History
Pre-RPG
Present (after the start of the RPG)
Detailed Version
The history of this island is a complicated one. It all began with King Shantor. He was a skilled healer, but knew little of the art of war, it was his ignorance that destroyed him. His brother Tairan had defected to Chaos and murdered Shantor to usurp the throne. Once he became king, he raised the taxes, oppressed the people and united Chaos with the other four realms. The ogres and demons were free to roam the land. The people hoped that when his son took the throne, things would be righted, but it was not so. For four hundred years, nothing but oppressive rulers. Any revolt that was started, was stamped out by the Chaos armies of the kings.
Years passed and the people gave up hope. One old druid called Marcan, was the only one in the entire palace who saw that the new prince that had just been born to King Zurach had a good soul and the spirit of his ancestor King Shantor. As the boy grew, he asked Zurach if he might school the boy in all that a prince needed to know. Since he was a learned man, the king consented to his tutoring of Prince Ryntan.
Marcan taught the boy about King Shantor and the oppressive rulers that followed his murderous brother. He taught him of the evil that plagued this once beautiful island. Ryntan began to hate the evil that he was starting to see around him, but Marcan warned him never to speak of these things to anyone else. The boy kept his word and did not speak until the day he was crowned king when he was nineteen, upon his father's death.
On that very day, he lowered the taxes, freed the people of oppression, and drove the Chaos realmers back to their own island. He reinstigated bondings and made preparations for them immediatly. The people of the island became active under their new king and the cities were shining bright again. Ryntan struggled to find enough bonds to start building up the other three realms. A royal white air dragon was found in StarScape, unbonded and free. Her name was Shaytenelle. She flew and laid a clutch of eight in the caverns of Cascadia Falls.
A fire swept over the newly laid clutch. Shaytenelle was beside herself with worry that none of the eggs were alive. The only egg that survived was miraculously a royal. Ashalle bonded to Jessamyn, making her Queen of the air realm in her own right. Soon after the royal pair finished training, Ryntan petitioned the goddess Irotana for the gift of telepathy to be bestowed on the members of the Council, which he was instating so there would never again be only one ruler. He was granted his request and he and Jessamyn were linked to each other in an unbreakable bond, even though he himself was not bonded of any one realm. This same link would be given to the royals of the other three realms once they had royal bonds, and would be given again throughout time to all members of the Council that ever would come.
Shortly after the linking, Ryntan was killed in a battle with the Chaos realm, called the Avenging War, along with royal Shaytenelle- all believed- and many others. Jessamyn found herself as a lone ruler and it worried her. She needed other royals from the realms. She carried on the plans for bondings and hoped that one of them might harbor a royal. She was beside herself with relief when a golden royal appeared in a wild phoenix clutch and bonded to Tyrona Starfyr, introducing itself as Kylranal. But even with another Council member, two realms were still leaderless.
A few years after Tyrona ascended to the throne of the fire realm, a land bonding was held. The two queens were immensely relieved and excited, albeit confused, when two royal kraenons bonded. The younger kraenon royal, Rishinn, bonded Riikii and then conceded queenship to Aquatre and her royal bond, Sariann. Now Land had a Queen and a Queen's Own, and only the realm of water was left without a leader.
Soon after, a water bonding was held. Calithia bonded a royal water dragon, Kyrsialle. Tragically, the hatchling was murdered a week or so afterwards, and Calithia killed herself. That same day, Kyle Rimbrand, the guildmaster of the Thieves' Guild, bonded royal dolphin Eranthra, becoming King of the Water Realm. At Kyle's coronation, Sariann, Aquatre's bond, was changed into a Common kraenon by Irotana, and the land royalty was given to Riikii and Rishinn.
Things seemed to finally be settling down... until Ashalle, the dragon bond of Queen Jessamyn of Air, felt an inexplicable call to a large continental mass north of Shadow Star. She was killed, and Jessamyn became no longer a royal. Air was now without a royal. Yet not long afterwards, two strange creatures resembling air dragons, only furred and different in other ways as well, arrived at the island with their two bonds. These creatures were called the ryuuki. The female ryuuki, Ceralinth, flew and soon laid a clutch.
Events seemed to be looking up, but then an army of Chaosians, led by the chimera Deligere, attacked Cascadia Falls. After a bitter battle, the Chaosians were defeated. More relief and joy was added to the victory when the ryuuki clutch hatched and bonded. One of the ryuukettes was a royal- Kaelith, who bonded Nikolia. At the Firstday Festival, Nikolia was crowned Queen Nikolia of the Air Realm.
Somewhere during all this, Land Queen Riikii Neoko and Water King Kyle Rimbrand were wed. It wasn't long until the Land Queen was found to be pregnant.
Not long afterwards, royal phoenix Kylranal flew and was caught by Claenal. She laid a clutch, and out of that clutch hatched a royal, a silver male named Burinal. He bonded the dragoon-smith, Shasten, who was crowned Queen's Own.
The next month or so passed in a blur of events. Several Unitians were captured and shipped on a Chaotic slave ship back to Chaos. Air Queen Nikolia contracted a sickness, thought to be of Chaos, as her bond Kaelith was in her mating flight. And then Fire Queen Tyrona came down with a sickness similar to the Air Queen's. The healers and Council discovered that Tyrona's sickness spread through telepathic links, like the bond link to Kylranal and the Council link. Her link to the Council was severed, but she could not be cured - only treated. She retired to the Starfyr Ranch outside Cascadia Falls, and Fire Queen's Own Shasten became Fire King Shasten.
