The Lore of Ruin Mist

The Lost Ages

Ruin Mist is not merely a place. It is a memory.

The name itself comes from an ancient elvish phrase meaning the ruins of time — the lost ages buried beneath ash, pride, and propaganda. History in Ruin Mist is not a single clean record. It is layered, fractured, rewritten. What one kingdom calls triumph, another remembers as tragedy.

To understand the present, one must first walk backward into myth.

The Three Realms

1. Over-Earth — Realm of the Ancients

Long before the kingdoms of Men and the distant Reaches of the Elves, there was Over-Earth — the high realm of the greater races: titans, dragons, and eagle lords.

In the First Age, the titans ruled all lands. Men, elves, and dwarves lived not as sovereign peoples but as subjects — some would say slaves — beneath colossal dominion.

Then came Ky’el.

The titan who chose sacrifice over supremacy. In what later ages would call the Great Purge, Ky’el broke the chain of dominion and freed the lesser races. The act sealed the only known gate to Over-Earth, severing the realm from the world below.

By the Fourth Age, Over-Earth survives mostly as myth — a fading legend dismissed by many as superstition.

2. The Mortal Realm

The Mortal Realm is the primary stage of recorded Ruin Mist history — home to the Great Kingdom of Men and the distant Reaches of the Elves.

It is here that the War of Ten Million Tears was fought. It is here that magic was outlawed. It is here that history was rewritten.

Most who live in this realm do not speak in classifications of “realms.” They speak in nations. In borders. In inherited grudges.

Only in later reference texts — such as the Ruin Mist Encyclopedia — is the Mortal Realm once described as the “Middle World,” a classification label used to distinguish it from Over-Earth and Under-Earth. It is not a name spoken by its inhabitants.

3. Under-Earth — The Hidden Realm

Under-Earth is a realm without sun, moon, or stars. Its skies burn red. Its cities are carved into stone older than memory.

Founded by the elven king Uver, the subterranean city of Greye became the heart of a hidden civilization shaped by discipline, philosophy, and power restrained by tradition.

Though often feared as a desolate wasteland, Under-Earth holds truths long erased in the Mortal Realm — histories unburned by the Cleansing.

The Gates of Uver

In the earliest ages, seven gates connected the realms. Forged from material mined in the deepest reaches of the Samguinne, each gate was designed for a specific traveler and veiled in illusion.

Only two gates remain recorded in human history: one in the Borderlands and another in the Twin Sonnets.

Whether others endure — hidden, dormant, or forgotten — remains an open question.

The Four Ages of Ruin Mist

The First Age — Age of Titans

• Titan dominion
• Subjugation of lesser races
• Ky’el’s sacrifice
• Sealing of Over-Earth

The Second Age — Age of Men, Elves & Dwarves

• Self-governance begins
• Relative coexistence
• Rising tensions beneath fragile peace

The Third Age — Age of Men & Elves

• Betrayal of the Elf King Dnyarr
• The War of Ten Million Tears (1,000 years)
• Magical devastation across continents
• Dwarves withdraw into legend

The Fourth Age — Age of Men

• Victory of Men
• The Great Cleansing
• 500-year Dark Age
• Magic outlawed and hunted
• Elves driven into the Reaches
• History rewritten through fear

The War of Ten Million Tears

The Great War lasted a thousand years.

It began with betrayal — the act of Dnyarr, Elf King — but it did not end with a single battle. It became a condition of existence. Entire generations were born into conflict and died without knowing peace.

Magic became both weapon and curse. Ancient relics shattered cities. Landscapes burned.

By the war’s end, the world itself bore scars that would define the Fourth Age.

The Cleansing & The Dark Age

Following victory, the Kingdoms of Men initiated what they called purification.

Books were burned. Magic outlawed. Records destroyed. The past simplified.

Fear spread faster than truth.

Within two generations, many in the Mortal Realm believed elves were myth — or monsters.

The Philosophy of Ruin Mist

History is never singular in Ruin Mist.

A battle remembered as heroism in the Great Kingdom may be mourned as massacre in the Reaches. A titan called tyrant in one age may be remembered as martyr in another.

The world is layered. So is truth.

The return of darkness in the Fourth Age does not simply threaten kingdoms — it forces long-buried memories to surface.

The question is never only who will win.

It is: Which history will survive?