❯❯ HISTORY

[swanwarrior]

A hero is not born.

          He is forged through trial and despair.

» IMAGINE

your soul as a single leaf on a great tree. A single fragment of something so much bigger, greater. What you think is your soul is actually only a tiny reflection of the true thing- the trunk. Consider every other leaf on that tree is another life, another existence attached to the same soul. One tree but an infinite number of leaves. Infinite life, infinite potential.

» VISUALIZE

a forest of these trees. Countless lives across limitless worlds, each connected through touching leaf and root. Separate but interlocked. This is Existence.

» BIRAASH

a warring world that values the strong. Here, hakish is the worth of a true soldier. The will to fight.

» TRE-KEES-RIOA

a world of discovery and research. That which cannot be proven cannot be believed. Nothing can be without evidence.

» ATERIA

a world burdened by Chaos. Divided by gods, where there are winners there must be losers and this world's struggles have nearly come to an end. What is a country's worth?

» EARTH

... home.

Kidrei Regalius

          The Swan Warrior

» - ATERIA

was a world both on the brink of peace and collapse. Yllsi, goddess of order, life and patron deity of the country Sidara, had come to the end of her struggle against Isyll, the god of chaos. His people, those of Uzfuol, had driven the Sidarans to the last of their cities, protected only by the dying will of their goddess. Faced with a very real possibility of demise, Yllsi brought 11 of her people to her and asked them to make the ultimate sacrifice. "Are you willing to die for this world?"

» - DESPERATION

drove her to creativity. She took the lives of these 11 and reached deep into their beings, tracing their souls down to their very origins. There, to bring forth the power of the trunk, she severed the leaves. In an instant, every life attached to the severed soul across all of Existence broke. Not in death, but in emptiness. Then, fragments in hand, she made soldiers of infinite potential. "Life is potential... and if I, of all creations, am not permitted to bend its rules, than who better?"

» - DIVINE

Warriors, they called us. Soldiers from another world brought to save Sidara in its darkest hour. I was a 14 year old brat from Seattle. I don't know how our consciousness was chosen, or if there was even a process involved. I do know they suffered, and I know I wish someone else had won, no matter how selfish it might seem. "I have a body of Ateria but a mind of Earth, and one is hurting me so much more than the other."

» - WAR

is hell, but training for it is just as bad. We were divided by Commander Fiaro early on. Strangers separated from strangers. Need of the people, I thought. Prevention of mutiny, Fiaro believed. If we weren't allowed to band together, to find common ground, we wouldn't question Yllsi's words that defeating Isyll was our only way home. Wouldn't come to realize we were never going to get home. Among us, there were those who quickly took to Ateria with an ease I envied. Kuireid Lochalen, a warrior of Biraash, had been raised for war. He enjoyed it and against the monstrous creatures that were Fuolians, he was deadly. Midyrun Beluzio of Tre-Kees-Rioa was a scientist and magic was undiscovered ground. She studied it, she broke the laws of their world and reformed them to suit her own needs. Where before Aterians could only use one element, she merged rock and ice and crashed it into the battlefield to make fire. The bards sang of her in awe and fear. And me? I got knocked to the ground by a 5'8" man wielding a wooden stick and sprained my wrist. "What a joke this Divine Warrior turned out to be."

» - I

was isolated. The weakest of all the Divine Warriors, they kept me at Zisheir, Sidara's capital and sanctuary of Yllsi. The city with the strongest shield. Commander Fiaro had me under his thumb and he saw me for the civilian I was- afraid, sentimental, sympathetic and untrained. They say when you enter the military, you first have to be broken before you can be rebuilt right. To save Sidara and to have me serve to the best of my ability, I was broken without ever knowing how. I was shown only what was permitted, taught only what he approved and crushed in all the places they deemed unsuitable. "A Fuolian is a born monster. They will give you no pity, show you no kindness. Every one you fail to kill will go on to butcher an innocent Sidaran. Your failures cost lives."

» - IT

was never enough. My squad whispered behind my back. Soldiers pointed at me in passing, at first in secret but later more boldly. I was not Kuireid who could send monsters flying across the battlefield with his bare fists. I was not Midyrun who could swallow whole lines of marching troops into the bowels of the earth with a flick of her hand. I was not Ivileir could shoot so fast, she downed four enemies in the blink of an eye. I was not Ehuria whose skill in healing was so prodigious, she was able to seal bone deep wounds in a handful of seconds. No matter how I trained, studied or worked, it was never enough. "I, was never enough."

» - HIS

name was Heliel. Her's Kaedra, his Torlu, her's Aerice. He said I had saved him during an attack on the city, me with only a shield and a sword but still charging an 8" creature with a wolf-head for a face and fangs and claws to match. He wanted to serve at my side so I would never have to charge forward alone ever again. He said my bravery inspired him. His inspiration inspired the rest. I had a squad of volunteers at my side for the first time since I had become a Divine Warrior. I had friends. I wasn't alone anymore. "We are your wings, and you will fly on us."

» - DREAMS

came to me every night. Always formless and without change. A shapeless fog lingering before my eyes asking me two questions in succession, no matter how I answered. I always answered no. "Do you love this world? Enough to die for it?"