Just before spring, there was a water bonding and out of it came a royal, N'dura, who bonded to a young telepath named Jeremiah. Earlier, Water had lost its only royal Kyle due to Eranthra's poisoning. Riikii, who had twin babies now, was having a difficult time being mother and Land Queen simultaneously, so she stepped down too. Land Prince Rian Gentry would, in a strange turn of events, take her place as Council Royal, and Jeremiah took Kyle's.
Late that spring, four Chaosians got together and formed what they called the New Order (known to many as the Odd Squad.) These four fairly powerful mages gathered an army and set out to capture Cascadia and try to wreak havoc everywhere else. Meanwhile, under the orders of a false Irotana, the Maugh Klarn were preparing for an attack on the Ctsu town of Nivoh. The Ctsu were arming up and preparing to fight the Chaosians as they'd heard about the surprise attacks. As they went to fight the Chaosians, the Maugh Klarn took over Nivoh.
The Unity won this battle with Chaos (ultimately one of the four leaders was magically sent to the other side of the world.) But a larger, more frightening war was unfolding. Irotana herself was afraid of this opponent. The Void, her brother-god, was sucking energy out of her and it was all she could do to fight him. He possessed people, animals, plants, anything that could lend him energy, regardless that they would end up sick, mad, or worse...dead. As Void began his wild rampage to begin eating up Irotana's oasis--ShadowStar, Irotana united the Maugh and Ctsu Klarn (the Ctsu warriors returned to Nivoh as soon as they heard about the raid) and they began their desperate fight against the Void.
The quests for the Etherium Crystals began, as those would ultimately be the only things to imprison Void again. Meanwhile, Ctsu Light-master Kynisha Jalansi and her novice, Inula set out on their own quest--to find the legendary StarStone that would renew Kynisha's memory. Kynisha had lost her memory upon dying in a fight with a Maugh named Mara. Irotana had then used precious energy to reveal to the Maugh what was going on, and to revive Kynisha. She couldn't, however, give Kynisha her memory. Thus, her name was changed to Nareyo at her reawakening. She had to relearn everything she knew, and learned the Maugh as well. Nareyo and Inula went to the old Realms, the Shadows Forgotten that had split from ShadowStar's world hundreds of years ago, in search of the StarStone.
Finally, the battle with Void was won, and life returned to fairly normal...until the Harvest Festival when one of Chaos' most powerful mages announced to all that the truce necessary between Chaos and ShadowStar for Void's disposal was now null, and to expect attacks soon.
A few weeks afterward, the famous pendants pinged and the bells rang announcing a bonding. Another fire bonding. This one was special in its own way. There were two royal eggs, and all were expecting two royals to come out of this, as the eggs were thriving. Many people bonded, but right in the middle of things, an evil magician named Yuki appeared and killed all the eggs. Almost everyone thought all was lost, but one egg was saved. A golden dragon egg, and out of this egg hatched a proud golden fire dragon, Miralaurelle. She bonded Dante, one of the controversial Chaosian leaders from the battle that spring, and by doing so, made him Fire King's Own.
Meanwhile in Chaos, there was a bonding, and Kurai bonded a royal gargoyle named Chaotus. She was now powerful enough that she could take over the High Demonlady position. A Council was held on Chaos Island. Clouds of strife were rolling in yet again.
The Air Realm received a new royal: Fawn, bonded to a royal gryphon. The current classes finally graduated while the old Land Princess and Land King's Own had to be demoted, though Princess Maurene was given the title of Baroness.
As winter passed and spring rolled along, farmers began to get worried. There was not much snow all winter, and there was not much rain this year. Their fears of a drought were slowly becoming true.
As if that wasn't problem enough, a powerful Chaosian mage cast a spell over Shadow Star that raised the dead, causing the land to crawl with legions of skeletons. Several villages were completely wiped out, sending many refugees to Cascadia, which thankfully managed to hold off the undead army.
Not long after the undead attack, a surviving Winglie from Taerone, Yuki, began preparations to make his own army of bondcreatures, calling the land dragons to him in much the same way that the air dragons had disappeared a few years before. Not long after, the new land royal, Queen Kyrea, led a small expedition to discover their wherabouts. Yuki was eventually found and defeated, and the new kyushi brought back to their bondeds.
A few months afterwards, the first all realm bonding took place. Four royals were chosen: Tempest, air princess, fire princess Tigra, who disappeared, water king's own Suki, and Land Queen Kyrea.
The bonds of Shadow Star were finally starting to proliferate into respectable numbers. Gathering together, they banded together and successfully drove Chaos completely off the southern edge of Shadow Star.
Unnoticeable to most, Irotana, weakened from the fight with her brother Void, was slowly losing her power. Kynisha, with the power of the Starstone, was able to draw Irotana into her body to preserve her life and take her to Nivoh, where, after defeating Joril for the title of Lightmaster, was able to restore the Goddess with Nivoh's hidden power.
The second all-realm bonding came and went, with two new royals being bonded: the kyushi Shantrush, to Keina, and the fire dragon Pfeiralle, who bonded Keldris Desryn. However, both royals would soon after disappear, presumably to whisking-away.
As eggs once again began hardening on the hatching sands, everything seemed to be going much better than it had two years ago. The Fire King was married and expecting a child, and the Water King as well was expecting an heir. The rains had returned to the lands, and things seemed peaceful...for the moment.