Story

The beginning
Billions of years ago, in a remote part of the galaxy lit by an old, dimming sun, three meteorites crushed into each other in a spectacular explosion that shook the fabric of reality itself. The celestial rocks disintegrated on impact, forming a cloud of dust that orbited the sun, slowly molding into the shape of a planet. Only a few million years later, the planet was full of water, vegetation, and life. For these were not ordinary meteorites – they were made of what we’ve come to call “adaptorite,” the quintessence of all things living and dead.

Life
Before there were any sentient species to walk this new world, wildlife of all kinds populated the planet: monsters of the deep, strange wolves of the forests and flying wyrms, precursors to the beings we came to call dragons. Soon, however, the adaptorite shards deep within the planet’s surface began to transform the creatures, gifting some of them the gift of sentience. We do not know how many there were, and little of the civilizations that they might have built, because, if our archeological finds are to be believed, a new cataclysm shook this new world to its very foundation.

Awakening
The unstable adaptorite deep within the planet’s core began a chain reaction that resulted in dozens of volcanoes erupting all across the surface at once, throwing adaptorite dust into the atmosphere in one last bid to transform the surface of the planet forever. Many races have perished without a trace, but also new ones were born as a result. This is how the lizard-like race of lacertas came into being, and how the ancient elves were split into two, creating the people we now know as the faewryn. The earth-worshipping, fur-covered skurn attribute their ancient history to these days as well, descendants of a race long forgotten. Only the humans maintain that they have survived unchanged, but, as there are no records of a time before the cataclysm, there is no way to prove or to challenge their claim.

Present
Today, alchemists and shamans of all races scour the lands looking for adaptorite shards, the most powerful material in existence. Skilled transmetalurgists and alchemists learnt to bend adaptorite to their will, creating powerful effects indistinguishable from magic: levitation, mastery over earth, fire, and ice; some claim to have even channeled adaptorite energy to reverse death itself, although nothing good has ever come out of these experiments with necromancy, and most who tried have suffered horrible ends. The most well-known modern use of adaptorite energy is, of course, the DragonEvo project, the human experiment that created dragon hybrids and gave Erendor three powerful dragons that were quick to break their chains and go out into the world with designs of their own. Even the most experienced alchemists are terrified of mishandling adaptorite: they know that they’re dealing with a power so great it gave life to all of existence. This is why many experts believe that, used unwisely, adaptorite has the potential to unmake the world.