Fantasy I (Seven Secrets)

In the ten kingdoms of Mirld, the forces of good have always held a precarious advantage over the forces of evil. Until now. The destiny of one world lies in the hands of a princess, a sorceress and a woodsman.

Centuries ago, ten voyagers, their families and friends sailed from a forgotten land across angry seas and discovered an unknown area. Gazing at the serene wilderness that greeted the exhausted travelers, one leader named the new land Mirld, which in an ancient tongue meant "Peace." The newcomers spent years exploring and creating a law and government. Each family was allotted a kingdom and had equal voice and power in the great Council that the ten rulers formed. Holding great power, the Council had the authority to even depose and replace a corrupt ruler should they misuse their power. The Council set up the king of Krasiva as the Head of the Council, as he was the mightiest and wisest among them. Eventually, several of the kingdoms evolved into republics. Over the next 850 years, the Council remained a figurehead of strength and wisdom.

Sorcery had been part of Mirld even before the first voyagers landed. When the continent began to be inhabited, six sorcerers came from the lands of the far north to offer their own wisdom and magic to the settlers. Through their aid, the rulers learned how to bind themselves to their throne and their land, and even bound the monarch of Krasiva to the entire continent in order to obtain the greatest degree of peace and unity. A score of years had passed after the arrival of the six sorcerers, when another appeared who called himself Balron the White. He told of the destruction of the greatest of the sorcerer's cities by the mistake of one wicked mage. That man, Balron's brother, and Balron himself had desired mastery over all the orders of magic, not just one. In addition to the ranks of brown, yellow, green, blue, and purple, Balron and his brother's experimentation had created two new opposite ranks: black and white. Balron the White was not strong enough to curb his brother's ambition even before the evil man became a black sorcerer and afterwards, the black magic overwhelmed him, and the sorcerer destroyed himself and an entire city. Exiled and cut off permanently from the north, Balron brought his secret with him.

Already the six original sorcerers had set up schools of their own among Mirld's inhabitants, and all were eager to embrace the knowledge that Balron had brought. Chance rolled a strange fate; three of the sorcerers became Whites, and three became Blacks. With Balron, the balance tilted towards the white side.

The balance of the Seven, as others called these masters of magic, has since always favored the white. But Balron himself warned of a time to come in the next thousand years when the balance would be shaken and Mirld tossed into ruins unless the pure ones of the younger generation could save it. 850 years after the formation of the Council, Balron's words rang in the minds of many wise and powerful individuals as a dark threat crept from the south and began its mission of complete and utter destruction.

Just for the information of the writers/readers, I'm going to include the names of the ten kingdoms of Mirld, their capitols, and their rulers. Put simply Mirld is roughly an oval peninsula with a large island located just south of it. That island is Jiwilon. For the main continent, it is kind of set up like a tic-tac-toe grid, with Krasiva in the center as the largest country. Starting from the top left and moving clockwise around Krasiva are Fauu, Illinlar, Haydisl, Calindear, Edeulgh, Blen, Arlandie, and Davdenpar: