The Story of Aesiria

[The one true Aesir]

The beginning of Everything

In the beginning there were the Aesir, all powerful beings with power not even conceivable. There was nothing else. They roamed around the empty space alone. Perhaps by chance, or perhaps by fate, the Aesir ran into each other, one by one, and began communicating, creating speech. As they continued to run into each other, they gave each other names. 

Gaia, he who could create stone.
Aquarius, she who could create the seas.
Aeris, she who could create the skies.
and Hephaestus, he who could create the light.

They used their powers creation to fill the emptiness. Gaia created the earth, Aeris created the skies, Aquarius created the seas and rivers. The sun was created by the burning heat of Hephaestus and the moon by Lunera, daughter of Gaia and Aquarius. Despite this grand creation they built it still felt empty. Thus they created a seed and planted it on a small island detached from the rest of the world. This seed would grow into a mighty tree, a sentient tree, a tree which the gods called Yggdrasil. Yggdrasil would continue to grow, its seeds would spread on winds created by Aeris across the world, filling the world with vegetation.

The Aesir wanted to fill the world further and combined all their powers, creating life. Gaia and Aquarius created their bodies from the dirt and waters of their newly created world. Aeris used her powers to fill their bodies and lungs with air, giving them breath. Hephaestus kindled their bodies and created their souls. Finally, Yggdrasil used its life giving power to awaken the creatures, one by one. Lastly, they named this land. They named it after their own kind.

Aesiria, land of the Aesir's creation.

At first, the Aesir guided the worlds most sentient races, the Elves, the Anima, the Oni, the Seraphi, and the Draconi. They taught them speech, how to create, even with their limited powers. They built homes, which grew into towns, which grew into cities, which grew into nations.

Over time however, the Aesir realized that the races were becoming dependent upon them in order to live their lives. Thus, they chose to create another world, the heavens that can never be reached by mortals, far past the sun and moon themselves. Before they left however, they created one final race at the Yggdrasil tree, the fae.

They gave the fae all the knowledge that they gave the other races, and asked them to watch over their world, a task they do as they travel the world freely, uninhibited, each in there own way. With that, they left, leaving the Fae to guard the world and the tree of Yggdrasil.

The Baal

With all good there is evil. When something is created something else is destroyed. It is simply a balance. Even the Aesir who created have a balance. This balance is known as the Baal.

If the Aesir are the gods of creations, the Baal are gods of destruction. They came as the Aesir left. Nobody knows much about the Baal. They're names, purpose, objectives are all a mystery. Sometimes they are depicted as wild animals while at other times they are depicted as grand enigmas of darkness.

The truth of the Baal is that they are ordinary people. Or at least they seem like ordinary people. They walk the same streets, eat the same food, look the same way. They live and die just like everybody else. This ambiguity is what makes the Baal so mysterious, so dangerous, so unpredictable. They can be born at any moment and at any moment wreak havoc on the existence of life. The Baal are not gods, they are people with the power to destroy what the gods created, they are godlike and capable of opposing gods, therefore they must be gods, but they are not gods. They are best described as the epitome of emotion and expression. Each Baal is symbolic of some form or aspect of destruction. Some Baal symbolize famine, others war, while others plague. They are dark, frightening creatures, driven by whatever happens to motivate them. It is best not to be involved with a Baal, for wherever the Baal walk, death is left at his back. Only the Aesir, and other Baal, can recognize a Baal.

[The one true Aesir]

The dead lands, The enslavement of Humanity, and Corruption

(800 BM - 650 BM)

Humanity wasn't always on Aesiria. For centuries upon centuries, for Millennium upon Millennium, humanity was never a race on Aesiria. They existed however. They existed in a world created by a different God, a singular God, a God that was no more. The humans could no use magic, had short life spans, and were far weaker than any Aesirian race, however they created machines and technology that far surpassed anything that had been created on Aesiria.

