps would find true enlightenment. What many would find telling of the Windtalkers is that those whose hilltop voyages could be corroborated reacted far differently to their experiences than these supposed prophets did.

Those who were determined to have actually meditated on the hilltops were Eris soon began to meet each other in secret, a revelation that was once made by an Erisian knight known as Artemis the Unrelenting. He reported that this secret group of true enlightened had mastered and comfortably exerted an unusual control over the air itself, a property that surely contributed to these people being dubbed the Windlords. From their discovery, the first Grandmaster of this group unveiled their intent to gather and share information for the good of their society. It was at this point, in the two-hundred-and-fiftieth year of the first age, that construction began on a massive tower encompassing an entire city worth of space that reached upward of fifty stories in height. They began to stock this tower with copies of any book, scroll, or document they could find in an effort to consolidate information in a timeless collection. They called this place Aeros Academy, a structure so large that it can be seen from almost anywhere in the western side of the country.

The Windlords had always had an adversarial relationship with the Windtalkers' who often consolidated information as they had, but always seemed to hoard it to their own benefit. While the Windlords worked constantly to provide information to the public, the Windtalkers actively discredited their social rivals to the point of campaigning for their arrest as menaces to society. This campaign of slander would, in turn, lead the Windlords to investigate the Windtalkers personally, leading to a decades-long power struggle.

At the end of this conflict, the Windlords stood victorious and would consequently guide Eris through its transition into Galeon and bring democracy to the country. For this, the people of Galeon felt a gratitude for the windlords that lasted less than a year into the Second Age. The reason for their downfall was equally simple and complicated: they had turned their skills toward a place Crane had never intended them to see.

The Windlords were said to have infiltrated the mythical Skyres city, an adventure that could only be corroborated by scant reports of inebriated windlords bragging of their intent to gather the secrets of Crane himself. This was the treasure everyone believed to be contained within the ancient city of dragons located somewhere in the sky. Whatever truly transpired on that year was lost to history throughout the entirety of the Second Age, when people could only gather that the survivors of that faithful mission had returned with complete amnesia and curse marks in the shape of Crane's symbol; a tattoo in the shape of Selon Res, the last dragon.

In the span of a single week, the Order of Aeros was completely decimated, without a single member able to retain an iota of the Windlords' legacy. Curiously, these curse marks were passed on to the offspring of these Windlords, a phenomenon which slowly developed into a cultural stigma towards the descendants of those who dared to steal the secrets of the God of Knowledge himself. It wasn't until the Third Age that the Windlords would find their redemption. At this time, Richard Blackstone--the First Avatar of Crane-- had visited Galeon and gathered everyone he could find who possessed one of Crane's curse marks. He had been charged with reviving their order with the specific intent of helping him to resist a powerful cabal of evil creatures known as the Knightmares. 

In the Third Age, Windlords retain the controversy of old, but on a larger scale due to their increased international activity. The people of their homeland generally regard them with positive feelings, although modern Galeans feel more concern about the secrets and power they hold compared to their Erisian ancestors. While they venerate the Order's stance on transparency of information, they critically speculate on the possibility that the Windlords might use their power to destabilize other countries. 

In Resta, they are considered professional rivals to their own organization of spies, Royal Army Intelligence. In their efforts to maintain the tactical superiority they had cultivated throughout the second age, RAI regularly spies on the windlords in turn. 

In Heron, they are feared for their perfect infiltration abilities and general air of invisibility. Heronite lords have a long history of using the Windlords' exploits to sew distrust in their rebel elements. It is not uncommon for the Lords to blame any information gathered on them by the Heronite resistance, a movement of feudal abolitionists, on Windlord intervention.

To the people of Tanis, windlords are generally regarded with indifference. To the elves, windlords provide a necessary service to their people. But since Tanisian society is inherently transparent, they feel the least fear toward the prospect of Galean infiltration. They often pride themselves on having nothing to hide, and will often welcome Windlords as honored guests.

Meanwhile, the people of Midania typically hold more distrust for Windlords than anyone else. While the human citizens of the country's satellite territories hold superstitious attitudes toward their perceived lust for power, the sai'mul of the mainland are brought up on tales of Erisian sabotage of what was once the Akisian empire. Their oldest citizens, who lived through the First and Second Ages, stand as the only people who can testify to the dangers of Windlords intervening in the affairs of other countries.

