Chapter 1: The Final Light Before Eternal Darkness

It was the day of the Full Harvest celebration, a celebration that was to reach it's 100th anniversary. It originally began in the year 1157, of course back then the holy kingdom M'Omeir was not but a humble village, built centering the holy church of M'Omeir. M'Omeir is the goddess of harvest and life, it is her job to bring light to our land and calm rain so that we may harvest and offer our sacrifices of wheat, barley, corn, beans, and various other plants.

despite all these things she does for us so graciously, It is said that, she once fought fearlessly against the other gods for this position, leaving mountains of blood in her wake, and bringing many people to recognize her as a "true goddess" this in result gave her a large following.

After several years of great harvest we began to make offerings to the goddess M'Omeir, every year at the same time we would do this. It then became known as the "Full Harvest Celebration" it is the evening light of our 100 celebration now, music is kicking off throughout the kingdom, shops are in moving carts hoping to make a few extra coins. Animals from horses to elephants parade through the city as preparations are made in the capital church. Lanterns lit out side houses, and young boys playing in the streets with wooden swords and shields while the little girls sing beautiful songs to the goddess. These are sites you would never see anywhere but The Holy Kingdom Of M'Omeir.

Now that I have told you all of this, it's time that the story falls down to me, why do I matter in all this? What did I do to deserve a story? Well I think that it's best found out through a long story. It all began when I was a young boy, no more than 5 years old. I told my dad I wanted to become a holy priest. He asked "why son? That is a job for the girls, no son of mine would be able to sing to the goddess. If you want to do anything for the goddess do something we've always done, become a farmer or work for one. It's much harder work more fit for a man like you will be someday"

"But father, i've never been any good at harvesting. I'm not that strong, and I don't think I ever could be." I replied.

"Surely we can find some use for you A'ren." my father said.

"A'ren?" I thought to myself. for I couldn't remember the last time he refered to me by my first name. Then again I'm not sure I had learned my last name by this point, which is "Graphy" by the way.

"No matter, someday I'll grow up to be a priest!" I shouted before storming out, thinking to myself my father had more work to do anyway since he was the holy knights blacksmith.

10 years passed and I was 15. Stronger, healthier, and hardier than ever, my father was growing in age, but taught me how to fight and defend myself well. But I hadn't given up on my dream to become a priest, in the evenings I would sneak out, and climb up the side of a mountain, on top of this mountain was the church of M'Omeir, where they would do faith lessons. From this I learned basic magic, though they never knew I was there because commoners were not allowed there unless they were females under the age of 13.

8 more years pass I'm now 23 and have been working in the fields, I feel as though my dream of becoming a priest will never happen. Everyday I'm in the field, is a day I'm not practicing my magic. I'm atleast as adept in magic as all the young girls who go to study it. and am much stronger physically, but unless I'm recognized as a noble man, I won't be able to become a priest. "Dangit!" I exclaimed, though it was a unwise decision as all the other workers looked at me as if I was insane.

I had a important job to do though, something that I could do to be affiliated with the church. I was bringing the crop that would be used in the sacrifice. "This is my chance" I then thought to myself. "If I can bring the best crop and a great amount, surely the goddess will love and bless me." This brought up great speed and strength as I finished cutting my bit of the harvest for that nights festival. "We have finally arrived at the 100th festival."

Music blaring and everything was as I had previously stated. Partying was louder than ever, offerings were being made by even commoners who had nothing to do with the church. This would be the biggest celebration we'd ever seen. Little did we know it would also be the longest.

skipping a bit of ways through the celebration it was now midnight, it was time for the harvest offering at the church, for the first time I climbed the mountain stairs to the top of the church legally. It excited me greatly, and brought me great joy thinking about all the beautiful scenery around that I would get to see if I was a priest. we made it to the top and the priest said something in another language, then lit our barley, wheat, corn and beans, and much much more. The amazing scent went through the room and left out up to the heavens. The rest of the night was a blur of celebration with friends, family, and a whole lot of alcohol. It felt very late before someone realized the night had gone for over 10 hours. Most shrugged it off as if it were a natural phenomenon, but almost 24 hours of dark later the kingdom was in a panic, there was no light. The wind was picking up, the ocean was angry, and the clouds rolled with thunder.

People shouting to and throw, carts where being robbed and emergency beacons of light were lit. The situation was dire, so the church came to a conclusion. Word was sent to each district reading this: "Dear fellow common folk and noblemen, we at the church have found the root of this evil darkness. The goddess is horribly mad at our offering, and we now know why, the offering was poisoned, not enough to kill her, but enough to sicken her. For this, each man who brought the offering must take responsibility, so we are banishing the following 4 people to the outlands of the holy kingdom, why only four you ask? well we descerned that it was infact either the wheat, barley, beans, or corn that was poisoned there for only these for must go: A'ren Graphy, Jocey Mcarian'a, Lucina Marta, Cron G'half. Thank you for your time and we hope you cooperate. We know our goddess will return light to the land."

only moments later I was grabbed from behind thrown a bag over my head and thrown into a cart, next thing I knew I woke up outside the large city walls, with no way to enter. Stretching thousands of feet in each direction and atleast 100 feet up the wall of stone stood firm. "So, how are we getting out of this one guys?"

- Chapter 1 End!