There creations would ultimately be their undoing however. As time passed, more technology was created. As more was created it was used in war and their wars became more destructive. It would take only a few thousand years for this world to succumb to destruction by its own caretakers. Desperate to survive, the Humans studied and searched far and wide. Perhaps by chance or perhaps by fate, one researcher found an alternate dimension, Aesiria, which housed life. Not only did it house life, it housed sentient life. Thus the creation of a way into this world was created.

It took 10 years to create. Upon its creation, human soldiers were immediately sent to try and secure land in this world, and hopefully the entirety of it with time. Upon getting to the world however, such hopes were dashed. With magic at their disposal, the Aesirian races were easily able to fend off the humans guns and rockets, Crushing their armies in a shocking defeat, to the surprise of the worlds leaders. The races were not finished there however, they saw an opportunity similar to what the humans saw. Access to resources, and access to a labor force.

Using the portal that the humans created, the races pushed into the human world, quickly annihilating any resistance with sheer force. The human world had long since started to die and warp into the grotesque form it would soon become. There was nothing left to see and nothing left to collect as far as the Aesirian's were concerned. They decided to collect the strongest and healthiest humans they could find and brought them back to Aesiria to be enslaved and work their fields and mines and other less than stellar jobs, leaving the weakest humans to fend for the themselves in there dying world, eventually dying off.

No technology was brought back, it was inferior to Aesirian magic and not only that, it was what brought about the destruction of a world, something that they would never foolishly bring into their own world.

The humans would have their revenge though, although not directly, in the form of a double-edged sword. From the portal they created, an energy known as nuclear radiation seeped through. When this nuclear radiation touched strong magical power, and strong evil was within a persons soul, it warped that soul, and the body, into something grotesque and monstrous. Thus Corruption was created. In order to protect themselves, the nations of the world congregated, erecting a physical, stone gate, with immense magical power around the portal, and sealed it away, locking it in place and preventing anything from escaping, the radiation, and any life that may still be beyond. This once mighty world of man is now known to all only as the dead lands.

[The one true Aesir]

Mana, The True Empress

(1050 BM - 0 PM)

Life was not peaceful in Aesiria for a long time. Nations came and gone with the rise and fall of monarchs. There were once 100s of small nations throughout Aesiria which seemed to change every generation. During this tumultuous time, races were even more secluded and divided than they currently are. It would be in this time that the ultimate sage would be born.

Among the High Elf kingdoms that was one known as Luciana. In this cities royal family a young girl would be born, a girl named Mana. In the beginning, she was not an entirely healthy child. Her body was weak and mild physical stress was exhausting for her. Medicinal experts determined that it was due to an excess of Ether in her body. When we speak of excess were not talking just a little to much or way to much either. Mana's body was storing Ether at a rate unseen before and will never be seen again. She had enough Ether to power an army of 10,000 on her own. Simply to much for a child to bear. Many thought she would die young.

A miracle would happen though. A dark elf doctor. This doctor appeared any time he was needed, and disappeared any time he was not. He called himself, Mystus. Mystus had discovered a combination of herbs in the swamps to the south that could deteriorate the Ether within Mana, and began prescribing this to Mana over the years until her body grew large enough to store the Ether, and get used to it. Thus, the heir to Luciana was alive and well.

Mana would still live fairly secluded in the castle and her health still wasn't fantastic, the only plus was she wouldn't die. Mana took to reading books from the library. She became enthralled with books and always sought out knowledge and reading about the world well beyond her castle which, while big, was a speck of dust in comparison to the world itself. She only got meet nobles and a few house servants.

Her father, King Lucian the 3rd was quite a warlord to say the least. He was a strategic mastermind to say it properly. He used his tactical genius get control of a good 15% of all of Aesiria and unite much of the Elven territories. Her father was also quite a doting one to say the least. He was obsessive to say it properly. Every time he conquered a nation he brought back silks and dresses for his daughter to enjoy. He certainly was a loving one, if overbearing. This however made leaving the castle even more difficult, because even if Mana was fully healthy, her father would not have anything of it. It also seemed the only one he trusted around his daughter alone was Mana's mother, and Mystus.

