The Start of the War of Lightning and Ice

An unseen, unknown narrator begins telling a story; they expect no one to listen, but in a strong and clear voice begin the tale:

Nexus: a world full of elemental magic and fantastic beasts is made up of five major continents. Alloria the land of lightning and ice, Regalie the Land of earth and lava, Solaris the land of wind, Crystalis the land of fire, and Azantius the land of water. 

Among the continents, Alloria is the largest both in size and in power. Home to the most rich and plentiful dungeons it has acquired a monopoly on magical crystals which can only be grown and mined within these dungeons. These crystals power every kind of magical device there is from something as simple as a lamp to flying cargo ships. Mana crystals literally make the world of Nexus go round, so they became a more valuable commodity than money itself.

 As with any natural resource, there were both risks and benefits. The first being the fact that mana crystals only grew in dungeons. Dungeons were mysterious places full of monsters and were shrouded in darkness. The second problem was that only those natives to the dungeons knew the secrets of the cultivation of the mana crystals. What was the problem with this? 

The natives worshiped a god, Elis. Elis was said to be the creator of the dungeons and the people who inhabited them were its defenders. Simply put, the ice users who inhabited the dungeon refused to teach anyone how to mine or grow the crystals. Even when tortured no secrets were ever revealed. 

As well as a shared religion, ice casters were all very similar in appearance. The dungeon life left their skin a pale white from lack of sunlight. Their hair in contrast was jet-black giving them a striking beauty that would be celebrated if not for the social stigma. Finally, their eyes were a dark shade of purple which glowed iridescent blue when casting.

Similarly, lightning users also had a signature appearance. Their hair flaxen, their skin lightly tanned by the double suns of Nexus, lightning users all had green eyes that glowed as bright as their golden hair when casting. Those of House Elding in particular were stunningly gorgeous. 

House Elding, the wealthiest of the tradesmen families and the unofficial royal family of Alloria had other plans in mind for the Isaz. Their leader was brilliant and had fashioned a collar that inhibited the use of magic. If the dungeon people wouldn't cooperate, they would make fine slaves instead. 

The people of Isaz, or the ice users had no such hierarchy and instead listened only to the words of the high-priestess who was said to be the only one with a direct connection to Elie. In fact, the priestess herself was said to have been around since the dawn of man. She was said to be the first even magic user, but those were nothing more than fables passed down from generation to generation.When house Elding first attacked they looked to her for guidance. Many were distraught when the priestess told the Isaz not to fight or struggle but to cooperate to avoid massive loss of life. Despite the bitterness from some, the people of Isaz complied with the priestess's decree.  

The people accepted the collars and began to mine and grow mana crystals for over 100 years. In the current time, the dungeons which were normally peaceful if left alone had become hostile, even to the Isaz. This meant that the dungeon was attacking them and killing those in the dungeon more frequently, even causing the ice people to relocate their village closer to the surface.  

Claiming to hear the pleas of Elis, the high-priestess tried to negotiate the end of mana crystal harvesting. You see, the dungeon would not behave this way unless it was rotting or dying. Both things that could be caused by over taking of its natural resources. A rotting dungeon was one that began to fall into corruption and would become a dark dungeon. Its monsters would start to kill all who entered indiscriminately, losing their minds and wills. 

The priestess feared that this was what was happening and made an attempt to explain what could happen to the Elding king. He simply scoffed, telling the priestess that the monsters of the dungeon were already hostile, thoughtless creatures that should be hunted and killed so there would be no difference. The priestess and the Isaz knew this not to be the case as they lived in harmony with the creatures of the dungeon and some of them even spoke and were wiser than any human, but this was not the belief of any surface dwellers.

 Those on the surface believed dungeons to be nothing more than places where they could gather materials and fight monsters to increase their magical skills. They did not believe that the dungeons were something more. That they were living and breathing places that had entire ecosystems which could die from depletion of the dungeon's resources. 

 Due to this common belief about dungeons, her plees landed on deaf ears. Rather than take her seriously, the most recent Elding king attempted to imprison the priestess instead. To everyone's shock, she was simply too powerful to be restrained. As a warning, the priestess froze the Elding King's arm and as he gasped in pain, the priestess approached him and with an emotionless expression and crushed his arm to dust. She hoped that it would serve as reminder to him to not mistake Isaz's pacifism for weakness. 

Just short of an outright declaration of war,  the interaction led to the start of the War of Lightning and Ice. The priestess returned to the dungeon and first dispatching all Elding guards in a single, terrifyingly powerful attack. She broke the shackles which kept ice users from using their full magical ability like they were mere children's toys. Turns out the devices had a limit on how much magical energy they could absorb, so all she had to do was simply touch them to overload them and cause them to crack under the intense pressure of her magical energy. 

After rallying the people, the army of Isaz was officially formed and the fighting began. Heavy losses occurred on both sides. The princess who was acknowledged as the strongest lightning user decided to join the fight, despite her father’s order not to. She snuck her way onto the front lines and took control of the Elding army. While the princess was indeed strong, she was also very wreckless due to her youth and her spit-fire personality. In many ways, she was the polar opposite of the composed and calculated priestess that led the troops of Isaz.  

The first meeting of the two occured at this major battle. Their meeting would forever change both women, this encounter being the start of the tale that would come to be known as the princess and the priestess.