At the beginning it was nothing, but Efu, the primordial darkness that had neither beginning nor end. The world was Efu, and everything in the world was Efu. But one day the Et’arī, the Great Builders, brought their divine light into the darkness. Light started to cut through the darkness, pushing it out of its realm and establishing new rules for life. To fight the light, Efu gained consciousness and a fierce hatred for all those who violated its peaceful hegemony. And as we already know, the war between the Light and the Darkness continued for many centuries, until the Et’arī nevertheless managed to suppress Efu and took most of the Universe under their control.
[...]
But the Darkness has never gone, it always was close, hiding and regaining its strength for the next great fight. Indeed, Darkness for centuries imperceptibly surrounded Eleida, creating a great revenge plan that will turn Eleida into its natural state of eternal Darkness and bring into the world chaos, accompanied by severe destruction, boundless emptiness, and desperate souls. Efu learned to penetrate the minds of living beings and poison them with hatred, but this was not the only baleful trick of the Darkness. Efu gained the ability to create hellish creatures: Demons, Corrupted Dragons and Succubs, all of them becoming the harbingers of trouble and faithful minions of Darkness.
A space where all dark powers are accumulated and from where Efu draws its main strengths is called Void. Void is an incubator where all the hellish creatures and demons are born. Each Void looks like a micro-world, somewhere there are deserts of gray ash sand, somewhere violently erupting volcanoes, somewhere there is a constant thunderstorm and rain of acid. If the Void grows, it can manifest the Voidmaster, a demon of unimaginable power.
Demons: In the depths of the abyss, shaping the wildest nightmares of mankind, Efu created its soldiers and minions of oblivion. To inflict terror on peaceful lands, Efu sent demons to Eleida as Fallen Stars. Fallen Stars are meteorites with demons hiding in their core. When they hit the ground, they are split like an egg, so demons can crawl out of them.
Usually, demons have thick and long swirling horns, huge wings, and terrifyingly sharp claws, although they can be of many different forms, depending on the demon’s nature. Some demons bring diseases, some demons doubt, and fear, some curse... Each demon is created for a specific purpose and occasion. Therefore, the abilities of the demons also differ, but the more common is fire and chaos magic.
Corrupted Dragons: The fear of Efu is quite justified, as even pure and strong minds can be distorted and twisted. That is how among the Efu’s victims appeared a mightful dragon Xation. While the Xation was sleeping, the demon Eilak sent him a dream, in which dwarves sadistically slaughtered his brother Sardior (what was actually the truth). The nightmare was so realistic that it mingled with Xation’s reality. The dragon was trapped in a downward spiral of paranoia and aggression, which devoured him from the inside - a wailful downfall for such a powerful Dragon.
Dragons are a great military force as they are capable of massive destruction. Those dragons that were corrupted by the darkness received new powers from Efu: someone a breath that inflicts illness, someone a breath that attacks the minds of the victim…Boundless imagination of Darkness, just like its ferocity.
Succubs: As the Darkness continued to regain its strength, it learned how to create illusions - ugliness, hidden under the mask of desire and beauty. Succubi are powerful hellish manipulators, brainwashers, and Darkness in robes of light. They are the embodiment of all the desires of every mortal. Efu gave them the ability to transform into creatures with stunning beauty, so they can manipulate enemies to the point of causing them to feel an all-consuming hatred and revulsion towards their allies.
Empyrean is a gigantic levitating archipelago of islands located on the vault of heaven and connected by hundreds of bridges. It is all-round surrounded by pinkish and blueish clouds, rocks of the most unusual forms, and flourishing greens. Whether here changes quickly and drastically from cloudbursts to a burning sun, therefore, here you can also often see a magnificent rainbow.
At the heart of Empyrean lands is an ancient magic reservoir, the core of which are the elements of matter. It is a place where fire and air, hot and cold, power and peace coexist in harmony.
On each island, there is a castle of a titan. Each castle also has its own look, reflecting the titan's magical powers, aspirations, and temperament. For example, there are crude military buildings with fortifications and massive weapons on Cronus island, the island of the great warrior, or there is a more elegant castle covered with seals and runes on Tethys island, a titan of the great spirit. On each island, in addition to the castle, there is a lair, where dwells a dragon that is spiritually connected to its titan. Dragons and titans together create a strong alliance of great power.
Titans are gigantic and splendidly embodied humanoid beings with an idealistic perception of the world and strong characters. Et’arī, creating the titans, gave them the finest sensitivity to feel nature and beauty. They are great creators, able to form beautiful pieces of art and handicrafts and bring them to complete perfection. The titans believe that it is idealism and perfectionism that can create the right balance for the whole world. They are always in search of knowledge and wisdom when it comes to creating masterpieces. Most of the daytime they devote themselves to finding new approaches to the matter. They are doing so in total peace on their islands, to fully free their minds and souls. Sometimes titans come together to discuss important issues and solutions on the main island.
Dragons have always been loner creatures, sentient and living exclusively their own lives, not interfering in the conflicts of others. From time immemorial, dragons lived in the caves high in the mountains on Empyrean lands, where they had their lairs. But these were unusual caves. They were full of magical and rare rocks, crystals, and minerals, which served as food for the dragon's skin, teeth, and claws to be stronger than steel, for the wings to be huge and steadfast, and for the mind to be pure.
But one day the titans discovered these mountain treasures and decided to use them for their mastery. After the titans began to actively extract resources from these caves, one of the powerful volcanoes began to erupt, which destroyed everything hundreds of miles away, as well as ruined hundreds of dragon nests. This provoked a great war between dragons and titans. This large-scale conflict in Empyrean lands lasted for a long time, until the elves, who had already proven their negotiation skills, were able to help establish peace. The elves offered the titans to provide dragons part of their lands as their new home, in return the dragons would help the titans properly extract mountain rocks. Not all titans were satisfied with this decision but did not dispute it as titans have a strong belief in justice. Eventually, peace was declared by binding both parties with the Vertex Covenant, a timeless contract. Subsequently, some titans became so close to the dragons that a strong spiritual bond was established between them.