CHAPTER 2: THE PHOENIX TREATY
The battlefield was a graveyard of fallen warriors. The air smelled of scorched earth and blood, thick with the cries of the dying. The four races—humans, elves, dwarves, and fairies—had spent centuries waging war against one another, but today, they stood together, their armies in ruin, their lands on the brink of annihilation. At the heart of it all loomed Camhyr the Destroyer, a demon born from the depths of the underworld, whose mere presence twisted the land into a nightmare.
Elves, the eldest of the humanoid races, called him 'Camhyr' in their tongue, the harbinger of ruin. Their sacred groves had been reduced to ash, their people slaughtered like cattle. Humans, ever opportunistic, had first seen the elves' desperation as a chance to wipe them out—but when Camhyr turned his wrath upon the human kingdoms, their arrogance shattered. The dwarves and fairies fared no better, their once-proud fortresses crumbling under the demon's relentless might.
All seemed lost.
Then, from the shadows of legend, he came—a lone mage whose race was a mystery, a being of unfathomable power. To the elves, he was Elhyr, the Elder One. To humans and dwarves, he was the 'White Phoenix.' With knowledge beyond mortal understanding, he united the four races, forging an alliance bound by desperation and a singular purpose: to destroy the demon.
Elhyr gifted them new magic, the secrets of battle, and a rare ore—Antium, a metal that defied all forms of sorcery. From it, the dwarves forged a blade: the Demon Slayer. Four great beasts rose to their cause—Fang, the Midnight Panther; Orus, the Silver Stag; Klaus, the Red Boar; and Ignus, the Golden Eagle. With their combined strength, the battle raged for weeks until, at last, Elhyr wielded the Demon Slayer and severed Camhyr's head from its monstrous body.
From the ashes of war, the Phoenix Treaty was born.
To safeguard their fragile peace, the four races established four Orders, each dedicated to one of the great beasts and charged with a sacred duty:
The Order of the Night honored Fang, the Midnight Panther. They were the unseen blade in the darkness, assassins and enforcers who eliminated threats before they could fester. Feared and despised, they worked in the shadows for the sake of the light.
The Order of the Sun followed Orus, the Silver Stag. Tasked with regulating magic and punishing those who defied Elhyr's sacred laws, they were composed mainly of elves and humans. Unlike the Order of the Night, their ranks were open to all mages.
The Order of Twilight served Klaus, the Red Boar. Guardians of the Demon Slayer and the hidden Antium mines, they kept the sword secret until the day the chosen one would arise to wield it. When needed, they called upon the Order of the Night to silence those who delved too deep into their affairs.
The Order of the Moon followed Ignus, the Golden Eagle. Composed of prophets and scribes, they preserved the history of the world, safeguarding knowledge within hidden libraries accessible only to those bearing Elhyr's grace.
Together, these Orders formed the Phoenix, a force that maintained the balance. The Order of the Moon was its guiding mind, the Orders of the Sun and Twilight its mighty wings, and the Order of the Night its deadly talons, striking down those who sought to unravel the hard-won peace.
Beyond the Orders, the four races built their own kingdoms—Magnitia for the humans, Elyria for the elves, Klaustia for the dwarves, and Florisia for the fairies. A century of peace followed, yet in Magnitia, the fires of conflict still smoldered. Civil unrest and power struggles brewed beneath the surface, and though no full-scale war had erupted, it was the Order of the Night that ensured would-be conquerors never saw the dawn.
Within this Order, there were two great clans—the Fangs, masters of melee combat, and the Claws, lethal with ranged weapons. Only the descendants of the warriors trained by Fang, the Midnight Panther, could join their ranks. Their domain lay deep within the Forbidden Forest, the former home of the elves, now shrouded in mystery and danger.
And within those darkened woods, an assassin moved unseen, unaware of the storm about to reshape his destiny forever.