From Sleepywood.net. I take no copyright in this, just posting on MMO cause he didn’t put any legal stuff on it.

Long ago, Victoria Island was ruled by the civilization of the Sharenian. The Sharenian ruled from the heavily forested area in the north of Victoria, where Perion is today. This culture lasted for hundreds of years, and created much of the things that make the Maple World what it is today. The Sharenian country really did span the entirety of Victoria. The Stone Golems were created to guard their Temple at the southern edge of the island. Even the Sanctuary, deep in the Ant Tunnel, was once an important proving ground for them. But alas, all great things must come to an end, and the Sharenian met their end under the rule of Sharen III. Sharen III was a wise and compassionate man, who ruled fairly and was liked by all. He craved immortality, however, and sought out the Rubian, a precious jewel that brings youth to anyone who owns it. unfortunately, the Rubian is cursed, and all who possess it meet their end, downtrodden and defeated. Sharen III, being the ruler of the entire nation of Sharenian, inadvertently took it down with him. Perion became the barren, arid wasteland we know it as today.
More recently, the Excavation site and all of the digging going on nearby have not been helping the problem.

And that is how the world remained, without any major ruling group, until nearly 300 years ago. Alcaster, the famous magician of El Nath, began studying a story passed down for a long time. It told of a great war that took place ages ago, and a legendary book, The Book of Ancient, containing forbidden magic and dark spells, that was used as a weapon in this war. The war, though fought for unknown reasons and between unknown factions, does have a few survivors to this day: the 4 wisemen of Victoria island. Grendel, Athena Pierce, Dances with Balrog, and Dark Lord all met during this conflict. Together, they decided to hide the Book of Ancient from everyone. After hiding it, they created a map, and to prevent it from being abused, split the map into four corners, each one keeping a piece.

Grendel retired to the town in the trees, Ellinia, and began to study black magic. His first attempts at this were to bring straw dolls to life. Black Magic is very dangerous, because if it is misused, the magician risks losing his ability to use spells all together. Black magic dealing with life is especially forbidden, and yet the young Grendel went straight for it. Unfortunately, something went horribly wrong, and the curse of Black Magic leaked into the dolls. Grendel took the Cursed dolls and sealed them deep in the dungeon, never to be seen again… Or so he hoped. Years later, the Lupin living nearby discovered the cursed dolls and stole them away, causing them to become Zombie Lupin.

Around this same time, Athena Pierce, wandering the plains of Southern Victoria, came across a small town that was under attack by hordes of powerful monsters, led by Mushmom. She defeated the onslaught singlehandedly, and has since remained there to protect the village of Henesys and teach young beginners the Way of the Archer.

Getting back to Alcaster, after having someone gather up the 4 map pieces from Victoria’s wisemen, he was able to piece the map together using another form of Black Magic. The map revealed that the Book of Ancient was hidden in Orbis Tower. Finally, the book was recovered and Alcaster studied it for a long time. Eventually he discovered a way to seal its forbidden power
once and for all using Dark Crystals.

Decades ago, there was a legendary hero that roamed the island of Victoria named Tristan. He was well known, but rarely seen, always hunting for the strongest, evilest monsters. One day, Manji of Perion, an up and coming warrior, detected an evil aura emanating from the cave at the center of Victoria Island. He was drawn to it, and began descending deep into the Ant Tunnel.

Eventually, Manji went so deep into the cave that no light was able to reach and the cave walls began to appear blue. He knew this was dangerous territory, but his sense of adventure kept him on the trail down to the dungeon’s end. At the end of the cave, he discovered an ancient sanctuary, long vacant of humans and beginning to crumble. The dark force was coming from the sanctuary, he was certain. Finally, after reaching the last, darkest room of the sanctuary, he saw something: two glowing eyes piercing through the darkness. Yes, it was the fabled Balrog! It flapped its huge wings and grinned devilishly with its sharp teeth.

Just then, the Balrog started to attack! Manji knew he didn’t stand a chance, but it was too late to run. As the Balrog’s claw came crashing down, Manji winced, but felt no blow; he looked up, only to see the legendary hero Tristan there to save him! The hero’s sword had a mythical glow that helped it to repel the balrog’s dark aura. Tristan and the Balrog fought for quite some time, until he was finally able to gain an advantage, and knocked the Balrog into a pit. Tristan turned to check on Manji, but this turned out to be a fatal error; The Balrog flapped its damaged wings enough to clamp down on Tristan with its jaws, and both fell deep into the darkness.

Manji raced down the cliff, searching for Tristan. By the time Manji reached the cave’s floor, it was too late for Tristan. The legendary hero passed on his sword to Manji, but it was severely damaged by the fierce battle and the Balrog’s brutal evil aura. Manji swore that one day, when he was strong enough, he would restore this sword to its former glory and give it to a warrior as noble as Tristan.

The fairies of Ellinia are a peaceful, wise race that practice magic in schools and gather lots of knowledge all around, kept in the Magic Libary. The only human that they will obey is Grendel, because of his overwhelming magical powers. Fairies are generally distrustful of humans, but sometimes they have no choice but to ask for help. The one thing that can win over a fairy, however, is a shiny object. Many of them have a specific valued object that they carry with them. Arwen the fairy has a glass shoe which is often coveted by monsters, for example. Some fairies are so desperate to keep these shiny objects that they are even willing to sacrifice a wing to get them back!

Ellinia is not the only place where Fairies live, however; another variety of Fairies populates the floating town of Orbis. While the fairies of Ellinia have delicate, fragile wings like those of a butterfly, the fairies of Orbis have powerful, angelic wings, many times the size of their body in some cases. Both species of Fairies get along together well. They trade valuable items to create potions and elixirs. Wing the Fairy of Ellinia sometimes hires strong humans on their way to Ossyria to deliver items to his friend Kriel, who synthesizes powerful magician weapons and items. One of these items is the Tears of Kelvelos, a legendary monster’s drop that was obtained by Wing’s family long ago.