The Lore

The true origins of the Realm have long been forgotten.

The oldest stories speak of survivors arriving upon unfamiliar shores, seeking refuge in a land untouched by civilisation. What came before is unknown. Whether lost to war, disaster, or simply the passage of time, memories of the old world faded until only fragments remained.

This is the beginning of a new Realm.

Only a handful of survivors remain, scattered across the land and laying the earliest foundations of what may one day become great factions.

There are no kingdoms.
No unified laws.
No established order.

Only small groups struggling to survive in a world they are still learning to understand.

Aldoria is not the continuation of some remembered empire. It is the beginning of a new history. Every settlement raised, alliance formed, betrayal committed and discovery made will become part of a story that has not yet been written.

What the survivors discovered was a land unlike anything they had ever known.

Towering mountains rose beyond the clouds. Vast forests stretched towards horizons no traveller had yet reached. Rivers carved through fertile valleys, while enormous cliffs overlooked wild and untouched coastlines.

Yet the greatest surprise was not the land itself.

It was what lived upon it.

Massive dinosaurs roamed freely across the Realm.

Some hunted in packs through dense forests. Others crossed open plains in enormous herds. Predators stalked the wilderness while creatures of impossible size thundered across the landscape.

Survival was never guaranteed. Those who arrived soon learned that Aldoria was both beautiful and unforgiving.

At this stage, there are no true trade routes. No mapped roads. No reliable connections between settlements. Every journey beyond familiar ground carries risk, and every meeting between strangers remains uncertain.

Small communities are only beginning to form. As people encounter one another, they cautiously build the first bonds of cooperation. From these fragile beginnings, the earliest factions begin to emerge — shaped not by ancient crowns or inherited power, but by necessity, trust and survival.

The First Trades

Survival alone could only carry these communities so far.

As settlements slowly grew, people began taking responsibility for the skills upon which others depended.

The first Blacksmiths worked primitive forges, repairing tools and shaping weapons from whatever materials could be recovered.

Farmers began cultivating reliable food supplies.

Hunters and Gatherers pushed deeper into dangerous territory in search of meat, hides and raw materials.

Builders transformed temporary shelters into homes, workshops and defensible settlements.

Healers cared for the wounded.

Traders began carrying scarce supplies between communities.

Scholars attempted to record discoveries before they could once again be forgotten.

And when survival failed, Undertakers became responsible for the dead and for the strange rites surrounding death that few others wished to understand.

These people were not yet members of organised guilds. There were no great professional orders. They were simply people becoming necessary.

But with every passing season, knowledge grew. Skill became reputation. Necessity became trade. And, in time, trade would become profession.

The People Beyond the Known Lands

As exploration pushed beyond the earliest camps, another discovery began challenging everything the survivors believed they understood.

They were not alone.

Travellers returning from distant expeditions began telling stories of people unlike any they had encountered before.

Some spoke of small communities hidden within deep forests, rocky valleys and underground places, inhabited by people whose customs and appearance differed greatly from those of the first settlements.

Others returned with accounts of Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Goblins, Giants and other peoples appearing across the wider Realm.

Some claimed their ancestors had only recently arrived. Others insisted their bloodlines had wandered Aldoria for generations. No one could prove either story.

Even stranger reports soon followed.

Certain travellers described individuals whose eyes possessed an unusual brilliance and whose skin sometimes carried pale markings of silver or gold.

Some religious figures claimed these people had been touched by something beyond the mortal world. Others dismissed such stories as superstition.

In time, they would become known as Aasimar.

Yet even their presence was not the greatest mystery.

The Marked

Across scattered settlements, children began to be born different.

Some possessed patches of skin resembling hardened stone. Others bore strange patterns across their bodies that looked like scars despite no wound ever having caused them. A few developed darkened markings that appeared almost burned into the flesh.

There was no single appearance. No obvious cause. And no explanation everyone could agree upon.

They became known simply as:

The Marked.

Scholars proposed that their condition might be a rare mutation. Certain religious groups declared them blessed. Others believed the exact opposite and whispered of curses.

Alchemists argued that something within Aldoria's environment might be responsible. Some survivors believed the Realm itself was changing those who lived within it.

None could provide proof.

