“Let them wage their war beneath the sun and moon. We build beneath both.”
The Neutral Lands, often referred to as The Velvet Ring, are the only true bastion of peace in a world slowly tearing itself apart. Where Silver Dusk peers into the abyss of knowledge and Crimson Dawn burns with conquest, the Neutral Lands offer no great ideology, no doctrine of mana. What they offer is far simpler, and far rarer: stability.
And at the heart of it all sits the Capital, a monumental city built not by mages, but by hands without mana, the hands of humankind.
✦ Between the Sun and Moon
The Capital rose during the age of blood and fire, when the first Equinox nearly consumed the world. It was not founded by force or spell, but through desperation and unity. As the two great clans warred endlessly for dominance, those without mana sought safety in each other, and built a city meant to outlast their wars.
Today, the Neutral Lands are governed by a single figure: The Peace Governor. Chosen by a diverse and powerful council, guildmasters, merchant lords, dissident mages, and noble houses, the Governor is the one voice both Silver Dusk and Crimson Dawn still pretend to respect. It is through his will that the peace agreements hold. It is through his silence that wars are permitted to unfold elsewhere.
He is loved by the people, not because he is perfect, but because he is the last one still trying.
✦ The Mask of Prosperity
Outwardly, the Neutral Lands are thriving. Trade flows freely, especially in the capital’s great bazaars, where enchanted goods and mundane wares share the same cobblestone alleys. Immigrants arrive daily, Dissonants seeking refuge, mages who broke their vows, humans fleeing infected land, and merchants hoping to grow fat off uneasy peace.
The Neutral Lands accept them all. There is always room. Always another coin. Always another house.
And yet, beneath that painted smile, something is boiling.
The city grows too fast. The streets swell with rumors. Fear spreads like rot beneath the gold. Crimson Dawn’s new young leader stokes tension with every speech, while the Seers of Silver Dusk grow silent and cold. People speak of war returning. Of Equinox repeating. Of something darker moving under the surface, where no one dares look.
And still, the Peace Governor smiles.
✦ Mana Without Allegiance
Mages may live in the Neutral Lands, but not without chains. All mana-born who enter must wear a Neutral Sigil, a mark that binds and regulates their flow of magic. Caelir and Seren cannot be cast freely. Twilights are a myth, but even the idea of them is feared.
Here, Dissonants are not hunted, but studied. Watched. Tracked. Their lives may be safer, but never free. The capital sees itself as tolerant, but it is not trust that allows a Dissonant to walk its streets, it is a strategy.
Within the city, a special force known as The Gilded Chain protects the balance. These soldiers wear anti-mage armor, often forged from Abyss-touched alloys. They are not numerous, but they are enough. Enough to make even the boldest mage think twice.
Mana has been with you since birth. For some it's a burden and for some it's a blessing.
A boy has a fierce glow in their eyes, he is called a Caelir Mage now.
A girl who shows signs of intelligence in the early age, she is called a Seren Mage now.
And there are those who were born in the wrong body, they are tossed away like a broken toy. They even have a name so they can at least be called something. Dissonants, they say, mistakes.
All of those kids belong to their clans now, there is no other choice. If you are not one of those two, life will be even more miserable.
The endless war ruined everything, the peace, the balance, the hopeful glow in the sky… Now every child with mana is taken away to be a mage, to honor their clan. They separate families and say it's for the better, they give away wealth in exchange, they encourage this act of malice. Who are they, you ask.
Crimson Dawn forcefully takes away the children with Caelir mana. They say an honorable war is waiting for them. They will be the mages who will shine on the battlefield one day.
And Silver Dusk… They reach out to those families who are blessed with a Seren child, along with words that spit out venom. A ruthless propaganda with lies. Your child is selected for a sacred mission, they say. A glorious pursuit for knowledge, this is their fate.
And those clans, who both raise tools for a meaningless war, will say they are better than the other. But the truth will always prevail, the state of the world is worse than ever because of their acts. Gods are angry, Abyss is angry, this cannot continue…
An original dark fantasy setting filled with mana, reincarnation, an infinite broken tower, political seperation and it will be gender-coded. It's the story of a decaying land infected by ancient magic, and the mages who wander it in search of knowledge. Magic is common here yet normal humans without any power exists too.
Mana defines everything. It's split between two forces: Seren, born of the Moon, and Caelir, forged in the Sun. Mages are born aligned to one, most of the time their body is made to match their mana but sometimes Abyss makes mistakes.
At the center of the world lies the Abyss, a corrupted realm that pulls at the soul. Surrounding it: five infected Circles of land, craters made from a huge blast, each more twisted than the last. At the center: a black tower that remembers every life you've lived before. But no one ever survived that to tell it's tale.
Few important names to know:
Two clans: Silver Dusk (Seren Mages) and Crimson Dawn (Caelir Mages). They hate each other and constantly fight.
Dissonants: Mages whose mana doesn’t match their body. Their body constantly reject their mana.
Twilights: Rare beings who can wield both manas, capable of triggering Equinox.
The Tower of Descension: It is believed that Twilights go there to witness the secrets of the Abyss.
This blog is where I’ll post lore and world building I made. It will be text based since I don't have any talent for art making or someone to do it and I don't want to use AI. So I will just share walls of texts.
The Story of the Abyss, Old Ways of Mana, Calamity and the Descension
The unknown entity of this world, the Abyss… Some people also call it God, some call it Evil but actually it was neither.
