Demer (deh-mr)

The world is in peril. Wars are breaking out over resources, power, and land. Eventually one political leader went too far and instructs a Jukin to perform a spell that will cause a plague to ravage the land. He assumed that he would be well protected from it within his stronghold, and be able to salvage anything after the plague was over. He was wrong. The sickness struck people at random, not discriminating between young, old, strong, or weak. The plague was not passed through touch or breath, but through what was eaten (even though some people had a strange immunity to it). The PL didn’t know this, and was only focusing on making sure that no one entered his stronghold. He didn’t realize that the food that was delivered to his gate every week was contaminated. Eventually, almost his entire household became sick and died. And then, so did he. After the plague ran out of people to kill (leaving behind the ones that had hidden immunity) the world was an even bigger mess. The only eight remaining royals saw that there was no way to start over there. They banned together to decide what to do. Royals in this world are separated by having magical abilities. They marry with other branches of the royal family or nobles to make sure that no commoners have magical abilities. Jukin are royal family members who have betrayed this ideal, deciding to become wanderers who are paid well for their magical services. They marry whomever they want because they have freed themselves from the expectations of royals. Though they are frowned upon in normal society. They have formed their own families, and are never certain whether their children will have magic or not. These remaining eight royals decided to create a new land with their combined power. In order to do this they would have to make themselves immortal. They sought out whatever was left of the ancient books, searching for a way to do this. They eventually found a prophecy that read as follows: the pearls of eternal light will save the world in its deepest plight. The pearls will crush like brittle bone, and be drunk in eight cups of stone. The pearls and cups found in None, will not give power to just one. A company of eight will share the pearls, to save the last island of their world. Pretty straight forward, right? The problem was that no one knew where the sacred pearls of eternal light or the stone cups were. Then the cleverest of the royals noticed something. The word none in the fifth line was capitalized. None was the name of one of the many ancient castles, they hadn’t recognised it earlier because it was the name in another language. The language of the sea people who had died out a millenia ago. All they had to do was make their way to castle None, Nenas in their language. They found the pearls in the burial chamber beneath the castle, where all the ancient religious treasures had been stored and protected. There were no guards now because of the plague, and no one was really interested in grave robbing anyway. After many days of searching through the treasure, they were able to locate the pearls and cups. The pearls were perfectly round, each one a different color. And the stone cups were more like clay bowls, with paintings around the rims. With the cups, there were eight mortars and eight pestles. They each took a pearl, a cup, a mortar and a pestle. They went into the castle courtyard to find the well. They each ground their pearl with the pestles. They poured water from the well into their cups and then they carefully mixed the pearl dust into it. They stood in a circle, each one holding their cup, now full of a glowing liquid. And then they drank. The change was immediate, their skin started glowing the color of their pearls, and it didn’t stop. They used their combined power to create an island land in the sky, far above their ruined world. They each created a castle for themselves on one of the eight sides of the island. And they settled down to live there. But eventually they realized that their little island was sad without any people living there, and that the people of the old world were still suffering. So they returned to the old world, and offered the people who remained a second chance. Those who accepted were given new names, new bodies, and new memories. They were wiped clean and started over, with no knowledge of their old lives. And they were happy. Each of the royals created a new race out of the canvas of the old people. When these new people were still learning about the new world, they lived in eight separate villages and had separate cultures. But eventually they came together, learned about each other. After a long amount of time there was a city built, a city where all races were welcomed. War was greatly frowned upon, it was said that if war ravaged the land then the eight gods and goddesses would fall upon the land to start anew. As for the royals, well the drinking of the pearls had a strange side effect. They were no longer able to have children. They would be forced to live forever without a family, or at least until the world ended. They consoled each other, and visited each other regularly. But for the most part they lied about their castles, trying to find ways to amuse themselves. Eventually they got so bored and lonely that they started adopting orphaned children. The way it would work is this, if a child is orphaned, it is taken in by the priest of that race. Each priest would be for one of the gods or goddesses. If the child isn’t claimed in eight months, it is adopted by its corresponding royal. This helped the royals with their loneliness, though when the child came of age they would have to be returned to their village, where they would find a trade and make something of themselves.