The World of Daragoth

From Master Sword Wiki

Master Sword is set in an expansive, richly historical fantasy realm known collectively as 'Daragoth.' This section will give a brief overview of the geography and peoples of the world Leann, on which the continent of Daragoth is set, as well as a brief historical background.

Geography and Populace

The World of Leann
Leann is divided into three known continents: the large, central continent of Daragoth, the southeastern continent of Valen, and the southwestern Dreadwind. Each of these continents houses many cities, towns, and geographic regions.

• Daragoth
  

This continent is the central focus of the game. Currently the gameworld focuses on the southeastern and mideastern portion of the continent, areas populated mostly by humans: the mountainous region surrounding the frontier towns of Edana and Helena, the wild and untamed Thornlands and surrounding mountains, swamps and forests, the plains of middle Deralia and the human capital city of Deralia ("The Jewel of the Human World"). Human civilization is mostly centered in these eastern areas, while the Dwarves, a short and hardy people, inhabit the mountainous region of the southwest. The Elves, tall and slender folk, inhabit the central forest of Eswen Sylen, the forest of Giants (referring to the size of the trees). Other geographic areas of note include the northwestern 'Reach,' a land that used to house the great empire of humankind before its destruction in the Great War (see history section), and the northeastern wintry area known as the Bleak.

• Valen
  

The continent of Valen houses the great desert, Adellar, and two major cities: the port of Adel and the Empire capital city of Eldarrin. The desert is a vastly uncharted region, supremely dangerous and too hard to traverse without a guide.

• Dreadwind
  

Not much is known about Dreadwind: the dwarves build no boats and sea passage between the southeastern regions of Daragoth to the southwestern continent are unnavigable due to massive, unexplainable weather patterns. Ancient texts do refer to the continent as reachable and inhabited, but it has been many centuries since the free peoples of Daragoth have travelled there.

History

The realm of Daragoth has a rich history, full of heroes and villains, but for the purposes of this primer only the three major events of the world will be explored: the Forming, the Rise of Malgoriand, and the Great War.

• The Forming
  

In the beginning the world of Leann was populated by a majestic people known as Loreldians. Using considerable magic powers and the labors of their peoples over a millenia or more the Loreldians created a vast civilization that covered all the continents, living in relative peace with the creatures of the world. At some point (dates are impossible to calculate this early in history) a Loreldian whose name remains unknown discovered the true nature of magic, a discovery that would quickly destroy the entire Loreldian civilization: Magic could be seen as a valve, a tap that could be opened and closed to create or destroy with the flow of a mysterious force that has been named 'fate.' This Loreldian, through the discovery of the nature of magic, learned to bend fate itself, to bypass magic and directly affect the ocean of power that is 'fate.' Not believing this information to be dangerous, the Loreldian shared his discovery with the world. Within a very short period of time a large percentage of the Loreldian populace had learned this truth and begun to affect 'fate': the results were catastrophic. At the whim of any individual empires fell, were rebuilt in the passing of a moment, mountains toppled and regrew twice their height. The power of fate was being wielded rampantly, and the strain on the world of Leann was nearing the breaking point. Wars sprang up between rival factions whose power was nearly limitless: billions of Loreldians were simply 'fated' out of existence or destroyed by the heaving world. In the end, it is known, when there were only very few Loreldians left alive, they banded together under the leadership of one: Pathos, who had been a scholar and understood the need for both order and chaos in the 'fate.' Too much chaos and the bending would cause strain upon 'fate,' too much order and the same would occur. He attempted to save the world of Leann for the future by proposing a radical plan: the Loreldians must, for the sake of all, banish themselves from existence, with the exception of three to rebuild the world. A majority of the Loreldians rejected this plan, and began the final battle of the Forming by attacking Pathos and his loyalists. In the end Pathos banished those who rejected his plan from existence, naming them the 'Lost.' Three Loreldians were chosen to rebuild the world and watch over it: Felewyn, who would represent the forces of Order, Urdual, who would represent the central balance between Order and Chaos, and Torkalath, who would represent the forces of Chaos. The rest of the Loreldians, including Pathos himself, willfully banished themselves from existence. Felewyn, Urdual and Torkalath rebuilt the world: Felewyn created the plains and mountains, Urdual the oceans and rivers, and Torkalath the deserts and tundra. Each created a race of enlightened people: Felewyn created the elves in her image, tall, slender and full of grace. Urdual created the dwarves, their love of tunneling and hardy constitution. Torkalath created the humans, with potential for great good yet flawed by greed and pride.

