FIREBIRD BOOK AWARD 2022

WELCOME TO THE WORLDS

The Underworld, where Demons dwell, and the Overworld, ruled by the Fae, had fought for millennia; two opposing magical worlds who would forever clash.

One world was full of darkness and evil manifested. The Underworld was ruled by the 42– a league of its most powerful Demons who oversaw a regime of pain and suffering. It was a realm of fire and darkness that only the most desperate of humans ever entered, the cursed and the damned.

One world was full of light and said to be ruled by the Fae–the inspiration fortales of fairies and sprites over centuries. The Overworld was a realm high in the sky, fortified against outsiders. It was a haven for the few lucky enough to find it.

The war between the Overworld and the Underworld was as old as time itself. It was always in delicate balance–pushing and pulling–one never triumphing over the other.

Between them was the mortal world, overrun, and eventually ruled, by the human race. They saw but could not fully comprehend the realms of magic. It existed on their periphery–tales of supernatural beings that bled into their history. They felt the impact of the presence of the Overworld and the Underworld, whether they knew it or not.

Often without being conscious of it, humans bred with supernatural beings, creating a child with special abilities. This offspring became known as Magic Users.

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The mortal world was wary of what it did not understand. Humans grew resentful of the magic they could not control; they feared the great powers of the Underworld and the Overworld.

Across nations, parties, governments and regimes were created to combat the supernatural. The biggest and most successful of these parties was the Occult. Now fifty years old, it was formed to rid the world of supernatural influences. It started small but grew in strength as the number of war casualties mounted.

The Occult changed everything.

Twenty years ago, for the first time in history, the Occult joined the war. They used their knowledge, weapons and technology to fight the magical realms. They turned the tide. The balance shifted. 

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The Underworld united with the Occult and decimated the Overworld. The Fae were almost destroyed – the last of them fled to the Burial Grounds – and the Overworld was sealed. The Underworld, although victorious, was weakened by the effort. With the Overworld gone, and the Underworld diminished, magic faded from the mortal world. The only reminder being the Users, the half-human/half-supernatural beings who had inherited power from their parentage.

In the power vacuum that followed, a new leader rose as Head of the Occult. He made it his mission to eliminate the human world of all that was left of magic. He hunted and captured the Users to rid the world of their evil, once and for all. 

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