Old Eskor: (300 years before the game began) The continent of Escor was the home of the original world government. As the tides began to rise and the world sank, the remnants of the government fled to this mountainous continent, which they named “New Escor” as a way of paying homage to their old home. The remnants of the world government ruled the continent in a harsh oligarchy, where each faction's head played a small role in managing the government and its people.
Old Eskor, a continent that housed perhaps the strongest force the world had ever known. A continent that fell apart. The common tale of Eskor's fall is a simple one: when the tides rose centuries ago, the people fled, powers separated, and order collapsed. They moved to the mountainous continent they’ve dubbed “New Eskor.” Despite this change, the remnants of the world government rebranded, constructing a new home for themselves amongst the tides.
The fall, a tale told so often, even the world itself had begun to forget what transpired on Old Eskor. The world government was a force that held all of Lumen within the palms of its hands, its leader serving as the closest living example of a god. With a simple wave of its hand, the skies parted and providence descended. What could’ve happened to a force so powerful, one so strongly linked it had bastions within each Luminant? The answer is curiosity; with power came a longing for greater power. What was incredible was simply not enough; the search for more consumed Eskor, each day searching harder and harder for something greater, the next level of evolution, some theorized. With time, it was found, expeditions into fallen celestia had proven successful. With each excursion, they came closer to the answer. Within the fallen heavens, they found a sigil. A small arcane calling, reaching out toward the silent expanse of stars. The Eskorian powers obsessed over this, the chance to call upon something greater to gain even greater control to physically wield this world within the palms of their cold, aching hands. A magic circle, one with summoning and sending inscriptions, was discovered deep within the ruins of fallen Celestia.
It took twenty-five years since the sigil was discovered for the project to be completed. A magic circle spanning the continent was formed, built in secret by renowned spiritualists. What could not be hidden from locals was magically removed from their minds. This magic circle spanned each end of the continent, consuming tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of components. This sigil was named after its founder, Unknown, the Unknown. With a completed sigil, the only matter left was activation. The government scrapped mana crystals wherever they could in preparation, which led to the critical shortage of crystals today. An entire island's worth of pure mana crystals were transmuted into liquid mana in preparation for the activation. Now that all resources had been prepared, only enacting the sigil remains.
Calling out toward the stars, many often find themselves gazing, gazing out toward the stars, wondering if anything even faintly was gazing back. To this day, renowned scholars of other factions interrogate and theorize on what the World Government was searching for; they had wealth, fame, and power, everything one could hope for. Through debate and discussion, one answer was settled upon: they searched for the one thing that didn’t have, the only thing outside the reach of their control, the only thing that stood beyond their palms, a god.
An information leak, mere days before the sigil was activated, a passing noble caught wind of something they shouldn’t have. They learned mere fragments of the plan in an operation retrospectively labeled, The god Hunt. With absolute haste, they began evacuations, first of small villages, then of towns, then of cities. A continent-wide evacuation effort commenced, with assistance from other major factions of the time, and they managed expansive evacuation efforts. With most of the citizens evacuated and mere hours to spare before the cataclysm. A devastating assault was conducted in the Capital, Celtor. The adventurers tore the city walls apart, quickly breaching the innermost sectors and scavenging whatever information they could. Due to their efforts, the cause of this cataclysm and the parties involved are known to many scholars til this day. With only an hour left, they investigated the royal chambers, only to find the king Arshka Stalwart resting upon his throne. Despite their efforts, they were unable to reach the mad ruler due to a barrier placed before this coup. They say in his final moments, he held nothing but an inkling of ecstasy growing across his face. After they forced activated a teleportation array and evacuated themselves, with all the gemstones and information they could carry. And the king was left to rot and relish in a cataclysm of his own making.
The fall, some said the world would end in fire, others in ice, though I've seen enough of both to know either would suffice. As the circle began to activate, the world sat quiet, as if holding its breath. As a primordial from beyond that boundary tore through the skies, with a glimmer of starlight, the sky fell, meteors impacting Eskor, rending parts of it off. When this force touched the ground for a mere moment, there was peace, akin to entering the eye of a storm; within the center of danger was calm. The mad king laid his eyes upon the celestial as the tale of Eskor was approaching its end; the only remnants left were the civilians fleeing for their lives. Though the calm was endearing, only a fool believed it would last long, for one moment Eskor stood tall, and the next, only a crater, a pit left in its wake. As water rushed to fill this abyss, the local weather would exhibit strange anomalous phenomena for the next four years. This abyss is located somewhere within the Eastern Luminant, though the few that know of it theorize it's within Joint Guild possession. Once a fathomless power, left as an abyss, Eskor was no more.
The survivors eventually happened upon a large island continent, with the remnants of the government to watch over them. They dubbed their new home “New Eskor” to pay homage to their birthplace. This ends the tale of Old Eskor and its fall.
Modern Day:
Old Eskor, a continent that housed perhaps the strongest force the world had ever known. A continent that fell apart. A continent whose fall was sold as a simple one, when the tides rose centuries ago, the people fled, powers separated, and order collapsed. Eventually, this land left in ruins was given a new purpose, a purpose by the enemy of its people. Old Eskor became an Authority prison, a land that had collapsed into a continental crater, transformed into a stronghold of concrete and steel, turning a tragedy into a scar on Lumen. This prison threw its prisoners into the depths of Old Eskors, allowing them to survive in a land where light rarely shone and crops struggled to grow. The only exits are highly controlled Authority Bastions that draw lifts far into the depths, extracting what little magical crystal the land has left.