Prologue: World of Remnant; Flying too close to the sun.
A long time ago, there was a tribe of Faunus who tried their damndest to impress and be respected by the humans around them.
The leader of this tribe was Atreo Minos, a man with great ingenuity, charisma, and intelligence—all the perfect traits of a great leader... and of a shyster.
To the public, he was a man with a plan, a perfect leader who only wanted what was best for his congregation.
However, to those who he had betrayed, he was a cold-hearted individual who only thought of ways to improve his own life at any cost; Using others as stepping stones to reach his goal.
He prayed on people's naivete and exploited their grief and need to feel excepted.
While some may have loathed him, they saw him as a necessary evil.
For without his leadership, their tribe would have gone to hell long ago.
He worked diligently at creating an economy that helped both the humans and the Fanus.
The town he created was one of many in the continent of Mistral, but it had an exceptionally high rate of engineers and architects.
The engineers built tools that aided the mining operations of the Schnee dust company in Atlus as well as an advanced irrigation system that made it possible to grow crops even in the most extreme temperatures.
While the architects build humble homes and schools that were the backbone of the city of Prox.
While nothing is ever perfect, the citizens of this city were happy to know that they were in a good place, given the circumstances.
For they were Faunus, a heterogeneous group of humans with animal traits who many feared/hated because they were different, and people tend to fear what they don't understand.
Still, the people of Prox were good at crafting many unique things and possessed good business practices, so the humans tended not to bother them.
That was until Minos had grown old and appointed a new man to be his successor.
An architect who built many things for him named Harold Icarus.
Indeed he was great with his hands and possessed a brilliant mind; he had never really been given a chance to shine until now.
Through years of hard work, he had finally reached his dream.
He built countless inventions to help the citizens of Vale, as well as the rest of Remnant.
However, his greatest creation to him was his son, a boy named Simon.
He was the offspring of a Faunus father and a Human mother.
Despite much prejudice, Simon's life was good growing up; his father made sure he had a good education, made friends, and always had something to look forward to.
Then one-day, Harold got greedy.
He had an idea, an idea that he hoped would put the town of Prox on the map.
A move that would seal not only his fate but the fate of all the residence of Prox, he bet all the funds of the town on a single resource; the Schnee dust company mines
He encouraged all of Prox's Populace to invest in the dust mines in Atlus.
Believing that nothing bad would happen to the miners, believing that it was a safe bet.
After investing all of the town's money and faith in a single product, the Schnee dust mine that he gambled on was the site of a giant quake.
As a result, hundreds of miners died, and the stocks that Harold, as well as the rest of the town, had invested in became worthless.
Faunus began rioting in the streets, vandalizing and setting fire to the buildings and streets.
All this because one man tried to make his community flourish.
It's true what they say, 'The road to hell is paved with good intentions.'
Many years later, the town of Prox being in the dire state that it was had accepted a buyout from investors.
The investors promised to aid the town, but instead of being a merger of two communities as the Faunus had hoped, it was a corporate takeover.
The town's beauty, culture, its entire identity had been robbed from them—all to be replaced by an authoritarian government that viewed them as nothing more than cattle.
What was left of the boy?
Simon's mother had killed herself in an attempt to acquire hefty life insurance, while his father sunk into a stupor and casually berated and beat him.
One day the abuse became so bad that he ran away from home. He sought comfort anywhere he could.
The few friends he had left had all been told by their parents to stay away from him. The one time he had quietly defended himself by telling those around him that it wasn't his fault and that he was suffering too, he had been savagely beaten and had boiling water thrown on his back.
Many months later, his father was the victim of a brutal assault that left him on death's door
Then he got the news.
As the hospital staff had said coldly, he died from his injuries.
Simon didn't know what to feel, on the one hand, his father was a source of shame throughout the community and had beaten him relentlessly, on the other hand, he was trying to do what he thought was right.
All he wanted was for Prox to Flourish and be a symbol of hope and equality throughout Remnant.
But his ambitions and overzealous nature had caused him to doom everyone, even his own flesh, and blood.