Captured by Goblins

Welcome, reader, to the fractured world of Valkynara—a land born from the ashes of hubris. In an age long forgotten, a civilization of archmages reached beyond mortal wisdom and attempted a ritual meant only for the highest gods: the power to reshape the world itself. The spell did not remake creation as they intended. Instead, it failed with catastrophic finality. The veil between the mortal realm and the unseen spirit world tore thin, and in a single dreadful moment much of the world’s population was dusted from existence, their bodies undone and their souls scattered into the beyond. Cities fell silent, empires collapsed overnight, and the world staggered into a long twilight of ruin and ash.

In the wake of that catastrophe, the wounded world did not remain empty for long. The thinning veil allowed opportunists—both divine and monstrous—to seize the moment. Minor gods and wandering spirits slipped more easily into the mortal realm, shaping beasts, monsters, and strange new races from the chaos left behind. Among the most consequential acts of this age was the creation of the Progenitor Goblinoid, a singular being shaped by dark divine will and raw chaotic magic. From that first ancestor would descend the goblinoid peoples who now plague and shape the world—orcs, goblins, and minotaurs. At the same time, ancient dragons, patient and calculating, used the surge of magic to craft their beloved kobolds and the rituals to make more in the modern age.

Centuries have passed, and life slowly clawed its way back from the brink. New kingdoms rose where the old empire had crumbled, tribes and wandering peoples carved homes from the bones of forgotten cities, and heroes emerged to push back the worst horrors of the age. Yet the world never truly healed. In places where the old rituals scarred reality—ruins, battlefields of ancient magic, and forgotten sanctums—the veil between worlds still lies thin. There, spirits wander too freely, monsters crawl into existence, and the lingering chaos of the Sundering twists both land and living flesh.

And now the chronicle turns to you. Whether you arrived in Valkynara by birth or were pulled through one of the tears in the veil from an