On the Age of Champions

"An era of peace, albeit treacherous,
A time to breathe easy, after a long run,
A beautiful dream, until the morning light,
A blink of an eye full of silence, in the noise of history." -Mumbled song of an old Ouai

…All this was the age of the Champions. There had always been wars, but none had been so absolute, so terrible, and so fervent as the war against the Primordial Sceptics. It was a new kind of war that Mitraspera had never known before because it wasn't about avenging an insult among the Ancient Rulers, serving one's own Element, taking possession of a piece of land, or simply passing time - it was about the sheer existence and future of Mythodea. A game played by the powerful had become bloody, insanely serious, in that there was only victory or defeat.
Luck was kind to the ancestors in those days and the soulless Ratio could be overcome with united powers. But this had come at the cost of many lives, many good and beautiful things, and great losses of many kinds. And now the rulers dreaded the war that had once been their game, and the people longed with for peace along with them. So, faced with the deep-seated horror, the winners of the war came together to create options together, how future disputes among the powerful, that went beyond simple laws were to be settled without going to war with one another.

What they devised were the arenas of "Shan Meng-Ray" and "Shan Meng-Fey," which in our language means "place of female and male jurisdiction”, respectively. In these places, so-called weapons masters or champions fought against each other in ritual battles, representing the parties to the dispute. The winner of the duel was also awarded the right in the dispute. Of the champions there were many. Hard was their training and hard was life, but it was considered a great honor to serve in the arenas. Each champion was dedicated to an element of either the Old or the New Creation, but not to any ruler directly. Such a one could summon a champion to make him fight for him, depending on the Element closest to him. Accurate records were kept of who had brought what against whom, who had fought, and who had won the fight.

A location at the Southern tip of the Northern continent was chosen for Shan Meng-Ray as the location of the arenas, but the legendary city of As'Shan was chosen for Shan Meng-Fey, a place that had been marked by fate like no other in Mitrasperan history. While the place of female jurisdiction was also a place of dialogue and some disputes were settled peacefully, in the place of male jurisdiction the sword was usually immediately taken up.

A peculiarity of the arena fights must now be explained here: it was strictly forbidden for every champion to mortally wound his opponent, to use magic, or to lose on purpose. The life of the fighters was also protected by the magic of the arenas. Nevertheless, over time it happened that the bodies of the champions lost so much strength and dexterity due to the many wounds from countless battles that hardly anyone was able to hold the office for a long time. Therefore, candidates were always tested in the arenas, new fighters were trained and finally accepted into the ranks of the champions in order to maintain peace in the world in the service of their element.

"Alas, oh alas: flocks of crows
soar to the sky like tarry smoke.
Weather shines in the distance.
Now the great war is dawning.” -Forgotten oracle from the last day before the time without time

In order to understand why the peace that the arenas brought was short-lived, it is important to realize that it could only last as long as all those in power kept the agreed-upon treaties and sincerely accepted the judgements. The reason for the end of the Age of Champions is quickly told, but the causes run deep.

It came to pass that the creator and ruler of the Void, “Ar'Nathan" had corrupted the Aeris portal network, contaminated it with the Negation, and destroyed thousands of unfortunates of his own people (the Uhlans). For this the rulers of Aeris demanded his head and Shan Meng-Feyn should decide his life.
The battle was fought by the champions Ashantiala, for the Void, and Ar'Janka Mellesan for Aeris. It was the latter who had already experienced unspeakable pains from the Void and whose hatred for the followers of Negation was unparalleled. So it happened that Ashantiala was not only defeated but was wounded so horribly by her opponent that even the magic of the arenas was no longer able to save her life. Because of this violation of the rules, Ar'Nathan did not accept his verdict and took the event as an opportunity to declare all other Rulers his enemies and to trigger a long-planned trap with which he intended to tear the entire Creation into Negation. Even if his plan ultimately failed, this resulted in the total war of the First against the Second creation. The era of champions was over.

The actual cause, however, probably lies in the fundamental incompatibility of the First with the Second Creation and in the evilness of the latter. It is significant that the Master of the Void only used the time of peace to strike out against the world and it was very fortunate that Mellesan's angry storm did not give him more time.

After the old sites were rediscovered in the course of resettlement and some people from the old days still haunted the places as ghosts, there are now some among the settlers who dream the old dream again and want to reestablish the peace of the arenas. Settlers have had themselves examined as weapons masters. But Mitraspera is further than ever from peace.

"The Age of Champions was a thin cocoon of dreamed-up desire, which, however, was torn asunder when the true nature of the Second Creation was revealed." -Note from an unknown scholar