Argus

Radix, who was the origin of everything, was naturally referred to as the Alpha and Omega. Few beings were aware of his existence, but virtually every being had a thought at least once of what was bigger then themselves, and fewer still pursued such thoughts but none were able to prove the existence of Radix.

Watching as the omnipotent being he is, Radix enjoyed watching the evolution of the myriad domains. However the ingenuity of the organic beings, known as Humans, in a particular lower-system on a particular planet known as Argus, fascinated Radix. These humans discovered many things by observing nature and what affects it. The humans gathered together and formed settlements. Eventually the settlements were growing larger and a basic leadership structure was formulated to maintain order.

Humans being humans of course tried to circumvent this leadership structure so laws were implemented and punishments depending on the law and the degree of which the law was broken were created. The settlements evolved along with the technology and the thatch buildings became built of mud and wood. The humans learnt how to make basic tools, weapons and other amenities such as clothes from the various natural resources.

During this time certain groups of humans coveted what other humans had, and went to war to take that which they coveted. As a result of war new technological advancements took place and ores were discovered. The humans learnt how to process these ores into metal objects, and with the newly found strength of these metal objects the settlements evolved into villages and cities. The cities were initially huge villages with much more complex leadership structures.

After more wars, these cities built defenses, such as high walls and turrets which could be garrisoned, to repel any invaders, while the villages started to align themselves with nearby cities. The cities would provide security to the villages within their domains and the villages would provide resources in return. This lead to a natural hierarchy where the cities became the centers of wealth within their domains, due to all the resources being provided by their villages.

This wealth attracted the best talent and that talent accelerated the rate of development of the cities, which became known as capitals in their respective domains, while development stifled within the villages due to the 'brain drain'. To manage their respective domains kings were brought into existence. Some humans fought for control while others were elected, as such kingdoms were born. This carried on for many, many more years.

Wars were fought, and the borders between kingdoms were constantly changing as territory was captured.

Time continued to march on without any major changes, until one day a group of reclusive people who grew tired of the constant fight for survival was passing their time doing what their ancestors did, observing nature. During their observations they noticed an invisible energy was responsible for the changes they were observing.

They attempted to harness this energy for themselves, and after many more years had passed there were signs of success. However there was a caveat, and that was certain elemental energies were only usable by people with specific affinities for those elements.

Over many more years and further investigations it was discovered that very few people possessed an elemental affinity and the strength of the affinity varied greatly among those which did. The humans who possessed affinities became known as cultivators.

More years passed and a method to test for elemental affinities and the corresponding strength was devised. A cultivator that possessed an affinity would infuse the energy of that affinity into a crystal, and those crystals became known as elemental crystals.

When someone who possessed an affinity held the corresponding elemental crystal, it would draw out the potential of that persons affinity and would glow. The brightness of the glow indicated the strength of the affinity. The brighter the light emitted the stronger the affinity. This also lead to the discovery that a tiny portion of cultivators were able to posses more than a single affinity.

Sects were formed by groups of cultivators to train and it was found that the more a person cultivated, the longer their lifespan was due to their life force being supplemented by the energy they were cultivating.

Thousands of years passed in these hidden sects peacefully until one day it was discovered that a person with a weak affinity could train and could strengthen that affinity. This lead to an uproar as the sects could start growing exponentially, compared to the double digit member bases that currently existed.

As such, the sects started carrying out public testings in the capitals of their kingdoms in which they resided. Initially, the citizens were unsure about these so called cultivators, until the cultivators started displaying their power. When people saw these cultivators manifesting the power of their elements in displays of immense power, they were of course captivated and enthralled… What human did not strive for wealth and power.

Many more years passed, and with new cultivators being added to the sects all the time, interesting developments started to transpire. A hierarchy was established within each sect, often in the form of a central figure, the patriarch, and various layers of support, the elders.

One day a blacksmith within a sect, who had an affinity for fire, was forging a new sword when he found he was able to infuse the fire element into his creation with every strike of his hammer on the anvil. This discovery gave rise to the elemental blacksmith profession.

An herbal medicine practitioner discovered that he was able to use his earth and fire affinities to formulate pills that had virtually magical properties, such as rapidly healing injuries, due to the energies infused within. This lead to the rise of alchemists. More years passed by and more of these such discoveries were made.

All was not peaceful among the cultivators however, as it was human nature to strive for power. Eventually wars broke out between the sects as the more greedy sects wanted to take the resources from others.

These warring sects were eventually beaten back and a rare void affinity cultivator spent his life-force to open a void to another location, and the warring sects retreated into the void. The void connected to another continent on the same planet, however that continent was inhabited by viscous animals that had been long tempered by time.

The warring sects were sated with the never ending battle for supremacy on the animal content, while the peaceful sects starting to rebuild on the human continent. Due to the power released by the void cultivator using his own life-force to supplement the elemental power, the void remained open and the human kingdoms build defenses around it to prevent a future invasion by the warring factions.

This ring of defenses became known as the void curtain, and one had to pass through this curtain in order to read the animal continent.

After the sects within the human continent rebuilt, they came to an agreement with the kings of their respective kingdoms. They would stay out of the human wars and aid in the defense of the void curtain. In addition the kingdoms would pay a tribute to their sects and the sects would supply the kingdoms with armaments (weapons that possessed elemental energies), medicines and the like.

Radix was fascinated with these developments, and eventually curiosity won. He had found a pair of siblings that interested him greatly.