In the beginning the land was as it had always been: bleak, desolate and hopeless. That was before the First Bloom, begore the Natural resource called SLAGGVARA was discovered. In the Barren Wastes between Lake Onda and the River Mur, in the place that is now called Newfield, the flowers blossomed: innumerable poppies, as far as the eye could see. What was viewed as a miracle foreshadowed violence to come, and warned of the blood that would be spilled throughout the Dying Lands.
It started with Galgenbeck, the city of Josilfa's Faithspire. In their immediacy, they were able to quickly mobilize and gather SLAGG. Earth was tilled. scraped, picked at like an old reinfected pustule. Others quickly came soon after; Anthelia, the Death Beggar Sigfum, and even the late King Fathmu IX. All laid wicked calim to the resources in Newfield.
Then grew of the onslaught of terrible machines. built by the downtrodden hands of the many to ravage the earth at the behest of faraway lieges. The discovery of different veins of SLAGGVARA in their respective domains mattered little. Those in power desired more than the others, no matter the cost—their creed was endless; their avarice insatiable; their thirst for power, unquenchable. Like starving hounds at the smell of mutton, they bore fangs and struck.
No one remembers who shot first. In a short time, avarice ravaged the Dying Lands. Never-ending trenches gouged the flesh of the earth like gashes, inhabited by conscripts, murderers, and meat-shields. Metallic crawlers, siege weapons, and SLAGG-powered weaponry replaced the beasts that lurked in the dark places, as the dark places themselves were consumed by an inhospitable No Man’s Land.
SLAGG—the violent greed for which had started the war—now fuels the carnage. The dying world is changing. Death is not the final state. It does not excuse you from suffering; you’ve just changed sides. Death itself is just a battleground, a place where fear and weapons meet. Until that last day, when all shall fade to dust and the lands made whole.