Mystus himself was seen as untrustworthy at first. Despite that he healed Mana, he appeared out of thin air. He disappeared without warning just as quickly. However over time with nothing happening, he came to be trusted by everyone around him. He brought Mana books to read and told her stories of his adventures he had while he was away. Mystus was a man of knowledge to a fault. He studied tirelessly everything around him and continued to learn. Everything he learned, he taught to Mana, who was eager to learn herself.

Then something happened. It was around Mana's 400th birthday. In elf terms, this would be the equivalent of a teenager. She was starting to get lower doses of the medicine and Mystus was even teaching her magic. That was the invasion of humanity. Luciana had become much larger in that time and now held 30% of Aesiria, pretty much the entire northeastern part of the world. Quite naturally, Mana's father was apart of the force that subjugated the human race, he also brought Mystus with him. The king brought back many humans as slaves to work in the mines and fields. Lucian saw them as truly inferior beings no better than pets in the best of circumstances.

Mystus saw them differently however. Mystus was fascinated by humans and was interested in all the technology he saw when he went to the human's world. How could such small creatures create such massive constructs when they had such shorter life spans? Mystus was fascinated even further, when after deciphering some of their historical texts to try and find context, realized that human civilization had come this far in only a mere 5,000 years, without magic to boot. Mystus's curiosity couldn't be slowed any longer and he started studying humans to no end. He started by dissecting those who died to get a look at there anatomy. Upon further inspection, Mystus realized that humans had the same structure as the Aesirian races. They also had the same organ that Aesirian's had that allowed them to use magic, the appendix. Why weren't they using magic then? Magic was as natural to Aesirian's as breathing. There was training involved to use it well yes but generically speaking it was there and it was used. So why didn't humans use magic at all?

To find this answer, Mystus took things even farther, to far perhaps. He dissected living humans. His study's revealed that there appendix did not function. At all. Mystus's mind then asked another next question, what would happen if it were to turn on? Lucian would have none of this though when Mystus requested he be allowed to research this and demanded Mystus quit gawking over the humans and focus on his daughter. By this time, Mystus had taught Mana much and it would seem her treatment was done. So he left, leaving plenty of medicine, how much she should need, and how long she would still need it.

Mana would become deeply distraught by Mystus' departure and note, which mentioned he wasn't coming back for a long while. Mana would not get any mercy for fate however. Lucian would die in battle only 10 short months after Mystus' departure, defeated by a draconi king that Lucian was trying to conquer. Mana was then thrust onto the throne. While she was dismayed at her fathers death. This was an opportunity. At the age of 500, Mana was now ruler of a nation, and in a sense, free to roam, while shackled by her nation. She started by visiting as much of her nation as possible, meeting its people, and viewing as much of the world as possible from the icy tundras up north to the lush vibrant fields in the south of Luciana. She would gather allies then. The first of her allies would be Mikaiel, a Seraph.

Mikaiel became captivated by Luciana's vibrant curiosity and innocence. She was untouched by evil. A perfect candidate for what he was looking for. Mikaiel followed Luciana absolutely from that point on as her loyal guard. Eventually, becoming known as the first sage.

Luciana then met a fairy girl named Anastasia, perhaps by chance or perhaps by fate, Anastasia was a free spirit and loved adventure as much as Luciana did. This simple reason was why Anastasia joined Luciana, later becoming known as the happy sage.

Mana would eventually run out of places to travel in her country. During her travels she realized that many of the races were quite at odds with one another. They were all lovely people but seemed to detest one another for such trivial reasons. Mana desired to bring them together. She sought to unite the world. Her first challenge was the draconian warriors who defeated Mana's father. While Mana certainly had much more power than anything on Aesiria, she was incredibly inexperienced due to her upbringing.

