Chapter 1
Prologue — The World Before the Fire
Before there was Hell, there was Oldearth.
Its skies were blue, its oceans stretched beyond the horizon, and its forests covered mountains older than the kingdoms built beneath them. Great cities rose from stone and steel. Farmers worked the land, kings fought over borders, and explorers crossed the wilderness in search of forgotten treasures.
But Oldearth was never an ordinary world.
Something ancient slept beneath its surface.
Long before the first kingdom, an unknown civilization had discovered a crack between Oldearth and a place that did not belong to the living world. Through that crack came creatures that should never have existed: beasts with iron bones, shadows that moved without bodies, and monsters that could corrupt everything they touched.
The ancient civilization built a structure known as the World-Seal. Its purpose was simple: keep the otherworld out.
For thousands of years, the Seal held.
Then, in Year 1, the ground shook.
Across the continents, animals fled their habitats. Rivers changed direction. Strange red lights appeared beneath the earth, visible through cracks in the stone.
In a forgotten chamber beneath a ruined city, a stone monument split down its centre.
A voice emerged from the darkness.
“The door is opening.”
And the first age of Oldearth began.
Chapter 1 — The First Age of Oldearth
Years 1–500
1.1 — The Kingdoms of the Living
In Year 1, Oldearth was divided among powerful kingdoms.
The Kingdom of Aurelion controlled the central plains, where golden fields stretched for hundreds of miles. The northern kingdom of Veyr stood among snowy mountains, while the southern kingdoms built enormous cities along warm coastlines. Beyond the western sea lay unexplored islands, and east of the great deserts were forests so dense that sunlight rarely reached the ground.
Most people believed the world belonged to them.
They knew stories of dragons, giants, goblins, and creatures that hunted travellers after sunset. Yet these stories were often dismissed as superstition.
That changed when the village of Dunmere disappeared.
A merchant travelling through the region found the village abandoned. Doors hung open. Fires still burned in homes, but there was no sign of the villagers. In the town square, enormous footprints had been pressed into the earth.
The footprints led into the forest.
A search party followed them and never returned.
Three days later, something emerged from the trees.
It was taller than a horse, with green skin, thick arms, and a jaw filled with yellow teeth. It carried a weapon fashioned from a broken tree trunk. Behind it came dozens of similar creatures.
They were the first green Orcs recorded in the royal chronicles.
And they were marching towards Aurelion.
1.2 — The First Monster War
King Aldren of Aurelion ordered his soldiers to defend the border.
The Orcs attacked at dawn. They moved in organised groups, using crude shields and heavy weapons. Their warriors were brutal, but they were not stupid. They targeted supply wagons, burned bridges, and struck isolated villages before disappearing into the forests.
The royal army had never faced an enemy like them.
For weeks, the fighting continued. Farmers became refugees. Roads filled with abandoned carts. Smoke covered the countryside.
Then something even worse arrived.
Huge creatures emerged from the northern wilderness. Some resembled bears with armour growing from their backs. Others had horns, enormous claws, or bodies covered in stone-like plates. A winged beast descended upon a military camp and carried soldiers into the clouds.
The Orcs were not the only monsters living beyond civilisation.
They were simply the first to reveal themselves.
King Aldren gathered the surviving commanders and declared that the kingdoms must cooperate if humanity was to survive. Messengers rode across Oldearth carrying a warning:
The wilderness was changing.
Something was driving the monsters towards civilisation.
1.3 — The Forgotten Warning
During the war, a scholar named Elian discovered an ancient chamber beneath the ruins of an old fortress.
Inside, he found walls covered in symbols and a map of the world unlike any known to the kingdoms. Beneath the map was a drawing of a great circular structure surrounded by seven pillars.
The inscription beside it was partially damaged.
Elian translated what he could.
The Seal protects the living world.
When the pillars weaken, the door will remember its purpose.
He sent the discovery to King Aldren, but the message arrived too late. A battle had already begun outside the capital.
The royal army eventually drove the Orcs back into the wilderness. The surviving kingdoms celebrated their victory, believing the danger had passed.
But Elian remained in the ruined chamber.
He could feel heat rising through the stone.
Deep beneath him, something struck the other side of the Seal.
Once.
Then again.
And somewhere beyond the world, something began to wake.
