Discover fun
The Corbinite Trials
A blend of bloodsport, honor, spectacle, and survival magic—where death is only a setback, and glory is eternal.
ORIGINS & HISTORY
The Founder: Corbin Tyrhall
The Trials are named after Corbin Tyrhall, a war hero turned philosopher-gladiator, who lived over 800 years ago. Once a commander in Nexus’s early conflicts with island raiders, Corbin grew disillusioned with war-for-profit. He proposed that true strength, creativity, and wit should be rewarded—not status, wealth, or lineage.
After surviving an assassination attempt ordered by a corrupt noble faction, Corbin disappeared for a decade. When he returned, he had built the first Trialgrounds in the catacombs beneath Nexus using forbidden magic, ancient time-space rituals, and captured arcane constructs. He challenged anyone—criminal or noble—to earn redemption or glory not through bloodshed alone, but through performance under pressure.
Mistress Justiciar Gea herself endorsed the Trials a century later, transforming them into a city-sanctioned institution.
STRUCTURE OF THE TRIALS
There are now several types of trials. The time based trials take place with-in the depths of Mount Corbin while the other take place in the three massive areas. All areas offer large Magi-tek scrying screens for the audiences to get a good look at the action.
The Bloodforge Area
Most Combat trials take place here. The area is easily re-configured for different types of trials and events. Even the weather of the environment can be changed.
The Wildcore Labyrinth
This area holds the puzzle & Maze trials. Also easily manipulated by the event coordinators into the different mazes, tests and traps within. The mazes are carefully redesigned each season.
The TitanHold Area
The Titanhold area is the largest of the areas where the survival and gauntlet trials take place. Like the others the area layout for the trials are easily reconfigured for each trial and they are never the same for each season. Some special events also take place here as well.
Types of Trials
The Trials are divided into four major categories, each with variations:
Combat Trials – Duelists, teams, or battle royale with summoned or volunteer adversaries
Beast Bends
Warden’s Wrath Arena
Puzzle & Magic Trials – Labyrinthine tests of intellect, arcane manipulation, and illusion
The Mirror Maze of Enigma
Spire of Shifting Logic
Runestone Cage
Survival & Gauntlet Runs – Longform multi-hour tests involving traps, terrain, and endurance
The Hollow Deep
The Gauntlet of Broken Blades
The Sandglass Maze
Crimson Chain Run
Time trials within Mount Corbin
The Timeless Ascent
The Corebreaker Run
Trial of the Severed Hour
The Ember Vein Hunt
Each trial is overseen by a Trial Architect, a neutral master of the game who ensures magical integrity and fairness.
THE BRACELETS
Every participant is fitted with an enchanted Corbinite Bracelet, a marvel of Glyphs innovation created by the Arcarium and enforced by the Justiciars. These bracelets:
Use Time Spell Glyph to look seconds in the future to see if death is imminent
Uses Space spell, Glyph to instantly teleport the wearer to the Sanctum Infirmary
Disintegrate if removed or taken beyond the island's magical perimeter
Log performance data, kills, injuries, escape time, spell usage, team synergy, and audience score
These artifacts are nearly indestructible and heavily regulated.
ADVERSARIES IN THE TRIALS
Trial adversaries come from three main sources:
Volunteers – Professional trial fighters, thrill-seekers, or those seeking fame or fortune
Criminals– Convicts from the Nexus Prison who opt into the Trials in exchange for reduced sentences
Constructed, captured or Summoned Entities – Animated golems, summoned monsters, illusions with mass, or extra-planar creatures carefully bound by Nexus law. Creatures are imbued with the same magic as the bracelets and send creatures to a special infirmary.
Even adversaries wear their own version of the bracelet, ensuring no permanent death unless agreed upon in Execution-Ranked Trials.
LEADERBOARDS & TITLES
The Trials run seasonally, with high-stakes grand tournaments every year, culminating in the Festival of Gea, Nexus’s largest public celebration.
