Long, long ago, a group of Etherian settlers, adrift from what remains of their home island, seek out a new place to call home. They run aground on a star-shaped continent that they dub "Etheria" and begin to settle there.
A brave young woman by the name of Skystar (the first) establishes a society, and with the help of her people they build what will later be named Caprins, the capital city of their nation. Skystar is elected as the queen for her leadership and her mastery of the ability to cross between this world and another, one she refers to as "Earth." This trait is dubbed "World-hopping" and those with the ability are highly coveted and respected.
Skystar continues to build her kingdom, establishing a mighty capital city and stable economy. Soon, three other world-hoppers come forward with their findings on Earth and other worlds, writing them down into four tomes, the Codexes. The Codex Solar details the power of a world molten like a forge, the Codex Stellar; a world bathing in starlight (Earth). The Codex Lapis tells of a world with no sky, but a stone ceiling, and the Codex Umbra tells of a world where shadows reign supreme. Each world grants the world-hopper powers based on it, for instance, a Solar world-hopper gains power over fire and heat.
The Codexes are entrusted to the most powerful of each world-hopper of their generation, and when Skystar grows too old she passes the throne to her son, Solarblade. World-hoppers continue to gather knowledge from other realms to benefit Etheria, recording their findings in increasingly uptaded Codexes.
Around the fourtieth year of King Solarblade's reign, a young upstart mage by the name of Voidswrath rises to power. He shows enough promise to be awarded the Codex Umbra, and begins his studies of what has been dubbed Tenebris, the shadow realm.
Voidswrath becomes corrupted from travel to the shadow realm, and, hungering for power, begs the king to let him have all four books. When he is refused, he employs the Codex Umbra to take hold of a quarter of Etheria's population (and their shadows), and uses them to march on the palace. This shadow army is soon defeated by the armies of the other four books, and the mages deem him dangerous. Voidswrath is sealed away in the shadow realm, with a knock-off Codex Umbra serving as the only method for his release.
King Solarblade passes the crown to his daughter, who assures peace by hiding the Codexes in the palace library and revoking the privelages of all Codex-holders. Her reign goes relatively uneventfully, as do the next several.
About two hundred years pass, the reign of King Razorfang ends when he gravely injures his wing, passing the throne to his son, Sunstorm. The new king establishes trade with a tribe of refugees from an island off the coast of Northern Etheria, which has been destroyed by volcanic activity. The islanders establish their leader, Ebony, as a duchess and begin intergration with the native Etherians.
Ebony and her wife Tango, settling into their new palace in Caprins, introduce their son to the crown princess, Skystar the third. A marriage is arranged, but before it can be put into place, the princess disappears. She had found the Codex Stellar, and travelled to Earth without the knowledge of her people. At the same time, a servant boy by the name of Allil discovers the knockoff Codex Umbra, freeing Voidswrath.
When Voidswrath is released from his prison, he begins to seek out the other books, taking hold of the dormant power in a quarter of all Etherians once again, before the princess returns with an Earth-native boy named Tyler to defeat him once and for all.
Princess Skystar, upon coming of age and taking the throne as queen, decides enough is enough with the Codexes and, with the vote of her people, splits the kingdom into four. She appoints her friends, Grayfeather the islander, Cinder the son of the guardsman, and Allil the servant boy, as the new rulers of these kingdoms and forbids world-hopping. Those with the ability are still permitted to do so, but only under strict regulations.
When the last known world-hopper dies, the Codexes are entrusted to the four leaders, who are told never to let a world-hopper cause trouble ever again. World-hopping becomes a distant myth, like dragons or the idea of the world being flat.
Princess Skystar passes the Star kingdom's throne to her daughter, and so the four kingdoms continue to live in peace. King Cinder, however, never forgave Allil for freeing Voidswrath, and he and his kingdom hold a grudge against them for the forseeable future.
The turn of the century brings about new technology from the Star kingdom, who remain inspired by stories of their patron world, Earth. They create the steam engine, lightning rods, flushing toilets, bi-focal eyeglasses, primitive solar power, and many other things. The technology is shared with the other kingdoms, and soon each one's trade is established. The Sun kingdom becomes an agricultural province, the Stone kingdom establishes mines, and the Shadow kingdom studies their own, new form of magic.
While technology is on the rise, the Shadow kingdom discovers alchemy. The act of mixing different components to create something new takes Etheria by storm, and soon all sorts of alchemical creations join the Star kingdom's new tech. Golems, a combination of alchemically-charged materials and steam power, become a common sight. Most golems can fly, but it is considered normal to buy or create a ground-borne one as well.
New advances in both tech and alchemy mean that all four kingdoms prosper, and soon the locomotive is born! The Lightning rail, a train that runs between all four kingdoms, is created, and work on it brings jobs to many who had none before. The economy is booming.
A depression hits when the Lightning rail is finished and those who worked on it find themselves jobless. Banks crash, golems are deactivated, and people in all four kingdoms suffer. The star kingdom's current leader, a young queen by the name of Dewdrop, decides it's high time to bring back world-hopping. Small teams of researchers are dispatched to gather as much information as they can from all four kingdoms in secret in order to save Etheria's economy.
The depression slowly grinds down, and, without the help of world-hopping, Etheria bounces back. The stone kingdom takes charge when the Sun kingdom uses the depression as an excuse to get mad at the Shadow kingdom, and their role as mediators is fully cemented. Technology, no longer hindered by lack of funds, starts to spring up once again.
A few decades or so pass. World-hopping research continues, very quietly, in hopes to bring back what Skystar the third phased out so long ago. Alchemy is fully established as the world's lone form of magic, world-hopping forgotten by all but a few in the Star kingdom. Things once more run smoothly.
Present day: The kingdoms live in relative peace, ruled by Apollo, Artemis, Jasper, Sirius and Estella. Technology is equivelant to Earth's 1920s, with locomotive trains and relatively functional automobiles as transport and the amazing new inventions of the telephone and silent television spelling a bright future for the Star kingdom's efforts to rediscover world-hopping. Alchemists are beginning to discover more advanced forms of golems, closer to true life than ever before.
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