Nation of Elysia
Elysia: a cultured, beauteous city located in a horse-shoe harbour; yachts, research vessels and cruise liners constantly gracing its peaceful waters. Its cobbled streets and half a million inhabitants are dominated by the shadow of The Hall. A tall structure built to resemble the first space cruiser ever built by the nation of Elysia. Within the Hall live and govern the Polis. A council of four who represent the four principle sources of power and dignity for Elysia: Cosmos, Gaia, Mare and Memoria. Guiding them all and acting as their leader and mentor, was Orthia.
Orthia, the great mother of Elysia, who has pioneered so much of the nation's advance and prosperity, was neither ruler nor general; she serves as the Great Guide of the nation. The Polis listen to her the way children listen to their doting mother.
In the last five years, however, Orthia and the Polis have been facing an entirely new challenge: war. And not war with like-minded, scientific, Enlightened nations. Elysia was now at war with a race of men who reject Enlightenment and have long since governed their people on the principles of Magic.
Elysia and her citizens know that Magic is a myth - told by ancient people who knew no better and that, whatever power the warrior-like peoples who believed in deities and superstition might have, had its source in some secret technology. For Elysia, the citizens of Ryukyu were primitive, close-minded and dangerous.
The Constellations
The Ryukyu have become far more dangerous ever since the 'Moment that Changed Rheai'. It happened five years earlier. The sky inexplicably turned black all over the globe. What appeared like stars that had so long been fixed in the sky, came together and coalesced into constellations. Those constellations then burst into life.
They were as varied as the faces of men. There were Constellations in the shape of women, giant serpents, old men, large mouths, sirens and even dragons. As quickly as these Constellations appeared they soon disappeared.
They would soon reappear in the most horrible of guises.
The scientists of the Polis could not explain the nature of these Constellations. Nidas, the councilor of Cosmos, theorised that the Constellations were a race of outer-worldly beings that have come to colonise the planet. The Constellations represented a deep existential crisis for the civilised world.
And now, to make it worse, the people of Ryukyu have allied themselves with the mysterious, powerful Constellations, and declared war on the citizens of Elysia. The Ryukyu have always been hostile to the people of Elysia but despite the warrior culture they proudly fostered their low numbers were never enough to constitute a proper challenge against the technological might of Elysia.
Allied with the grand, other-worldly power of the Constellations, however, they felt confident enough to finally declare war.
The Grand War
The first attack came four years ago. The Constellation the Ryukyu call Kaminchu. A giant anthropomorphic being with eight arms, each arm carrying the heart of a long-dead star. When he attacked with his 'Dead Starlight' he devastated the city of Elysia, leaving hundreds dead, long before Elysia's air-force could mobilise.
Ever since then the war has followed a hit-and-run pattern whereby each party carried out a large, destructive raid and then retreating. Thousands of lives have been lost. But now, the Polis, guided by Orthia, have conceived a new plan for victory, far subtler than the ravages of all-out war.
Orthia and the Polis are intending to defeat the Ryukyu from within. They are sending in a team of Crystal Warriors – their elite, covert, military force – to infiltrate the leadership of the Ryukyu. The Crystal Warriors – so-called because of their exposure to a mysterious crystal recovered during Space Mission XI – were empowered men and women with a strange diversity of abilities never-before seen on Rheai.
The team is led by Neos. A strong, level-headed but dangerously sensitive warrior. His impoverished mother gave him up to the Antares Academy, the famed military academy of Elysia, in the hope of her son becoming famous and one day bringing fame to her once-proud family.
Neos is a tall, strong, dark-haired warrior, dressed in crimson armour, bearing a multitude of weapons. Like the rest of the Crystal Warriors, he has access to several 'Memories', class systems the Crystal of Chaos accumulated over centuries of galactic travel.
Neos is supported by a team of three: Selene, an aristocratic but fun-loving and rebellious young woman; Memphite, an intelligent, fierce warrior who is serving a sentence whereby he was arrested for attempted murder and can only avoid a life-sentence if he serves the Antares Academy; Theos, a mute, bright-eyed warrior who speaks in sign language and is the happiest of the team.
Their mission is to infiltrate the Ryukyu, pretending they are refugees seeking shelter from the Elysian Antares Academy. They will take this time to learn the Ryukyu's strategies, learn who their leaders are, and when the time comes, assassinate the leadership. Without their leaders, the Constellations will disappear.