Competitors rise through the ranks with public acclaim. Notable titles include:
Ironbound – Completed 5+ Survival trials solo
Trial Saint – Zero kills, all adversaries disabled or bypassed non-lethally
Ash Baron – Champion of 3 consecutive Combat trials
Corbinite Paragon – Top scorer across all categories for the year
CULTURAL IMPACT
Entertainment & Commerce – Trial matches are broadcast on large Magi-Tek scrying boards across Nexus, heavily bet upon, and even re-enacted in street performances
Diplomatic Tool – Some foreign nations send champions to the Nexus Games through the Trials to earn favor or broker deals
Military Recruitment – Several elite units, including the Shadow Wardens, actively recruit top-ranked contestants
Rehabilitation – Convicts who complete 3 trials are often pardoned or retrained in civic roles, especially by the Silken Knot or Verdant Table
CONTROVERSIES & DARK TRUTHS
Rumors persist that not all Trial Architects are neutral—some may rig matches for political or financial gain
Arcarium critics argue the bracelets tamper with natural death cycles, destabilizing time itself
Some convicts claim they were forced into Trials by bribed magistrates to inflate bloodsport numbers
There are whispered tales of a “Black Trial”, an unregistered, deadly version hosted deep below Nexus for elite spectators
KEY LOCATIONS
The Trialspire
A towering structure at the center of Nexus, with magically shifting floors dedicated to each type of challenge. Public arenas are on the upper tiers; secret challenges run far below.
The Sanctum Infirmary
Staffed by the Vialborne Enclave and Dawnlink healers, this recovery center revives injured contestants and often houses them between matches.
Corbin’s Tomb
A hidden crypt somewhere beneath the city—said to hold the original Trialcore and Corbin’s legendary weapon, The Equalizer, a blade that levels all magical advantage.
Trial descriptions
The Timeless Ascent
Type: Solo or Pair Trial
Purpose: Test of endurance, time-perception, and mental control
Difficulty: Extreme
Description:
Contestants begin at the base of an internal vertical shaft called the Echo Column — a natural fault chamber lined with embedded Corbinite veins. The route spirals upward in a seemingly endless stair-like tunnel, broken up by suspended platforms and strange environmental shifts.
Time flows at different speeds at each level. In one zone, a single step can take hours; in another, a jump can feel like an instant.
Some segments cause time reverberations — memories from a contestant's past are relived briefly, sometimes emotionally disorienting them.
The final segment near the summit can mirror the contestant’s possible future, testing them with hallucinations or paradoxes.
Victory Conditions:
Reach the Chronoglyph Gate at the summit and touch it before the glyph collapses (which happens after an unpredictable amount of internal time).
The Corebreaker Run
Type: Group Trial (3–5 members)
Purpose: Tactical escape simulation
Difficulty: High
Description:
Based on the real Eclipse Revolt, the Corebreaker Run is a scripted escape simulation from a reconstructed section of the prison labyrinth. Contestants begin locked in cells, with a countdown running on magical glyphs. As soon as the first door opens, the route is flooded with dangers:
Automated golems, unstable wards, collapsing timefields, and adversaries (some of them real prisoners given one chance at redemption).
Random time loops, flash-freeze corridors, and “erase zones” that nullify spellcasting.
Rounds last between 10–40 minutes real time, but internally might feel like days.
Victory Conditions:
The entire team must reach the Vein Gate without losing more than 50% of their members or triggering a lockdown override.
Trial of the Severed Hour
Type: Solo Duel
Purpose: Combat prowess under pressure
Difficulty: Moderate to Extreme
Description:
A classic challenge with a terrifying twist. Contestants face a powerful adversary (usually a former champion, criminal warrior, or summoned construct) in a shifting arena within the mountain. Every 30 seconds of real time, the arena shifts:
Time will reverse, accelerate, or fragment.
Wounds taken may reappear, or strikes that landed may suddenly have not.
The field is full of hourglass pylons—contestants may strike these to reset their last 10 seconds of action (at a price).
Victory Conditions:
Defeat the adversary twice: once in the real timeline, and once in a time-echo phase, where the fight replays as a distorted mirror.
The Ember Vein Hunt
Type: Group Trial (2–6 members)
Purpose: Combat, navigation, mining skill
Difficulty: Moderate to Extreme
Description:
Held in the unstable southern shafts of the Corbinite mines. Contestants must locate and extract a refined Corbinite core, often guarded by rogue golems, mining beasts, or mutated chronobeasts (creatures altered by time exposure).