All in all, the Windlords' reputation is one they defy every day. While they do not discriminate in the subjects of their investigative endeavors, the Order of Aeros has a very strict policy against unnecessary intervention. While Aeros Academy is rife with all of the world's secrets, they curate all of the information they gather and release only what advances their core ideals of an open and just world. They have many critics who question the value of their judgment in this matter, but with their mastery of stealth and wind magic, no one can stop them from doing what they do.

History of Eris

In the early ages of humanity, everyone lived together in the eastern side of the great continent in peaceful cooperation. Together, they shared the goals of Ragos and Crane to grow strong and wise, so they may survive the mistakes of the people who came before. But the two brothers came to disagree on far too many things for this cooperation to continue. While those who followed the will of Ragos would settle in the north and form the nation of Pyris, someday to be redubbed Heron, those who remained loyal to Crane turned south to start a more civilized society called Eris.

While the people of Eris were conscious of the perpetual threat of Pyrisians, their concerns leaned toward the foundation of a stable society from the very beginning. While various mountain clans clashed for control of the north, the people of Eris had formed the very first government, which was referred to as the Council Republic. Their idea behind this early form of government was that towns would hold local elections to determine the most competent master of every trade. The elected officials would then be entrusted with collaborative power to make decisions on their town’s behalf. Electing councilors based on their trades was meant to offer equal representation for all lifestyles, but the system was far from perfect.

Corruption eroded the people’s faith in the Council Republic early on, but the objections of the citizens were waved off by the country’s growing intellectual elite, who cultivated a sense of mystique by meditating on solitary hills and returning with claims of epiphanies from Crane himself. It was this phenomenon that would change Eris’ future forever, as common people who were curious of the source of the elites’--known also as the Windtalkers-- power braved the hilltops themselves for answers.

Those who came back from these exploratory excursions were truly enlightened, but would not brag openly about their experiences as the elitists did. Instead, they had become even more reserved and distrustful of others. These conspicuous changes in people quieted talk of “communing with the sky” as the Erisians called it. But as the First Age neared its final decades, people had begun to notice those who had completed this ritual meeting together in private. The secrets of these enigmatic rendezvous were uncovered by a lone sworn man, the Erisian equivalent of a knight. He discovered that those who had communed with the sky had banded together to form a ring of spies. Moreover, he discovered that these spies had been in the process of studying the movement of the air itself and how to influence it. When the sworn man released his findings to the public, the people learned for the first time of the birth of wind magic.

The sworn men would chase these spies for years, hoping to bend them to the will of the people. But these spies, who would later go on to be known as the Windlords, were resistant to any authority. While they spied regularly on the other nations for Eris’ benefit, they never pledged their support to the Council Republic as an organization.

By the year 1E281, Eris had settled all of Mortanis’ southern shores, so many of its people had begun to move north, hoping to settle the eastlands once more. There, they found the people of Necros to be hospitable toward their southern guests until the fleet of Akis began to land on their shores. Pressured to turn back by the imperial invaders, the settlers retreated to Eris with haunting tales of Akisian barbarism, which made even the warriors of Pyris uneasy.

As Akisian raiders took control of Necros, and warred with Pyris for control of Coronos, the people of Eris watched anxiously while conflict brewed between the wind talkers and the windlords. The former had maintained a firm grip on their influence with the Council Republic by exerting control on Eris’ flow of information while the latter group had formed a crusade to broaden the flow of information to all. Over time, these differences exploded into a mutual enmity in which wind talkers would slander and stigmatize the windlords while the windlords undermined the wind talkers’ power by sharing their secrets with the public.

These factions would declare a truce when an emissary from Pyris risked her life to cross the eastlands to petition the Erisians for aid against Akis. This was the start of an unprecedented, and never again repeated, alliance between Pyris and Eris which sought to repel the Akisian invaders from Mortanis. The elves of Terris would join this war on the side of Akis initially, which kicked off a time known across Mortanis and Midania today as the War of the Gods.

When this war ended, and the Gods punished the mortals for continuing to fight in their name after they had declared a truce, Eris was the country least affected by the fallout since their soldiers obeyed Crane’s will to lay down their arms without hesitation. So, while the other countries, struggled with the consequences of their stubbornness, Eris was free to look inward towards its own problems, which had grown to their breaking point during the war.

