Dawn of the Merciless

There are whispers of monsters plaguing the villages of the Abranish foothills. Strange cries echo in the mountains. Livestock have been found slaughtered, bearing strange claw marks. The villagers of Gorwen warn their children to stay in sight, for shadowy figures lurk in the darkest woods.

Some locals blame Stengram University and their unending experiments. There’s always some sort of explosion or magical mishap over there. Most recently, the truecasting masters developed a new magic family they call lightcasting. They say it complements the current magic families of blaze, frost, ore, and storm. Who’s to say they didn’t fail and instead created murderous shadow beings?

According to the high nobility, these are nothing more than the paranoid rumors of ungrateful peasants. The kingdom of Abrania has seen many good harvests these past years, the mines of the Iekaden mountain range are deep and plentiful, Abranish cities are centers for art and industry, and every citizen has a place where they belong and can thrive. Surrounding nations that fix a greedy eye on Abrania’s wealth are rebuffed by the strongest soldiers, bolstered by warcasters wielding elemental forces. Still, it would be best to quiet the rumors with fact. Perhaps there are foreign forces at work here, trying to undermine this golden age. Several of the local nobles have sent mages, knights, and even bounty hunters to investigate.