A History of Tenoria

"How much do you know about the world of Tenoria?" I thought about it for a moment, "Not much." I replied, giving a small shrug, "I know about Veythar, the Guardian of Balance, how he made Tenoria and the Nyorans. I know how you separate into 'Realms' based on the five elements that you have an elemental affinity to. And I obviously know about the Corruption: the Duskmire, Umbrabeasts, and of course, Duskwraiths."

Kyros rolled his eyes, "Your knowledge of our land and history is atrocious." he said with a scoff. "Must you ridicule the boy?" The Ice Nyoran said, "He has no knowledge of our world, and it is our job to educate him on it." Kyros looked like he was going to say more, but he just rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

She turned towards me. "Is that all?" she asked. I nodded, "Yes, that's unfortunately all I know, Queen... uh... sorry, I don't think I got your name." "Oh, my apologies," she replied, "It's Nyx Icewing."

"And I believe that leaves me," the Water Nyoran said, "we haven't been properly introduced, my name is Aeola Tidecaller." I gave her a nod as she turned towards Sylas, "Forgive the interruption, what was it that you were going to say?"

"Nothing at the moment, I was just checking his knowledge, but I think it's best we start at the beginning regardless." He replied. Clearing his throat, he continued,

"Tenoria was created nearly five thousand years ago by the Guardian of Balance. He made everything, including us. At first, we had no connection to the elements. He then made Guardians of the Elements, embodiments of the five elements we now possess. They forged a connection with us, granting us elemental powers and unique patterns we wore with pride."

"Too much pride." Aeola said, her voice suddenly solemn. I turned towards her, confused, "What do you mean?" I asked, "She means war." Kyros interrupted, the same solemn tone in his voice, "Two thousand years of it."

Two thousand years. The silence in the room spoke volumes. I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. There was nothing I could say; the only thing I could do was wait until they continued.

"The first war began about thirty-five hundred years ago," Thorren said, taking over for Kyros. His somewhat cheery self had faded, now replaced by something else. "We call it the War of the Realms. After a thousand years of exploration and cultivation, then came the conflicts. Because of our different elements, we had drifted into different regions of Tenoria, but we had issues. We needed resources, things that the other Realms had to offer."

"And every Realm ended up being too stubborn to help each other," Nyx added. "The Ice Realm needed timber and resources from the forests to the south, for the land is frozen year round, there's not much resources for us to use."

"Same for the Fire Realm," Kyros cut in. "We needed water; the occasional oasis wasn't enough for our desert's growing population."

"We suffered the most," Sylas said softly, "we were landlocked, having to fight on multiple fronts just to maintain what we had. At first, we held onto the hope that this would all be over soon... We were wrong. The war lasted for five hundred years."

I couldn't believe it. For five hundred years, they fought over resources and territories. 

"How did it end?" I asked.
"Pure exhaustion," Kyros said bluntly. "We fought until we had nothing left to fight with or for. Our land was damaged, our cities destroyed, and our population suffered. We unanimously agreed on rough borders and retreated to tend to ourselves, in a moment what we thought was peace.""I'm guessing it didn't last?" I questioned, reading their expressions.

"No," Thorren replied. "It was only ... a pause. A time to rebuild, to recover. For five hundred years we did this, but during that time something changed in our hearts."

"Each Realm began to believe that our element was the strongest, superior to all the others." Nyx said, leaning forward in her chair slightly. "We truly believed that we were the greatest, the most important, the most powerful."

"Our beliefs came from pride." Sylas said, his tone somewhat angry, "Plain and simple. But that was enough to trigger another war, one that made the last one look like a minor fight."

When he stopped talking, there was an almost deafening silence that followed, and it felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room. I shifted nervously in my seat, fully knowing what he was going to say next, but I dreaded it all the same.

"The Elemental War," Aeola said quietly, "began roughly twenty-five hundred years ago. And it lasted for fifteen hundred years."

My mind started reeling, failing to process what she just told me. "How... how is that possible? How do you even fight for that long?" I said after I managed to compose myself.

"When you believe that you're the greatest, that your belief is supreme, there's no stopping that." Kyros said, and for the first time since I'd met him, he didn't sound angry, just ... tired. "With the War of the Realms, we managed to compromise and talk with each other about the land. But how do you compromise on your belief that you're the greatest? How do you compromise when you're blinded by your own pride?"

