Ashtara

"Ashtara still exists? I thought... I thought it got destroyed when we were sent to Iphars..." said Pasha, flying behind Echo.

"Well, I don't recall Ashtara being just some floating islands in a void, but yeah, some parts still exist. Luckily for you, some of the Stride survived."

Alternative Name(s)

The other world
Home (by the Melgent)

Type

Cracked Planet

Ashtara, also known as "the other world", is the world where the Melgent came from and the world that crashed into Iphars, 50 years ago, when The dawn of magic happened.

"It's unbelievable to think that a world could get so destroyed. To believe this once had continents, oceans, mountains... How could the gods let us to die?"

"Gods cared not about Ashtara when this happened. They were busy playing with their new toy, Iphars." answered Echo.

"I thought Iphars is an old planet?"

"Old? Yes. But the gods were unaware of it existance until recently."

Before the dawn

How it looked like

Ashtara was a paradise world, everything looked perfect while in the deep being a corrupted world by magic. The old world had had magic almost since the start and magic had slowly shaped it into its desire, which in reality was the god's desire.

Ashtara had two types of landmasses: groundlevel and floating. The people commonly refered to these two types as "earth" and "sky", respectively. As their name indicates, the floating islands are giant landmasses, quite plain geographically speaking, hovering over the "Earth" level, slowly moving with the air currents. At "Earth" level there where the oceans and continents, which had a great variety of life forms and resources.

Species

Flora

Divided into two groups depending on how they "eat", there were the magical plants and the plants. The magical plants, as their name may suggest, survived by using mana as fuel rather than light; the rest were normal plants which used light and nutrients from the soil to survive.

Fauna

Animals were not divided into magical and not magical but that does not mean that animals were unable to use magic, quite the contrary. Most of the species (if not all) used magic or were dependant of magic (whether it was theirs or from other animals).

Melgent

Melgent is a broad term to refer to the group of sapient species that inhabited Ashtara. Not all these species are able to reproduce with one another, and each are adapted to certain types of terrain.

"Why you need some Stride?" asks Echo.

"Ilmas promised to leave alone my city if I bring some to her. She thought it would be impossible as it all died with Ashtara and so I thought... You were my only option and looks like a good option."

The dawn

"Do you remember the portals? The fear and panic?"

"I was not here, had my own things to deal at my home, you know? Like saving people and then having them betray me." mustered Echo with an angry face.

"I'm... sorry 'bout that. I remember helping the people, saving them from destroyed cities, taking them to portals we didn't even know where it would takes us to but they were our only hope."

While in Iphars The dawn of magic lasted between a week and a month (depending on who you ask to), in Ashtara it lasted years, and left a big impact in the world, bigger than the impact in Iphars.

The portals

It all started with portals appearing worldwide. They were stationary, always activated and were not like any seen until that moment. Melgent cannot tell what made them different to every other portals they had used and created until the moment, but all of them will tell they were not normal.

While the portals on earth level were stationary, the portals midair attracted things near them and made them cross through them to wherever they led. In the ocean, the currents did that for the portals, and many species were sucked through them too.

The disasters

People would usually keep away from the portals. That ended when, about a year later, a series of terrible natural disasters struck Ashtara. No one knew what to do, as such disasters never hit their world due to the magic not letting them reach their shores.

Towns were destroyed, forests burned to the ground, mountains fell apart collapsing their caves systems. Millions died, and those few who managed to survive fled willingly through the portals. The hope for safety overriding the fear of the unknown. Several animals also fled through them, some even in mixed species groups (such as Ialin took the Radent with them). Despite their connection with magic, magical plants didn't cross the portals, as they were still bound by the limitations of their nature.

The few plants who survived the destruction of Ashtara were those taken by the Melgent when they were escaping, and by the groups of brave ones who tried and save as much as they could. Of those, Pasha stood out among the others. They directed a great amount of volunteers, and with their knowledge they managed to save much more species than the other groups.

"You actually impressed me with all the work you did here. I thought of you as a lowlife criminal who only thought of themself." commented Echo.

"It felt wrong to just leave, and I had an extense network of people who owned me favous, so I did what I could. It felt good, it was what made me help in the other world as well rather than going back to being a criminal."

After the dawn

"It makes me so sad to see this is all left of my home, but it's breathtaken, beautiful..."

"We are near a surviving town. They will not be happy to see you so I shall hide your real person with illusion. Next to the town is a wild garden of Stride, we will take a bit for Ilmas, but you will also take some to bring to Iphars and grow its numbers, and after that we will go back to the portal."

Unknown to the Melgent who had managed to escape, and were now living in Iphars, Ashtara wasn't lost. The world had survived though by turning itself into multiples floating islands protected by an atmosphere of all the magic that was left. But not every Melgent had managed to escape. The groups of stragglers who had survived found each other, and joined under one big group.

As time passed their relationship with those who survived became difficult, with their feelings jumping between resentment are thinking themselves left behind and forgotten, and guilt when thinking that they might have died when crossing, as no one knew what really was on the other side.

The Fauna and Flora who had survived did so thanks to the magic that helped them change to adapt to their new conditions. The Melgent paid attention only to cattle and the regular crops, not really wanting to get adventurous when there were so few of them.

Magic

Magic is sentient. Every creature in existence knows it. It's its own master. Designed by the gods to be neither good, nor bad, is just power. But in time, it evolved its own mind. It detached itself from the god's power so it could keep a neutral stance.

It adapts worlds at its will but all worlds it shape are their own unique world. In Ashtara, the magic turned everything in what it believed it would be its perfect form. It took away many of the dangers (while keeping the food chain) which included natural disasters (although for the sake of the planet, it could not make all of them disappear, but made them hard to detect).

After the dawn, magic was offended, its hard work had been mostly destroyed because a god caused a problem. As it could not affect gods, magic focused on what was left of Ashtara. It made the pieces left of Ashtara habitable, and its slowly helping the remaining species to evolve as soon as possible so that they can survive with ease. It also made appear water from nowhere so it ensured that all the floating islands had some amount of water for its species to survive, and makes the water be constant.

"It was such a pretty planet... Everything in Iphars looks worse, feels worse, and the magic, oh the magic... A source of purity in Ashtara, vile poison in Iphars..."

"Magic is posion, you just do not realize it because you have not felt pure power, one coming straight from yourself or the gods. The nearest thing you have ever felt was the air in my home." answers Echo to Pasha's nostalgia. "Now, let's cross the portal before something happen. You will go first and I will follow, if I do not see you at the other side, I will use the anchor, so worry not.