The veins can detonate, phase out, or drain magic from equipment.
Some areas cause hallucinations or physical exhaustion at quadrupled rate due to localized time loops.
Extraction must be done cleanly, or the core will shatter, disqualifying the team.
Victory Conditions:
Extract and return with at least one Corbinite shard of viable quality before the shaft collapses or the adversaries overwhelm them.
legendary champions of the Corbinite Trials
Kaevak Skullbreaker
ace: Oni
Nation: Ironclaw Dynasty
Title: The Mountain That Walks
Summary:
Kaevak was a colossal Oni warrior who entered the Trials not for glory but to test Nexus's strength. Wielding a steam-Tek warhammer and wearing adaptive Glyph armor designed by his clan's Magi-technomancers, Kaevak smashed through every Combat Trial in a single season. His record in The Warden’s Wrath Arena—defeating 16 adversaries solo in under 9 minutes—still stands.
Notable Feats:
Never used magic
Defeated a three-headed iron golem barehanded after his weapon broke
Became an honorary Nexus Guard commander for a year before returning to the Dynasty
Vaelis Dawnshroud
Race: Lyrian (Feline)
Nation: Lymeria
Title: The Shadow Swan
Summary:
Vaelis used agility, illusion magic, and her gift for silence to conquer the Puzzle and Survival trials. She completed the Mirror Maze of Enigma without triggering a single trap—an act now believed to have briefly altered the flow of time within the Trialspire.
Notable Feats:
Achieved Trial Saint by never killing an adversary
Used non-lethal illusions to win duels, often befuddling even mag-Tek constructs
Disappeared shortly after receiving the Paragon title—some claim she entered the “Black Trial”
Rassh-Tel of the Coil
Race: Siroc Lyrian (Serpentine)
Nation: Desert Nomads of Elondor
Title: The Venom of Sand and Steel
Summary:
Rassh-Tel entered the Trials as a prisoner for thievery of a district Duke.. Within two years, he became a legend. Using a unique blend of poisoncraft, stealth magic, and desert survival tactics, he cleared the Crimson Chain Run solo during a massive sandstorm—blindfolded to simulate true darkness.
Notable Feats:
Recruited post-Trials by the Umbral Veil as an elite operative
Survived a duel with a summoned fire drake using only a dagger and toxin-coated net
Authored The Five Breaths of Patience, a survival philosophy still taught to Trial entrants
Ser Grandil Verros
Race: Human
Nation: The Maston Protectorate
Title: The Ember Knight
Summary:
A devout war cleric and master ‘Holy’ Fire Tether magic and faith, Grandil entered the Trials on behalf of Maston as a form of spiritual pilgrimage. Wearing burnished gold plate and wielding divine fire, he incinerated horrors in the Gauntlet of Broken Blades with righteous fury.
Notable Feats:
Took down a berserk arcane construct with a hymn and one strike
Refused accolades and donated all wealth earned to the Nexus poor
Declared a living saint by the High Church of Maston
Lurelli of the Shifting Hourglass
Race: Human
Nation: The Arcarium (born in Komu Empire)
Title: The Chronoseer
Summary:
A prodigy of time-space magic, Lurelli entered the Trials not to fight, but to “perfect sequence.” She slowed time mid-leap, dodged dozens of projectiles with minimal movement, and seemingly moved through walls in the Spire of Shifting Logic. Scholars still study her performances for anomalies.
Notable Feats:
Completed Runestone Cage while blindfolded—claimed she “saw in all directions at once”
Wears a silver bracelet Focus that glows when near Trialborn anomalies
Believed to now reside somewhere within the Trialspire’s lower depths, outside normal time
Riven Blackmoor
Race: Lyrian
Nation: The Rainecourt Kingdom
Title: The Painted Devil
Summary:
Known for his deadly elegance and theatrical brutality, Riven wore ritual body paint into each match. He never spoke in public, allowing his violence to speak instead. His kill count is the highest in Corbinite history—over 230 adversaries slain across all trials. Yet he earned a cult following due to his strange honor code: he never struck a downed foe.
