Divided Loyalties (Incomplete)

A History of Chaos

Prologue

It has often been said that the land of Talus was the firstborn of the world, coming into existence during an era of great darkness, back when the earth was young and still growing. History claims the people who first founded the continent had run away from the bloody wars of their homeland, only to be met with new ones on unfamiliar shores. The resources they had hoped to find did not exist, causing shortages of food and water. Those who managed to survive the quarreling that resulted knew nothing but hardship and strife from that point on. But even then, the world did not go easy on the people. Terrible monsters suddenly appeared from beyond the void, a place of no entrance and no return. These hideous beasts quickly covered the land from one end of the continent to the other, threatening to kill everything in their path. Pirates and invaders destroyed whatever remained, as they too sought fame and fortune from the land that lay beyond the black sea.

Realizing that death was imminent, the people of Talus set aside their differences and banded together towards the common goal of survival. And for many years they continued to endure like this, though their numbers slowly dwindled. However, when it became clear that the people no longer stood a chance against their enemies, one man stood up to change what some already considered to be their fate. Using materials harnessed from a fallen star, he created a weapon that has now been lost to the sands of time. With its power, he chased away both man and beast, setting the land free from fear. This marked the beginning of Talus' Age of Tranquility. For, instead of chaos, peace was all that abounded. Greatness and prosperity were now everything the land had come to embody. Amazing breakthroughs were made in the fields of medicine and trade as various forms of ancient technology continued to be developed, strengthening their power even further. The citizens remained happy and full of hope, as their future appeared brighten than ever before. In time, their continent even came to be known as the Golden Land. It was a nation like no other, with a civilization no other could compare to.

Yet, it was inevitable that such progressive knowledge would once again be used to create weapons. At first, these were meant to protect the land from invaders, in case evil men or beasts ever returned to wage battle on their shores. But when greed began to grow in the hearts of some, the very inventions meant to keep peace soon unleashed a new time of war. Like an unstoppable avalanche, the increase of lawlessness managed to cause division in one place after another, until every corner of the continent fell to fighting and ruin. Death and despair once again reigned supreme, to an unparalleled degree. Only a few survived the fallout, leaving just four great House names remaining. They were Basileos, Castillo, Ivarson, and Pellanoire. It became clear that it would be their job to rebuild the land and bring it back from the edge of extinction. So, they discarded the ancient weapons that had caused such chaos and formed a treaty between them, so that nothing of this sort would ever happen again.

But alas, history is fond of repeating itself. Though tales of the old kings of Talus had been passed down from generation to generation, many started to ignore the lessons contained within them. The knowledge of the past had been preserved in order to teach the future, so that they would never have to endure the same outcome as their ancestors. And yet, much like its once clean land and bountiful harvests, the legacy of this ancient civilization and its grandness had become a mere shell of its former self. A fairy tale told to a children, a fantasy only dreamers stopped to ponder over. And so, Talus, a continent that is home to nearly ten million inhabitants, once again lay on the brink of annihilation. Civil unrest and territory disputes caused food shortages and medicine to become scarce. This led to further uprisings and riots among the people, as many struggled to feed their families. Meanwhile, poorly guarded boarders allowed for monsters to rise up and as they appeared from the darkness, freely abounding as they did in ancient times. Panic was quickly on the rise, striking fear into the hearts of both rich and poor. And yet, with each kingdom focused solely on protecting their own interests, the common folk were left to fend for themselves as countless soldiers gathered together to prepare for one final battle.

Nevertheless, it is rumored that Talus is a land that can never be lost. The scrolls of the past say that the stars and the void are closely connected, so devastating one would also devastate the other. That is why there will always be someone with the power to save what must not be destroyed. Perhaps it is fitting, then, that this time in history soon came to be known as the rise of the Age of Heroes.