It was in the dawn of days, before man drew the lines across regions dividing the lands, and before each city was given a name. It was in the days that the Sun and the Moon still kept the track of time for the inhabitants of the earth, and the year was still kept by the waxing and waning of the seasons. It was in the beginning, when the Great Ones roamed the earth alongside humankind, sculpting the ground beneath them with rivers and mountains and crafting the very existence of Time and Space. The Great Ones, The Guardians, they were called, revered by all.
It was they who taught the humans much of what they came to know. Mighty Dialga taught them to count the seconds and minutes of each day, and to record the events of time as it raced by, for one must take the most they can out of every day and hour. Tiny Celebi spoke to them of the secrets of the forest with its hidden troves of treasure: the abundant berry bushes, and the sparkling springs and all of the little gifts that the earth will give to us all. Lugia showed all the fury of the storm and gave them the knowledge of the winds, so that they might sail the seas in search of other lands. It was so that each Guardian brought forth their own set of secrets, so that mankind might thrive alongside the Pokemon that shared the space with them. Palkia, Groudon, Zekrom, Mew. For a span of years, mayhaps hundreds of years, the world and mankind were growing peacefully. Neighbor shared with neighbor; Hunger abounded not. Love and amity sprung up like the abundant crops that covered those lush lands.
Yet greed must have been fed into the world at some point, and as the summer grasses will so set fire at the first spark, the prosperity that had been built up by Pokemon and Man and Guardian was soon ablaze. What had seemed so strong of a foundation of trust between man and Guardian had been built upon a weak foundation, the belief that all the hearts of Man were pure.
It started with mankind's domination of its own kind. Civilizations were built rapidly and torn apart just so in this brief span of existence. At first, no Guardian could take it upon themselves to intervene and destroy the other; yet soon the Pokemon of forest and sky, ocean and mountain, were pulled into the battle, their abilities tested against the others in the sight of man's ever growing thirst for domination. The Guardians hid themselves again, keeping the thought that something they created could do such damage away from their minds. They blinded themselves, letting the entire world fall into chaos, until they could no longer.
Andrus of the people of the clan of Western Mountain, Andrus the Mighty they called him, raised up his people in a fury and took them to the highest peak of the tallest mountains, leagues in the distance to confront the mighty creatures who had shaped the world. It took them years of dragging footsteps, countless cities and peoples in flames and desperation to finally bring themselves to the foot of Guardians Spire where Andrus stepped forward and spoke words of blasphemy so strong that in their fury, the Guardians raged out of hiding to confront the Mighty.
'YOU DARE PROVOKE US? US? WHO HAVE GIVEN YOU ALL?' They roared.
'I SPEAK ON BEHALF OF THE PEOPLE OF THIS WORLD!' He roared back, his battle voice resonating outward to the mountain peaks far below. 'FOR AS I AM MAN, THEY ALL BE MY PEOPLE, AND MY PEOPLE ARE BURNING,' Andrus swept his arm in a gesture to the enflamed world below. 'THIS MESS YOU HAVE HELPED TO CREATE YOU MUST FIX, ELSE WE ALL PERISH TO THE FLAMES, LAST BEING YOURSELVES.'
And the Guardians saw the truth. They too would perish, divided by human greed, forced eventually to take sides and fight against one another until nothing was left. And so it was done, that the mighty beings took their wrath down upon humankind and razed their cities, and flooded their fields until few men and women were left. Then, every guardian, big and small, took themselves away, to never put their trust in mankind again.
And as for Andrus the Mighty and the people of the clan of Western Mountain, they disappeared as if they had never been…
(Excerpt from the Annals of Time, the chapter of Esos)
A/N: Might be quitting my job and applying for unemployment tomorrow, so I figured I might resurrect this old story idea from a few years ago that I always really wanted to put into words. :) we'll see if I can get up some actual motivation to do any sort of writing in the coming weeks!