Notable Feats:
Won five audience-voted matches in a row without drawing his sword
Challenged Mirexa Dusk to a private duel after she called him "a ghost in greasepaint"—he won
Vanished into the undercity after refusing an invitation to join the Shadow Wardens
Grathok Ironsoul
Race: Kray (Mountain)
Nation: Ironclaw Dynasty
Title: The Iron Sentinel
Summary:
A stoic juggernaut of the mountain Kray, Grathok entered the Trials not out of desire, but as part of a rite-of-passage for his warclan. He wielded a massive piston-axe fused with steam-magic and moved with the patience of stone—unshakable, methodical, and relentless. He was famous for using environmental strategy and stamina to wear down adversaries.
Notable Feats:
Cleared Hollow Deep solo with no magical assistance
Took 17 full hits from enchanted weapons and kept standing
Crafted his own armor inside the Trial grounds mid-survival run
Aelin of the Galeclimb
Race: Lyrian (Avian)
Nation: Lymeria
Title: The Storm-Dancer
Summary:
An elegant wind-mage with falcon lineage, Aelin mastered aerial combat within the confined spaces of the Trials, an unprecedented feat. Her control over updrafts, wind-blades, and microbursts allowed her to stay untouched through even the most savage combat trials. She remains a national hero in Lymeria, a symbol of honor, grace, and cunning.
Notable Feats:
Never once grounded during any recorded battle
Beat the Spire of Shifting Logic in record time using gust-assisted momentum
Created the famed “Featherguard” technique, taught in modern Lyrian academies
General Hozan Reika
Race: Human
Nation: Komu Empire
Title: The Clockblade
Summary:
A tactical genius and former strategist of the Komu imperial legions, Hozan used time-dilation Glyph scrolls, trap-laced arenas, and mechanical countermeasures to fight smarter, not harder. Many of his victories involved never drawing a weapon—just positioning foes against one another. He entered the Trials after being falsely accused of treason and cleared his name through a public victory.
Notable Feats:
Turned an 8 vs. 1 battle royale into a win by redirecting enemy fire
Created the “Phantom Turn” formation still used by Komu military tacticians
Forgave his accusers publicly after winning the Grand Combat Trial
Sira Bloodhowl
Race: Lyrian (Canine)
Nation: Kelian Guard
Title: The Howling Flame
Summary:
A savage and charismatic brawler, Sira used flame Glyph-enchanted claws, berserker rites, and terrifying speed to tear through adversaries. Her time in the Trials is still retold in ballads, especially in the south. Unlike most Lyrians, Sira shunned subtlety—she preferred roaring into the arena, blazing with fury, ripping apart steel-armored foes.
Notable Feats:
Fought for 38 minutes against a lava drake in the Beast Bends and won
Survived the Crimson Chain Run while heavily wounded
Later joined the Kelian Guard’s elite Shock Legion as a captain-trainer
Cassan Drever
Race: Human
Nation: Rainecourt Kingdom
Title: The Golden Duelist
Summary:
A noble-born swordsman with unmatched poise and precision, Cassan saw the Trials as a proving ground for "honor amidst chaos." He used refined swordplay and light-based magic to blind and disable opponents, treating each fight like a stage. While many mocked his "theatrics" at first, few laughed after he bested entire teams in duels.
Notable Feats:
Won four ranked duels without ever stepping outside a three-foot radius
Defeated two rogue Shadow Wardens in an unsanctioned Trial defense
Currently trains elite duelists for the Rainecourt royal guard
Tharik Blackcoil
Race: Kray (City/Prideling)
Nation: Virelian city-state of Marn
Title: The Scrap King
Summary:
An exiled tinker and rogue, Tharik built his way to victory—literally. Entering the Trials with no magic, he constructed traps, drones, and spring-loaded armor mid-match from scavenged materials. The audience loved him, and eventually, the Council of Guilds offered him his own workshop.
Notable Feats:
Created a collapsible glider mid-Survival Trial using only wreckage
Won the Sandglass Maze by bottlenecking over 50 adversaries with a turret trap
Founded the “Iron Rat Ring,” a builder-combatant guild in Nexus