Prologue

In ancient times, all the world's races lived in harmony. Their leaders formed the Gleam council to protect and guide the races. Their intention was pure - maintaining peace throughout the realm. This period of time was known as the Age of Harmony.

The Gleam leaders did not agree on everything, and the gap between council members grew until an opposing council was formed. This new group wanted to control everyone, inferring that they were best suited to tell people how to live their lives. This was the beginning of the Gloam Council.

The Gloam worked covertly, growing more and more powerful. They were so secretive, the Gleam Council didn't even know about them until it was too late - the Gloam built a powerful artifact that could bind all magic to them. Since all living things had some amount of magic within them, they could practically control the world. The plan worked, but for a minor flaw - not everyone succumbed to the artifact's control.

Nearly every magical creature was affected by the Binding. Staring with cold, empty eyes, carrying on with their daily tasks, the joy in their lives was gone. A few powerful heroes of the day were able to protect themselves from the Binding, banding together in secrecy to plan the artifact's destruction.

The heroes spread word to all the races: "Flee, for magic unleashed may have catastrophic effects!" They then approached the Gloam artifact, knowing full well it's destruction would result in their own demise. Battling through unwitting mobs and powerful wizards, the heroes combined their powers, breaching magical defense and shattering the artifact's physical shell. This resulted in the Unbinding, which freed the people, but sent a tidal wave of magic across the lands.

While the heroes fought, the races retreated: the elves erected the Crystal Barrier, the dwarves dug deep into their mountains, the humans sailed away, and the pixies went underground. As years passed, the pixies transformed the dark, forlorn cave into a warm, cheery home. Everyone assumed that there was no life above, content to stay in the caves forever. That is, until the changelings arrived.

Pixie scouts always said the lands above were devoid of life. But appearance of the changelings meant that life did, indeed, exist up top. As the queen, Ayani the Druidess, decided that she would venture forth, alone, and brave the world above. However, when she flitted out of the caves, she saw nothing but desolation as far as the eye could see. Gone were the flowers and the trees and everything else she remembered as a child.

Saddened by the barren lands, Ayani began to cry. Such was her sorrow that her tears formed lakes and rivers, and when her tears touched the ground, plants began to blossom. Seeing this miracle, other pixies emerged, and coaxed life back into the land. When Ayani passed, she left behind the Heartseed. With the royal family nurturing it, the Heartseed grew into the mighty World Tree, the center of the pixies' world.

In its day, the Gloam was a force to be reckoned with. Although their prime has long passed, and the Gleam Council has since disbanded, many have had qualms about leaving the realm vastly unprotected. Power is gleaned from the same magical sources; it only depends on the user whether the power is used for right or for wrong.

In the old days, the Gleam Council fiercely guarded ten ancient relics called the Artifacts of Light: the Hero's Journal, the Chalice of Dreams, the Stone of Divulgence, the Ring of Perception, the Spellblade of Omens, Delwyn's bow, a sample of Moonwater, arrows fletched with firedrake feathers, the Druid's Diadem, and the Rose That Knows.

These indestructible artifacts were what held all of the power in the world. They helped the Gleam keep a balance of peace within the realm by giving them divine powers of all-knowing wisdom, sight, knowledge, and skill. But if they fell into the ownership of the Gloam, their power could be too easily exploited and abused to cause disharmony and war.

Once, a strong and high-commanding Gloam officer named Spitevine stole the Ring of Perception. This artifact, in particular, allows the user to look through it and see any place in the realm as it currently is. Wielding this power, Spitevine and her armies were enabled to exploit weakness in the south and take over a former Druid city in the south near where Lavender Coast Pass stands today. The shining city of Lunar Dell fell to ruin.

After this crippling defeat, the Gleam wanted to ensure that the Artifacts of Light were kept safe in their possession, so they produced a magic energy that evolved into a spirit of protection and peace. This spirit was meant to join with a spiritually pure human or pixie that would be devoted to keeping the Artifacts together and safe. The spirit was regarded with high honor and called the Praetor Spirit, and the person it chose to merge with would be referred to as the Praetor.

