Magic was the foundation of everything.
It shaped the land, dictated the laws of nature, and determined the fate of those who lived within its grasp.To be born without it was to be born broken, a flaw in the grand design of existence.
The world of Eldoria was vast, divided among great kingdoms, each ruled by powerful sorcerers, warlords, and divine beings.Towers of arcane knowledge stretched toward the heavens, their spires humming with enchanted energies.The rivers shimmered with residual mana, and the air itself crackled with the presence of unseen forces.
From the moment of birth, every child was tested.
The Rite of Awakening, performed in the first hours of life, determined ones potential.A priest, imbued with the blessings of the arcane, would place their hand upon the newborns' chest, seeking the flow of mana within them.Some were born with vast reserves, their bodies brimming with potential.These children were destined for greatnesstrained as sorcerers, scholars, or warriors of legend.
Others had weaker flows, capable of wielding only minor magics.They became merchants, craftsmen, or servants to the higher class.
But the rarest of allthe cursedwere those born with nothing.
They were called the Hollowborn.
To lack magic entirely was not just a misfortune; it was a death sentence.A child without mana was considered unnatural, a blight upon their family name.No kingdom had a place for the powerless, no academy would take them, and no ruler would acknowledge them.
And so, they were discarded.
Some were abandoned in the wilderness, left for nature to claim.Others were drowned in rivers or offered as sacrifices to dark beings, their deaths seen as necessary to cleanse their bloodlines.
It was a brutal truth.
For in Eldoria, power was everything.
And without it, one was nothing.