The Heartwell Chronicles

Aethoria

Of the world before the First Age, almost nothing is known. Only ancient stones and fragmented stories remain.

In the First Age, before people were divided from one another, from crystal, and from their shared purpose, there was One People. They walked together beneath the unbroken light of the Heartwell Crystal in ancient Kefar. From that radiant source flowed both crystal energy and knowledge, the twin forces that gave breath, memory, and meaning to the world we now call Aethoria.

Then came the Sundering.

The Heartwell Crystal of Kefar fell silent, and the unity of the world was replaced by division, suspicion, and the long shadow of separation. As generations passed, the ancient people spread outward from their home in the sacred Mosaic Archipelago, carried by wonder, ambition, and necessity. Time, distance, and the unequal keeping of knowledge reshaped them, and thus were born the Eleven Crestrealms.

Each bore fragments of the original truth, and each came to believe in its own understanding of that truth. Each guarded the powers it possessed as an advantage over the others, along with the secrets held within the stones beneath its feet.

The Great Oceans rose, and the continents were divided. The cold lands of the north bore fruit no longer, and passages travelled for generations became impassable.

Yet each Crestrealm retained a memory, a mutated story of an earlier age when all peoples had been one. Some still believe these stories. Others dismiss them as fiction.

And so it is that, in this present age of fragile peace, the Crestrealms tentatively gather once more in the shining city of Kefar. For some, it is the meeting place of those who still believe the Heartwell may one day be restored to its full power. For others, it offers prosperity in a new dawn of communication, travel, and economic ties.

In Kefar stands the modern Kefar Crystal Exchange, where the lifeblood of Aethoria’s economy is measured and entrusted. There stands the Ironroot Bank, strengthened by the gold of the Ironroot Bastion, the metals and crystals of the Auric Exchange, and the fruits and grains of the bounteous Virielia Bloomlands.

There, too, stands the Exchange Amphitheatre, where scholars gather to share and learn in cooperation and peace, their great voice castings carrying knowledge to thousands across Aethoria.

This renewed exchange extends beyond trade and scholarship. Griffon riders learn their craft among the mountains of the Emberwild Dominion. Guardians train in barracks and encampments throughout the Crestrealms, although those trained within the Ironroot Bastion are widely regarded as the finest.

Healers study within the Medic Gardens of Virielia. The pinnacle of such learning, particularly for a mage, is the Kefar Academy, where mages from across Aethoria are invited to study the use of crystals to strengthen and refine their powers.

Knowledge of crystals, great teachers, and the technologies of earlier ages also endures within institutions where the histories and origins of the nations are recorded and preserved. Among them are the shared Library of Crysalise in Kefar, the Great Libraries of the Astryx Arcanum, and those of Helion.

Within their walls, knowledge of the ancient world is kept on behalf of the Crestrealms and protected against the erosion of time.

And here, in this divided but awakening world, begins a journey of heroes who are unaware that their small world is about to become very great, and through whom all that was scattered in the Sundering may one day be made whole.

The Heartwell Chronicles Begin