History
Note: This is not required reading; you can still continue on to the first chapter of the story without reading the History. It may help to shed light on a few subjects, and eliminate confusion, so it is your choice if you would like to read the history now, or try to figure it out by context.
It is beyond the time of prosperity and peace within one. That is easily said, though not easily explained. A simple way to put it is to say that the lesson of the Great War has been forgotten. The lust for power, the control one can have over another being, and the ominous, greater strength that may be watching this all above, have gone down in history along with a thousand rumors. These myths say that Brahne wasn't being controlled by Kuja, and Kuja didn't betray Garland, or that Garland didn't even exist in the first place. Terra flew from everyone's minds and books, and Brahne's lust for power was forgotten. Like most of history does in the end, all was forgotten.
Zidane and Garnet Tribal died not knowing of the "amnesia" that would sweep their great kingdom like a plague. They died with two children, one a daughter who would've been a summoner had she bothered to show interest, and the other a boisterous man who ruled Alexandria with a good hand. He had three sons, triplets, who had a three-man duel to see who would take the country. The Tribal son died two days after finding that his favored son won the battle, and thus happiness was with him. Unfortunately, disaster came upon Alexandria soon after this. The son of the triplet was a mischievous fellow who wanted nothing to do with ruling a kingdom. He was the only son, however, and the heir to the throne. To make matters worse for the lad, his father fell terribly ill when the son was seventeen-years-old. A year later, the triplet died, and the son fled Alexandria.
Chaos followed soon after. The other two triplets didn't return, and one could understand why. Suddenly the idea of having great power appealed to many of Alexandria, and plenty of bloodshed came to the city as the citizens fought for the position to rule their country.
In the end, the mysterious happened, and the weakest man, who didn't even want to rule the kingdom, got the title "King". No one really knows how it happened; it is one of those mysterious, strange things in history.
On the day of the weak man was formally given the title king, an assassination attempt greeted him. The assassin was killed instantly by a fire spell, a spell that came straight form the hands of the new King. Word of the King's Black Magic spread, and suddenly, all riots in Alexandra came to a halt. Relative peace came to the kingdom, though tension and nervousness was the price.
On the other side of the Mist Continent, Lindblum was undisturbed by Alexandria's problems. No one denied the position of Regent, and all was peaceful. When Alexandria's riots began, the current Regent offered to help Alexandria's temporary "rulers" with an army, but the help was not needed when two days later the Black Mage came into rule. Then, Lindblum settled into peace, though it was a suspicious peace. Black Mage had gone into history with enough rumors to earn it the title "Devil's Magic". It was rumored to have the power to destroy the world, and supposedly it possessed anyone who had it within him. It was a strange business, but a simple message came from the rumors: "Fear Black Magic".
The Mage ruler of Alexandria wanted nothing more than peace, and so he arranged a meeting with the Regent of Lindblum to renew the peace treaty. The nervous Regent agreed, despite the warnings of his staff. Neither ruler knew that another, jealous ruler would affect the relationship of their cities for many years.
Treno had long become a city consisting of pampered rich and desolate, starving poor. The lower class worked day and night on goods for the upper class, which gave them enough money and goods to just get by with life. The poor would try revolting a few times, only to be slaughtered by the more powerful, guarded rich. Thus, the money-deprived had accepted their fate, and Treno's upper class grew to be powerful and influential on politics. The three-person government of Treno, called the Triad, watched with interest as tension grew between Alexandria and Lindblum, and they came up with a plan.
Assassins ran rampant in Treno, which had so much violence it was a wonder it stayed together. The Triad decided to call upon one of these assassins to kill the Regent of Lindblum. They would set it up to look like Alexandria had prompted this attack, which would surely spark a war between the nations. Then, Treno would trade goods to the warring nations for high prices, and get more money for the city to continue prospering. The plan seemed perfect, especially for a city so used to violence.
It did go perfectly, except that Treno forgot about another city in the distance.