For their contributions during the war, Windlords enjoyed a wellspring of popular support which weakened the threats of the wind talkers. As the wind talkers began to lose favor with the public, their efforts to maintain their power became increasingly desperate and draconian. This led to a great deal of resentment toward the wind talkers that were curbed by the windlords’ continued attacks on their reputations and turned to ridicule. Without credibility, the wind talkers quietly faded away in the hopes of living comfortably on the wealth their lifetimes of exploitation had earned them. This left most of the country stagnating with a severe loss of capital and shared resources. This choice signaled the death knell of both the wind talkers and the Council Republic.

With the voices of the wind talkers long gone, the disenfranchised citizens of Eris advocated, for the first time, the abolishment of the Council Republic and the foundation of a system of governance that benefits everyone. This drive was supported by the windlords, who claimed that the increased freedom the people sought was the will of Crane himself. Some of the order's commanders began to engage in politics for the first time, using a wealth of skillfully acquired information to form logical arguments against the Council Republic.

This revolution would come to its conclusion with the Council Republic’s final election in the year 2E3. The new council of Eris’ capital of Rashara voted unanimously to end the Council Republic, ratify the Gale Accord--which established an open democracy--and name the windlords as its protectors. The Gale Accord, as the foundation of their new society, became the country’s namesake when the people voted to relegate their old ways to the past with a new name--Galeon.

The Pyromancers

From the left: Pyromancers Sarnai Kayonyn, Katja Arud, and notable prodigy Laila Arud.

Heron's rich history of Chaos worship has produced an uncommon breed of warrior that strike fear into their enemies. These people are known as pyromancers, fighters who are granted power over fire by Chaos himself. With these abilities, the people of Heron and their ancestors honor Chaos by exerting power against their most dangerous threats. Historically, pyromancers exist in two breeds. Ancient pyromancers from the time when Heron was known as Pyris were often arrogant and bloodthirsty, owing to their imperialistic culture of the First Age.

These warriors often enjoyed status that was subordinate only to their clan chieftains. Because of this disproportionate amount of power, the strength of each clan was partially measured in the number of pyromancers who chose to follow them. Wars were fought both with and for their power and still, they would fight with ferocious zeal for their clan. But this explosion of power had the unfortunate, but not entirely unanticipated, downside of bringing countless lives to an end. Where the ground wasn't stained with blood, it was blackened by scorch marks and soot. Following the War of the Gods near the end of the First Age, Chaos agreed with the other deities that his power was too dangerous to share with mortals. Thus, for the entirety of the Second Age, there hadn't been a single new pyromancer, although many of their techniques have long since been appropriated by the arcanists of Resta.

Pyromancy returned at the beginning of the Third Age when the Avatar of Chaos trekked through Heron to dispense Chaos' power once more in the face of an enemy that threatened even the gods. He first bestowed the gift upon Sun Jun, a driver working for the  noble Crowmont family. Together, the Avatar and the first of the new generation of flame-wielding warriors blazed a trail through Heron to build a new army of flame-wielding northern warriors. This journey ended with the assassination of Lord Colin Piers and the ascension of the Avatar's second apprentice, Aden Piers.

Pyromancers of the Third Age are more disciplined than their First Age counterparts, often conforming to the culture and training style of modern Heronite soldiers. Despite this, modern practitioners of pure fire magic often have a slight air of informality in which they admire each other's use of it. This is because pyromancy is unlike most magical disciplines, which rely on prayers or incantations to produce specific effects. Instead, the fire one wields moves according to either the caster's imagination or instinct.

As a result of this freeform approach to magic, each pyromancer is encouraged to develop an individual style that they are personally comfortable with. Some can form living shapes with their fire, like former mountain bandit Jack Saikarn, who uses his skill to form a flying horse that can be ridden only by himself. Others can manipulate heat so finely as to produce high energy effects in the air, such as Laila Arud, a famous prodigy who can use her power to create electricity or powerful airborne explosions. These limitless possibilities make it necessary for the leaders who induct new pyromancers to be selective with their candidates, but hopeful members of the lower class look to Chaos' power as a great equalizer for all.

To this point, one notable development in the pyromancer leadership in the recent years was the ascension of Lord Karn's daughter, Umi Karn, who famously eloped with Sun Jun soon after he was bestowed with the gift, and who rose through the ranks quickly, soon surpassing her husband. Her natural charisma, as well as her penchant for traveling Heron and recruiting young women of all classes and situations, has earned her the steadfast loyalty of the many young pyromancers who she has taken under her wing. There are rumblings of disapproval among some of Heron's more traditional elements, but this has done nothing to deter her.