GLADIATOR
 

During the days of the first world, the great Dragons fought without end. Battles of fire and smoke followed battles of ice and wind, in a mighty, everlasting typhoon of destruction. Only one Dragon rose above the endless quarrells, leaving the Dragon-Plane. She found our ancestors, and had them swear to unite between the nations of the world, and between every person and their heart.

 

She showed us the way.

 

She gave us her blood.

 

We are the Ancient Blood. We are Nevia.

 

According to legend, during the days of the first world there was a Dragon, referred to as the Dragoness, who’s record has disappeared from the pages of history. She left the first world after she tired of the ongoing battles between the other great Dragons. She lost her wings on her way to our world, and found a home in the dunes of the desert. Between the dunes she crawled, secluded, until she met a nomad in the oasis. It is told she observed him from afar for many days, and with each day she grew more in love with the man. When she revealed herself to him at the night of full moon, her soul was forever intertwined with the soul of the nomad, who’s name was Bakh-Ram Kaas. 

When the nomad returned to his tribe accompanied by the Dragoness, he was declared leader of the tribe. The tribe grew large and strong, and other tribes that heard of the Dragoness came and swore their swords and lands to her. Soon, Bakh-Ram Kaas ruled the entire desert, from the sea in the east to the forests in the west. For hundreds of miles stretched his new kingdom - the kingdom of Nevia.

In the veins of the children of Bakh-Ram Kaas and the Dragoness coursed Dragon-Blood, and that blood was transferred to the other members of the kingdom by mystic ceremonies. Although the blood did not give them awesome powers, it was extremely important - it was a symbol of responsibility, of a moral obligation to rise above the walls dividing the peoples of the world. It demanded from its bearer to connect to the deeper truth, to find the best that lies within the other and oneself.

After a hundred years of order and prosperity, with Bakh-Ram Kaas staying young and strong thanks to his closeness to the Dragoness, she suddenly vanished. He mourned her disappearance for ten days and ten nights, after which his heart stopped beating. Without their legendary leader, the magnificent kingdom crumbled quickly, and within less than a hundred years, only a handful even remembered that the Ancient Blood coursed in their veins. For the past millennia, they have been travelling as a secluded tribe, waiting for the day a man they call the Precursor will revive their glorious kingdom.

* * *

Hundreds of years after the fall of the Ancient Kingdom of Nevia, a barbarian named Roran returned to the ruins of his homeland Korkazad, where he found an ancient artifact that urged him to march toward an unknown location. He marched for days through heat and sand, until he reached the marked destination - an abandoned tomb, with a name written on the stone - Bakh-Ram Kaas. And the moment he lay the artifact on the tomb, a giant beam of light filled the night sky.

The Ancient-Blood, descendants of the kingdom of Nevia, who were still marching through the dunes, knew this to be the sign - the Precursor has come. His arrival means it is time to rebuild the great kingdom and open its gates to newcomers who will join the Ancient Blood. Together, they will end all wars, unite the world, and return the truth to the hearts of all who are willing to accept it. The prophecy of the Precursor warns it will be a long, difficult journey. 

 

Yet it is their mission, it is their responsibility as people of the Ancient Blood. And their first destination? 

 

The lands of the Dragons.