I will run a little contest down at the bottom of this post, as a way for me to trick you into scrolling down the entire thing. THEN I'm going to say like, comment and post to enter! THEN I'll say something about the deadline and what the prize is.

Tricksy am I right?

PS: it's longer than I thought it would be.

But let's get all the hyperbole out of the way:

Arcaylia is a now a world where magic and science have woven themselves together into tapestries both intricate and dangerous. It wasn't always this way, in the ancient past it was a land where gods walked with dragons and the lesser races lived and died at the whims of forces beyond their understanding.

Arcaylia is also a world of cataclysms. Great, world re-shaping events have left untold scars everywhere, from the massive fissures of the Broken Lands to the shining depths of the Crystal Sea. The struggle of the mortal races over the aeons since the world was forged has always been to survive. It was only after the Wars of the Godfall and the raising of the Planar Divide that those same mortal races could thrive.

Whether it is a peasant farming the little plot of land given to them by duke or dowry or a daring sky-captain sailing the clouds in an elemental powered airship; Arcaylia is a world of adventure and hard living.

Monsters of myth and legend could slumber beneath the mundane streets of the largest cities, never to awaken thanks to the tireless efforts of cabals of wizards.

Ancient relics lay atop crystal pedestals awaiting the lucky or unlucky alike, while clandestine power groups try to wrest their power for their own ends.

There has never yet been a great equalizer; the strength of your sword arm, the sharpness of your wit, and the depth of your coin purse are all ways to leave your mark on the histories of this wild world. There are as many tales of wily merchants as there are evil princesses and the noble dragons that slew them. Upstanding rogues and shiftless warriors ply their trades among friends and foes alike.

And now for something different...

I could go on talking about how Arcaylia is this and not that, or its this in this way like this thing. That doesn't help anybody. This is also off the top of my head and copy like that (that isn't boring and repetitive anyway) takes more than a few minutes to come up with.

So what is Arcaylia in real world terms?

Arcaylia is a world I first started telling stories in more than two decades ago. I have written short stories (some I even think are decent) and run table top rpg campaigns that have spanned those decades. People like playing them and haven't complained, too much, for that length of time. So they have to be at least a little good, right? Right?

Different historical periods have meant different things to Arcaylia. At first it was High Fantasy, magical elves and stubborn dwarves mixed up with evil orcs and ancient dangers, sprinkled with human problems and complications. A time of Kingdoms and Empires and jostling for position in a wild and untamed world.

After this period came a diffusion of power, the Arcaynum. (this was a CRPG game from long ago, I found out after naming it this) A massive magical war that changed the shape of not only Arcaylia but the dimensional boundaries that bound it to the rest of the multiverse. It was at this point the gods realized that mortals held within them far too much power.

The wizards themselves sundered Arcaylia across four dimensions, each one a twisted mirror of the others. Arcaylia Prime remained more or less untouched, a continuation of the world as it once was and would carry on into the future. Still High Fantasy and the baseline for all the other worlds.

The first mirror world was one where magic failed. Technology and superstition ruled the day. Baryllyen it came to be named. This world would best be described as neo Victorian Steampunk, you know if it needed a name.

The second world was one where the fates of animals and mortals were bound together in both mind and body. Anthropomorphic creatures arose after the world shifted into its place, magic and technology remained in balance and a great natural focus was realized. Taeryahl this world became named. I always pictured this world as a sort of anime personally. This would be where all of the cutest creatures came from.

The last of the altered worlds was Grendaine, a backward and especially twisted version of Arcaylia. With the powers that ruled the world before the Arcaynum split during the war, one world received a bulk of those considered "good", the other contained most of the ones considered "evil." I always likened this to the Mirror Universe from Star Trek, a dark reflection of our own universe. Not so campy or direct, but similar.

Now in and of itself, this separation of one world into four stopped a great deal of war. Unfortunately the elemental powers that kept the world going were not multipled in the same way. Thus each world was on its own slow millennia long journey into the cold heart of the ancient darkness.

The four worlds grew and adapted for nearly four thousand years until a group of mages found out that all of the worlds would die were they not brought back together. And so a great magic was enacted. The Breaking, as it became to be known, was the moment the spell that sectioned off the worlds was torn down. That moment also happened to be when the four versions of Arcaylia slammed back into one another in a massive catastrophe. Untold numbers of souls were lost, The Gates of The City of Dusk were filled with the souls of the newly dead for a great many days after this.

One reunited in one world, and the elemental crisis resolved, those who remained took stock of their new world. One of magic and technology entwined intrinsically, Steam Fantasy some would call it.

This is the world of Arcaylia as it stands today, 2400 years after the breaking (A.B.). The gods have once again found their ways to affect the mortal realm and even planar portals have appeared in the cracks formed in the Planar Divide. What once was separate and safe, is now in need of heroes once more. You know... that whole trope.

Let me know what you think of all that

# But I've Rambled Long Enough!

So what should I give away as a prize?
Well I'm thinking a Beta card pack! How does that sound?
Just like the post and comment your Splinterlands user name and which beta card you hope is in the pack and I will do some sort of random draw using Random.org on November 2nd at about 10pm EST.

How's that? Good first post?

See you guys next time,

Tanzo

A solid beta card, what's your favourite Beta?