Prologue: The History

Too many years have passed to be able to tell when it thrived, nevertheless, the great ruins

left behind were enough to prove its existence: the magnificent City of the symbologists. The name

of the great empire too was lost in time, yet its history was glorious enough to brave the countless

years, as was the memory of the unique race.

The City was built entirely of a strange rarity of marble, except for some places where the enormous trees were molded

with the structure of the buildings and towers. All adornments were made from the precious woods of the trees, silver

(which was a rather abundant ore in the area), and starlight-colored stones that could only be found there. The City was

beset by an large, deep, rich blue lake, whose waters were supplied by the spring it was made from and the immensely

pure rainwater that the empire was blessed with. It was almost always overcast and had only rare times of brilliant

sunshine, however, the slightly dimmed lighting only made the scene even more erethreal. The constant rainfall in the area

made the greenery surrounding and in the City extremely lush and picturesque. Fountains, ponds, waterfalls of all shapes

and sizes, and tiny tributaries ran throughout the City, going between and over all of the bui8ldings, towers, and

roadways.

The City was a paradise. How fitting it was that the people who inhabited it had the look of the seraphim. Each native of

the City was born with a pair of huge wings, each being as tall or maybe even taller that the person by the time they were

nearly adults. Whatever their hair color was, their wings shared the same color, and eye, wing, and hair color came in

countless colors. The eyes of the People were...striking, to put it plainly. It is said that one could be turned away from the

People almost as quickly as they were lured to them if they were showing dislike, for their eyes portrayed an unearthly

menace.

The empire and the looks of the People themselves would be enough to land them a great spot in the annals of history,

however, its true reason for remembrance, what gave the City its wisdom, power,...and mystery, was their astonishing

ability: symbology. The force of symbology was said to have been a gift to the People from the very first of the Ancients,

who were said to be the judiciaries of the Creator. The First took words from the Creator and made them into a brand new

tongue more descriptive than any other on earth and embedded it into the minds of the People in the form of symbols.

These thousands of symbols had great power in them and could not be used as a whole, therefore, the were broken into

three different groups: Symbols of Destruction, Symbols of Alteration, and Symbols of Transportation. The Trinity of Powers

controlled exactly what their name suggested, yet it was in many forms. For simple phenomena, the People summoned or

formed symbols inside their minds the projected out moonlight-blue symbols on, for, or around whatever it was that they

were casting. As for their greater castings, the People actually spoke the tongue given to them by the First. It was not

spoken as their official language, and if they taught the words to those that were not of their blood, they would not be

able to use it. Only when paired with constant exposure to symbology, extensive understanding of whatever words they

knew, and immense concentration could a foreigner be able to perform a phenomenon of low complexity.

There was also a Fourth, which was created by the rest of the Ancients. Jealously of the First caused the Lesser Ancients

to come together and create their own language. They took the language created by the First and imbedded even more

power into it, creating a book they dubbed The Delta Tome, however, this caused the symbols of the Tome to become

greatly unstable. The Lessers gave the Tome to the People, yet they could sense the dangerous power emanating from it.

The Tome was put under the control of the shamans, the class in charge of the heavenly matters of the City and its

People, that way no one could ever use it. Unfortunately, it failed to work.

The Tome's power was so great that it seeped out from the book and infused itself in all of the People. Now, whenever a

native was pushed to their limits and their bodies became their weakest, the Delta Symbols were unleashed. A native using

Delta Symbols became immensely violent and rash, and also became addicted to their Delta symbols. With wards set up by

other People and a thorough cleansing, a native could be restored, nevertheless this task was very difficult. As a result,

the shamans began to study the Tome, and, over time, they could use it without the side effects. All shamans who

undertook the Tome practices went through rigorous training and used all of their concentration to do so, resulting in only

thirteen shamans each generation who could effectively use Delta Symbols. However, this great power that only they could

use made them arrogant, and this arrogance made them crave respect and power. Thousands of years passed, then

finally a group of shamans pushed the limits, a decision that would ultimately end in the destruction of the wonderous City.