Prologue:
Once upon a time, the world was at war.
An all-encompassing war that lasted for a very, very long time.
It engulfed the entirety of the Vastonia Continent and was so chaotic that no one knew when it would end.
Nobody even remembered anymore how it all started.
The elven tales claimed it began, when the demon prince kidnapped the princess of a certain human kingdom. On the other hand, the dwarves viewed the obliteration of a demon village by a human king to be the cause.
Either way, humans and demons seemed to be the reason, but at that point, no one really cared about who was at fault anymore.
Only one thing was certain: That war lasted for more than five-thousand years.
And it involved all twelve races on the Vastonia Continent.
Each and every one of them thought the war would go on for all eternity. Be it fathers, mothers or even grandfathers and grandmothers, everyone knew nothing but war since they were born. Peace was nothing but something from a fairytale to them. Even the elves, who lived for five-hundreds years, were no exception to this.
Everyone knew they would have to take up arms and so would their children and children’s children. Nobody knew how the war started or how it could be ended. Moreover, none of them was even considering these things anymore.
Still, the war suddenly ended one day.
Although no one remembered its outbreak, everyone did remember its conclusion.
Demon King Gedigus.
The tide of the war changed, when he appeared.
He was a man of high caliber.
Even compared to previous Demon Kings, he was especially charismatic and solidified the union of the seven races, from the leading demons to ogres to fairies to harpies to succubi to lizardmen to orcs, under his banner during his hundred-year reign. He overwhelmed the Four Races Alliance led by humans by employing the unprecedented tactic of combining the forces of the races, and expanded his territory vastly.
The Four Races Alliance were caught in a nightmare.
So far, the Seven Races Union had never fought together, let alone cooperated.
Then harpies suddenly carried the slow ogres over the battlefield or succubi were deploying their charming mist over the marsh battleground, so that the unaffected lizardmen could stage an offensive there… This kind of cooperation had only happened by coincidence before and was now overwhelming the Four Races Alliance, who had only fought on equal grounds due to their own cooperation to begin with.
This, however, presented another opportunity.
The army solidified by Demon King Gedigus was indeed stronger than ever before.
But the strong and charismatic leader became its weak point.
Of course the Four Races Alliance was not aware of that.
Still, they could easily see that they had no chance of winning unless they defeated Gedigus first.
And thus, Gedigus was slain.
At the battle on the Remiem Plains, a suicide squad lead by the human prince Nazal, the elven magician Thunder Sonia, the dwarf warrior Dradra Dobanga and the beast hero Leo, managed to advance into the demon ranks and defeated Demon King Gedigus.
The casualties were high. More than half of the squad members died and the dwarf warrior Dradra Dobanga and the beast hero Leo gave their lives in the duel with Gedigus.
In the following retreat, human prince Nazal also suffered heavy injuries.
The death of Gedigus had drastic consequences.
With their king gone, the Seven Races Union was suddenly without a leader and broke to pieces.
No one had been appointed to take Gedigus’ place.
Without anyone to give commands, the chain of command in the Seven Races Union was fatally crippled.
They waited for orders that never came and aimlessly roamed about the battlefield… until they were defeated by the Four Races Alliance.
Some races might have perished then and there, if the respective kings had not taken action for their own races.
Thus the Seven Races Union led by the demons fell apart and the races started to fight separately again as it used to be before Gedigus ascended the throne.
Ogres had been fighting together with the Harpies, Succubi with Lizardmen and Orcs with Fairies before, but their cooperation had only occurred on a tactical level and each races was now suffering defeat after defeat.
Five years later, only fives years later, the Seven Races Union had lost all their territory.
They lost it all after expanding for hundred years.
At this rate, the Union was prepared for their obliteration.
The Alliance was pressing on that hard.
But then peace talks were initiated by none other than Nazal, the human prince. He suggested to the council of the Alliance to give the Union one more chance, to make peace.
It expressed exactly what the people were feeling: Exhaustion and weariness from especially hard times in the last hundred years amidst this already long, long war.
As a matter of fact, the Alliance was reaching their limit as well.
During Gedigus’ reign, the population of humans, elves, dwarves and beasts alike had dwindled.
The average life expectancy had gone down considerably and the tenet of properly educating children was starting to crumble.
All and singular wanted to a take a rest. They were sick of it.
What if the cornered Seven Races Union made one last stand in collaboration?
The Alliance could surely prevail.
But what happened afterwards? And even worse, what if both sides went under together?
We should aim for peace while we still have the luxury to choose.
Nazal appealed in this way.
The higher ups of the Four Races Alliance were convinced the Union would never agree to peace, but surprisingly enough, no race refused the peace talks, when they actually brought up the topic.
Even the ogres, who were doubted for their communication skills, and the orcs, who only lived for battle and rape, readily accepted the unfavourable terms and made peace.
Thus the war ended.
This all too long war finally found its end.
Three years later. Year 3 A. P.
The new calendar was named “Anno Pax” in accordance with the peace treaty.
For some time, people had been taken aback by the sudden end of the long war, but before long, the destroyed cities were rebuild and the merchants opened trade routes to the other races. New children were born and the population grew. Peace gradually settled into the minds of the people, urging them to try something new.
Science, Art, Trade, Pleasure… Things that had been neglected so far were revaluated and the common sense of each race started to change, too.
The prologue to the new age was ending, paving the path for the next chapter.
This story beings in the country of a certain race during these times.
The country of orcs.