Long before, Abyss was pulsing with humanity. It was in their heart, in their mana, it used to teach them the ancient ways, the way of harmony. The way of magic.
But one day, mages collide. Why are we accepting this selfless entity so it can be the only wielder of the truth? It doesn't feel, it doesn't love us, maybe one day it won't even want us. Abyss did that in the past, it only creates to destroy it one day. They were trying to stir chaos so they could dethrone the Abyss.
At first people's faith was unshakable. Many said that the Abyss was with them to witness, to remember. It is giving us what we need but never more because of the greed in our manas, always asking for more. But when the salvation of death arrives and we finally see the true Realms of the Abyss nothing will ever matter. Our greed will disappear and we will only accept the truth. Abyss will remember us in our best shape so we can be alive forever.
But corruption was inevitable. Whispers from the traitors reached everywhere. Mages and humans were confused. The god they called Abyss was looking down on them, they thought, do we even have any value? The riot was successful, people were more restless than ever and refused to accept the ways Abyss taught them. A new magic research has been born, a humanity's magic and not the Abyss'. This was the first diversion ever in the history of magic history.
Two mana alignment were discovered. Seren, a mechanical, stable and complex way of mana and Caelir, scorching, boiling way of mana erupting like a volcano. Sun and Moon of the magic. It was also seen that most of the time those mana were given to people in a way that reflects their body, as mana and soul shapes your physical form. Seren Mages were females with the brightest face and Caelir Mages were males who were blessed with the rays of sun. There was no other kind of mage, yet.
One day, as humanity's research about magic went deeper and deeper, a man was born with the wrong mana. He had Seren inside his body, something believed to be impossible and he wasn't supposed to cast magic but he did. His magic was nothing like anyone has seen. If anyone stood next to his spell, he would perish. The destructive force he had with more sensitive and calculative Seren mana was unbelievable, like he was also a Caelir. Seren mages tried to control him, to use and study. But he was unstoppable. Many Caelir tried to oppose him to a duel, only to leave a mist behind and nothing else, a mist resembling their sun forged mana, with a faint violet inside.
His words left a mark in history.
“I came here to find my polar. When the Moon meets with the blazing Sun, you will see the ethereal form of magic. An Equinox will from to blind everyone so you can feel the truth of magic in your bones. And even if you try to reject it, it will catch up to you, sooner or later.”
After those words that sounded like a prophecy, he disappeared. On that day, everyone who looked at the sky saw a big black spot. There was no Sun, no Moon but a form of both in the sky. The sky glowed with deep violet when huge earthquakes happened. Every human was worrying about their lives but mages were stunned with the echo of his previous words. On the other side of the world, calamity has begun, the Abyss showed itself. A nature formed there, which was alien to this world, but something familiar to the other realms.
Five craters happened from this disastrous eruption. Abyss was telling the World “Here's the truth, the reality of this world you have been seeking and now we will see how you handle it.” Abyss ruined civilizations that lived there, forced its own rules of nature, put remembrance of monsters once walked the Earth so it can test human resilience and whispered twisted magic in those lands to keep the weak away.
Not long after this, humans regenerated quickly with magic. Now the aftermath of the calamity was clear. The other half of the world was now gone. A new reality was born there to showcase Abyss' cruelty. Curiosity piqued between mages, and the exploration of these twisted lands began.
Five Circles of Descension, it was named. In Abyss' view, humans needed to descend deep into the Earth to see reality and only then can they ascend. Every part of this land whispered its names.
The first circle was easy to control. The manifestation of the Abyss was weak there. Because of that, clashes between two types of mages happened quickly. As if humans learned nothing from the calamity, they started fighting over it. The first circle was now a battlefield. Mages forgot their pursuit of knowledge in this place.
This unnecessary fight kept them away for a while to discover the second circle. A place where reality finally shifts and you finally see a glimpse of what Abyss really is. It still resembled the Earth before the corruption but with the uncanny influence of the Abyss. Plants were mutated, wild animals turned into ruthless beasts, soil was corrupted to a point where nothing will ever grow on it again. The air was thick with a purple unnatural mist. This sudden shift in tone shocked the mages. But for once they decided to work together so they can conquer their lands taken away by the Abyss.
This forced alliance sparked a lot of things. Seren mages were still whispering the words of that twisted Seren mage, they partly understood. The Equinox… They understood that when Sun and Moon, Caelir and Seren clashed, a disaster would happen. So, on top of the war they were having now there was another taboo. Traumatized by the past event, both mages agreed on working together when necessary only if they keep their manas away from each other. Mana must not mix...
With that, the conquest of the second circle was quick. The Caelir mages put their military force there to ensure the safety of these lands. They formed a clan with every Caelir mage in this world. Sensing the danger of such grouping, Seren mages did the same. Thus two clans named Crimson Dawn for Caelir mages and Silver Dusk for Seren mages were born.
And with this new power formed, they moved forward to the third circle. There were still two more circles which was still a mystery but humanity will prevail, and take back what Abyss took from them…
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This might feel like a huge bomb but this is actually something i thought over a lot. If you ever have questions I can answer. I'm open at anything.
Dengeki Online was live streaming some Dark Souls III. I’ve just noticed they went back to the Mana system from Demon’s Souls, but instead of consumables like spices you have a mana flask. I’m curious how that’s gonna play and I hope they didn’t just go back to that for the sake of change.
