Prologue: Cereldia (Sereldia)

Somewhere, on a different plain of existence, there lies another world very similar to ours. In it, there exists great nations with greatly detailed and complex histories that few know all of and some believe there is more to the history than what is known, just as in our world. Great empires have risen and fallen, people have prospered and despaired, just as we have. This other world has great and bountiful natural beauty, only being rivaled by the world that we call home.  This world also has great diversity, with peoples of very different backgrounds and beliefs call this world home.  This is just the beginning of all there is of this magnificent other world, known as Cereldia.
Although Cereldia is quite similar to our world, it is bound to an extraordinarily different set of laws and realms of possibility.  This is highlighted by one major thing. This world contains magic, of the literal kind, the kind spoken of in fairy tales and legends in our world, the kind that we only dream of it. Those who devoted their lives to the study and practice of magic became known as mages. There are also those who are greatly adept with the art of magic became known as archmages. Then there were those mages who are known for their great wisdom and bravery, along with awesome amounts of power and skill are granted the title of Sage.
These mages did many great deeds for the peoples of Cereldia, but many of them soon began to realize that if mages cooperated with each other, that deeds of much greater magnitude could be accomplished. Those who realized this began forming alliances, coalitions, and guilds of mages, of which the term guild would later be coined as their official classification. These mages then accomplished even greater feats than they had before, attracting the attention of the feudal lords who ruled the land.
One of these lords realized that magic could be used as a great and powerful weapon in both military and political matters. He soon added a magical division to his army, of which the other lords, whom soon followed suit, leading to a magical arms race. This soon got out of hand and commoners suffered. Out of fear that there would soon be a rebellion, The Seven lords of Cereldia called the summit of  the year 406, including all of the lords, the more influential vassals t the time and many of the sages from the time. They all knew that this arms raced needed to stop in order to prevent revolutions from starting throughout Cereldia, so they all agreed that the magical divisions of the militaries of each nation needed to be cut to bring upon the return of order. They also found that the magical world needed to have a government to regulate it before things got out of control.
The Lords wished for magic to be regulated and governed by individual nations, but the sages pointed out that what attempt that had been previously made had failed miserably up to that point, and wished for a single international organization to regulate magic. While the lords saw the point of the sages, they still wanted to have an influence in the magical world, and made this point clear to the sages. The sages responded by allowing the individual nations to regulate to a certain point, but under the proposed "Magic Council". They also said that each nation would have to house outposts and a regional HQ for the Magic Council. The lords agreed upon the plan, but asked who would be on this Magic Council. They were given the response that seven sages would preside over the magic council, with one sage coming from each nation. Soon after this summit, the magical divisions of each nation’s military were cut, and the Magic Council was formed, restoring the stability of Cereldia once again.

Chapter 1: The Tragedy of Sakura

Our tale starts centuries later in the small village of Sakura, known as the town of blossoms, with a fifteen year old girl with flowing blonde hair and soft, hazel eyes by the name of Haru Runeflow. Haru lived a typical village life with her mother and stepfather and was considered one of the prettiest girls in the village. The people of the village greeted her with a smile, kindness, and often gave her gifts for no apparent reason. She also had an older brother of the age of 17, Kinzo, with black hair and blue eyes, who had fought in the lord’s army before he had been discharged for a reason unbeknownst to her. She and her brother had a close bond since their early youth, he was a kind, gentle and caring older brother towards Haru. He played with her often, and looked after her, especially since their mother had to do work outside the home to support them without their father. After their mother married the man who was now their stepfather, at age the age of 9, Haru asked her parents about her real father. her stepfather shouted out of rage and went to hit Haru, but Kanzo stepped in took the hit from their stepfather to protect Haru. Their stepfather ordered Kanzo to get out of the way, but Kanzo refused and asked to take Haru’s punishment for her. Their stepfather had clearly favored Kanzo from the day they met him, although his reasoning was never made clear, making this choice difficult for him. In the end he decided it was best to only give Kanzo an easy beating, giving Haru a kind of deterrent from bringing up their real father. Other than this, and a few other incidents, they all lived a happy and peaceful life as a family, ntil one fateful day, that is  Haru had been tasked with collecting leaves for medicine from the Willow of Delirium on Mount Tsuneo for the day. She did as she was tasked, but when she returned that night, an unspeakable sight met her eyes. Dead bodies of villagers littered the streets with blood soaking the ground like rain. She quickly ran to her family’s house and flung open the door to see something greatly to her dread. She saw Kinzo standing in the center of the room, covered in blood with the dead bodies of her mother and stepfather at his feet.  She looked at her beloved older brother in disbelief, thinking her dear brother could not have been the one who had done such a heinous crime. “It must have been someone else’s deed!”, she thought. Then Kinzo looked Haru in the eyes and said,”I know what you’re thinking, and you’re wrong, I am the one who has murdered our beloved village.”  “N-no!” yelled Haru, “You’re lying!”, but deep down, she knew he spoke the truth. “Why would you do such a thing?”, she asked, weeping. “I had to liberate you, in order for you to find your destiny and save you from ignorance.” Kinzo stated. “What do you mean?” lamented Haru. “Go and seek the truth behind our real father, the truth behind these eyes, and once you awaken the powers of this truth, search for me and decide whether you wish to kill me or not. If you search for before awakening this power, this truth, I won’t hesitate to kill you.” spoke Kinzo, his eyes changing into a Taijitu pattern, striking fear into Haru.  “You Bastard!” wailed Haru.   “You will find your true path soon enough, sister, I must go now, you must search for this truth for everyone, otherwise all of these deaths would have been in vain.” Kinzo said, then disappearing, leaving Haru alone. She cried at her parents’ side until she went unconscious with exhaustion. She awoke the next day to see that all of these events were reality. She decided that she should at least give her parents a proper burial. She spent the entire day giving death rites to her mother and stepfather.  The next day she buried them under the cherry blossom tree that her mother used to take her to on spring afternoons when she was a child and sing to her, feeling the nice breeze of spring, watching the blossoms fly through the air for what seemed like forever. She laid a bouquet of white lilies and cherry blossoms from what was once the Sakura florist. She then headed back to town to gather supplies for the journey to the town of Tahara and Departed at dawn the next morning.