Stranger still, Marked children could sometimes be born to completely ordinary parents with no known history of the condition. In other families, similar traits appeared repeatedly across generations.

The Marked themselves knew no more than anyone else. Some considered their traits a gift. Others saw them as a burden. Many simply accepted that they had been born different.

Whatever the truth may be, it has never been discovered. And until evidence proves otherwise, every explanation remains exactly that:

A theory.

An Unknown Past

Even now, communication between groups remains limited.

Silence stretches across much of Aldoria, broken only by distant travel, chance encounters and the dangers of the wild.

The world is still too new for stability. Every journey feels like discovery rather than routine.

Yet much of the Realm remains unexplored.

Expeditions return with fragmented stories of hidden valleys, forgotten pathways and places no map can yet define.

More troubling are the accounts of structures found far beyond known settlements.

Crumbling stone. Broken foundations. Weathered carvings. Ruins standing in places where no living community claims to have built them.

Some Scholars believe they are evidence that others existed long before the current survivors. Others argue that there may be simpler explanations still waiting to be found.

Nothing has been confirmed.

No reliable record explains who built them. No surviving people have claimed responsibility.

And so a question has begun spreading quietly among those who study Aldoria's past:

If this truly is the beginning… who built the ruins?

The Legend of the Dragon Rider

Among the countless tales told around campfires, none are more enduring than the legends of dragons.

For generations, dragons were believed to be nothing more than myth. They existed only in stories — ancient songs, whispered warnings and bedtime tales describing creatures of impossible power soaring through the skies.

Most dismissed them entirely.

One legend stood above all others.

The tale spoke of a single Dragon Rider.

According to the stories, there was once an individual capable of forming a bond with a dragon unlike anything seen before. They were said to have flown across the skies of the Realm upon the creature's back.

Some say the Rider was a protector. Others claim they were an explorer who disappeared beyond the known world. Many believe the tale was never real at all.

Whatever the truth may be, every surviving version of the story agrees on one thing:

There was only ever one known Dragon Rider.

No other rider has ever been reliably recorded.

For many years, these were simply stories.

Then came the sighting.

Reports began spreading between the earliest survivor camps.

Witnesses claimed to have seen an enormous winged creature soaring high above the distant mountains.

No physical proof was recovered. No creature was captured. No rider was seen.

But the reports were similar enough that they could no longer be dismissed entirely.

And the dragons were not the only strange tales beginning to surface.

Creatures once found only in forgotten stories were supposedly being seen in the wilderness. Unfamiliar tracks appeared beyond established trails. Strange calls echoed through forests where no known beast should have lived. Travellers returned with descriptions of beings that had no place among the creatures already known to the Realm.

Stranger still were the stories surrounding certain people.

Very rarely, an individual seemed capable of something that others simply could not replicate.

Animals that would attack anyone else remained calm in their presence. Creatures thought impossible to tame appeared willing to follow them. Some claimed to hear voices where others heard only wind. Others seemed strangely connected to the forests, spirits, beasts or forgotten places of the Realm.

Whether these people were born different, chosen by something greater, or simply possessed knowledge that had been lost to time remained unknown.

Fragments of ancient stories suggested that the Dragon Rider may not have been entirely unique.

There were whispers of others.

Individuals capable of forming bonds with things ordinary people were never meant to command.

Their names have been lost.

Their stories have become myth.

And whether any of them truly existed remains fiercely debated.

Yet as more strange creatures begin to emerge across Aldoria, another possibility has begun to trouble those who remember the old stories.

Perhaps these beings are not appearing for the first time.

Perhaps they are returning.

And if the creatures of legend are returning with them, perhaps there are people being born once again with the ability to accomplish what was once thought impossible.

Life continues in its fragile state. Settlements rise, borders slowly form and survivors cautiously push deeper into the unknown.

But the sighting of the creature above the mountains changed something.

Not because it proved that every old story was true.

But because it proved that at least one of them might be.

What else has yet to be discovered?

Aldoria remains largely unknown.

Vast regions have never been seen. Mysteries remain buried beneath untouched lands. Strange peoples continue to emerge from beyond the borders of the familiar world. Ruins stand without explanation. The Marked are born without answers. And somewhere beyond the mountains, something enormous may still be moving through the skies.

The story has not yet been written.

It is being built.