The Essence Vale

It's been 6 years since Mateus woke up in Florinad City. He's adjusted pretty well, and can speak the local lingo decently. Not just the human lingo, but the avian language and also the furred beast tongue. He tried learning the lizard hisses, but while he picked up a general idea what they were saying, he could not pronounce anything correctly, and nearly died after accidentally insulting a class 4 dragoniod.

In this world, hundreds of years ago, Rifts opened around the world, allowing the Mutant Beasts to appear. They destroyed the old cities and laid waste to the world, except for those few places where Essence gathers. Instead, the animals that fled to these places underwent a change, and became Spirit Beasts. These creatures no longer rely on food and water to survive, but can live centuries on Essence alone.

After some time, humans discovered the method to contract Spirit Beasts. In exchange for Life Essence, humans can use the abilities of their contracted companion. With these abilities, the Mutant Beasts were driven back, and human civilisation rose once more.

However, a contract is not a simple thing, and there are many requirements and consequences. The first requirement is that both the human and Spirit Beast must consent to the arrangement. The first consequence is that, every time a human trades their Life Essence for power, they shorten their lifespan.

For this reason, many humans were loathe to form contracts, and the population of Spirit Beasts began to dwindle, starving to death through lack of Essence. So a law was made - all humans at the age of 15 must form a contract. If a human fails to form a contract before their 17th birthday, they will be exiled from human society.

Mateus is an orphan in this life. He and his sister were taken in at the public orphanage at ages 9 and 8. Tomorrow Mateus will be 15, and he will enter the Essence Vale for the first time, in hope of making a contract with a suitable Spirit Beast. Thanks to his language skills, Mateus is hopeful of finding a good avian or beast. He doesn't want to leave his sister, and as an orphan one of the best jobs he can find is to join the wall guards.

To be honest, Mateus doesn't want to be a guard. The job is at times too boring, or too lethal. He'd much prefer to be a weaver of fabrics. The Angoras are excellent Spirit Beasts in this aspect. No matter their shape or species, the fur they shed is so marvellously soft and strong, fabric made from it always commands a high price.

So, that is his goal for tomorrow - contract an Angora Spirit Beast.