by
Richard S. Tuttle
Amica Saga series
A thousand years ago in a land named Amica, an
extraordinary event occurred. A new star appeared in the night sky, and its
brilliance grew and grew until it was visible in the daylight. In the center of
Amica lay a land inhabited solely by magicians, and the new star created a
frenzy of excitement among those scholars. Hundreds of mages left their homeland
and spread out across the continent to observe the phenomenon from different
vantage points. Eventually, they concluded that the object was on a collision
course with their world, and they joined forces in an attempt to destroy or
deflect it. When it was finally understood that those efforts would fail, they
combined their most powerful magics to create the greatest shield to ever exist.
It was not enough to protect Amica.
The devastating missile struck squarely in the center of
Amica, just to the east of the great mage city, Taragor, throwing rocks and
debris hundreds of leagues into the sky. That debris plummeted down on Taragor
and the countryside around it. In an instant, thousands of powerful mages
vanished, their homeland buried under tons of rock and dirt.
Hundreds of mages did survive, however. Those magicians who
had left Taragor for other areas of the continent lived on, but they were now
forced to live among the mundane peoples of Amica, and those ungifted people
blamed the catastrophe on the magicians. Calling it an act of evil magic, the
people tried to force the magicians to leave their homelands. The homeless
magicians quickly learned to use their powerful skills to subdue the peoples
opposing them. Eventually, the mages took over the areas where they now lived.
Using their magical powers, the mages created new countries and set themselves
up as kings, demanding the peasants' loyalties under the penalty of death. Greed
and lust for power grew within the mages' hearts and soon they began to wage
wars with each other. Thus began the Great Mage Wars of Amica.
For hundreds of years, the wars wracked the continent,
destroying the countryside and decimating the population. The strife was not
continual, but respites were few and short. For the populations living under the
mage lords, it was a life of slavery followed by a gory death.
Eventually, a soldier in one of the smaller kingdoms was
compelled to act, refusing to be an unnamed pawn in a destructive game between
powerful magicians. His actions would change the course of history. His name was
Terrus, but he would be called the Liberator by thousands. With the help of a
magical artifact, the Sword of Articus, Terrus defeated the mage lords and
banished them to the Island of Lantana. He
organized their Supreme Council and convinced them to return to their peaceful
studies of magic, but he also warned them that they must never again seek to
rule over Amica. The mages vowed to obey the demands.
The magicians of Lantana returned to their scholarly
studies, but they did not remain in isolation. They needed supplies from the
mainland, but they were hesitant to allow outsiders to their island. Eventually,
they created mage ships to trade with the ungifted peoples of Amica. As that
trade grew, Lantanan ships became the dominant shipper in all of Amica, and
shipping warehouses and offices were built in every major port of the mainland.
This enterprise not only brought great wealth to Lantana, but also kept the
mages informed of what was happening in every area of the mainland. With such
knowledge and wealth, the temptation to ignore the age-old vows grew, but the
Supreme Council of Mages in Lantana was determined to avoid any dangerous
entanglements with Amica. It kept most information about the mainland among the
twelve members of the Council, but there were hundreds of mages on the mage
ships and on the mainland managing the shipping offices. The task of the Supreme
Council was a difficult one, yet their efforts had worked for centuries.
The peoples of Amica nurtured their devastated lands, and
the nations of the mainland flourished and grew in peace for hundreds of years.
Yet there are always those who desire more than the status quo, and rumblings of
conflict eventually began to grow. As the Amica Saga begins, some people in the
small nation of Kor began to rebel against an increasingly demanding king. For
the first time in centuries, black clouds of turmoil gathered over the small
nation occupying a corner of the continent. The Great Peace of Amica was
beginning to unravel. Thus begins the Amica Saga.