This inexperience was the reason Mikaiel insisted he take the forefront. Mana reluctantly agreed and Mikaiel ended up doing battle with the draco that killed Mana's father. The battle raged for days. Thousands died and Mana was forced to see the ultimate cost of war. What she was sacrificing for the greater good was the lives of others. Mana rushed to the battle field and her voice echoed the battle field, demanding, begging it end through tear streamed chokes.

Power surged throughout the beaten battlefield. Her cry practically stopped the fighting. Her body so fueled with ether it had been imbued into her very voice and it carried her wished and heart with it. Perhaps fascinated with the girl on a whim he stood before her asking her desires. Her goal. Mana answered after a pause.

peace.

Why was such a simple answer so effective on the Draco? He had heard the answer before but it was always met with a sword. This was met with the tears of a young maiden. The draco bent his knee to Mana and swore fealty to her, just as Mikaiel did, giving her his name. Ragnarok. He would become known as the Sage of Honor.

Ragnarok killed Mana's father. Yet Mana accepted him with open arms. The king of the Draconi had found his master. The other Draco followed their cultural order after that. Some bent their knee in service to Mana. Others went else where. The land was Mana's yet the nation had dissolved.

Mana's next quest was into the tribal areas of the Anima. Anima lived in tribes during this time and had no established leadership. There she would find an Oni tribe battling a tribe of Anima known as the Kitsune. They were warring over something trivial, not even worth mentioning. Mana's arrival somehow ended the fighting though. She spoke to the Oni leader, Gaius, and the Kitsune leader, Hira. After speaking to both of them she could not think of a way to bring peace, even for such a trivial matter, rage was strongly felt by both sides and it seemed neither would budge despite it ultimately being just a misunderstanding.

Anastasia however was a little more cunning then Mana, and was able to trick the two sides into working together to defeat a false threat. Mana, despite knowing Anastasia's trick and greatly disliking the method, had no choice but to play along and convinced the two sides to stop fighting. Gaius and Ferrus would even submit to Mana, and joined her army. Gaius would become known as the Brute sage, while Ferrus would become known as the sage of elegance.

Thus Mana had mighty warriors from all the races but her own.

Mikaiel, the first sage.
Anastasia, the free sage.
Ragnarok, the sage of honor.
Gaius, the brute sage.
and Ferrus, the sage of elegance.

With such mighty warriors at her side, and their armies to boot. Conquering all of Aesiria was a quick deal and in many cases required no violence at all. Some violence was required of course, not everyone was so willing to follow Mana willingly or feared her five sages. With the five sages at her command though, any resistance was quashed quickly with minimal bloodshed. Ultimately, it took a mere 350 years to do so. Now at 850 years old, Mana was a fully grown woman. She decided to change the name of her country. It was no longer just Luciana. It was all of Aesiria. Surely Luciana did not have the right to rename the world of the Aesir. Mana named her new nation the Aesirian Empire, she also renamed the capital after her own nation, Luciana.

The Aesirian empire prospered under Mana. Famines were minimal and so was plague. If they ever did happen, other parts of the world could be easily sent to assist. Everyone was happy and lived contently and prosperously, with each sage ruling as a Duke over a fourth of the world(Anastasia couldn't handle running a country so she stayed with Mana). Mana would enjoy her time in the castle, having seen the world and was happy that the violence had all but ended. Strife still existed of course, but Mana was able to calmly handle the situation when arguments came up.

Mana would be treated to quite the treat one day however. The return of Mystus. Mystus appeared at her doorstep after all was done. Mana was overjoyed that Mystus had returned and welcomed him with open arms. He was a much older man now, needing a cane to walk. He also came with a boy. A human boy. One he called Ean, and to the shock of all, his son.

