There was once a time when humanity was not certain to meet a slow and horrible demise . Mankind was once under the protection of The Sky Above , the God king of the High Kingdom of Heaven . For many millenniums , the Sky and his servants had always watched over mankind . The ever vigilant winged Paladins kept the corruption of demons and the ambition of the Pagan gods at bay , shielding the human civilizations from harm . That all ended , sadly , when the Kingdom of Heaven suddenly went silent . No prayers could be heard , no answers could be made . Mankind was left in the dark . A worldscale Crisis of faith occured . But the crisis of faith was the least of humanity concern . Whatever made the Heaveners silent were coming after humanity as well . Interdimensional gateways started forming all over the world . Through them , invincible horde of horsemen emerged and consumed everything in their path . These skeletal riders were referred to as War Riders . As they were all already dead , they could not die again , leaving them unstoppable . Every man they killed , another rider joined their rank . Loyal horses of men would betray their masters and join the Rider ' s horde willingly . Everywhere they went , nothing could grow there afterward . As if the Riders were not enough , soon another waves of gateways started materializing across the world . Small legions of humanoid disciplined warriors emerged through them . At first , humans believed them to be aid from Heaven , judging from how civilized and wellorganized they were . Then they had the terrible realization that the legions were the same as the Riders , only alive , instead of being undead . While the Riders aimlessly assaulted everything on sight , the Legions made careful plan and preparation . They were small in number , so they raised fallen humans as cannon fodders . Together , the Riders and the Legions scorched humanity to the very foundation , killing 34 of the total human population , rendering 45 of the world uninhabitable . Fortunately , for unknown reasons , they backed out in the very last minute and disappeared from the world . The scorch had put mankind into a dark age that would last for a staggering 800 years before the medieval era would dawned again . Due to most of the survivors being illiterate , no actual record of the scorch wad made . The reformed church painted the event as a punishment from the Sky lord because mankind had become to craven and corrupted . They turned what was once a religion of peace into a religion of oppression and intolerance , all in the name of a dead God . The world went from High Fantasy into Dark Fantasy in an instant