Author's Note:

Probably a lot of questions about a lot of things, we'll get to those after. So stick around for a quick Q&A.

Across the sea from Ishgar, lay the continent Alakitasia. A continent which had come to be under the singular rule of one empire. Being such a large country it was never without its own problems and by the year X560, certain parts of the country had fallen into delinquency, openly acting in deference to the will of the empire. Despite all of this, the leader of the country, Emperor Jorun, was heavily respected and loved. He governed as fairly as he could and walked among his people as if he himself was a commoner.

Behind him were his 7 knights. The rank given to a mage of considerable strength. Among this group were those whose intentions were called corrupt at best. With Emperor Jorun, having never married and having no children, the people of the empire and the knights themselves had come to the consensus that Jorun would select a successor from his Knights. Who else would he choose? No one on the continent could be as strong, no one could be as noble, no one could be as powerful a leader as one of them. That was the hubris that filled the Knights' thoughts.

As time went, Emperor Jorun's health fell further into decline and by X567, he had all, but passed away. With his remaining strength he called for a final public forum. He declared that he wanted his words carried far and wide across Alakitasia. There, before his people, the old emperor declared that his successor would be the one capable of ruling all the people. With that, he retired to his quarters and before nightfall he passed away. That decree was heard throughout all of Alakitasia, but the 7 Knights to it to be a declaration that the one among them who conquered the entire continent first would be deemed emperor. They set out immediately, razing towns, subjugating clans and other mages and essentially placing the entire continent into a 7-way deadlock.

The dissolved empire was stuck in this deadlock for 5 years with some knights ruling with an iron fist and others trying to amicably pull people to their cause. However, the illusion that the knights had created was shattered after a few years. A singular mage rose up from seemingly nowhere and with a display of strength never before seen, they wiped out strongholds belong to all 7 knights in a single night. The morning after, leaving behind their conquered lands and a message for the people of Alakitasia. They sought to point out that the emperor never said his successor was among the knights. He had said the one capable of ruling all the people.

Bewildered by the sudden emergence of such a powerful mage, the knights didn't realize the weight of the mage's words. By the time they moved to try and recapture lost land, mages from amongst the people had already risen up and banded together all on their own to lay their claim to the country they envisioned. Mages who had fought under the knights abandoned and followed suit shortly after and in the span of a few years, the continent which had been locked in a 7-way deadlock was now split even more amongst mages of all caliber vying for power.

December 9th, X575, Alakitasia

One such mage was Garave Nonun. Garave was a tall, tan muscular man who despite having saved up quite a bit of money was never dressed like anything more than a commoner. His body was covered in scars from his time as a mercenary, but despite this he always managed to keep his obscenely long white beard well groomed, while somehow keeping a scraggly mess of a head of hair.

He was currently in one of the southernmost villages in Alakitasia, Liro. All of his efforts were about to pay off as he finally had enough money to start up his own guild. A large smile grew across his face as a bag of coins jangled in his pocket.

"Hahaha!" his deep laugh bellowed. "I wasn't expecting to have so much money left over, but knowing my luck there's gotta be something wrong for the price to have dropped so low."

He continued on along the woodsy path which led from the edge of town out to the hillside beyond the village. Garave had bought the entirety of the land from the edge of the woods to the water being overlooked by the hilltop. When he had looked into the property years ago, it had cost far more than he just paid, which could mean only one thing.

"Bandits," he sighed as he emerged from the woods. His line of thought and eyes had arrived at the same conclusion. Bandits must have taken to staying in this area.

Bandits had become more and more common since the passing of the emperor, those who had felt disenfranchised by the empire felt it was their time to do as they pleased. While it annoyed Garave to meet bandits where he planned to build his guild he knew using force to remove them wasn't what he should do. He'd been lucky to be given chances in life, so why not offer the same to the youngsters in front of him.

"Hi there!" he friendly shouted. "My name is Garave and I-"

"We don't give a fuck who you are old man!" shouted one of the bandits. "Move along oldtimer." added another.

Garave was a man just over 40, but his white hair had garnered him plenty of old man comments in his life. For most matters, Garave always managed to remain composed. But the bandits had touched the wrong nerve to quickly.

"You shitstains want to die?" he seethed.

The bandits were nearly keeled over in laughter before they realized how much more serious he had gotten. "You got a problem old man!?" shouted one of the men. "The old turd probably got lost and needs help getting back," laughed one of the women.

Then in an almost eerie fashion, Garave composed himself. "You're right," he began with a laugh. "I am an old person and you all are children, but where I'm from rude children get disciplined."

He plucked a tree loose from the ground, which instantly killed all sounds of laughter and with little to no effort he flung it at the group of bandits.

Just before it collided, the tree was quickly cut in half with both piecing flying off passed the bandits.

"Oooh," whistled Garave instantly intrigued by the sudden appearance of a mage.

The shaggy haired, fair skin mage before him was standing before him raggedy and while it wouldn't take much for Garave to take the young bandit down, he couldn't help, but be instantly impressed.

"Okay, let's see what you're made of," huffed Garave and with that the white haired mage had cleared the field and his outreached hand was within inches of the mage who had stepped forward. The mage pivoted to avoid the attack and collided with a kick from Garave.

The mage was sent flying through the woods. Garave dusted his hands off and turned to the group of mages. "Well that takes care of that," he began. "Can any others here use magic?"

There was a look of shock and fear across all their faces as they looked to the forest for where their comrade had gone.

"Leave them alone," roared the mage from the woods. He darted out of the woods covered in blood, but with not a shred of fear in his eyes.

That look on his face was already starting to get Garave excited, but it was better to nip this fight in the bud sooner rather than later.

In his rage the young mage rushed Garave, but before he reached Garave, the old mage planted a swift chop in his attacker's blind spot leaving him unconscious.

Garave then turned to the bandits and said, "We've got some things to discuss."

Later that day, the young mage awoke in the lap of one of his comrades.

"Where is he?!" he shouted as he leapt to his feet.

"Hey!" called Garave from the top of the hill. "Your friends said to call you Mun Young. How about you join my guild?"

Author's Note:

First, off a special thanks to Watson and Dread for always being helpful... I have no self control guys.

Q & A:

1) Are you alive? Yes.

2) Are you leaving fanfiction? No.

3) Are you canceling your stories? No.

4) What's taking so long?/Are you on hiatus still? Yes, I'm on hiatus. What's taking so long really boils down to a combination of bad luck. All of the documents with my plans for stories and OCs and what not, are currently not viewable on my PC. I was able to write this because it's a brand new story.

5) When will the hiatus end? I should be making regular updates in 1-2 weeks. Granted, chapter length might be shorter at first as I get re-accustomed to ideas and planning for all the stories.

6) What's happening with the Summit Project? This project is on Hiatus until I get further notice.

General Info

This story is an SYOC story, some of you are aware that all of my Fairy Tail stories take place in a single universe. However, this story takes place in a different universe. If you're interested in submitting an OC, you must contact me through PM so that I can give you all of the rules/form/etc.

Thanks

I really appreciate the support and random messages of people checking in, I hope I'm back for good this time. Thank you.