• The Rise of Lor Malgoriand
  

Many millenia later, the humans, elves and dwarves had established great kingdoms, but the Loreldians began to become divided: Felewyn desired too much Order, Urdual desired a direct Balance that none would agree on, and Torkalath desired too much Chaos. They sent their forces on Daragoth to war with each other, using humans, elves and dwarves to decide their disputes through bloody battle. Eventually the Loreldians themselves were appearing on the mortal plane, bending fate to achieve victory in their battles. The situation was dire, the three Loreldians in true war with each other, when Pathos returned. All had believed this impossible: he had banished himself from existence during the Forming. He immediately put a stop to the wars, taking control of the three Loreldians and establishing himself as the representative of Duality, the driving force behind all life. He decreed that the Loreldians were to appoint apostles, mortals whom they would grant the power to bend fate (in a limited way) and who would serve as their representatives on the mortal realm. The apostles chosen were as follows:
Pathos chose two, one for his Order and one for his Chaos: Pathos' Order was to be represented by an elf named Idemark, his Chaos to be represented by Idemarks' sister Iquitas.
Felewyn chose Lanethan, an elven knight to represent her Order. Urdual chose Myrlance, a man of noble heritage but whose heart would represent Balance. Torkalath chose Kurgoth, a wild-elf whose rage would represent Chaos.

It was many hundreds of years later when, in order to balance the Order that had prevailed after the wars of the Loreldians, Torkalath was given the task of selecting a mortal to become a champion of Chaos. He chose a man named Jiro, whom he gave many gifts: the black palace of Veldamyr, powers over necromancy and other dark magics. Eventually Torkalath even created a new race who would be subserviant to Jiro alone, a soldier race known by the elves as 'Orcat,' commonly shortened to Orcs. It was at this time that Jiro chose a new name for himself, 'Lor Malgoriand,' the Shadow-Bringer.

• The Great War
  

Lor Malgoriand's armies swept the world, upsetting the establishment of Order and once again bringing balance to the 'fate.' However, this balance lasted a short time only: Torkalath had given Malgoriand too much power, and he began to dominate life on Daragoth. The apostles were sent to strip him of his power: his task had been completed. Torkalath's power was rescinded from Lor Malgoriand, but inexplicably his powers remained. In fact, they dramatically increased. Malgoriand killed Idemark, Pathos' Apostle of Order, an act which previously had been deemed impossible.
The Apostles retreated to the Elder plane, where they learned from Pathos that Lor Malgoriand's power had not disappeared because he was no longer recieving power from the Loreldians, but rather the 'Lost,' those Loreldians whom they had banished so long ago during the forming. Felewyn herself was sent to destroy Lor Malgoriand at the battle of Eswen Sylen. She split him with her sword, stripping him of his power and banishing him from existence. Lanethan, meanwhile, went to the soul-well in a foolish attempt to save the soul of his friend Idemark. Lanethan was successful in that Idemark was extracted from the soul-well, but Idemark's soul fused with Lanethan's in the process. Lanethan took over Idemark's position as the Apostle of Pathos' Order, and Felewyn appointed two new apostles. During the Great War the human empire was destroyed, replaced by the Kingdom of Deralia. The events of the game take place two hundred years after the conclusion of the Great War.