The Golden Era

Up until this point, there has been no recorded history of humans settling in anything larger in camps, with the humans largely having been tribal by nature and highly adaptable. As a testament to this, they developed many technological advances such as learning to bend copper and bronze, as well as a written language. However, they had not banded together to form a centralized form of power structure. Instead, they fought amongst themselves over land and resources - as if someone pitted them against one another. Despite all of this bloodshed between the tribes, historical artifacts and texts have been found by Scholars through excavations in Helheim that give clues as to why all this bloodshed took place.

The historical texts show that four Gods were the architects of the infighting amongst the tribes. One can speculate as to why they would do this, but as to my own hypothesis, they were using this method to pick the strongest and most intelligent of the humans, much like how a farmer might selectively breed animals. However, the Gods did not put their creations into a barn like the common farmer would, instead they inspired their creations to erected the first city. Helheim, known at this time period as The City of the Gods, stands to this day. If we are to believe a passage found in an ancient document in a private collection, Helheim as it is today is but a shadow of its former glory.

The passage above tells us much about these ancient humans and Helheim itself. According to Karak, Helheim was built in only five days. The collector from Helheim shared with me another treasure from his collection, a diary. The owner of it was the warlord Karak, or rather minister, as he signs his letters now. Please pay careful attention below, as we find our first mention of magic:

Truly fascinating. In just one short entry into a diary, we learn so much about these ancient humans and how close they were to their Gods. Furthermore, we also see what a jump human society has taken in just a mere fifty years. Their growth is frankly staggering, but while that is fascinating on its own, it’s this First Law that the Minister writes about, that is our first actual clue that magic is different in this realm.

With the permission of my friend, the collector who wishes to remain anonymous, I have read through all of the entries in the diary that spans for a total of seventy-five years. It is a riveting tale; an insight into an ancient civilization that there is barely any trace of in the Helheim we know today. But before I end this chapter and leave the warm home of my friend, there are two things I wish to bring to your attention, dear reader. There has been no mention of any other races in written documents thus far, nor any magical beasts. Yet, we see plenty of them today. The logical conclusion is that there were none. My hypothesis is that these four ancient Gods blocked off the realm to outsiders.

The second thing I wish to bring to your attention is this passage from what seems to be a citizen observing a debate in the Senate. It regards something referred to as Magitech and, even though I have no idea what this is, I shall uncover it in due time.

Jiro Nakayama, 14th day of the month at my friend’s estate

Helheim