THE KINGDOM OF VALERIS

The Birth of Valeris

Before Valeris, there was only land.

Vast. Untamed. Divided.

Fairies ruled the forests where the trees seemed to touch the heavens. Werewolves held the mountains. Witches, vampires, fallen angels, and demons each claimed lands of their own. They all had magic, but magic alone could never unite them.

For centuries, they stayed apart.

Until one man refused to accept a world divided forever by blood and power.

No one knows where he came from. Some say he was a wandering mage from a nameless village. Others say he descended from a bloodline that vanished long before Valeris began. History remembers only what he did. He travelled from territory to territory, meeting rulers, warriors, and ordinary people. He saw kingdoms fighting over land while common folk suffered. And he decided to build something greater than a kingdom.

A realm.

At its heart, he founded a city where magic, royalty, trade, and knowledge could meet.

Valeris Capital.

Around it rose six great kingdoms: Fairy, Werewolf, Witch, Vampire, Fallen Angel, and Demon. And the man who united them became the first Wizard King.

The Founder.

As the realm grew, one throne could no longer oversee everything. So each kingdom was given a voice. Six Council Elders, one from each kingdom, became the guardians of the balance between them.

Then came the Magical Knights.

Six Orders were established, each with its own style of combat and its own philosophy. The Sky Order, swift and far-reaching. The Flame Order, feared for its destruction. The Tide Order, masters of healing and control. The Earth Order, the shield that stood when everything else fell. The Arcane Order, whose strange magic challenged what scholars believed possible. And the Veil Order, older and more secretive, whose earliest history had faded into silence.

Each Order had a Captain. Six Captains, six symbols of strength, and some of the most respected figures in the realm.

But becoming a Magical Knight was never meant to be a privilege of nobles. So the Magical Knight Trial was created. When a young mage turned eighteen, they could stand before the Captains and show what they were made of. Those the Captains found worthy would be chosen.

For some, it was a chance to rise above the life they were born into. A chance to protect their people. A chance to have their name remembered.

But Valeris was not only castles and kingdoms. Beyond the capital lay towns and villages where people lived quieter lives. And further still, across an immense distance, lay the Forgotten Region. Fairies, witches, werewolves, and mages lived there too. Yet to the people of the central realm, those communities had faded into little more than names. Only ancient gates and magical bridges could cross that distance, and so the two regions stayed apart.

History is written by kings, queens, knights, and scholars. It remembers the powerful. The victorious. The names carved into stone.

And sometimes, it forgets the ones standing quietly beneath them.

Centuries after the first stone of the capital was laid, a child was born into one of the most powerful noble bloodlines in the realm. Surrounded by magic. Surrounded by royalty. Surrounded by expectations.

And despite being born into greatness, he would spend his earliest years wondering whether he deserved to stand among it.

His name was Kevin Riven.