A Painting Wrought in Crystal

There are few examples of power so direct as holding a Crystal, however. No matter it's quality, it can protect you, it can attack your enemies. Heal, harm, the ability to do both becomes yours. A simple tool.

I've always found the simplest tools to be the most versatile.

— Unknown

The tide of magic ebbs and flows, or so we are led to believe. When the transitory tribes of Taurus and Goblins First, we started to piece the first inklings of static society together, and that flow began again.

Sorcerers and mages would grow in power over centuries, reaching ever higher zeniths with their magics, all the while the world grew more and more wild with them. Little did they know how much magic really is like a sea, until it boiled over.

The Fall of the Curtain covered the world in a haze of magic so thick it nearly smothered sapient life from the world's surface. Monsters expanded in size and capability, seemingly overnight. The landscape itself seemed to come to life, rapidly swelling with fecund growth and even plants that acted as animals do. The remains of such spaces have yet to fade, and the beasts left behind remain unignorable threats when they wander near our cities and towns.

Despite this, we have grown... confident, in the niches we have carved out. Our certainty in our societies, ideas, and inventions has made us comfortable with the idea of our superiority over the natural world, and that we need not be concerned with its foibles. Many nations ready themselves to contend with each other once more, rather than the world around us.

Hopefully, it is worth it for them.