Part I: Prologue

"When the universe had just been created and time was still in its infancy, there existed two entities: darkness and light. Polar opposites, they battled for supremacy in a clash that would produce the universe as we know it today. Their fight seemed endless, one battle after the next, each brawl producing supernovas, which modern scientists credit for giving birth to today's planets and stars. It was this this way that the planet Vinash was created.

"After a particularly bad battle, Darkness had an idea. Settling down on Vinash, it created the earliest forms of life, intended to populate Vinash with creatures loyal to Darkness. These life forms continued to evolve and grow until they were capable of assisting darkness in combat. After suffering a heavy defeat, Light realized that Darkness's creation enabled it to have such enormous strength. So, it too created the first creatures of light, including humans, to drive out the forces of darkness.

"Realizing that the creatures of light would need an edge in battle against the creatures of darkness, so may years ahead of them, Light siphoned off some of its energy into four object, each would enable the holders to control one of the four elements of this world. Each object then sought out its destined owner and these 4 warriors drove the creatures of darkness to the far corners of Vinash and established a great empire, our empire: Aionios. Once these 4 died, the objects sought out new owners, and so peace was established. And that's how our world and nation were created" answered the teacher.

"But sir!", one boy exclaimed, "we don't live in a time of peace and prosperity! We are yielding less and less crops each year! And every year, those horrible hooded servants for the king show up and take away some of our people as slaves. My mother told me it was due to the king."

"Hush!" the teacher exclaims, "the king forbids such things to be spoken about. I refuse to say more!". But the class was insistent, and eventually the teacher relented.
"All right, just don't tell anyone, not even your parents!" After extracting a promise form the class, the teacher stated,

"Rumor tells us that Darkness had not really been eradicated and was biding its time. Eventually, it grew so strong that, when Light wasn't looking, dealt a near-fatal blow to light, so strong, Light may never recover. Now, it could slay the 4 warriors and hide their amulets in a castle he built for himself so that they could never find their rightful owners. He then broke down the boundaries to the country and let the creatures of darkness flood back in, whom welcomed him warmly. From then and there he has ruled us since."

To be continued...