The Realm (Robert Kirkman)

The Realm is an American post-apocalyptic fantasy comic book series created by Robert Kirkman and artist Tony Moore - who was the artist on the first twenty issues and cover artist for the first twenty four - with art on the remainder of the series by Charlie Adlard. Set 150 years after an unexplained phenomenon that returned magic and fantasy creatures to the world, which later be called "The Event".

Publication history
Series writer and creator Robert Kirkman came up with the idea whilst playing the science fantasy role playing game Shadowrun.

Realm debuted in 2000, published by Image Comics, with art by Tony Moore for the first twenty issues and Cliff Rathburn shading the art after issue #5. Charlie Adlard took over as artist on issue #21, after he was approached by Kirkman. Moore also created the cover art for the first 24 issues and the first four trade paperbacks. The remainder were done by Adlard.

Plot
The series follows a group of heroes consisting of a powerful wizard, his grandson and apprentice, an elven princess and prince, a pair of dwarf warriors, a fairy, a friendly troll and a satyr known as the Fellowship. The Fellow protects the Kingdom of Merica (the original 13 colonies) from the evil sorcerer known as Eduard Blackhawk and his vast army of orcs, goblins, trolls, dark elves and dragons.

The Event
The Event was an mysterious phenomenon that occurred on December 21st 2012. Months before people started releasing colorful bursts on energy from their hands either uncontrollably or by speaking certain words, these bursts allowed them to either lift objects or turned people or objects into other things. Scientists tried to investigate the bursts and find out what was causing them, when they were unable to find the cause the media began to label the energy bursts as magic and its wielders as either wizards, witches or sorcerers, which caused mass panic and in some cases causing people to attack and even kill these "magical" individuals.

Shortly afterwards beings and creatures resembling elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, trolls, faeries, satyrs, dark elves, leprechauns, dragons, unicorns and other creatures from ancient mythology began emerging from green pods that had sprouted up from the ground all over the world, causing more widespread panic and riots. Scientists labels the magical beings as Homo Fae, their appearances are meet with mixed option with some die hard fantasy fans calling it a dream come true, whilst some religious groups labeling them as demons, godless creatures and Satan's children.

The third happening occurred on December 21st 2012 at 9 PM when mysterious violent storms, earthquakes, tornadoes and tsunamis began to occur all over the world causing many people to seek shelter either in their basements or in public shelters set up by the army, when the storms ended two years later on January 1st 2014 and people began leaving the shelters they discovered that the world had changed. Many cities had being destroyed and countless people killed, the governments of the world had collapsed with law and order in shambles causing widespread anarchy and chaos.

However after 10 years of lawlessness the Elf kings and Dwarf lords begin to restore order to the world. Many new kingdoms of republics are set up and people begin to coexist with the magical beings, although some refuse to. The Event is later believed by some religious people to be a punishment from God for their crimes against the Earth.

List of characters and magical creatures
List of The Realm characters and magical creatures