Welcome artists and readers!
Welcome to the Realm of Artesia…
Do you know the story of how Artesia came to be?
It all started with Leonardo Da Vinci and a thought and a vision and a strange magical element that landed on Earth…
When Leonardo Da Vinci was introduced to the element called “Artesium” his and others lives would soon change. the local shop keeper “Giuseppe” who later became his good friend and companion in Artesia called the “Guardian”, sold the element to Da Vinci after grinding it up into a usable powder and realizing its beautiful color and magical qualities thinking that it would improve Leonardo’s paints. Artesium had another unintended consequence, magic. Unknown to Giuseppe or Leonardo at the time, the magical catalyst abilities allows Leonardo to think, paint and envision a new realm all together.
Leonardo who was turning 50 in the year 1502 A.D. but it was January. He again was hearing about war on the horizon in Florence and was tired of the constant fighting and wars that Italy and especially Florence had endured. Although he loved creating the engineering designs, he despised building things to kill people. He wanted an escape. He had heard of the annual art exhibit for all of the local artists were gathering to show off their works, so Leonardo rushed and worked on a new painting that wasn’t based on anything in our world. A truly inspired fantasy world of which Leonardo could even retire to. When Giuseppe introduced him to the new element to add to his oil paints (as most artists made their own paint back then) Leonardo painted with the new element and in doing so, a new universe was created in an instant both backwards and forwards in time.
Leonardo also noticed some interesting qualities and was quite amazed that the painting seem to come alive. He ran several experiements and in one case spilled fresh artesium paint on his keys to his workshop that were on a table nearby. A magical thing happened, his keys started to float over to the painting and a keyhole formed and the keys inserted themeselves. The key also morphed into a skeleton realm portal key with a unique design. A master key had been created. when Da Vinci turned the key, he activated a portal and swirling version of the painting turned into a doorway to another world.
When the painting was debut at the art exhibit, news of its existence and magical properties spread. several humans along with Michelangelo (and other humans and famous artists) decided to steal the painting and travel to this new found realm in secret.
Da Vinci and Giuseppe (Guardian) learned of this treacherous deed and decided to pursue him to Artesia with a mission. Stop Michelangelo and bring him to justice but also explore Artesia as a curiosity.
The Realm of Artesia
Map of Artesia
From the Village of custode to the Kingdom of Michelangelo and the Dark Forge.
(click on image to enlarge)
When Da Vinci arrived, most of the features on the map above were not finished or finalized. Leonardo walked into a world awaiting his leadership and knowledge and he changed the realm for ever. Places like Castle Artesia, were brand new and partly unfinished. The Sorcerer’s Clearing had been there for a long time but was adding additions and finishing touches. Leonardo brought many changes to the realm but first he sought out bringing Michelangelo to justice. Leonardo was soon enthralled with magic and the realization of conjuring magic and “conjured beings”. It fascinated him.
(click on image to enlarge)
Conjures
Leonardo and other soon discovered the magic abilities of humans over other creatures and native people of Artesia pretty quickly. It wasn’t until Leonardo started to experiment with the abundant amount of the artesium element in the realm that he realized he could conjure living beings, items, even food, into existence. The key was using the Latin language as the base magical language, combining it with it the artesium paint and then painting creations into a magical painting like he had done with the realm.
Conjure Cards
The next step was to take that painting and create something from it. Later on as he got more confident and efficient, he was able to create Conjure cards which were small tarot card like versions of the larger paintings, allowing for portability.
– See the Magic Page for more details. –
Modern Day
Our story starts with a young boy and his younger sister who are normal kids in the year 2021 who were going to school on an art trip to the New york metropolitan museum to see the Mona Lisa painting and others on display in a special event. The children are being harassed by school bullies and end up finding the long lost painting of Leonardo Da Vinci called “Artesia” that he painted and then hid after his return back to Earth in the past. No one knows where he hid or who found or had this painting for all these years but the children accidentally discover it and set themselves on an adventure into the unknown.
That’s where our story begins…