Beyond the World’s Edge

A tale of storm, water, and frost

A selection of Heroes in Eco Empires

At his height, man was a beacon of excellence. He had bent much of nature to his will - creating technologies with which to shape the world around him, prolong his life and even cheat death. Civilization sprawled across the planet, trade boomed, and progress approached terrifying speeds.

Yet somehow, this wasn’t enough. Man’s ambition led him to believe he was destined for something greater, not bound to such lowly things as nature, and mortality. These were the only things left to stifle humanity’s growth. Because of this, man started to hold nature and its order in great contempt. And so it was that man became lost…

Placing himself above any other living creature, man created such opulent dwellings, such lavish trappings that he not only became unaccustomed to the very way of life that created him but also fearful of it. To quench his endless thirst for excess, man plundered all the resources within his reach. Naturally, this, was not without consequence. His overindulgence in consumption ravaged and polluted his only home.

This time is known to us as the era of the lost ones - the beginning of the end.

The Earth slowly became a shadow of its former glory - a barren wasteland, littered with discarded refuse. As it gradually turned inhospitable to all life, the lost ones started becoming dimly aware of what was to come. However, their leaders, too busy with their petty squabbles, blinded by their lust for power, turned a deaf ear to the planet’s pleas.

For a while longer things remained the same. Thinking this would last indefinitely, the lost ones continued their plundering of resources, digging deeper than they had ever dug before. Exhausting what little they had left, they resorted to using their technology to experiment on rare earth minerals. This fueled their machines and allowed them to retain their way of life. But that was not all. To circumvent the consequences of the looming catastrophe, they started meddling with the water and clouds, attempting to tamper with the climate.

But alas, this would only hasten the inevitable.

In their infinite wisdom, the lost ones sought to control what they could not even begin to comprehend.

Their hubris would prove to be their downfall…

Rampant climate change, unchecked pollution, and reckless experimentation with rare earth elements ignited a cataclysm. Nature's fury was unleashed. Great quakes erupted and tore the Earth asunder. The oceans, overflowing with the waters of melted ice caps, shook violently, devouring the coastlines of entire continents. Volcanic chains across the globe began spewing ash and fiery brimstone into the sky. An impenetrable veil of ember and soot stretched as far as the eye could see… and remained for what seemed like an eternity.

The relentless assault of ecological disasters pushed humanity to the edge of extinction. Civilizations, once towering beacons of progress, crumbled under nature's relentless siege. As societies collapsed, humanity regressed to a primeval state. Stripped of their technological prowess, people were once again forced to cope with their mortality. However, now, they were forced to barely hold on for life - struggling to survive in a hostile, desolate hellscape. Cast into the dark ages, humanity wept, repenting for what it had done.

In an ironic twist of fate, the natural order had begun anew.

From the ashes of the devastation, amidst the ruins of the lost world, something incredible was stirring. Humanity’s tampering with rare minerals and the ensuing destruction had awakened latent powers within the earth’s crust. Seeping out through the fissures and crevices left by the cataclysm, these primordial energies intertwined with life and matter. So potent were they, they allowed control over the natural elements.

Nature thought to be uncaring and indifferent, despite everything that had transpired, gave humanity hope and a way to right its wrongdoings.

However, it would need time to become aware of this revelation.

Centuries passed, the mountains of ice receded to the polar circles, and the sun began peering through the dispersing veil of dust. The first large settlements started appearing, together with farmland and livestock. The settlers began to dabble in the elemental magics, which became present everywhere. They learned to use these magics to heal the land.

Villages began dotting the corners of the land and banded together in tribes. Each tribe worshipped a unique element that was central to its culture. In the North there was the Frozen Vanguard, sentinels of the ice; in the West - the Stormbringers, masters of the tempest and in the East, the Waterborne, guardians of the deep.

The tribes were very different from one another, each with its own set of beliefs and object of worship. Their only shared belief was their respect for nature, as they strived to balance their expansion with the cultivation of plant life and the creation of new habitats. Remembering the bitter lessons of their ancestors, nothing was more important to them than to maintain Earth’s fragile ecosystem.

As each tribe expanded to the end of its territories, it started clashing with the others for control over land and resources. Territorial skirmishes quickly became commonplace.

Unable to mend their differences, the tribes adopted the belief that only the element they worshipped gave them the right to exist in this new world. The skirmishes and raids between the three escalated into an all-out war. The elemental magics once only used to restore the land were now used by the tribes to wage war on one another…

Thus began the current age.

An intersection in time between the legacy of the fallen civilization of the lost ones and the uncertain promise of a future in a healing world.

The tribes continue to fight while trying to maintain their hard-won, delicate balance of nature.

Locked in a battle for dominance between storm, water, and frost.