Light of the Moon

by Stardustgecko

Two races have fought upon the world of men for eons past: the Therians who represented the Lord of Life and the Undead who heralded the Lady of Death, throwing the world's natural cycle of life and death off-balance. After millennia of conflict, will the key to ending the struggle and restoring the cycle lie in the hands of four young girls and their forbidden unions?

1. Chapter 1

[ PROLOGUE ]

Ozpin put his mug on the glass tabletop. It was a little trinket he obtained from a gift shop in the nearby city. His eyes roved over the words 'City of Vale' and logo of two crossed axes printed on the porcelain in green and a faint smile crawled across his lips. Humans are ingenious creatures, he thought. "Even in the middle of a millenniums-old conflict they aren't aware of but are nonetheless affected by, they still find the strength to build and progress," he said to no one in particular. The clock tower was empty save for him and the only response he gained was the steady clicking of clockwork.

Since the dawn of creation, the forces of light and dark, of life and death have been locked in an endless cycle of conflict with humankind caught in the crossfire. Ozpin leaned back in his chair and recalled the first moments of his waking.

He remembered an unformed world, cold and barren. The god of light had only created him then and gave him the task of making something from the formless ash. With his power and the god's blessing, life sprawled across the surface of Remnant and from the nothingness, the Therians, the first sapient race, rose. The Therians held within their souls a vast reserve of life and so they were attuned to nature. Immortal and possessing the power to change between a human and an animal form at will, they went forth and spread the blessing of life across the barren world.

The god of dark took offense to this however, and in response, he created the power to oppose life itself. With his power, he created a miasma of decay and disease. He created death personified in the form of a witch. With their combined strength, they cursed the world with death and placed a seal on the immortal souls the living, limiting the power of life that coursed within their flesh and dooming them to an eventual end. The Therians affected by the curse lost their affinity to nature and became the first humans - frail beings with short, mortal lives. They wandered the world with little idea of who they are or who they once were.

Because the god of dark's curse lingered in the souls of the living, humankind aged and died, and through the witch's power, the rose again as the Undead. Because of the god of dark's jealousy of his brother's creation, the Undead are cursed to wander the world and never find respite unless someone who knows how puts them down. Deathless, cursed creatures with no lives of their own, the Undead are like parasites. They seek out and consume the life that writhes in humans and Therians either in the form of their souls, blood, or flesh only to sate their endless hunger and sustain their blighted existence.

Thus began the conflict between life and death, the eternal struggle that raged far from the sight of the humans who have forgotten about the existence of heralds of these two forces. For ages, the Therians and Undead fought. One side sought to protect life and creation, while the other sought to subjugate it and turn it into a renewable source of sustenance. The Undead, with their mastery of the magical engine known as Dust, had the upper hand however, and for generations since its discovery, they have succeeded in driving the Therians into hiding. Even now, only a few of the ancients remained, well-hidden from the world, waiting for they day they could turn the tables and spread life back into a dying world.

Ozpin felt a recent change in the air however. The hand of fate was stirring. He had no idea how or why, but he was certain about it. Picking up his coffee mug and his cane, he rose from his seat and looked out the window behind his table. He felt that change was coming, and he felt that it had something to do with one of the last Therian settlements that spread out below him.