Welcome to a New World of Sorcerers and Slayers

"One thousand years will soon come to a close - and so you will have to find a successor to be the Emissary of the Primordial Elemental Elder Realm. You've done very well in your time upon the throne, that those who were born mortal may sit - but the time for your ascension into a true immortal will soon come, Akira."

Haruto said as he sat at the boardroom table on the top floor of the Imagination and Illusions Inc headquarters building in Tokyo. He was older, with a worn face, piercing eyes that had certain glow to them, like that of a powerful shower of heavenly light. He and his equally aged, wise, colleagues, Akio, Aoto, and Sota stared at Akira who sat across from them, waiting for his answer, as the evening moonlight peered through the windows of the boardroom and onto these powerful figures. Haruto, Akio, Aoto, and Sota were all identically dressed in tight-fitting, striking, pinstriped suits and ties that each had a small jewel centered towards the top on them - albeit each of their suits, shirts, ties, and tie jewels were different colors - with Haruto's suit being white with gold pinstripes, along with a gold shirt, a white tie, and a small amber jewel, Akio's formal apparel consisting of a burgundy suit with white pinstripes, a white shirt, a burgundy tie, and a small ivory jewel, Aoto's formal apparel consisting of a cobalt blue suit with light aquamarine pinstripes, a light aquamarine shirt, a cobalt blue tie, and a small pearl jewel, and Sota's formal apparel consisting of a black suit with deep purple pinstripes, a deep purple shirt, a black tie, and an amethyst jewel. Akio's gaze was simultaneously passionate and fiery, and also concentrated and frost-like , while Aoto's was gaze seemed to be simultaneously calming and stormy like the sea, and Sota's gaze was simultaneously blank and lifeless, while also being deceivingly deep, and even endless in terms of concealing what he was really thinking. 

Akira took a breath, nodding to each of them in this tall leather office chair at the head of the boardroom table, and then after considering his words carefully, he spoke up in turn.

"It has been more than an honor to serve as the Emissary of the Primordial Elemental Elder Realm - and as we know, mortals like myself, have always been fascinated by the legends, myths, folklore, and stories of other worlds. Therefore, just as my now ascended predecessors in this esteemed position used cave drawings and stone etchings - I have with your combined divine guidance and powerful mentorship - developed a card game that I have called Sorcerers and Slayers. The world of the card game is directly based upon your four respective fiefs of Primordial Elemental Elder Realm - Haruto, yours of golden, sun-drenched wheat fields, Akio, yours of the hardened, frosted and sharp mountains, Aoto, yours of the volcanic, ashen sand beachheads, and Sota, yours of the forbidding, endless blackened bamboo mires and swamplands strewn with long-forgotten ruins. Through the guise of a combined 'costume play' or 'cosplay', and card design competition - I've selected the four grand prize winners to rule in stewardship over each of your fiefs and to compete to see who shall prevail. The first few thousand players in Japan to purchase the release of booster packs of Sorcerers and Slayers cards will also be sent to join them. Like the artistic mediums of my predecessors - these cards are enchanted, so the most esteemed four will be transported into the world of the game as they know it - and the Primordial Elemental Elder Realm, as we know it - as the characters that they designed through their illustrations and 'cosplayed' as, with the seats of power they've designed as part of their characters being included as well. Those who simply buy up the packs of cards - they'll be common folk in whatever fief they align themselves to. Lastly, I've made sure to have the retailers in Japan follow the mandatory limit of one pack per customer, in order to ensure the maximum number of participants in this divine and ordained event." 

Akira explained with great poise and grace, before returning to listening once more. Akira Watanabe, who the Japanese public saw as the all powerful CEO of Imagination and Illusions Inc, and who was a graduate of both the University of Tokyo and the Kyoto University - was actually far, far older than his official biography on the company's website stated. Being born in 1000 AD in what was by then, the year 2025, Kyoto - he'd been made ageless at the age of 30, but not yet immortal - as the latter was reserved for the divine, like his predecessors, as well as his interlocutors and mentors in their suits. Throughout that time, since this process began with the dawn of mankind - he'd risen to and held this same sort of professional position that he found himself in, in 2025, in the various incarnations, and by the various names that Japan had known such a high level business and executive creative equivalent position to be, in centuries past. Now, sitting there with his slicked back black hair, his much more youthful face, and his striking, light colored eyes, and in his suit, shirt, and tie combination in the same fit and style as those of Haurto, Akio, Aoto, and Sota - save for Akira's apparel consisting of a cream orange suit with white pinstripes, a white shirt, a cream orange tie, with a small moonstone jewel - Akira awaited their combined blessing for the approval of his final act, and one could even say - his final test! 

"Let your plan shine like the light of the heavens upon this land - and bestow our realm with mortals who shall emerge as heroes, villains, and common folk. You have my approval, Akira."

Haruto said as he nodded, turning to his divine peers to see how they stood on the matter - as there had to be unanimous approval in order to proceed. 

"I can see that this plan was forged in the fires of your heart, and explained with the crisp frost of your sharp mind. I too, concur and approve of this enchanted endeavor."

Akio stated as he then nodded to Akira as a final gesture of permission. 

"The possibilities of this plan are as endless as grains of ashen volcanic sand, and as deep as the ocean which they border. Go forth with this voyage of yours."

Aoto responded as he then interlocked his fingers, and held his hands together on the boardroom table.. 

"They shall be tested and worn down - driven to their limits, and only through the greatest agonies shall one prevail as your successor. Make this happen, Akira."

Sota said with a blank yet unfathomably deep look on his face.

Since there was no longer a need for words in that divine meeting, the five men stood up, with Akira initiating a deep, slow bow, to which Haruto, Akio, Aoto, and Sota returned in kind. Moments later, when they had once again all stood upright - the boardroom and the rest of Tokyo faded away, the scenery and surroundings replaced by a four-part landscape as vast as could be seen by the human eye - each part being the respective fiefdoms of Haruto, Akio, Aoto, and Sota - who would each also oversee the new rulers of these fiefdoms. Just as Tokyo had faded - so too did the human forms of Haruto, Akio, Aoto, and Sota - each having reverted to their wingless, long, and thin flying dragon forms. Their respective colors were that of their suits, with their respective jewels now in the centers of their heads, their respective, sharp toothed mouths each having an identical, smaller sharp toothed mouth within, and the tops and bottoms of their larger, outer mouths being rather elongated and sharp, like two blades pointing towards the other - one on top, one on the bottom, as well as each dual-colored, wingless dragon having a thin, straight, conical spiked points as the ends of each of their tails. Akira was now in his other form too - a tight fitting, thin, lightweight but very tough, cream orange suit of armor with curved inwards like crescents, carved and smoothed, moonstone spikes on the shoulders, with a texture-pressed dragon face accented with inlaid moonstones, on the chest of his armor. 

Akira held twelve cards in his right hand - the cards that were made for the winners of the card design and cosplay competition that he'd put on, depicting the winners in the forms of their original characters, and the two settings for the different fiefs that they'd each created for the world of the game. As he nodded to the dragon forms of Haruto, Akio, Aoto, and Sota - he scattered the cards into the expanse before them - as the enchanted nature of the cards would be able to find their respective owners. One in particular was for a girl named Kimi, a high school senior in Sapporo, Hokkaido.