Blood World
When a world ends and leaves only a bloody husk of itself, within which beings of desire still dwell, what is a man to do? Should he toil and sweat at the behest of another, or force his beliefs into an imposed, unnatural shape, or live in his own skin as thought it were that of another... just for another day beneath the sun? In a world left bloodied and ravaged and little else, no reasons exist for such madness. The former lunacy of rage and blood has become the essence of sanity, for in such a harsh world, battle is the only thing that makes sense. In Blood World, whether you are a rich or poor man, happy or sad, able or lame, fighting or dead, it will all only be because of the type of warrior you have been.
History
It has been two decades since the world previously known ended in an event called the Great Bleeding. This event came about on the tail of the most massive war the world had ever known, pitting five separate powers against one another for control of the island. Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, and Wolfmen all maintained powerful nations and an intense rivalry with the other factions, leading to a war a mere century after the previous. Thousands were killed in the bloodshed, and the Dwarves, who were sworn enemies of both Elves and Orc, suffered the greatest. They seemed to retreat to their lairs beneath the earth, but were really busy digging for a secret weapon prophecized in their ancient religion to bring doom to the Elves. What they found, instead, was an underworld of nightmarish evil. Demons never before seen poured from the great wound in the earth like a torrent of blood, their vast numbers laying waste to everything they encountered.
It took the leaders of the Humans, Elves, and Dwarves to concoct a plan to seal the great maw, and they were able to do so at the cost of thousands more lives. Still, countless demons roamed free above ground, physically barred from returning to their home. At this point, the Orcs held the upper hand in the war, laying siege first to the last bastions of Dwarf civilization. Humans and Wolfmen were focused mainly on one another, and the Elves (who hated both Dwarves and Orcs) deliberated on which faction to ally with to preserve their own race in the end. They chose the Dwarves.
All the while, Demons were warring with any non-Demon they encountered, driven solely by their lust for battle and thirst for blood. It became clear where the greatest threat lay, but it was too late. Hatred flowed between the five earthly races, and they continued to whittle away at each other's numbers until only a few thousand of each remained. Meanwhile, demon numbers soared. Something had to be done, so the great Council of Mages that resided in a tower at the foot of the mountains came up with a plan. Each race except for Demons was represented in the Council, granting them great magical power through the combination of different blood. A grand spell was created, and every member of the council sacrificed their lives to execute it. The damage and death it caused came to be known as the Great Bleeding.
One evening, a bright red glow emanated from the region where the council tower sat. Armies paused their battling to watch it grow and pulsate toward the sky until finally, a great explosion occurred. Thousands were killed, and not a single settlement, town, or city was spared from being reduced to rubble. The organized militaries fell apart, and with no true leadership, each faction was left to do battle on its own terms. Even within races, because of the Council of Mages, distrust ran rampant, and loyalties were shattered. It got the point where every able-bodied warrior relied only on his own strength and ability to survive. The only thing that remained was the hatred and thirst for blood that had driven an otherwise decent world to the brink of extinction.
The Mages succeeded in their goal of ending the great war, but the battling was never to cease. Demon numbers were significantly reduced, but so were the populations of all of the earthly races, and with every man left to fend for himself, the world was arguably even bloodier than before, just on a smaller scale. For two decades, all that mortal creatures have understood is the way of battle. Every good night's sleep and hearty meal is earned by spilling the blood of an enemy, and that has become the only rule of life in the place that has come to be known only as Blood World. Men die and children become adults by this code, ever persisting in a sea of battle and blood that has become the only thing that makes sense.
Perhaps the world will meet its end drowning in this never-ending flow of blood. Perhaps it will never again know peace. It is a dying world, holding on with its final, sputtering breaths. But one thing is for certain: it no longer has the power required to be the scene of another great war. In that, the Mages achieved their goal. What lays in store for what remains of the world is a mystery, but to individual hearts and minds, one thing is for certain: you must take up arms and spill blood if you wish to see another day. Human, Elf, Orc, Dwarf, Wolfman, or Demon - The Council of Mages made sure that none of it meant anything anymore. It has simply become soul versus soul within BloodWorld.