The city of Allemanthiea sits at the heart of Southern Shara, rising from the barren desert, a beacon of the successful melding between magic and technology. I am overwhelmed with memories and emotions as I slowly descend into the city on my pegasus. I moved here from Castanica in the heat of the Argon war, joining a weapon development team fronted as research, secretly funded by the Valkyon Federation.

The High Elves had long sought to harness the power of the arcane but as extensive their research into magic was, attempts at containing magic with magic yielded little success. That’s where the Castanics came in, as the best master craftsmen in Arborea, a consortium of the brightest engineers came together in pursuit of the solution to the arcane containment conundrum. Working together with the High Elves’ Mysterium in the deepest chamber of Malachai’s Lab, they quickly developed the Arccannon.

Early tests yielded great results, the destructive power of the Arccannons were unmatched by anything that ever existed in mortal hands. Even then, the first generation Arccannon prototypes could only utilise a fraction of the arcane energy fed into it, hardly efficient. Then came the problem of construction, every shot fired from put unimaginable stress on the Arccannon body, the weapon would disintegrate and fall apart from the excess arcane energy breaking free. A weapon that harms the user more than the target is useless.

Plagued with countless problems, the future of the once shining gem of Castanic and High Elf collaboration seemed bleak. With the rising cost of the Argon war, the federation threatened to pull all funding. Hope came in the form of Jennes, a master crafter of magic weapons, he had the brilliant idea of harnessing the leaked arcane energy, directing it to be stored. With a proper channel, the excess arcane energy had somewhere to go and stopped breaking through the body of the arccannons.

However, the solution is, as usual, not without drawbacks, the build-up of arcane energy corrupts and hurts the wielder. The arcane energy would burn the user, leaving scorch marks on their skin, bleaching the color of their eyes. Over time it would even corrupt their minds, amplifying their bloodlust, sending them into a murderous frenzy. I believe calling the stored energy willpower is a cruel and deliberate joke.

In order for castanics to control arcane energy, we must be exposed to it before the curse of Baldar takes effect, before the arcane scars on our body surfaces. I was recruited as a child, my coming of age triggered prematurely, although not by much, from exposure to the Mysterium's unique blend of arcane energy. I was young and clueless, eager to prove my worth to the federation. I was a fool.

Only the two female testers of the original four, two pairs of a male and female castanics and elves, all recruited from young, survived the first series of combat trials. I watched in agony and fear as we slowly descend into madness, wondering when the inevitable would happen. The effects were especially adverse on male users, both the castanic and high elf male went berserk, destroying themselves in the process pretty early in the test phase. It was therefore no surprise when the decision to restrict the use of arccannons to female high-elves and castanics was made.

The last real memory I have was of the night before the testing of the new arccannon. I shared a room with the high elf female, finding comfort in the shared unknowns of our fate. I remember falling asleep nervous and scared, it would be the first time the new prototype armor would be used in combat, I hoped it would deliver as promised. Considering the massive gap in my memory, it might not have gone too well.