PROLOGUE
ASH HAD JUST picked up his large pizza for dinner tonight and was on his way back to his shitty apartment. He was debating whether to study, play games, or binge the new show everyone was talking about. Studying for his accounting finals was the smart thing to do, but honestly, he seldom picked the smart choice. He was almost home when the world changed forever. The air rippled followed by a flash of blue light. Suddenly before him stood a very confused-looking seven-foot tall and muscular green-skinned man with tusks. He was wearing some medieval-style armor and had a battle ax. The two of them stared at each other for some time in bewildered silence. Ash broke the silence by opening the pizza box, the only thing that crossed his mind other than screaming and running away. “Easy big guy, do you want some pizza?” Those blue flashes of light, which people started calling rifts, happened all over the world and kept happening. Beings that were once thought to only exist in the realms of fantasy and myth manifested into a world as strange to them as they were to it. The media began calling these beings paranormals. Some of the paranormals that had arrived on Earth could wield a power that seemed to defy the laws of the Universe. They could also embed this force onto items by carving symbols into them. One such item, a translation ring, was common to all paranormals. The ring allowed them to understand the meaning of anything written or spoken. This helped in communication between paranormals and humans. Humanity soon learned what this force was. The paranormals called it magic. Chaos ruled for three months as the world lost its mind. Dragons flew in the air. Necromancers raised armies of undead from cemeteries. Dryads took over nature preserves. While there were violent clashes between humans and paranormals, most were relatively peaceful. The paranormals were as lost as humanity on how they had suddenly appeared on Earth. They were in a strange world lost and afraid. The translation rings allowed them to communicate with the humans they encountered. Many humans offered a helping hand to these poor lost souls. Friendships were formed, lovers made, and knowledge was shared between them. Technology was as strange to paranormals as magic was to humanity. After three months of chaos, the world governments started creating refugee camps all over the world for the endless stream of paranormals. Canada went a step further and granted them a small island to call their own. Three powerful paranormals met on this small island and came to an accord, creating what would become the Council. The ruling body of the paranormals. The Three named their new nation, this small island, De’Vas. The name was a combination of two Elvish words. ‘De’ which meant ‘little’, and Vas, which was the name the paranormals called their world. After creating De’Vas, they worked to bring the scattered pockets of paranormals in the refugee camps across the world under their control. Deals were struck with human governments by the Three and the refugee camps were walled off from the rest of the world, making them enclaves of De’Vas. One of the Three constructed large doorways covered in magic runes in these enclaves. The magic runes would create portals within the doorways that connected two points despite the distance. This allowed easy travel between the enclaves, which became known as Districts. The small island that was the birth of De’Vas became known as District 1. The Council grew as more paranormals joined and new rules were established to keep the peace among these powerful individuals. More deals were struck with human governments who feared and desired magic, just as the paranormals feared and desired technology. As the Council dealt with the human governments, the Districts were largely left to govern themselves. Ruled by District bosses who were either independent or swore fealty to one of the Council Members. Within six months of their appearance, the paranormals were segregated from the humans. The Council and the human governments worked together to transport the newly rifted to De’Vas. The leading scientists proposed the Thin Veil Theory to explain why the rifts had started to appear. They believed the home of the paranormals was a parallel dimension that was collapsing into theirs. That this parallel dimension had for centuries subconsciously affected both humans and paranormals seeding their minds with glimpses of the other side. This was their explanation as to why paranormals were beings from myth and fantasy, and why humans were viewed similarly by the paranormals. A year after the appearance of the rifts, the first human developed magic. Slowly more humans started to display magic. They would one day just summon a spark of a flame or other minor display of this strange power. The human governments reacted to this by creating the International Mage Laws, a response many criticized and blamed on the governments’ fear of magic.