They freed the spirit once it was perfected and it searched far and wide, before joining with an infant Druid boy - a spawn of Delwyn, the legendary elf princess with an incredible skill for archery - named Lysander. The infant would grow to be the kindest and bravest warrior of his time. He made many selfless choices and fought the Gloam courageously and honorably during his life. However, eventually he too was forced to succumb to endless mobs of tireless monsters and died at the ripe age of thirty-six.

After the death of Praetor Lysander, fear began to return to the realm. What would they do without their fiercest protector? Could they create another that would be just as successful and powerful?

Unbeknownst to the realm, despite Lysander's death, Praetor itself had survived and had hung in limbo until it chose a young pixie girl who was born at the time of Praetor Lysander's passing. Her name was Anya, and throughout her childhood she began to display the same kind of power Lysander had when he was alive. Despite the death of the host that the Praetor spirit resided with, it had passed on in a cycle of reincarnation. And thus, every time the guardian passed on, the spirits found new residence within the next Praetor.

This cycle continued without fail for hundreds of years until there came a time when a twelve-year-old girl named Athina began to display similar traits as the current Praetor, a boy her age called Triston. As Triston and Athina grew, they had an indescribable attachment to each other, and both were incredibly gifted.

As it turned out, Triston and Athina were placed in the same nursery in cribs next to each other. When the Praetor Spirit fused with Triston, part of it broke off from the rest and fell onto the baby Athina, which is whom it fused with. Since it had broken away from the rest of the Praetor Spirit, it was often referred to as a second spirit, called the Elitus Spirit.

With the Elitus at the Praetor's right hand, they quickly discovered that their lifespan was lengthened by double. They were both divinely gifted, but in different areas. They were both extremely powerful in every sense, but Praetor Triston displayed an uncanny knack for magic, whilst Elitus Athina was a one-woman army in battle. Together, they became known as the Wardens of Balance.

Although this split in the energy had not been intentional, it ended up being a blessing in disguise. The Gleam Council continued to keep a close watch on the Wardens to monitor any other possible splits that could happen for dozens of years after, but none were ever recorded.

The Wardens united and protected the Artifacts, but even they could not eliminate the evil Gloam. Eventually, the Gloam unleashed the Binding, which shook the Gleam Council to its roots and shattered it completely. As a last minute resort to keep tabs on the Wardens, a few of the creators of the Keeper Spirits sealed themselves away, frozen in time, if future Wardens ever needed their guidance.

The Keeper Spirits survived the Binding and merged with a few of the heroes that helped in the Unbinding. The Artifacts were kept safe thanks to the cautious care of the Wardens at the time, and the cycle continued…

…Until now.

Nearly twenty years ago, the lives of the last pair of Wardens, Praetor Melora and Elitus Leander, were abruptly cut short by a band of powerful Gloam wizards called Frenzy Wraiths. Ever since, the return of the Wardens in a new pair of youngsters has been eagerly awaited but to no avail. Many fear that the Keeper Spirits have died with them. After all, no one has really seen anything quite like the Frenzy Wraiths before.

Some say that Praetor and Elitus are age-old spirits, and that even they have expiration dates. That after hundreds of years of unrelenting defense against the dark arts, the cycle has been broken. Only a few really believe that some ancient magic here is still at work, and that the Wardens can never really die.

Within almost twenty years of their absence, the Gloam have taken advantage of these rumors. Although they have kept a disturbingly low profile during this time, it's said that they have all ten Artifacts in their possession. One would think the Gloam would run rampant now as they did before the vigilant safeguarding of the Wardens, but occasional sightings of Gloam creatures are rare.

Despite this, it can only be a matter of time because of the lack of the appearance of new Wardens, who are the only ones physically, spiritually and magically powerful enough to vanquish the Gloam. Many of us have begun to lose hope of the Wardens ever returning.

The stories of the great Wardens of the past are legends meant to lull the younglings to sleep at night. Some of the children brushed these off as bedtime stories, but some began to believe them. Few are still hopeful that the Wardens will return…

… And I, Benekai Riverdown, am one of these few.