This story warrants quite a bit of an introduction. You could get confused if we just jumped right into the thick of things, it'd be better if you had an understanding of the world first.
The world we live in is called Carcosa. It earned that name from a religion, or to some merely a legend, that told the story of humanity's creation and their subsequent domination of the entire planet, joining everyone in such a cohesive empire that it was all just one big city sprawling across every continent, and they called it Carcosa.
Of course, the city reportedly fell, and nowadays things are not as simple. You see, according to legend, Carcosa's end came when the Sallow, monstrous beings of decay and malice were unleashed onto our world by a selfish man, one of the one hundred regents who ruled over Carcosa. His lust for new land led him to the forbidden continent of Marque, and as soon as he set foot upon it, a surge of negativity and chaos fell across old Carcosa.
Accounts vary from different denominations of the faith, but some say Carcosa fell in just one night. The head regent was murdered by the man now known as the Sallow Regent, monsters crawled up from the depths of chasms in Marque. Bouts of insanity took many men's minds, they ran about and caused anarchy wherever they roamed. Man and beast became one as the Faunus appeared, strange people with the traits of animals.
And if they weren't enough to confuse and cause hysteria, there was also the Vennlige. They came from Marque and their pale yellow complexions made them resemble these sallow creatures, their intimidating stature and horns did them no favors either. All these factors, the assault from these infernal beings, the death of the knowledgeable and divine leader, the appearance of these alien and odd-looking people, they all led to the collapse of a great and powerful civilization. Once united, they could no longer agree with one another, ideals held by some were not held by others, some saw these Faunus and Vennlige as no better than the Sallow but some saw them as no less human than they were.
In the end, the seven surviving regents simply agreed to disagree, they each went off and attempted to found a society on their own. The Sallow beings were relentless, however, and it seemed that they were all doomed.
Then, a warrior appeared.
Each kingdom had a different idea of what this warrior was like. Some think there were simply seven warriors. Whatever the case, these warriors were said to hold a power that, at that point, humanity had lost. Aura. With the release of the Sallow, it was as if all aura had been leeched from humankind, yet these individuals wielded it with the same ease as they wielded their weapons.
They pushed back the Sallow threat to a more manageable level but then disappeared. Their impact was not forgotten though as each kingdom saw to it that academies were constructed where young men and women were trained to use aura as these warriors, or as they went on to be called, huntsmen did.
Eventually, these civilizations grew and rediscovered each other, and despite their differences, they saw it as necessary to combine their efforts against the Sallow. The academies would cooperate to the best of their abilities for the greater good.
And that's the way it's been for a very long time.