-This story is based mainly on the game Maplestory and the author's imagination. Any resemblence to people dead or alive is completely coincidential.
-This story is only a fanfiction, I do not own Maplestory.
Here is the beginning of my first idea for a Maplestory faniction called The First Cygnus Knight:
[Please note- this story takes place back before the time of the Cygnus Knights, so some things may be a little different from what they are now. (also, correct me if I have anything... "historically inaccurate" here)]
Prologue- The Prophecy That Started it All:
Many great stories begin with a prophecy. In this story, the prophet is Spiruna of Orbis, a town on the continent of Ossyria. Spiruna is a very talented fortune teller. Her 'inner eye' is known for her wide and far distance vision of the future. One day, during a very stormy winter, Spiruna and her assistant were trying to find how long the stormy weather would last. In coincidence, she came across a very dark sort of figure. She knew it could only mean that the black mage, a former villain, would soon rise again; it was the same sign that had foretold his first rise so many years ago. At once she alerted Empress Cygnus, her tactician Neinhart, Grendel the Really Old, the other training instructors, and in fact most of the very important members of the council of elders.
She began to research further into the the subject. She only hoped to discover his final fall. Finally, in her dream, an angel came up to her and sang:
"New to this world the heroes will rise,
Young, ready, but with fear in their eyes.
Training with help, though they shall pave their own path,
Our heroes will conquer the wraith and the wrath.
Who else their great enemy, the one whom they fear?
The dark mage of destruction- who will soon be here!"
With that poem in her head, Spiruna woke up. While she scheduled a meeting with the council of elders, she and her assistant made further efforts to find out what they need to do, and who this poem may refer to. A group of explorers, perhaps? If so, what does new to this world mean? If the poem foretells them to be both new to the world and young, clearly there is a difference. Training with help... explorers usually go on their own. What could it mean? The rest of the poem, however, was pretty clear.
Chapter 0 Part 1- The Council of Elders Make a Decision:
The meeting had begun. Everyone was there, from the old and wrinkly Grendel to the newest member Kyrin, and they were all quiet as can be, waiting for Spiruna to start talking. It was not Spiruna, however, who spoke first. Her assistant was the one who stood up, and began to recite the poem Spiruna had heard in her dream. She finished, and the room fell silent with the faint echo of "ere" hanging in the air. Spiruna then proceeded to explain about her dream of the angel and the dark figure she had seen. At the end of her explanation, Cygnus stood up, and said "My tactician and I have decided to take to investigating the matter of the black mage further and-" she paused scanning the curious audience, "-and set up a new school to train talented heroes. On my very own floating island."
"Who will the teachers be?" asked Athena Peirce thoughtfully. "My five knights." answered Cygnus, and Mihile, Irena, Oz, Hawkeye, and Eckheart rose. "They have studied new but similar methods of fighting, and are ready to teach them, with the permission of this council." Th knights took their seats again, prepared to vote. "Hold on-" interrupted Dark Lord, from the dark corner of the room (bright light hurt his eyes). " Surely you can't take the risk of letting monsters into Ereve. It's too dangerous! What if they summon their friends and attempt to kill you?" Dark Lord has always shown extra concern towards Cygnus's safety.
"Oh, don't worry. Shinsoo can create harmless little creatures that bear no evil. They will only be for the basic training, though. Most everything after that will be continued elsewhere. I was thinking the students should do most of the investigating as a series of quests to help them train. Although I'm not really sure how they would be able to do that without guidence... we must keep them training at all times." "I'll help" volunteered Roca suddenly. "I can set up an investigation site around the Henesys area. You know how I love to help new adventurers." "So will I!" joined Matthias. "Kerning is a likely area for attack. Your students can help me protect it." "Ellinia too." agreed Hersha "who knows what he could do to the delicate magical foliage, our rare and precious mana pools, and the advanced spellbooks?" Everybody nodded in agreement.
There was one agent who had not yet spoken. 10 Boogies, as she was commonly called, was looking from face to expectant face. "Oh, alright!" She decided reluctantly after people had started muttering disapprovingly. "I'm in, although I think Perion would be doing quite fine withoutl this extra help, so I will be doing this only as a favor to your students, only to help them train." she promised "I hate noobs." she added quietly after, as if to explain why she had been so reluctant. She didn't mean for everybody to hear it, but they did. However, most ignored that last comment for now. "As for Sleepywood," continued Cygnus "since we don't have an agent there-" "Nor in Nautilus Harbor!" pointed out Kyrin, slightly insulted. "Your Nautilus is relatively safe." answered Neinheart from Cygnus's right. "It covers a much smaller area, and is populated mostly by pirates rather than innocent citizens who cannot defend themselves." Kyrin sat back and waved for the Empress to continue.
"So, as I was starting to say, we have no agent in sleepywood, and since it's a rather dangerous area, Neinheart and I have agreed that it will be up to our students, once they are strong and ready, to go to Sleepywood and gather information about anything suspicious. The Rememberer should be pretty open to help them." This idea seemed to be a good start. "Now, all in favor of this new training program, stand up." Everybody stood up almost at once. "It's unanimous, then!" cried the Empress happily, as everybody sank back into their chairs.
Grendel was about to ask if there were anymore announcements, but Oz the Blaze Wizard stood up. "Empress," she began, "do you know my daughter, Janishal? She is almost two years younger than you." "I believe I've met her." replied the young Empress, squinting at the memory. "Well," continued Oz cautiously "she's just at the age when explorers begin their training as explorers. Since she's my daughter, and, she seems to have inherited some of my talent with fire magic, do you think we could start training her as our first student?" asked Oz hopefully. "We shall try." replied the empress. "However we do have some preparing to do first. Bring her over to Ereve tomorrow and we can discuss this further."
That matter out of the way, Oz sat down looking quite pleased, and Grendel asked "any more announcements?" Neinheart reminded everybody who would be part of the new training program to arrive at Ereve tomorrow, and the meeting was over. Spiruna, however, was still troubled. 'New to the world...' she thought to herself. 'What could that possibly mean? Are we to get somebody from another world?' The very thought of it was ridiculous! Even Grendel couldn't do such a thing...