"Each side believed that surrendering meant giving up, admitting that you were weaker," Thorren added. "So we fought. And we fought. And we kept fighting even when it stopped making sense.""Our rulers," Kyros continued, clenching his fists on the table, "were monsters. They led the Fire Realm with unmatched aggression. We believed that we could burn away any and all opposition and prove that we were superior through sheer force." He trailed off, and I saw a look of regret flash across his face. "We were wrong. Every single one of us... was wrong."

"We committed crimes beyond forgiveness," Aeola said, her voice whispering in the silent room. "All five Realms did things that we can never undo. Any meeting between the elements was forbidden, and those that tried were executed as 'traitors'. Cities that lived in peace with other Realms were destroyed, their residents slaughtered. Not even children were..." She trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.

"Nyx decided to pick up where she left off, her voice firm yet warm. "By the end of the war, twenty percent of the population was dead. Cities were reduced to rubble, and the land suffered, and still does, even fifteen hundred years later."

I felt sick to my stomach. What they described to me was worse than anything I had heard before, beyond anything I could comprehend. "How..." I cleared my throat, clearing my voice, "How did it end? How did you manage to find peace though?"

They all seemed to exchange glances with one another, and I saw their sadness turn into something of hope.

"Five Nyorans changed everything," Thorren said, "Soldiers, each from one of the Five Realms. They met on the battlefield one day, and prepared to fight like the countless times they had before."

"But instead, they tried something different," Sylas continued, "they talked to one another. And in their talk, they realized the insanity of the war they'd been fighting for a thousand years. They realized that if the war continued, there would be no Nyorans left, that we would destroy ourselves."

"They became known as the Five Heroes," Nyx said. "They returned to their respective Realms and tried to force peace. It wasn't easy, each side had those that believed compromise was betrayal, who would rather die than admit that no element was supreme."

"But they held firm," Aeola added. "we don't know how they managed to convince them, but by the Guardian's blessing they convinced them. And fifteen hundred years ago, they signed the Great Treaty of Elyria. They chose the battlefield where they first met, and declared it shared land. They built this city as a symbol of unity and made an oath."

Thorren's voice took on a more formal tone as he recited, "All elements are equal. None is supreme. We are stronger together."

I let that sink in for a moment. "What happened to them afterwards?" I finally asked.

"Because of what they had done, they were chosen to become the new leaders of the Realms, the new Kings and Queens of Tenoria." Thorren replied.

"So does that mean... you all are descendants of them?" I asked.

"Yes, we are," he answered, "We carry the responsibility to maintain the peace that our ancestors fought so hard to obtain."

"For fifteen hundred years, we've maintained that peace," Sylas said. "Ushered by a golden age of Tenoria. Our lands recovered, flourished better than they had before the war. Populations began to thrive once more, bringing us back from the edge of annihilation. We rebuilt our cities, towns, homes, but we never forgot what our ancestors fought for that day. There have been some disputes, minor skirmishes, and tensions amongst each other, but never has there been a full scale war since then."

"Until twenty years ago," Kyros said. "When something worse appeared."

"What was it?" I asked, nervous about what he meant.

"Twenty years ago," Nyx said, shifting in her chair, "we fought a third war. This time, it wasn't a war that we started, and it wasn't against each other. It was a war instigated by darkness itself, or as you know it, the Corruption."

I instinctively touched the bandages on my face, feeling the slight ache of the wounds underneath them as I remembered what the Duskwraith did to me.

"One day," Thorren said, "in the Southeastern region of my Realm, an entire coastal forest appeared seemingly overnight. But it wasn't an ordinary forest, it was one made from the shadows, and we're not entirely sure how it happened. One moment the land was fine, the next..." He shook his head. "Seemingly transformed into what we call the Duskmire."

He continued, "I wasn't fully aware at the time just how much danger that forest would bring, but I nonetheless sent guards to investigate... None returned, each of them Consumed and transformed into Duskwraiths."

"And it didn't stop there," Sylas said, "the forest began to spread, taking more and more of the land. We put all our power into fighting it, but there was nothing we could do, no way to destroy it. We could slow it, contain it, push it back temporarily, but we couldn't destroy it."

