[OOC] History of Lunar

[megamagicpower]

The Rise of the Magic Empire

In Lunar's earliest history, magic was a rare and special thing. It was only under the influence of the magical goddess Althena and her four dragons, creatures of pure magic, that humans learned to use magic at all. But few were blessed with this gift, and most could only use the most basic of spells, such as those for light and healing. The rare exception was a child would be born with powerful magic and be named the Dragonmaster of the age.

The end of this era was marked by the appearance of one of Lunar's most reviled figures, a man remembered as The Magic Emperor. His magical powers were above those of any Dragonmaster before him, and yet he made no attempt to complete the Dragon Trials and become the next hero. Instead, from early in his life, his greatest ambition was to become the most powerful man on Lunar, one who would not even answer to the goddess Althena.

As it happened, he was born in a time when Althena was between her reincarnation cycles, when the people of Lunar were waiting for her return and for the rise of the next Dragonmaster. And so, with no one to stop him, towns and cities alike fell one by one under the control of this one-man army. He created a new kingdom on Lunar called the Magic Empire, which had borders that stretched from the sea to the barren frontier.

The Birth of the Vile Tribe

Prior to the reign of the Magic Emperor, there were two dominant species on Lunar, the Humans and the Beastmen. The Humans predominantly lived in cities and towns, while the Beastmen lived in nomadic tribes, and neither welcomed outsiders into their groups. Besides that, the only life on Lunar were monsters or divine beings, such as the Goddess and her Dragons.

However, in the Magic Emperor's thirst for power, he began a series of experiments on live subjects to discover ways to transcend his own mortality by extending his life and power to that of a god's. His early research into such things as magic circles and amulets would lay the groundwork for much of modern-day magical study, and his later research, which turned towards experimentation on live human subjects, would become the first and most infamous of the Forbidden Magics. But his late research was unfortunately successful, and its results are well known: he created a subservient race known as the "magic race" or the "demon-blooded", otherwise called the Mazoku, who lived for centuries and whose magic powers were far above and beyond those of humans. In later times, the Mazoku would come to be known as the Vile Tribe.

The Rise of Vane

The Mazoku were discontent in the service of the Magic Emperor, as any slaves would be in the service of a lesser being. However, they not only had the advantage of higher natural ability than his, but they were able to sneak away bits of his research and develop it on their own in secret. For example, it is believed that from his study of magic circles and enchanted items that the Mazoku were able to receive inspiration for Tattoo Magic, one of the arts most famously attributed to their race: They discovered that drawing different runes and patterns on the skin with special kinds of ink could amplify one's magical abilities in different ways.

Eventually, a small group of the Mazoku slaves were able to escape the Magic Emperor's control, and immediately set to work creating a sanctuary. Their options were limited, however: The Empire's domain covered the entire lush side of Lunar, halting only at the boundaries of the barren and lifeless Frontier. In doing so, it surrounded the sacred Goddess Tower, awaiting her rebirth to stop her from reclaiming Lunar. There was only one choice left for the Mazoku. If the Empire had taken all of the ground, then they would retreat to the sky.

In later times, the Mazoku would come to call their new home a "box garden", a reference to how carefully crafted and tended it was, how full of lush greenery, and how it hung in the sky in isolation from the world below. Through painstaking research, they were not only able to set the city aloft, but develop a teleporation system that locked out intruders, generate a larger and stronger protective magical barrier than any in recorded history, and create a magic cannon thought to be second in power only to the magic of the goddess. Their home was named Vane, the Magic City.

Siding in allegiance with the Goddess against the Magic Emperor, Vane was designed to orbit and protect the Goddess Tower, the final refuge against the Empire. There they, too, waited for the rebirth of the Goddess and the appearance of the next Dragonmaster. In later times, a legend would arise about the origin of Vane: that the Goddess had cried for seven days and nights, flooding the world to purge it of the Empire, and that this made Vane rise into the sky. However, the true origin of Vane and the brutal battle that followed its appearance were not forgotten...

The Fall of the Magic Empire

Whoops, time for a time-out for an OOC note.

Most of what's been written so far... well, it's not canon, but it's been constructed from tidbits gathered from side materials and interviews. But... there's pretty much no details that can go here but pure headcanon. Maybe later I'll come back and make something up, perhaps with the Twin Dragonmasters Alicia and Laticia? (It would explain why they were one of Lemia's favorite stories in the Vane Airship manga -- well, other than the fact that what girl wouldn't want to hear about two women being the legendary heroes?)

In the meantime, the gist of it is that the goddess returns, a Dragonmaster rises, a war is fought, the Magic Emperor is overthrown and everyone is free again, including the rest of the Mazoku.