0 : Prologue
In the year 792, a plague known as Ansarah’s Curse ravaged the continent of Ralen, killing millions of people. Families were left separated and communities devastated, but from the hardships and trauma came people known as Manipulators.
These people had abilities no ordinary human had, able to manipulate non-organic items and the ability to regenerate their bodies at an increased rate. No one knows how they got their abilities, but with half of Ralen dead new opportunities arose.
People with Manipulator abilities across the continent of Ralen began to seize power for themselves, and many rivalling factions arose. It led to a period of constant war, lasting for 40 years. Those who weren’t successful in seizing power either travelled across the world to start kingdoms of their own, or settled into the masses.
On the other hand, those successful with seizing power grew their new nations into empires. One notable empire formed was the Izumian Empire, which quickly rose to become the most powerful nation in its region.
To keep their Manipulator abilities, these royal families married strictly with each other to keep their bloodlines pure. Manipulators who decided to stay in the masses ruled massive crime empires of their own, an empire in an empire.
Then in the year 1260, a calamity struck the entire world. A massive explosion in the continent of Helsia, on the opposite side of the world from Ralen, left the area fully destroyed. Shockwaves from the explosion shook Ralen 14 times over, lasting for four days straight.
Millions of refugees flooded into Onen and Sourix, two nations on the border of the Ralen continent. Refugees told stories of mass earthquakes, and people from coastal communities talked about massive waves of water destroying entire cities. Refugees from mountainous areas told stories of mass landslides, killing and leaving thousands of people crushed.
After the initial destruction of the explosion, thick, dark clouds suffocated the world. The temperature of the Earth plummeted, and the “Year without a Summer” began.
Crops failed, and massive food shortages and massive famines hit the kingdoms of Ralen. Too many mouths to feed and not enough food led to millions of people dying from starvation.
Though while the populace starved, the royal families had hoarded food for themselves. They had seized a majority of the food supply from their nations when the shockwaves circled Earth, preparing themselves for the worst.
A year later, in 1261, an Izumian farmer named Calvin Laberge had had enough. Starving and desperate, he led a revolt against the Izumian royal family. The idea of revolution quickly spread throughout the nations of Ralen, and soon all of Ralen were up in arms. The Izumian rebels became loyal to Calvin, and they became known as the Laberge Federation Army.
Social structures fell apart, and royal families across Ralen were killed and massacred. The Laberge family then took control over mainland Izumia shortly after the revolution began, and other revolutionary leaders in other nations followed suit. It was a bloody revolution, lasting for two years.
The Izumian royal family quickly fled to the island of Norson amongst the chaos, an island under the control of the Izumian empire situated west of mainland Izumia. There, they vowed to one day take back the mainland; and to kill every single last person loyal to the Laberge family.
Eighty-five years later, that day came.
