Tale of Souls : The Return of The Prince

--- Prologue --- Ainspira

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"Have you ever suddenly felt a sad lingering feeling? But you don't know why or where it's from?"

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"Like you wanted to reach something, but your heart can't find it"

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"Like you've lost someone precious, but that's not it"

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"Like your life loses all meaning, but searching for purpose"

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"Have you ever felt it?"

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"Do you what it's called?"

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"Emptiness"

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This is a legend for our descendants.

With the hope that they could learn from it.

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This is a song for the world.

With the hope that it could express love.

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This is a message for time travelers.

With the hope that it will reaches you.

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This is a true story.

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This is

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Our Story.

Ainspira.

A world where people can use super natural power drawn from the energy of the world. Using the language of Gods called Lyre, the power uses passages, like poems, as chants to draw energy; and the strongest power was in the form of lyrics, and was sung like songs; that's why the power is named Arts.

It is once said that Arts was given to Ainspira by the Gods as a symbol for their love and care. It is also a tool for the world to speak the legend of Gods and to sing praises of them, to worship them.

Not all being can be proficient at Arts, but all can learn it. With enough training, it is possible that one can master Arts and invoke stronger and more complex ones; but there are also a lot of factors, like family blood, natural talent, growth environment, etc.

Not only the residence of Ainspira can communicate with their Gods, but they can also invoke power along with it. By borrowing the energy from Ainspira, some people can create all the elements of the world, like fire, water, earth, etc; they can also invoke strength, agility, dexterity; summon creatures from another realm; they could do anything from the smallest thing like moving a pebble and cooking with fire or even, for some of the strongest being, using the power of Gods themselves.

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The world was fairly peaceful, until.... a year when kingdoms and empires started to appear across all continents. Borders was established and lands was divided. Kings, Emperors, Warlords, all strives to be the best in the continents, Arts was started to be used heavily on military. Every country pushed their Arts research to win wars and exploit land's resources and energy. Not only mortals, even Gods also started to wage wars between themselves, either answering the call from their devout prayer, or because they are also looking for a chance to trample other Gods.

The War lasted for hundred years with no winner. The destruction caused by the war was so immense that even the actual winners of the war have to pay a heavy price that took everything they had. The numbers of death couldn't even be counted, races pushed to extinction, and the worse of all, death of some Gods.

Just like responding to the tragedy, the Will of Ainspira, a being so mysterious and was said even higher than God, that represents the world itself, divided the immeasurable world into countless fragments, in hope that it will prevent another huge war between all people in it. These fragments of the world are called planes, with each plane has a name of its own.

These division create a rift between mortal's and God's domain, significantly weakened the power of Arts, and because of the death of some Gods, even some Arts was gone. The rift had also cut the means of communication between mortals and Gods, making mortals cannot directly converse with Gods like they used to. After hundreds of years, the language of God, Lyre, was lost.

With the lost of Lyre, Arts was degraded into what people now call magic. They can still do almost all the things that Arts do, but not as powerful as the former.

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Nowadays, this story was passed down as a legend, telling about a huge war between people of the world, the origin of infinite world fragments and the disappearance of Gods. People with the power of Arts are rare and the people forgot the name of origin of the worlds, Ainspira.