"Can't destroy it," Aeola corrected grimly. "Present tense. For twenty years, we've been fighting to keep it from spreading. The Lightning Realm bears the heaviest burden since it's in their territory, but all five Realms contribute."

"And it's not just the Duskmire," Kyros added. "Every Realm has a... region, a pocket of darkness that spreads through the land like a wildfire, trying to consume us all. But every Nyoran that we send that falls to the Corruption fans the flame of that fire. Another enemy that we have to face. It's a war of attrition, and we're slowly losing ground every passing day."

I swallowed hard and leaned forward in my chair. "So where do I fit in all of this?

Nyx leaned forward in her chair. "About ten years after the Corruption appeared, the five of us received a dream. Each of us was contacted by our Elemental Guardian, as they told each of us separately a line of a prophecy."

When darkness spreads, a hero shall arise
From Realms unseen, beyond Tenoria's skies
With fur of blinding white, a remarkable sight
They shall master the five elements might
Matching their power, and they shall lose their might

The words seemed to echo throughout the room. I felt every eye on me, waiting for my reaction.

"At first, we took the news with great joy." Sylas said to me, "Finally, someone would come and banish the darkness for good. 'The Bane of Shadows' we called them. We told no one of this, waiting for when the one was found to bring hope back into this world. We told every General and Commander of our Realm to keep watch for a Nyoran with white fur. For ten years we waited, until finally, you showed up."

"That prophecy," Thorren added, "is about you. You appeared in the middle of the Duskmire itself, a place where no Nyoran has managed to leave unscathed. You were Corrupted but not Consumed. You have White fur and no elemental markings, something we've never seen in six thousand years of history. And Veythar, the Guardian of Balance himself, visited you personally. Every last detail of the prophecy points to you, Zarek."

"But what am I supposed to do?" I asked. I was rambling, desperate, confused, and shocked. "I don't have any abilities. I can barely fight. I don't even know where I came from or how I got here."

"You're immune to the very thing that's been slowly killing us for twenty years," Kyros said. "That alone makes you invaluable."

"But... I-I'm not ready, this is too much pressure to put on one Nyoran." I said weakly as I slumped back in my chair.

"It is," Thorren agreed. "But you're not alone. We're here to help you however we can: training, resources, knowledge. Whatever you need."

"First," Sylas said, standing up, "you need to rest and let your wounds heal properly. After that, then we can begin training. You'll need to learn not just how to fight, but how to understand the elements, how to forge a connection with them."

I sat there for a moment, trying to process everything they'd told me. I knew about the prophecy, but I never really processed just how serious this was. It appointed me as the one to save them, their savior... It was too much. All of it was too much.

"We're not asking you to understand it now." Aeola said, probably seeing the worry on my face. "We just want you to learn what you're here for. After that, we can take this one step at a time."

Her words reassured me, calming me down and clearing my mind. I looked at her, at all of them. "Okay," I finally said. "I'll do whatever I can to help you, all of you. I don't know how, but... I'll try."

Thorren smiled, "That's all we can ask for." He glanced out the window, seeing the sun setting under the horizon. "We've kept you long enough, go and get some rest. You've been through more than enough for one day. Tomorrow, we can start thinking about what's next."

I gave him a nod as I grabbed my cane and limped towards the door. I barely registered the walk back to my room, I was lost in my own thoughts as my mind replayed everything they told me today. My biggest concern was how I was going to fulfill the prophecy of theirs, how I was going to be the "Bane of Shadows" as they called me.

I was snapped out of my thoughts when I realized I had reached my room. Stepping inside, I closed the door behind me and limped to the balcony, leaning on the railing as I watched the sun set.

I felt the breeze ruffle my fur, and I let it stay that way, allowing myself a temporary distraction from my worries.

I stayed there well past the sunset, as the faint glow of lanterns could be seen throughout the city. I let out a sigh and gave one last look before I limped to the bed and completely collapsed over it.

I let out a sigh of relief as I sunk my head into the pillow, the fatigue of everything that happened today hitting me like a hammer. Before I knew it I was fast asleep, my fatigue managing to overwhelm my worries... for a moment.