Mystus and Mana talked for hours about their stories and the past few hundred years. Eventually, Mana had to bring up the human boy who sat in the background quietly. Mystus informed Mana that through his research and studies and after much deep philosophical thought, that humans were no different from Aesirians. They had the same level of intellect although they used it differently, and even though they lived much shorter life spans they created so much more than the Aesirian's did. What he suggested after was the most surprising. The abolition of slavery.

Mana had never seen humans as equals, and really never thought much of them so this idea perplexed her. It didn't appall her in any way but it confused her. Her father was still the one who raised her despite Mystus' teachings and Lucian despised and loathed humanity, seeing it at best as a tool to be used until it was no longer useful. Mystus however knew that Mana would not take so readily to this concept and asked her to learn from Ean and vanished the next day, leaving Ean with Mana. Many of the nobles, and most of the sages were against this and wanted to have Ean removed immediately. Only Anastasia seemed interested with the human. Mana was willing to accept his wishes but Mikaiel and Ragnarok had other ideas. They were not malicious but they insisted that if Ean couldn't prove his own strength to them that Mystus' words were only the words of a demented old man. Ean accepted the challenge and he and Ragnarok fought.

Everyone was left in shock and awe. Not only was Ean staying alive, he was fighting back on equal grounds with one of the most powerful Sages Mana had. Not only that, he was using magic. In the end, Mana forced the fighting to stop as there battle was damaging the city and its civilians, and both were deeply injured. She was convinced. Humanity had the same potential as the other races, and she moved to abolish slavery.

Many of the nobles who were not sages were not so agreeing with this plan. They desired to keep the scum in the gutter, so to speak. Not all the nobles were so happy with being ruled by Mana. They wanted more power. So they concocted a plan. A plan to assassinate the empress, and frame Ean. They succeeded. They convinced the sages that Ean had gone berserk and attacked Mana and that they needed to hurry. When they found Mana, she lie dead on the floor, Ean above her.

Ean claimed innocence, but to no avail or convincing of the sages who moved to have him arrested and hung for treason and murder. Ean naturally resisted and fought back. Seeing the fight against Ragnarok they believed they could take him on all at once and fought together. This was different however, Ean blew them all away, dragging them all to the ends of Aesiria in this battle as he escaped, and continued to fight and evade them. The battles were long and many died. They couldn't keep him down long enough for the five sages to return again.

Eventually they were able to corner him in a swamp to the south, and fought. the terrain was bad for all but Mikaiel and Ragnarok and the battle waged and Ean kept fighting. No matter how much they fought the human just wouldn't die. Exhausted they hit a breaking point and decided to trap him and seal him away within the swamp. Thus it happened, and Ean was never to be seen again, disappearing into the murky depths.

Mana's demise took a huge toll on the empire. Nobody could come close to Mana as a person. The sages all scattered. Mikaiel stayed only to preserve Mana's legacy but was uncontrollable for her predecessors until his death. Anastasia stayed to watch over the seal that held Ean down, always wondering if this was right, until she was called by the tree of Yggdrasil and became the Titania. Ragnarok went into the mountains and went into deep slumber, dying as a dragon in the den. Gaius recieved serious wounds in the battle with Ean and would never be able to fight the same way again. He continued to fight, but ultimately, his injured body would be defeated in battle. Ferrus would defect the empire entirely, creating a small nation known as Ferrontus and fending off all attacks, because Mikaiel did not partake unless it was an attack on the empire directly. More areas would defect and as more and more defections happened, the empire could not muster enough forces to stop the defections and lost just over half of Aesiria over the following centuries.

Many of those nations have stayed in solitary, content with what they have, like Basillia. Some grew militarily after a time, like Ferrontus under its second ruler. Some stayed as independent mini-states for as long as possible before coming together for protection, like the Olvan federation. This was a process of nearly 2000 years. The year is now 2347 PM (post Mana). This is the land that is Aesiria. It is currently peaceful, but one wrong step and the world is in chaos.

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