This world is built upon myths and legends, and those who remember their wisdom may still share it with those who will listen. What follows is a brief recounting of several of those legends, and a brief history of the nation in which the majority of this story’s events take place.

In the ancient days, there were six golden cities; bastions of human civilization in a world of vast wilderness. It is remembered as a time where great magics and technical wonders were cultivated. But the hubris of mankind undermined their sensibilities, and they allowed the most evil of spirits to deceive them. These spirits took physical form as men themselves, desiring to work in the shadows, until their influence grew to a point that they walked openly in their evil power. They assailed the minds of powerful men and caused great turmoil among them. They became known as the Lords of Desolation, and their true names were Ruin, Wrath, Blight, and Oblivion. Mankind began to delve deeper and deeper into discovery and innovation, but the spirits encouraged men against one another, and out of the fires of creation came terrible weapons of war. Only too late were the spirits’ true identities revealed. One by one, the great cities would fall into darkness, leaving their survivors and refugees to stand alone as the tides of evil swept across the lands. It was in that perilous time that many heroes would rise up, and their great deeds would dare to challenge the dark, and their legends would long be remembered.

One such hero challenged Oblivion himself to a duel, though, in the end, it cost him his life. It’s said the hero’s stare was so intense that it caused even Oblivion to flinch when he fired his shot. The enemy’s bullet went wide-right, while the hero’s round hit Oblivion’s right cheek, and severed his flesh from mouth to ear. Never before had the spirit been struck, for he always had the faster hand, and cupping his wounded cheek, stared in disbelief at the hero, who stood seemingly unharmed. Oblivion fled the scene, with trails of foul blood staining the ground as he ran. The hero watched his enemy fade away into the distance - before collapsing upon the ground. The stray round from Oblivion’s gun had indeed missed its mark, but ricocheted off a buried stone, and struck the hero in his heel. Worse still, the bullets were said to have been tipped with a deadly toxin. Thus, the hero died, and was brought into the mountains to be buried in a cave, where, so the legend says, a magical spring began to flow that could heal those who were wounded.

After the time of the great heroes, the forces of darkness had been suitably forced back. The Lords of Desolation could not be found, and some began to think they had gone back into the abyss from where they came. Mankind began to rebuild. Eventually, the nation, to which the Dannings belong, would be established and declared the seventh golden city, and named “Rebirth” in their own language. Soon, populations swelled and expanded back into the world. Centuries of relative peace would pass, and it seemed all was well. However, events would transpire that, to the keen eye, betrayed sinister agendas at work, whose aim was to tear down mankind’s final hope against the forces of desolation.