Tales of Xalthia
Prelude:
Mana, the source of life in all living things. The world is dependent on mana for daily life. Working at a job, fighting off monsters, treating the injured even travel by land, sea and air. Mana is what drives human life and continues their advancement. It's what gives birth to not only life but magic. Mana is controlled and maintained by the Four Great Spirits. Fire, controlled by the Great Spirit Efreet. Water and Ice, controlled by the Great Spirit Undine. Wind, controlled by the Great Spirit Sylph. Earth, controlled by the Great Spirit Gnome. With the power of the Four Great Spirits, the balance between every element can be properly maintained and can be distributed evenly to all living things. However, whenever something becomes seemingly balanced, there will always be something to cause a shift in the balance, throwing everything into complete and utter chaos.
As technology and humans advance with each passing year, the amount of Mana consumed continues to increase. A shortage of Aer, an invisible force that eventually turns into the form of Mana, causes nations to seek out other methods of obtaining Mana which gives rise to conflict and strife. Those conflicts causes the balance of Mana to be thrown off which can end with dangerous and sometimes life-threatening results. Humans are siphoning the Mana faster than it can reproduce itself. Pure Mana has become such a hard thing to come by now with all the advancements that scientists have created Boosters to compensate the lack of Mana. Boosters give a person an increase in their abilities but the side-effects can be life-threatening if they're used too much. If a person uses a Booster one too many times, they will lose their life. For that reason, Boosters are only administered to military personnel and should only be used as a last resort. Everyone else had to make due with the lack of Mana themselves or acquiring yet another means of tapping into Mana; a Blastia. A Blastia is a less common form of tapping into Mana that's slowly starting to become a popular use again. Unlike Boosters, using Blastia is a safer way to use Mana as it doesn't put the user at risk of death. Blastia is more commonly used by adventurers. Others prefer to fight with their own abilities, unassisted by Boosters or Blastia.
As Mana becomes more scarce, nations start to become corrupt. They desired more power and dominance. The desire of having more power and dominance led to the world's deadliest war, the War of Mana. The War of Mana took place for decades. Every nation took part in this bloody war and the death tolls were uncountable. Foreseeing the end of the world, beings known as the Ancients either disappeared or were wiped out during the war. The Ancients were humans who were direct descendants of the world's first inhabitants. These people held tremendous power that were unmatched by many. The War of Mana would of drained the world of all its Mana if the Four Great Spirits hadn't intervened. Furious about the humans' gross misuse and abuse of Mana, the Four Great Spirits combined their power to form a single attack known as Divine Retribution. This attack erupted in the center of the battlefield, killing thousands of soldiers from all sides in a flash. What resulted from the attack was not only a higher death toll, but a massive crater in the center of the world and shockwaves that surged throughout the entire world, causing damages to the cities and the land itself. The humans were given a message to stop the war as it was depleting an already low supply of Mana. If they wanted to, they could of wiped the world clean and begin the growth of the world anew. The battlefield and crater is now known as the Fields of Mar, according to history. Witnessing the devastating power of the Spirits, the nations backed off and returned to where they belong. The war and witnessing the end result from the war caused humans to rethink their way of life and the position they were in. They needed to change their ways. Their intervention was what put a stop the a war that would of wiped out the entire world.
Four hundred years have passed since the war ended. The Spirits never again showed themselves to humans. Humans have achieved a better way of life now. Rather being dependent on technology and Mana alone, they had other advancements in agriculture and other methods of life to sustain the human race. Due to these changes over the years, the world was able to reproduce most of the Mana that was used during the war but a great portion still needed to be reproduced. The nations never again waged war on each other. That doesn't mean that they were all at peace though. Nations still had enemies. War could still be on the horizon. Humans still tend to abuse the use of Mana even four hundred years after the War of Mana took place. Boosters still exist and remain in use by the military forces and Blastia is now the second most common use of tapping into Mana safely. The question remains, however. Can the humans continue on the road they have been walking along for four hundred years or will they deviate from the path and repeat past mistakes?
