Long ago, the world was much different. Dragons and demons ruled the land, and man and faunus were little more than mice running and dying beneath their feet. The world shook with the great battles the great beasts would have. Whole towns simply disappeared overnight, easy targets for some demon's ire. And then came the Fall.

None know what exactly caused the Fall, but we do know that it meant the end of the Age of Demons, and the beginning of the Age of Man. Dragons and demons alike had perished in great numbers. As their power faded, the lesser races came into their own. Man carved the land about him to suit her needs, creating great mountain fortresses and vast plains of crops. Faunus claimed the wild places, learning the rhythms of the lands and the ways of the demons. Eventually, the six kingdoms of man and the four kingdoms of faunus were formed.

For a time, things were peaceful between the two races. Man often warred amongst themselves, and the faunus had an occasional border dispute, but never did man and faunus war. Not until the birth of Cinder the Conqueror, at least. Cinder was born of the first kingdom of man, Itchengard, but it is believed that she was actually a demon in human guise. Her rise to power was marred by murders and disappearances, and by the time the crown was placed upon her head she was known throughout the ten kingdoms as "The Blood Queen."

The Blood Queen ruled her country with an iron fist, conscripting whole towns into her army and forcing children to take up work in the forges and armories. Less than a year after her crowning, she attacked the neighboring kingdom of Vertwynne, sacking its towns and burning it fields. In just two years she put the capital under siege and turned her army elsewhere, into the Faunus kingdom of Taydem. This marked the first time man had made war on the faunus, and the faunus were not prepared.

The faunus lacked a standing army, having always relied on a loose force of border guards to deter brigands and the occasional greedy neighbor. Before the army of the Blood Queen, the faunus kingdom crumpled, its people scattering into the deepwoods and marshes. The king of Taydem begged for the lives of his people, but his pleas were ignored, and the army was ordered to burn the deepwoods to the ground.

Any faunus can tell you what happened next. It was from the deepwoods that the faunus learned the demon's secrets, for that is where the ancient demons rested. The burning of the forests woke the demons from their long slumber, and they tore into the army and the faunus alike. While few records of this time remain, one thing is certain: the demons did not stay free for long.

It is unknown how Cinder bound the demons to her will. Some say she made a pact with them, others suggest that she forced them into chains with her bare hands. What is known is that with them at the head of her armies, she marched a path of destruction across the kingdoms, forcing all to kneel before him. Eventually, only one kingdom remained, the smallest, located high in the mountains. For three years the great armies sieged the great fortress towns of this kingdom, and for three years they held against the might of man and demon alike.

The peoples of the lowlands couldn't understand how such a small kingdom could have such strong cities. No record showed them having any wars, and their location made attack unlikely no matter the time of years. So great were the fortresses that Cinder herself led her main force to siege the capital, surrounding the mountain with men and all of her demons. This proved to be her downfall, for at the end of the third year the reason for these great fortresses was revealed.

Many often forget that during the Age of Demons dragons also ruled the land. Not so for this little kingdom. Their cities sat in the midst of several dragon nests, and every few years the dragons would attack the kingdom, just to remind the pale little things that they were not always so powerful, or so numerous. One of these attacks came during the time of the great siege, but upon spying the great army and the demons among them, the dragons turned, making war with their ancient enemies. So great was the battle that the earth cracked and molten stone poured forth, devouring the great army. In the end the dragons proved victorious, and the demons lay slain. One great golden beast crawled up the mountain to speak with the queen of the kingdom.

"Small and tasty as you may be, your kind has always been of great interest to me. Promise to bear me a child, and so long as that child lives you shall have peace with our kind."

"I won't have a child with one whom won't even tell me their name."

"My name is Taiyang, your majesty."

"I am Raven, and I accept your deal."

And so was the first pact between man and dragon formed. The queen bore the dragon sevens sons and a daughter, and the dragons kept the peace. Cinder was slain during the battle, and her great empire fell as each kingdom regained its independence. The land of Itchengard was abandoned, believed to be cursed by the great horrors it had suffered, and an age of peace reigned for many years. In order to keep the peace and avoid the horrors of war, the kingdoms exchanged sons and daughters, both to further diplomacy between them and to hold as hostage.

Eventually the queen of the small kingdom died, and another rose to take her place. Her children lived many lifetimes, performing great deeds and vanquishing the demons who had fled the battle. But even for those of dragon blood, death comes. The seven sons perished one by one, done in by foes, plague and happenstance, and the daughter, rarely seen to begin with, vanished completely. The kingdom feared the end of the long peace, and so the current queen went into the mountains to strike a new deal.

It was many weeks before her return, but return she did, weak but alive. "I struck a new deal," she said, "one for a lasting peace. So long as the bloodline of the child I bear survives, we will have peace with the dragons." The child was born at the height of a storm, her silver eyes reflecting the flowers by the queen's bed. "Her name shall be Rose," the queen declared, "Ruby Rose."