Azmay Spectra, a great and powerful Wizard. Throughout her life she was known by many names, including Azmay The Kind. Although not native to Elarra, Azmay had witnessed a startling mass exodus of Magic throughout her own homeworld. Where once it was her will to use natural magic to heal, study and preserve all magical flora and fauna, she found herself helpless when elements of magic began to vanish, and along with them her ability to harness it. This led her to use what little magic remain to create a Portal Device that would allow her to travel to new worlds in search of a safe haven. The goal, as Azmay states in her Chronicle, was to save other worlds from a fate similar to her own by understanding the cause of such a disastrous environmental change.
She first found the world of Presmoria, where she heard stories of yet another notable magician, one Horus Grimthane. She traveled to the inhospitable Mountains of Unsteph in the far north to seek him out. She found him in the hold of a massive castle carved from stone and ice, and at first, he did not take kindly to her trespass. However, as she explained her plight, and earned his trust, he informed her that once his Hold could not be reached by any outsider, given the legions of protective, magical wintery creatures that patrolled the mountain passes. “One day” the stout bearded Wizard with the weathered face said, “They were all gone.”
Azmay took up stay in the Fortress with Horus and together, they forged a second portal, this one much more elaborate and function given Grimthane’s artistry with tools and magical machinery. Upon it’s completion, Azmay instructed him to leave an imprint of his Aura on the central Gem, so that the only a native Presmorian could navigate back to his portal.
Together, they stood upon the platform and vanished to yet another world. Xefedrias. It was here on this planet of searing heat and dangerous terrain that they found Ruler Borgius- or, in fact, he found them. Borgius was the sole King of his nation, one shrinking more by the hour as a devastating pole shift had killed most of it’s civilization. Azmay and Horus were first imprisoned, and then placed on trial. Borgius had become radically protective of his people, given their state of peril. He may not have given them counsel had it not been for the news that they were, as a people, dwindling toward near extinction. Although Horus and Azmay explained that their journey had been one motivated by Magic, Borgius informed them that magic itself had died away many years ago, and was only known to exist in the great Desert of Cantuune, where the only Wizard left had chased it. Quite plainly, Zyroth Killdorian was known formally, by most, as “The Magic Chaser.”
In exchange for their release, Horus offered to build them a portal that would take Borgius and his people to safety, but they could only achieve this with the help of The Magic Chaser.
Led by Borgius, after an exhaustive search in a land where the Sun never descended, they found Zyroth in a series of elaborate underground caves lit by Flametok spirits.This was the only place Magic could be used, and Zyroth had spent months beneath the ground. His hair had gone white and skin pale from the conditions. Despite this, he was fascinated by the arrival of the two Wizard foreigners, and listened with a keen ear to their story. Within that cave they built a Third Portal, this one imprinted with Xefendrian Aura, ensuring only those of that origin could activate it. Borgius went to collect his people, and although the three Magicians waited for days for his return, a brief visit to the surface revealed the ground was baked into glass and volcanoes had erupted in the distance, searing the land, obscuring any light. It was believed that Borgius, and his people had been lost. There was no choice but to activate the Portal and escape certain death.
Elarra was their final destination. It was a beautiful, idyllic world ripe with natural Magic and creatures that thrive on it. The Elarrans were a harmonious people, and seemed oblivious to other worlds existing beyond their own. That magic events and creatures existed in their presence was simply a way of life, and a part of their world, no more unusual than the sea is to the shore.
They lived peacefully in homes carved into mammoth Elder’Vora trees, some many stories high. The place in which the three Wizards settled was called Asura’eema, which was Elarran for “Friendly Village.” Most Elarrans never left their villages. Sights beyond the threshold of their town were not known to most of them, and rarely did they have visitors from elsewhere. The local residents were fascinated by the three wizards and despite their obvious differences, welcomed them with open arms. The townspeople shared their stories and tales of their homeland, but when asked about the outside world, none could say what else was there, and thus, one old Elarran, while delivering a fresh Widdleberry pie, informed them there was one Da’Shi or “Wise One” who was said to have traveled throughout the Mystica continent. His name was Asher Vex.
Asher Vex only came into the village for business, but everyone knew he lived in the Hazy Bog at the base of the distant mountain. Though famous for his brave travels, that was not all he was known for… he was also frightening in appearance. However, that did not deter the three Wizards from setting out in search of him, each hoping to learn more than the Elarran villagers could offer, about the new World.
The Hazy Bog was a dark and damp place with a malodorous stench one could not escape. Thick mud bubbled to the surface of the bogs and gurgled like a hungry beast with an empty stomach. There was no doubt that when they stumbled upon a rickety old home overgrown with wild vines that it had to belong to the one they sought.
Vex had a unsettling demeanor, which was amplified by his dark and gaunt features, his face half covered by long, stringy black hair, his cheekbones like they had been carved from cold stone and eyes so gray they seemed to radiate when he turned at certain angles. He seemed unimpressed by the foreign Wizards, or their professed efficiency with magic, and he wasn’t interested in answering their questions about the world of Elarra. Yes, somehow, when they explained to him about the Great Portals they’d built on other worlds during their travels, his interest became palpable, and he began to ask just as many questions has they had. It had been Killdorian who suggested they mobile in order to recruit and educate people in the various forms of Magika usage, and that Vex could teach Elarrans about their own world beyond their boarders. For a moment he considered it, but Vex was not a patient man, but conceded when he realized that he, too could learn much from these Wizards…
It was not long before the four Wizards forged an agreement to start an Academy designed to enrich the lives of Elarrans and educate them on the importance of Magika in all of its vast forms and uses. In undisciplined hands, Magic could be very dangerous, and they believed that regulating and instructing those with inherent abilities would benefit the entire world.
The Academy was then build just outside Asur’eema and as word spread, students came from far and wide, leaving their homes for the first time, in order to test for entry into the Academy, and learn from the Greatest Wizard of the age. First, the towers in the four corners rose like spires reaching toward the clouds, and then, over time, it grew… and it grew.
But this, Dear adventurers, was only the beginning.