This is the sad tale of two warring elements, eternal in both their power and their hatred for one another.

In the eons before the onset of humans, or indeed life itself, only two beings reigned supreme atop the great unsettled crust of the young Earth: two forces of nature as different as night and day not only in shape but in personality.

Claiming the entirety of Earths midsection for himself was Ignis, the embodiment of fire and the brashness of youth. Ignis was known for the harsh and cruel methods he employed to claim what he desired from the land, all in his quest for complete conquest of the crust. Primal and eager to prove himself, he spent centuries crafting a molten empire in his image, reaching endlessly to the east and west, scarring the ground with deep red wounds along the way. This legacy of violence forced the other elements into hiding, including the one that he despised most of all...

Retreating the fiery dominion of Ignis into the steep, sky-scraping mountains of the far north and south was Glacies, the essence of ice and the wisdom of age. Glacies made a wise choice when he picked the mountain peaks as his new sanctuary; There was nothing to burn along the paths climbing those legendary heights, and as such, Ignis would be completely defenseless and weak should he have tried to chase after his frozen nemesis. Glacies condemned everything Ignis stood for. He was thoughtful and intelligent, and always moved at a steady pace, but most importantly, he held a deep respect for all of his elemental brethren, something Ignis lost in the throes of insanity long ago.

Glacies patience was about to pay off. He spent many years bolstering his strength and reinforcing his white fortress among the clouds, spreading further out every day. He had planned to slowly but surely choke out the burning wasteland Ignis had created by moving from his domain in the poles towards the equator. Glacies swore that he would be the one to stop Ignis’ maniacal campaign, even if it meant encasing the Earth in a tomb of snow. For awhile, it seemed as if Glacies might have gotten his wish... until that day, when the counterattack began.

Glacies never could have seen it coming. He sat complacent upon his perch when he first felt the rumbling. Peering down the slopes, he was dumbfounded by what he saw; A volcano had risen almost immediately directly outside his base of operations, and it was crookedly aimed at the exact spot where he stood, the peak of his mountain. The ground shook once more as the volcano erupted with the force of a thousand cannons. Ignis emerged from the mouth clad in armor made with white hot magma from the very core of the Earth, and he laughed heartily as he flew towards his foe.

“Foolish Glacies! I told you there was no escape from my judgment! I think you’ve been here far too long, yes, perhaps your head has gotten too big. You wish to trump ME and take what is rightfully my own? Not likely! I will destroy you and finally claim my destiny! THIS WORLD IS MINE!”

Glacies was taken aback, but immediately began to spend his built up power in defense of his palace. Using only his sheer strength of will, he erected massive ice walls from seemingly nowhere to block Ignis. Unfortunately, Ignis was simply too hot, and his radiating energy melted the barriers before he even hit them. Glacies scoffed in disbelief. He had hoped that he wouldn’t have to resort to his greatest weapon, but with each passing second Ignis drew closer like a malevolent asteroid. His choice was obvious: die for nothing, or die for something.

“Ignis... just as unthinking and ignorant as I remember you from millenia ago. Haven’t you grown up yet? The Creator entrusted this world to all of us, Ventus and Terra, and you and me, all equal, all as important. Yet you have done everything in your power to bend the others to your will. The air howls in pain and the ground groans in servitude. Only I stand in your way now, but I can assure you... your madness ends here, my brother.”

With these last words, Glacies spent the last of his strength and dropped the temperature surrounding him to absolute zero. And as the ultimate heat charged towards the ultimate cold, the two screamed their final echoing battle cries before colliding... and vanishing.

Only Aqua remained, the newborn spirit of water. And as she rolled down those now forgotten mountains and spread across the globe, bringing peace at last to the oppressed earth and air with her soothing presence, she hissed and steamed, a soft, mournful sound.

Like that of a war torn widow.