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Isle of Lore

Once the birthplace of magic and the beings and creatures that sprung forth to wield it, as magical beings moved to claim the land that became known as Inspera, it changed. Once peace was finally reached within Inspera, however tentative, it became clear that while certain affinities were more common in certain kingdomʼs, any affinity could appear across Inspera and while all magical beings valued educating their youth, few were comfortable sending their children to another kingdom to be taught. Thus, the Isle of Lore became a neutral zone that all four kingdoms could access equally, and Dagda College was born. While some creatures had limited, innate magical talent, to truly harness ones magical ability, one needed to be taught. Dagda became that place of learning, intent on fostering cross-kingdom and cross-affinity understanding by inviting students from across Inspera that showed promise to learn within itʼs halls. Beings of each affinity would also be invited to teach, mentoring those were also blessed beneath their god or goddesses sign. It was never clear exactly who did the inviting, yet the college managed to maintain balance, no one kingdom being represented over another, and no one affinity being shown favoritism or privilege (whoever irksome that was to some). Even humans, who Insperianʼs certainly knew of, but largely rejected as uninteresting at best, or barbaric at worst, managed to find their way to the Isle, and while many of the students and instructors alike were taken aback by the sudden, inexplicable appearance of mortal students, the Isle itself seemed to welcome them all the same.

For a time, the peace that held in Inspera held on the Isle, and those that were privileged enough to attend left the grounds for their home kingdomʼs the better for the experience. The human students were, at the end of their stay, given a choice; return home, or remain within a kingdom of their choosing. Many made connections, had found friends, lovers, a home, and chose to remain. Others knew their gifts were needed back on the surface, however dangerous or taboo they might be viewed.

Of course, the calm within Inspera was never meant to last, and with it, tensions between kingdoms reignited as a plague started descending upon Inspera. Old prejudices were renewed and Dagda college, once a beacon of hope, was shuttered. None felt safe enough with those outside their kingdom, and so none sent their children. Beings of affinities not common within their kingdomʼs languished, and many were banished outright, as a sign of an opposing kingdomʼs influence. Humans whoʼd been largely welcomed before, were suddenly met with suspicious, and as hostilities between kingdoms rose, so did the violence within the kingdom's themselves.

Those with "unnatural" affinities to their kingdom, and those humans that were not killed immediately, found themselves banished from the places theyʼd once called home, sent back to the Isle that theyʼd built connections upon. The Isle, however, had changed as well. Whatever magic it had held seemed to need beings to sustain it, and those that were banished there were often too angry, broken, and hurt to do much else but continue being so.

From a thriving college to a place of punishment, that was the way the Isle continued to be when the winter kingdom itself was finally banished, bringing with it itʼs own set of betrayed, war battered people, and their equally betrayed and war battered king.

Years and years would pass, the Isle sustaining those that had the misfortune of finding themselves there, but giving little else outside of basic survival. It would be centuries of human life that would pass before the king of winter, and those that had managed to survive from his torn court before the mantel of Dagda College would be taken up again, however begrudgingly. It would be decades more before humans would seemed to find their way back to the Isle as well, inexplicably at first and then...all at once. For the winter court and the few other magical beings that find themselves on the Isle, it is a prison, but for the humans that have started appearing...Dagda College may just be the place to find the freedom their magical abilities have always promised.

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