» - ONE

day, I answered yes. We were on the cusp of another victory. I was not a powerful nor flashy fighter, but I was committed and I devoted myself to my troops. I brought mothers and fathers home. I returned brothers and sisters to their families. Children to their parents. They showered the streets with red flowers whenever we returned to Zisheir, red for Sidara's national color. The color of our uniform. The color of my emblem, that of the Divine Warrior- an 11 pointed star over a pattern of wings and three curved strokes. The star for the Warriors. The wings for the people upon whom we flew. The strokes for Yllsi, the symbol of her divinity. There were so many people I did not bring home that day. For the first time in 6 months, Isyll took to the battlefield. In a single blow, I lost the four people I loved. The four I foolishly allowed with me onto the battlefield because I trusted in my ability to keep them safe. As I stared up at the towering smog that was our enemy, my dream appeared before my eyes. Do you love this world? Enough to die for it? I held Heli's cold body in my arms as I stared into certain death and answered yes. That was when the dream answered back. "So did we."

» - POTENTIAL

they called it. The infinite potential every Warrior was supposed to have. Of the 11, I was the first unlock it and with it- I lost all control. The smallest disturbance in my emotions and the wind answered with bellows that rattled the windows. A single moment of anger brought down rays of sun hot enough to melt metal and set fire to wood. I was a powerful force and a danger to everyone within 50 feet of me. Fiaro isolated me, set me to the task of meditation in hopes of controlling my newfound abilities and left me alone. I hated being alone. I thought of a cold hand in my own. I thought of the flowers that dropped from numb hands when the people saw how few of us had come home. I thought of that towering cloud of dark thunder that reached up to the heavens and shattered mirrors. I learned I couldn't die. "I'm never going to see you again. I'm sorry..."

» - WE

were sent as a delegation to the thus far silent elves: Ehuria, Beilaia and I. The three who had managed to unlock our infinite potential and thus were unable to perform satisfactorily on battlefields. I felt comforted to know it wasn't just a personal failing that kept me from controlling it. On the way we were attacked by a giant creature, neither Fuolian nor Sidaran. It was a man-sized bird driven mad by an infected wound caused by either a human or a monster, we couldn't tell. Though Ehuria was able to cure it of its ills after it was defeated, she said it could not live much longer. It had lost too much blood. Seeing it lay there on the ground, waiting for death, I could not bring myself to leave it to die alone. I sent them on ahead and spent the night defending it from scavengers. We talked, it was an intelligent creature. She asked about my magic, I bitterly complained about my inability to do anything. She laughed and told me to take her soul with me. I agreed. "How do you intend to control limitless potential with only that absentminded brain of yours?"

» - WIND

shredded my foes. Lances of burning sun dotted the sky in a blanket of light and descended like a torrential downpour of rain. I took to battlefields on my own and stepped away victorious, leaving behind the black blood of Fuolians which seeped into the ground until dirt became mud. I was Lord Kidrei Regalius, the Swan Warrior, Aspect of Truth and Yllsi's Chosen. I was anger. I was vengeance. I was hatred and fury and wrath and nothing so kind as mercy. I devastated battlefields and, in time, villages. If it walked with legs that weren't human, spoke with lips that were fanged or gazed with eyes that could see in the night- I cut it down, soldier, civilian, child. I would make Isyll feel pain. "For every Fuolian I fail to kill, it will go on to take a life. My failures cost lives. Monsters do not deserve pity."

» - WHEN

there was nothing left, we learned the truth. Isyll was a god of chaos and life. Order and chaos are both aspects of being, one cannot form without the other. In tandem, the two form balance. This had never been about good versus evil or humans versus monsters, it was one side versus another. I felt like a fool. I thought of a girl with tears streaming out of her slitted eyes holding a small life in her arms and how she sprawled to the ground with a blade of piercing light through her chest. I thought of the wet gurgle of the baby as the lance which had punctured its lung dissipated and it drowned in its own blood. I thought of how I hovered only for a moment, relishing, before flying away. I felt like a monster and threw up. "I should have known. I should have known I should have knownIshouldhaveknown."

» - VICTORY

was not possible. We 11, bonded together at last as allies, were not able to defeat Isyll. Instead, we chose to seal him deep within the earth and pray Yllsi could regain her strength in that time. We did not speak about the genocide we had committed. We did not talk about how destroying Isyll's eternal night would be the final nail in the coffin. His children, who thrived in the dark and could not function under the sun, would be hunted down to the very last of them. In the final battle, we perished one by one until Ehuria completed the ritual and used all that we were to lock him in a prison. We should have died in that moment, a true death of the soul. Our existences should have come to an end. Instead, Yllsi surrendered the power of her godhood to keep us alive and we fell into the coma of a broken soul that needed time to mend. As a result, Ateria entered a period without gods. "What was it all for?"

» - SEVEN

years later, we awoke in an empty field with no memory of the war. I was once again a human child trapped in an unfamiliar body. When I lifted my head, I saw a bear of a man with flaming red hair fending off a bandit. In the distance, I could see another take aim with a crossbow. In my mind, I knew his name so I intervened. Reid, Kuireid Lochalen. My friend, my ally, my rival. He insulted me, hit me on the back hard enough to bruise and laughed at my naivety. I didn't know how we had met. When we had defeated the would-be-murderers, we found a third and fourth. Forthain- Thain, and a girl we didn't recognize. Young, blond hair, beautiful. I felt ready to dedicate my life to her. She didn't know who she was, she had forgotten too. "We'll call you Cecile. Sounds right."

» - SCATTERED

we wandered, not knowing, discovering, adventuring, finding our lost 11 before finally understanding and remembering. Who we were, what we had done, how we had destroyed so much. I felt betrayal from Cecile- Yllsi. I felt guilt from my own actions. I felt grief at never seeing my mother or sister again and for the friends I had forgotten until that point. I felt united with the 11 kindred spirits I should have known were there all along. I would never trust Yllsi or myself the same way again, but I continued to be able to fly on a different kind of wings. "I am a monster. I will never be able to make right what I have wronged but I will never stop trying. I don't have the right to stop."