A suggestion for a new backstory

[Rotonen]

The history of The Mana World



Age of Gods

Little is known about the Age of Gods. It is known that the Gods have existed since the dawn of time, but a lot the knowledge has passed into oblivion. The information about the main events of the Age of Gods that has survived the test of time and found its way into the legends of Mankind are mostly made up by historians and religious leaders. The Age of Gods consisted mainly of internal power struggle between the Gods and does not contain any information that would be of any interest. The only significant part of it, from the viewing point of Mankind, is the start of the Age of the
Playground of the Gods.

Age of the Playground of the Gods

At the dawn of the Age of the Playground of the Gods the Gods dominant at the moment enforced a peace between Gods. Those who opposed were uncreated, banished into oblivion. They created the so called ”Playground of the Gods” for those Gods who were ”childish enough to have desires of aggression and destruction”. So came to pass the realm known later as ”The Mana World”.

This realm of war for Gods was not a realm where Gods could go directly against each other. Instead it was an independent world on which they could influence, sort of a chess game for Gods. Mankind acted as the pawns of this divine form of entertainment. Mankind was created for the amusement and pleasure of the Gods and at first lived only for one purpose: war. But because Mankind was created as the image of the Gods, they soon developed other desires than war. At this point the peaceful Gods were very proud of their work.

Inspired by Mankind the warhungry part of the Gods started to use dirty tactics in their own little war games on the Playgrounds. Spawning monsters to support their armies, manifesting themselves as greater monsters and supplying Mankind information about divine matters.

Somewhere before the beginning of Age of Demons the Gods were divided into two groups that slowly began to hate each other. The Elder Gods (as they then started to call themselves) named the warhungry ones Demons and started to slowly forget their peaceful nature. As the Demons continued their games of war on their playground, they began a war against the Elder Gods.

The war lasted for aeons. The Elder Gods were greater in number and more powerful, but the Demons were more skilled in warfare. So the amount of Gods started to decrease.

The keen interest in mankind that the Demons had developed during their war games led to the turning of the tides of the divine war. The more divine information the Demons fed to Mankind, the more apparent it came that Mankind is truly the image of the Gods. It was revealed then that as the Elder Gods had created Mankind as the image of the Gods, they had not only given them their free will, they had actually given them the ability to generate mana, the source of divinity. This newly found eternally regenerating mana gave the Demons the needed advantage to win the war and to banish all of the Elder Gods into oblivion.

Age of Demons

So began the Age of Demons, but the war had not gone by without taking it's toll: the number of the Demons had decreased into a pitifulsix Demons and the Realm of Gods had been banished into oblivion by the last of Elder Gods. From the viewing point of Mankind, this was truly a Age of Demons, but from the viewing point of the Demons, this was a pitiful state of being, as they could only exist as their physical manifestations on the Mana World for they had bound their divine self into the world itself in order to avoid the banishing and actually done it succesfully. Some claim that some of the Elder Gods or other Demons would've bound their beings into the Mana World too, but not succesfully enough to manifest theirselves directly. Some believe that these manifest themselves as twists of fate.

The remnaining Demons were the strongest ones of their kind, but one of them was above all. The Demon later know as Azerel, Demon of death. Azerel's realm consisted of the entire northern hemisphere, basically all that seemed pure: mountains, glaciers and eternally frozen oceans. Grenxen, the desert rat, dug deep into the desert beneath the city of Amzeroth and trusted in stealth and deceit. Hra-zul, the thinker Demon, rooted itself in the deep forest zones of the Mana world, infested them with his army of elite ranger marksmen. Vixiel, the only female Demon to survive, found it's home in the remote islands, acting as a mother God for the great sailors in the islands. Balgerieth found refuge in the deep mines beneath the southern mountains, trusting in a army of sturdy men who above all else hold physical strenght in value. Xendah, the studier, formed a small community on the outskirts of the Mana World, gathering only the men strongest in mana.

Eventually, true to their nature, the Demons started to emerge their old grudges against each other again. War rose it's ugly face once again in it's full horrendous glory. But this time the outcome surprised all. From the initiative of Hra-zul and Grenxen, the five lesser Demons formed a secred coalition against Azerel and in a great battle, Azerel was banished into oblivion.

The war went on and on between the five remaining equal Demons. Somewhere during this seemingly endless war the Demons lost their perspective of things and became ignorant to the fact that Mankind truly was made as the image of the Gods. This opened a chance for Mankind that it eagerly used. As it had grown enough in strenght, it allied against it's masters' wishes and then began the great war of Freedom.

Age of Mankind

As mankind did not have enough power to banish the gods into oblivion without destroying the Mana World with the Demons, they enslaved the Demons. At first this resulted in a time of peace that lasted for a millennia. Then again the basic nature of Mankind manifested itself and the Demons were once again roaming the Mana World, this time as the ultimate weapons of the five Greater Kingdoms.

Rotonen's notes

This might be a bit unfinished, but it does seem quite original (or I just subconciously copied it from somewhere O.o). The bit about the possible other greater spirits bound into the Mana World grants the possibility of expanding the world (a lesser kingdom finds a way to enslave the bound spirit for their purpose and so rises into the group of Great Kingdoms). 5 kingdoms might be too much (2 for starters would be better?). And finally as the Demons are the weapons of the kingdoms, they would be situated in the bottom level of the dungeon beneath the capitol city of the kingdom. This would make the dungeons beneath the cities logical targets in war and peacetime. And there could be open war events where the contents of the dungeons would fight with each other (equally strong..) and the players of each kingdom would be the power to turn the tides of war.. (a bit of a copy of the helbreath's system ”crusade”, but still a good one on my opinion)

[Nevilytis]

This guy is cool with a storyline. Woot! damn.. look at all the stuff am missing.

[ElvenProgrammer]

Woot! Welcome back Nev! It's good to see you here again! If you're interested in everything related to The Mana World story development check out these wiki pages
http://themanaworld.sourceforge.net/wik ... roundStory

[Pottsi]

I have a storyling to back up the Mana World. It doesnt go too deep, but it does do its job. I think it'd make a great back story. It also sets up a lot of starting points/areas for future quests. I will or have already posted it in my topic (Quest Pitchers). That is where i will be looking for replies from you or anyone else.

[Crush]

Could you please stop necroing ancient threads?

[Pottsi]

My main reason for doing this is because this game has a lack of quests, and as a mmorpg, i expect quests. I am just trying to help out here and get something going. My storyline, which you can take anyway you please, can lead to many quests and items in the future. If you dont like it, thats fine with me. It's not my game, im just trying to help improve it.