Guild of Spells and Swords

The Origin

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'Tis the age the Spells and Swords. It is raining. The sound of shoes squelching the watered mud can be heard. A child on the side of an alley. Hungry, alone, hopeless.

"This world has nothing to offer no more."

The child hugs his knees even more tightly than before. Rainwater sliding down the strain of his ashen hair in front of his forehead to his cheek. The boy do not shed any tears. Perhaps, the pain is already too extravagant to be expressed by mere tears alone.

A piece of bread dropped in front of him. Soaking in mud and muck, the child decides to pick it up. Thinking it is probably the only meal he could have in the last three days. The child eats the bread. Crunching his way through the gravel that entered the bread when it was on the ground in order the fill his stomach. In the middle of his meal, a mysterious figure appears.

"Child, have you abandon all hope? If so, take my hand and join the swordsman."

The Swordsman guild. A guild that is known for its sadistic approach in terms of recruiting its members. Each Swordsman will undergo a trial which is called The Trial of Swords. One has to be a child in order to undergo the trial of swords. Pass - or rather - Survive, and thy shall join the Swordsman guild. The recruits are thrown into an isolated island filled with dark, unforgiving forests. They have to survive for exactly one month with nothing except a steel sword that was given to them when the trial begins to pass the trial. Those who did not make it, well, may they rest in peace. The ones who pass will be categorized into two classes. Swordsman - Normal recruits, known for their beastly instincts when dragged into combat. Thanks to the trial, these warriors has been tempered by the unforgiving forces of nature. And the Swordmasters - The ones that masterfully completed the trial and has found a kind of power within themselves that can be seen as inhumane, almost magic. These warriors' abilities can vary from superhuman agility to the ability to imbue their sword with heat so that they could tear through flesh and steel armor like butter. Unlike the popular beliefs that said things about how the Swordsman guild abduct children to recruit them, the Swordsman guild actually recruit willing children. This, of course, has raised many controversy where many people believe that the guild has manipulated the child's mind to make them willing to join the trial.

In the other side of the spectrum is the Spellswords guild. This guild is strictly for people with high intelligence as the amount of intelligence found within shall affect one's magic capabilities. Unlike the Swordsman guild, this guild is seen as a respectable group of intelligent, wise, and powerful nobles whereas the Swordsman guild is seen as a brutish, sadistic, and beastly group of brutes. The Spellswords guild recruit its members through many methods: Selecting finest, most intelligent students from universities across the world and Filtering through applicants that wanted to join the guild. The Spellswords headquarters is a heavily decorated gathering hall with colored stained glass decorating its windows. Members of the Spellswords guild wield a tome of spells and a sword. The tome of spells act as a book of formulas - if you will - to cast magic more easily and effectively. Their magic varies from casting a bolt of lightning from the tip of their sword to covering one's sword with elemental energies such as fire or ice. The Spellswords guild is the pinnacle of power to fight back the forces of evil and finally free this world of its curse that happened long ago.

The Curse of Eternal Twilight. A curse applied upon this world when a powerful witch is burned alive by a village. When the witch is tied tightly on a pyre, the witch swears on her life that when she gasped her last breath, the world shall succumb to a dark age where monsters will creep in every shadow, eating the livestock of every civilization and the ground will feed no more mouths. The witch then burned to death by a group of village activist thinking that the failed harvest that happened that year was the cause of keeping a witch inside their village. After the incident, the sky darkened and dropped rain of blood and rotting every farm that covered the area. From the ground below, monsters comes out and feasted on the flesh of the living. Few people survived and thrived until this very day. The day where the ground feed mouths once more and livestock prosper. However, the problem is far from solved. No matter how many griffins, succubi, ghouls, crimsons, and reapers are exterminated, more will come anyway. It is as if the curse still lingers. Somehow.