The assassin did his work, and he did it well. The Regent of Lindblum was killed two days before the Peace Convention, his body seemingly burned by Magic. Rumors were said at the right times, and soon Lindblum was convinced, despite Alexandria's protests, that the Mage ruler had assassinated their beloved leader.
War was unstoppable. Within days armies were assembled and prepared, insults tossed. Within a month the first bloodshed of war was spilled near Dali, which was burned to the ground by Lindblum troops. More violence came from there.
Treno watched with delight as their plan worked exactly as it was supposed to, and the Triad prepared to send diplomats to Alexandria and Lindblum to consider trade. Still they forgot the other great city in the Mist Continent.
Burmecia had been watching the tension and problems rising between Alexandria and Lindblum for quite some time. The King of Burmecia wanted nothing to do with the problems, despite Burmecia's strength when it came to wars and fighting. His advisors came, however, and reminded him that the last time Burmecia had chosen to stay out of Alexandria's affairs, Alexandria had dragged them into them by destroying their city and killing their citizens. Perhaps it would be better to be on Alexandria's side in this war, rather than sit on their heels and wait for the war to crush them. Seeing the logic in this, the King of Burmecia reluctantly told the army of Burmecia to prepare itself.
Alexandria needed Burmecia's force. Lindblum had something that Alexandria still had not used to full advantage in their city: Airships. The airship force of Lindblum's army was crushing Alexandria's army, which consisted of mainly melee, and Alexandria's powerful navy couldn't find any way to get to Lindblum's army. The Airship Sector of Alexandria was small, though more advanced than Lindblum's ships, and quick, but Alexandria didn't want to risk losing their precious, powerful ships. When nearly 3,500 Burmecians came to Alexandria to aid them, Alexandria couldn't have been more relieved.
Burmecians were trained purely for battle, and as technology became advanced, so did their techniques. Burmecia was at that time the only city that made good use of guns. While swords, lances, axes, and other weapons like those were still mainly in use, guns and the damage they could cause had been discovered as well. Most cities feared them, however, particularly since the earlier guns had a nasty aftereffect of sending the user ten feet backward from the force of the bullet being released. Only Burmecia had worked for years to find a way to get rid of this problem, and their 850 warriors that could use the guns were sent against the airships, mainly to go after their crew. Another 250 Burmecian warriors could man cannons, and the rest of the force still stuck to average soldier and Dragon Warrior techniques.
The tide greatly turned in the war. When Lindblum, using airships, went to rush a small fortification near the Evil Forest, they were stunned when a quarter of the airships raiding the place were shot down by cannons, another quarter's crew killed, and rest taken over when high-jumping, daring Dragon Warriors leapt straight onto the airships and captured them. Treno was also stunned, when Alexandria refused their diplomat, saying they already got everything they needed from Burmecia. Burmecia also made good use of woman labor, and while the men (and some women, for their fighting skills were found to be just as excellent as man's) went off to war, the women took over the jobs, keeping industry together. Treno could only trade with Lindblum, but that would make them look like an enemy to Alexandria and could risk a battle.
The Triad took the risk, and Treno entered the war on Lindblum's side. Now all four great cities of the Mist Continent were in a fierce war. It raged for five years, with Lindblum and Treno's forces slowly being forced back. Mages were suddenly in great demand, as they could deal as much damage as the guns, when they could actually hit one of the quick-moving Burmecian gunners. White mages and Black mages found that they were no longer feared or bullied, but wanted and given great amounts of gold and goods if they would fight. In the end, the main people fighting were gunners, cannons, and mages. The melee warriors simply found that their swords and axes could not do much against a gun or spell. Regardless, many of them went into battle, only to be killed in the thousands.
