"So, this world was changed forever when the Eleven Primordial Sovereigns clashed two hundred years ago."
As Ethan was going through the memories, he came to know that the original owner's name here was also Ethan. Just Ethan. No surname, as he was a commoner and commoners were not allowed to have surnames. One could attain a nobility status just by awakening a strong bloodline, even the weakest bloodline user gets a title of Lowborn. He then can be allowed to have a surname from the Blood Hall when he does a notable and praiseworthy deed.
This world was called Vaeloria by Humans. And the strongest human right now was the Emperor Voss Karthian. But during the Bloodfall, new races, especially the Scaled Folk and Shadowborn appeared and called themselves superior to humans, as they were the first race to awaken the strongest bloodlines and start fighting back against the magical beasts. However, Humans were not so far behind; due to their adaptability, they too caught up to them and started fighting as soon as people awakened their bloodlines.
Thus began the Dark Age of Bloodfall in which population of all races dwindled drastically.
Billions of people died; cities, kingdoms and empires fell.
This continued for hundreds of years until finally only 3 Empires stood—the Shadowborn Empire Nyxara, the Scaled Folk Empire Drakmoor and finally the Human Empire Vaeloria.
But even with all this only 30% of the total landmass was conquered and the rest is roamed by deadly and monstrous beasts, making the ruling authorities hungry after habitable territories, this however created conflicts with other races when two parties claimed the same territory as theirs, creating enmity towards each other.
The human emperor even created a law in which people of other races cannot roam freely in Vaeloria and the only way they can be allowed is by being a slave, putting them at even lower position then commoners.
But it didn't mean that common people were in any good shape. Here strength defined status and authority. Since strong bloodline users were rare and valuable resources that could help in expansion of empires boundaries, and due to the fact that only 1-2% of total applicants that applied for each year awakened their bloodlines, the empire showered them with privileges.
Yet, they could literally kill any commoner because of 'bad temper' and authorities would not take any actions, only framing the innocent in bad light...
But it didn't mean that hierarchy didn't exist. There were 9 ranks, 1 star to 9 star bloodline users, with each star divided into 4 minor levels, namely low, intermediate, advanced and peak. Starting from 5 stars, bloodline users were called—
5 star - Slayer
6 star - Reaper
7 star - King
8 star - Emperor
9 star - Monarch
Emperor Voss Karthian was an Advanced 8 star bloodline user. Till date no one has achieved 9 star, with some people even saying such a level doesn't exist and it's a myth.
Same goes for beasts too. They are also divided in star ranks and a bloodline user is able to fight a beast which is equivalent to his own rank. But there is one difference—10 star Beasts.
More commonly known as God Beasts.
There is a legend that goes around which says that the reason the Bloodfall started was because the Eleven Primordial Sovereigns fought each other to death. Destroying and disintegrating their homeland, originally said to be huge... absolutely huge! Larger than anything Ethan could even imagine, was filled with various types of beasts in every corner of that world. When it disintegrated, the parts of lands started to merge with different planets like that of Vaeloria causing beast apocalypse in them, and the integration is still going on!
That's the reason, Emperors of the 3 empires give their all to keep strong bloodline users on their side. Because the danger of beasts have not subsided and the apocalypse like situation may occur again if aggressive approach is not taken as right now, the place at top of the food chain is hogged by beasts.
They may be called empires but the truth was that the territory was very unrefined. Walled cities were built in places where the beasts have been slain and people start to live there. How do they come in those cities? Through teleportation powers that spatial beasts possess. So, there might be a case where a Scaled Folk empire city is built in a place where majority belongs to human or Shadowborn empire. When found out, the Scaled Folk would be attacked from all sides and their people turned into slaves.
And even though the living conditions were as bad as they could be, like bad hygiene, no maintenance and absolutely no human rights. People still lived in there, even when ordinary citizens and slaves were treated as livestock, no one dared to leave.
Yes, 'dared'.
Because outside the towns and cities, mutated beasts roamed freely. Only capable bloodline users travelled freely as the spatial beasts and their tamers were strictly commanded by the Empires ruling authority. Once they would drop you off to a city, then it depends on your luck if you find a decent person overseeing that place. Which rarely happened as 'good' people nearly became non existent since the time strong bloodline users started to rule.
Now it's even considered 'good' if you see a person being killed by another person in front of you just because his face wasn't up to standard, and you say "Damn... such a sorry soul", you are a good person.
Ethan was going through all of this memory while sitting in lotus position, with one hand over his knees, the other supporting his head and looking at the cracked stone wall in front of him.
He only muttered.
"Damn."
"Looks like people here are made by taking the worst of my previous life as a base... then evolving them into even worse variants."
Even though he said it lightly, his demeanor was completely serious.
"This... is a problem."
"A huge problem..."