True Names and Titles
The title Master Cyclonis was one handed down from generation to generation, regardless of gender or age. The old Master Cyclonis would nominate their favourite amongst the next generation, and then wait to see if their favourite could defeat them. If they could, the title moved on to them, and their real name was erased.
The current Master Cyclonis was the youngest in history, and was regarded with particular awe because the old Master she had killed had been her father. This, in the Cyclonion world, was a great achievement.
She had not, however, done it alone.
The old Master had been a powerful man, crippled by the loss of his empire. He had bred his determination to rebuild into the bones of his daughter, and equipped her with all the power and information she would need in order to achieve it. Being far too busy recovering from the Atmosian attack that had broken his stranglehold on the Terras, he had had no time to be involved in the actual raising of his child. Her mother had been killed when her daughter clawed her way into the world, and so the Master had chosen one of his most trustworthy Talons to bring up his daughter.
The Dark Ace is another name-destroying title bestowed upon one gifted with particular talent and cruelty. The current Dark Ace had been picked up by the old Master when he was just a boy, and had flourished under his dark reign. Deprived of family, he took on the Cyclonian goal of absolute domination as his personal mission, and swore his life on its success.
Such a devoted soldier was not, perhaps, the best equipped to raise a small child, but he was the perfect choice for training her in her duties.
At the beginning the other Talons envied him, and viewed it as favouritism, a lofty charge laid upon one so young. They had both hated and admired him, until he showed up to battle in armour that had baby vomit on it, and was discovered buying a small stuffed bunny as a birthday present. Then they just laughed at him. Loudly at first, until he broke some arms and bashed in some skulls, then quietly. They ceased to laugh altogether when his young charge learnt how to pick people up with crystal power and throw them across the room.
The old Master weakened as the young Master became stronger, growing every day under the Dark Ace's tutelage. She learnt how to handle weapons, hand-to-hand combat, how to ride, how to shoot, which mauver to use in what battle situation, and tactics. From her father she learnt to very secrets of the crystals and slowly grew to hear their seductive calls, whispers of power and possibility.
She learnt the Dark Ace's true name, and he in turn knew hers.
But the time came for the Potential Master to become Master Cyclonis, and it was then that the old Master's plan of putting his most patriotic soldier in charge of his daughter turned against him. The Dark Ace knew who would be better to rule his country and, as he had sworn to do, he used all his power to help Cyclonia succeed. He was by the new Master's side as she slew her father in that lonely tower, and if she wept then there was no one else to tell. For the Dark Ace was hers now, just as surely as she had been his when she was little.
And together, they would fight for Cyclonia, and fulfil their titles.
