The First Portals

  Ciroq - Trade capital of the Wodika Empire year 237 of Imperial rule. Season of Ice. Day 33.

  It was a warm day in the middle of the coldest season. It was unreasonably warm to the citizens who had, just the day before, been huddled up in their homes, hovels, or any space with a chimney for heating.

  The ice and snow that had been built up on the streets and rooftops had been melting quick enough to cause flooding as the heat did not radiate through the ground to the sewers. With the waterways beneath the city frozen, and the drains not fairing much better there was no place for the water to flow, except for through the town gates where it stopped.

  The strangest part was the heat did not extend past the city walls.

  The water that had been flowing out of the gates earlier had frozen quickly once it left the city of roughly 25,000 causing an ice damn that pushed the water back. The portcullis gates being frozen in place.

  The moment the sun above hit its peak a blast of energy destroyed an area in the outskirts. Slum buildings and a large portion of the city wall were flattened. Were it not for the debris being forced through nearby people and buildings, no one would have known there had been structures there just moments ago. The implosion bubble from the blast didn’t stop pulling in debris for three tolls of the bell.

  As the sun breached the horizon, fleeing the daylight hours, a second blast happened. This blast, however brought no destruction with it. Instead, a force hit everyone in the city and kept going.

  An archway appeared, three carriages wide and taller than four men. By the next morning a structure that later named a “Gatehouse” stood. It was as if the archway was nothing more than a staircase that led to the sewers. From the sewers, however, there were no signs of an entry.

  Damasq – Port city of the Wodika Empire year 237 of Imperial rule. Season of Ice. Day 34.

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  As the sun hit its zenith, a similar situation unfolded.

  Again, the day was much warmer than usual. Unlike Ciroq, the port city Damasq was far enough south that there was no ice, or if there had been there was so little it would only impede a flea, if that.

  The docks were shattered. Cargo and passenger vessels alike were smashed upon the rocks. Warehouses, inns, and long houses were also flattened. The total damages were valued as a loss of thousands, if not millions of golden crowns.

  Unlike in Ciroq, this Gatehouse led into the sea, so no one was able to verify if there was a structure beneath.

  Wodikan – Capital city of the Wodika Empire year 237 of Imperial rule. Season of Ice. Day 45.

  Reports had been flooding the capital of a combined attack against the cities, town, and villages of the Empire. The first of the attacks, a day apart, had been singular while the next was a village that had two incidents. The first destroying a farm field while the second destroyed the city center.

  The next day there were three, then five, then eight.

  Unknown to the crown, a small village received the brunt of the portals the day before. Ten portals had opened directly in the town while additional 79 opened in the area around it. 89 portals in total. The crown was unaware of this as the energy blasts not only destroyed everything within three days walk from the town center but killed every creature in the area. People had entered the gates to discover what was on the other side, but none had been reported as having returned.

  This day, 144 gates opened, marking the last day of Wodikan, and the end of the Imperial line.

  Like the small, unnamed village, the capital was wiped clean. Thirty-seven gates now marked the once magnificent imperial capital. 107 gates appeared at random through the rest of the Empire.

  The same pattern began the next day in the town of Frust in the neighboring Kingdom of Kurst. Life continued as normal as it could. There was obviously civil unrest, riots, demands for answers and everything you would associate with an apocalyptic occurrence.

  One hundred forty-four days from the first incident, the survivors that were hit with one of the energy blasts that occurred with the creation of the portals woke up to a strange happening. Creatures of many different shapes, sizes, and forms started to come out of the gates. One hundred forty-four days half of the gates would disappear.

  Later, some of these creatures began relations with the survivors and taught them the ways of magic, mana manipulation, and mana body tempering, while others of the creatures would enslave the humans. Names for these creatures were received from some or given by others from different races. Those with hands had five fingers and a thumb on each.

  The portals that had collapsed were where the twelve different intelligent races had come from. The introduction of Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, and other races too fantastical to have been thought up by the former sole sentients of the world was complete. The gates that remained open had the first explorers exit them.