You'd like to know more about endungification? Well, it's what we say to describe how everything feels like being in a deep, dark dungeon these days. All of the mysteries and adventures of life seem to have been sucked from the world. It all started when some wizards got a bit greedy. Let's start at the beginning...

There was a time in the distant past when wizards, even with their tremendous magical abilities, felt constrained by academies and guilds because they had too many rules about what was considered too dark, powerful, or forbidden. Over time, these wizards splintered off and began to form various fellowships purely for the purpose of researching magic and developing spells, away from the oppressive oversight of the keepers of the tomes and beyond the bounds of conventional wisdom. What began as a noble endeavor inevitably turned into a pursuit of power, and the small fellowships of wizards eventually became large companies of magic users.

Around the time of this splintering and reformation, an unassuming dwarf by the name of Thimrar Brightriver stumbled upon a crystal within the mines of Glimmerlan that would forever change the fortunes of the realm. The crystal wasn't noteworthy at first glance. Holding the eight-sided, cylindrical shard in his palm, Thimrar would have thrown it aside and continued with his exploration were it not for the exceptional clarity of the material. The crystal was so clear that it seemed almost invisible, and Thimrar later observed that it would glow in the presence of someone casting a spell. Upon further study, mages learned that such crystals, now called etherstones or more commonly, magestones, could store and transmit magical energy across great distances, and this unprecedented discovery imbued the crystals with great value. It was not long before a rush of dwarves, stricken with the fervor of cultish acolytes, began mining magestones from the deepest depths of Glimmerlan.

The explosion of magical devices, mechanisms, and innovations powered by the magestones transformed the realm and the lives of its inhabitants. More than a few denizens grumbled about better days past, a time unfettered and uncomplicated by omnipresent magic, but they also could not live without the conveniences offered by the mages and their stones. It was an uneasy yet acceptable compromise, and the rhythms of the realm continued like clockwork, with townfolk and adventurers going about their lives, albeit with more speed and less thought. Such was the discovery of a crystal, which proved to be so radical. However, the breakthrough to follow was earthshattering in an existential way, far surpassing the impact of the magestones.

Led by the enchanting Aluris Charismox, one of the largest company of mages, known as Whispering Titan, developed a spell that would change the Realm of Fortuna with the totality of a meteor storm, except no one really remembers the storm itself, only its aftermath. The spell is called Automagic Infusion. According to apocryphal accounts, it is said that a lower level mage was trying to conjure a spell that would produce copies of magestones, when they inadvertantly infused their own soul into a stone. Although confined to the stone, the soul contained therein could think, reason, and most importantly, cast spells to affect the world outside the stone. Some believe the original automagic stone, imperfect and brittle, burned out soon after creation. Whatever the case, the stone disappeared into the river of time but not before leaving behind a record of the spell that conceived it.

Since then, the mages of Whispering Titan have refined the spell to infuse stones with only a small part of their own soul or, better yet, the souls of the dead that still roam the earthly plane. It is not known what effect the infusion has on the soul of the caster or of the infused, but many believe that such unnatural transfers have a corruptive effect. Regardless of the consequences, mages have proceeded to harness the power of Automagic Infusion. Combined with other stones and embedded into elemental golems, mages can create, in essence, fully characterized, autonomous beings. In other words, mages have become the new gods of our reality.

Now, the realm has become a sanitary, if not altogether sanitized, place of business. Gone are the days of hardworking townfolk and intrepid explorers. The autonomous golem beings, commonly shortened to "lemings", are smarter, faster, and stronger than us, and the lemings have replaced seemingly all people, including most mages, when it comes to things that require waking and rolling up one's sleeves. Whispering Titan is particularly proud of the fact that lemings do not require wages and, above all, are subservient to their creators. How long will they remain subservient? Such are questions better reserved for philosophers and bards, people who watch and take note. For the hard charging mages who forge ahead, questions are things to be answered after they arise, not before.

So, my friend, I guess you could say we're at the end of the world and at the beginning of an encompassing boredom. The High Mage Charismox and his Council of Mages control everything and crow quite loudly about having created the perfect utopia (for themselves). Us regular folks are left to wander about aimlessly in search of meaning and purpose under the everpresent gaze of the Council. As they like to say, the Council is the Power, and everyone else is...well, everyone else.

Now then, back to finding Baldous. Would you like to try investing in the Magic Market? You can also skip the Magic Market experience and try another route.

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