Treno took the heaviest damage, for they were not built for fighting. They sent their poor to war, only to have industry fail, as the upper class didn't know how to work. The rich were sent to war, only to have them desert or die, since they knew nothing on fighting. Then, when the end of the war seemed near, a sudden revolt in Treno caused the war they had caused to no longer be their problem. The Triad had been murdered, and the lower class was suddenly gaining great power. Treno retreated from the war in shame, wrecked from the inside and out from its own actions.
Burmecia prospered from the war, taking the least casualties. Still, near the end even they tired of it; some Burmecians began to desert from the armies, mostly the melee soldiers who were taking terrible casualties. The King of Burmecia met with the Mage King, suggesting they offer a peace treaty to Lindblum. It would bring them on better terms if they did not simply slaughter the city and take it by force.
Alexandria had taken horrific deaths and injuries in the beginning, but once Burmecia joined their side, they slowly had less injured. At the end of the war, they were doing excellently, but the people were sick of the war, and thus the Mage King agreed to see Lindblum for a peace treaty.
Lindblum received all its casualties at the end of the war, and its people were also sick of fighting. The new Regent, though his wife was angry at the death of her father, agreed with a peace treaty. Soon, the two met, without problems, at a new Peace Convention at the remains of Dali. The terms of peace were simple. Lindblum and Alexandria would not step upon each other's territories with any weapons. Dali, or the remains of the once prospering community, was the boundary of their territories. Trade would begin between the cities, with no guards with any of the traders. Ultimately, it was a return to conditions before the war, and both kingdoms were happy to accept.
Peace came to the Mist Continent once more, or at least on a grand scale...
Many families in the war had become enemies, agitated by actions in the battling, and many didn't get on good terms again. Two families, one from Alexandria and one from Lindblum, had this problem.
The Chutzpah family of Alexandria was known for its arrogance and great boasting. They claimed that they had descended from the great generals Beatrix and Steiner, but no one in Alexandria believed them, especially since they had no proof to give. They were a strong, wealthy family, and the minute war came, their boys were quick to sign up and fight, the girls following behind. They were melee fighters, and thus were suffer great casualties, though they were one of the few lucky families that didn't perish entirely in the war.
The Lycurgus family of Lindblum was well liked by the city that didn't know them, and despised by those that did know them. They were hard working middle class, but known for their greed and grand plans of becoming the most important family in Lindblum. No one liked them for their high-reaching goal, especially since it involved deception and death. When the war came, they immediately rushed out, thinking it would gain them fame and bring them closer to their goal. They were also melee soldiers, and their family disappeared in the war.
The two families met on the battlefield near the very end of the war. They were the only two fighting there, and made a promise to keep it a fair fight with only swords, and no sneaky assassinations or disasters. The Chutzpah family had disaster strike only moments before the battle, when they found their general dead with a sword in his neck. They immediately blamed the Lycurgus, who replied that they had done nothing. The Chutzpah didn't believe them, and rushed forward before they were supposed to, slaughtering the Lycurgus and taking prisoner those they didn't kill. Many of those were young men and women who quickly gained a deep hatred for the Chutzpah that would never leave for generations.
Once the war ended, the Chutzpah returned to Alexandria in victory, though they hid from the rest of the city so that no one knew they had taken prisoners home, which was something the peace treaty did not allow. Soon they were able to have their prisoners blend into their family as mere servants, and they returned to Alexandria social life, for good or for ill.
Fifty years have passed since the war. The Mage king has passed away, and his daughter, also a Black Mage, has taken over Alexandria with a strong yet kind hand. Lindblum also has a new ruler, one who is willing to keep the peace and not try to "avenge Lindblum". Those who were once at the bottom now rule Treno, and there is still great strife and battling as the rich try to regain their place. Burmecia is peaceful, with many researchers trying to find ways to improve weapons and others pieces of technology no one else wants to touch. They are also helping to bring Cleyra back to its full glory, and a small town exists near the hole, which was once the great tree of Cleyra, that is slowly being filled with sand.
The families of Chutzpah and the relatives of the Lycurgus, however, are not on good terms...