Gleipnir - The Hope of All (on-hold)

Introduction 1: The Ancient Records of the Beginning

Concerning the very beginning of Time, only a very little number of records and sources now remain throughout the Land. Ancient records are now remembered only by even a fewer number of lore masters. These lore masters could barely even recall the faint history of the long-forgotten past. Of these, only a very condensed history is recorded here, as obtained from the Elves at the Kingdom of Florania, the Capital of Fantasia. Some accounts were obtained from others who happened to know very little of the lore. Some highlights of that shrouded past were still inscribed by the Elves on their Elyu' vistre, or 'museum' in the Common Tongue spoken by Mortal Men. These inscriptions only contain very little information as Elves preserved the greater part of the History and hid it from the reaches of Men. Moreover, most parts of the remaining inscriptions are written in an even more ancient Elvish language that the last of the living Elven lore masters understand little or not at all.

It all began with the Creation of the Nautilus, many Ages ago. There was still no common language and no civilizations established. At this period of time, the Crystal named the Nautilus was created. It was created by the Five Ancient Guardians -- the guardians for each of the five elements: Fire, Water, Air, Earth, and Spirit. These five were the creators of the Land, and by them, balance was maintained. Through the Nautilus, knowledge and wisdom were given to every beings of the Land.

Years passed and from hereon, history records are divided into two parts, the first part tackled about the History from that of the Western part of the Land, which will be accounted here, and the second for the Eastern part which will be discussed on the next part. Even historians both of the past and of today find it difficult to combine the various records concerning this point.

The Elves were the races which received the greatest blessings of wisdom and of immortality, in return for maintaining the preservation and balance of the Land when the Five Ancient Guardians will finally need to leave to an unknown place not recorded. The Nautilus was said to grant immortality to those who happened to touch it. And to the Elves, who themselves are immortals, will grant great powers not yet known on that time. These first Elves were called the High Elves, bestowed with unmatched Greatness and Power over the lesser kinds and races. Altogether, they maintained the Balance of the Land for so many long years.

It was then that one elf-lord from the Fire Nation began having desires of ruling over the others that he started on mobilizing his kind for war. This was the first time when Elves were trained for war. The Elf-lord made use of his elemental powers in burning and wreaking havoc on those who opposed him. The other three Elf-lords of Water, Air, and Earth then prepared theirs and declared war to maintain the balance. The war took a year and it depleted the population of the Elven, and in that war, the Elf-lord of Fire was defeated. That war, which the Elves called as Elyin tuar Strogerrim, "The First Great War" was marked as the war that started the beginning of Troubles on the Land as the Balance was no longer kept, as they had thousands of years before.

At an unknown time while the Elyin tuar Strogerrim was fought, one Elf chieftain, named Angelus, happened to get past by the Nautilus. How he found it, it was not known. Even Angelus did not tell of it. He was from the Elves of the Air Elemental. His troops under his command were being routed by the Elves of the Fire Elemental, and only he managed to survive and no longer pursued by the enemy. He touched the Nautilus and into him spoke the Ancient Guardians. Whatever that was told to him, no record was found as well, as he didn't tell anyone about it. After that long talk with the Ancient Guardians, he took the Nautilus with him and fled to the East.

The records of the Elves now told other accounts, though related to how the Beginning happened, but no longer spoke of the Nautilus. Of the Nautilus, from here on, it is recounted in the records now written by Angelus, himself, though only few documents survived throughout the years. A greater part of this history will be recounted when Aquilo was at Atlantica, the great kingdom of Angelus in the East part of the Land.

So it happened when the Kingdom of Atlantica was founded by Angelus, and he reigned for a very long time. He outlived many generations of Mortal Men. It has been heard throughout that he was an immortal with something in him that granted him immortality. Throughout his reign, Atlantica grew even more powerful. The Nautilus also granted him an even longer life than the other Higher Elves that he still lived even after the Elf-Lords already passed away. He became the oldest among the reckoning of the Elves. Such was the power of the crystal which wondered many peoples who knew of Angelus' age.

Many years then passed when Draigar and his people arrived on their land from across the sea of the East. These people were known as Dragon-masters as they rode on dragons when they came to Atlantica. Angelus established friendship with these visitors and Draigar even aided Angelus in stopping an invasion of barbarians from the south. 

As a gift of gratitude, Angelus divided the Nautilus into two and gave the other half to Draigar. Fate has worked onto making this happen, one very big mistake of him for giving the shard of the divided crystal to Draigar. According to some rare records from Elyu' vistre, this is one of the after-works of the breaking of the Balance from the very long past, coming again to bring terror and destruction on the Land. So the Power of the Nautilus was weakened on Atlantica. These records were obtained by the Elves of the later kind, who finally knew of the existence of Atlantica.

The Elves, now the Lesser Kinds, back then were called by Mortal Men as Fantasians, and so began the first friendship and allegiance of the two different races. Their friendship was so strong the Elves taught the Men of the arts of Music and lore-craft; the men, in return, taught the Elves of all the other places to the East and West (some learned from Draigar and his people). From then on, the Atlanticans started to take into account all their histories and any news about the Land.

For many long years, there has been Peace in the Land. This was broken when, all of the sudden, Zagnius, a former sorcerer of Draigar, had destroyed his civilization and, after gathering a very strong army, attacked Atlantica. That became called as the First Ancient War, Elyin i Naersted among the Elvish tongue and Mag Tuired for the Mortal Men. That turned out to be a very long war and its story has not been recorded in full, though it will be discussed by only a few throughout this story. There is an account of this war in the succeeding entries, but only the last part of that war was recorded. The events that led to that war started on the very fateful tragedy on the East, on the people of Draigar