Prologue
Long ago, more than four thousand years before the Second Defeat of Cthulhu, when the four great Guardians of the Seasons were children, Terraria was ruled by a great line of kings and queens. This family of royals practiced a strange and different type of combat: summoning. For in those days, Terraria was threatened and ravaged by massive packs of dire wolves and hellhounds. After several major battles, the rulers finally drove out the beasts with their minions, the great hydra and tempests that sprang from their weapons and fought off the monsters with icy breath and swirling winds.
For a long while, the kingdom was at peace. Casters and summoners coexisted in harmony and accepted each other.
The kingdom's most beloved rulers, the good King Leonidus Lightspirit and his lovely queen, Iphiria, came to power. After a year on the throne, the birth of the young Princess Ixia sent great excitement and joy throughout the entire kingdom. How ironic indeed that the adored royal family would indeed be the last!
When Ixia turned fifteen, tension was forming between the respective caster and summoner communities, differing opinions of combat and might. As the young Princess entered her final teenage years, the tensions began to run so high that innocent people started getting killed.
On her eighteenth birthday, Ixia met her betrothed, Prince Konrad of the Sky Citadel of Kyrosia. She and the prince fell deeply in love, and several months later they were to be married. Unfortunately, it was on Princess Ixia Lightspirit's wedding day that the casters commenced their upheaval.
The infamous Battle of Quelling, the civil war that shook Terraria to its core, had begun. Enraged casters had surrounded the palace, demanding entry and using their assorted weapons to break down the doors. Before anyone could react, a wave of angry magicians burst through the palace gates and swarmed up the steps towards the altar.
King Leonidus threw on his armor and thrust himself into the fray, calling upon the royal army. Queen Iphiria snatched her daughter by the collar and raced with her down the corridor to Ixia's room. Without hesitation, the queen shoved the Princess into her room, bade her sleep, and slammed the door, muttering a quick sealing incantation over it before the angry wave of sorcerers descended upon her.
Good King Leonidus, lovely Queen Iphiria, and Prince Konrad all died in the Battle of Quelling. After years of cataclysm, the casters finally drove the summoners into oblivion, nearly a decade after Ixia's wedding day. The defeated royal supporters remained in the darkness, strengthening, gathering power as the next four thousand years elapsed.
Meanwhile, Ixia herself remained in her sealed bedchamber, still wearing her bridal gown and ceremonial tiara. The last thing her mother had told her to do was sleep, and sleep she did, until the palace crumbled into ruin around the chamber and new heroes had risen and fallen.
Finally, exactly four thousand years after she had been sealed in her room, Ixia woke to a tapping noise on her door. She arose stiffly and opened it, blinking her eyes at the sudden light. She was amazed by what she saw; instead of the white marble halls of the palace, she saw instead a lush green forest. She was so dazed that her eyes almost passed over the girl standing in front of her.
She had raven-black hair that hung to her shoulders and teal blue eyes that glimmered with endless wisdom. Countless magical weapons hung from her shoulders, her hips. She smiled at Ixia.
"Glad to see you're awake," she said brightly. Ixia shook her head. What atrocious grammar! And such a terrible accent! She could hardly recognize her own tongue in this stranger's mouth.
"Er..." she fumbled. (One does not speak too well after spending four thousand years asleep.) "I am Ixia Lightspirit, Princess of Terraria. Prithee, what be thine name?"
The girl looked confused, then ventured, "Calythé. Calythé Night."
"I demand to see my father, His Majesty the King Leonidus," Ixia croaked.
Calythé shook her head. "I need to get you to Embrea. And teach you to speak properly."
AND THUS PASSED MANY YEARS.