Chapter One: The Beginning of the End

Once, there was a king who had two sons. The king was dying, and knew it was time to crown his heir. But the king's seer and royal advisor read in the stars that his elder son, Hades, would destroy the kingdom with his wrath and ambition, and leave a trail of destruction in his wake. So the king passed over Hades and crowned Hades' younger brother Zeus instead. One week after the crowning ceremony, the old king died.

Hades was furious. He challenged Zeus' throne, claiming their father had gone senile in his old age and that as the first-born son, the crown was his birthright. Hades visited the rulers of three nearby kingdoms, promising that if they would help him regain the throne, once he was king he would foster good relations between them and strengthen their kingdoms, not to mention giving them a cut of the riches and conquests taken. With their support, Hades built a great army, seven times more massive than Zeus' army. It looked as if Hades would destroy the kingdom after all, just as the old king's seer predicted.

But then one night Zeus had a dream. In his dream, Zeus was standing in a part of his kingdom well-known for the beautiful jade it produced. Suddenly, a star fell from the sky and landed in a jade quarry near Zeus' feet. Through the smoke and dust a being appeared, surrounded by thunder and lightning and emanating a powerful aura, and Zeus kneeled, for he knew instantly that this was Jupiter, his patron god and namesake. The god Jupiter bid him rise, telling Zeus that he would show him how to forge the weapon that would defeat Hades and preserve his kingdom.

First Jupiter broke off a piece of crystal from the fallen star, and carved into a ring embellished with eagle feathers. Then Jupiter took a piece of metal from the star, and shaped it into a ring connected to a smaller ring within it, and placed the ring of crystal onto the metal ring. Then the god broke off two pieces of rock from the star, one long and cylindrical, the other short and like a wide cone. Jupiter hollowed out the cylindrical rock and attached it to the underside of the metal ring, and then the cone-like rock beneath that. Finally, Jupiter formed a bolt out of star-metal and screwed it through the holes in the crystal and metal rings, thus connecting all the pieces together.

The god Jupiter handed the newly-formed bey to Zeus, instructing him to study it carefully. If Zeus would go to this very site he saw in his dream, and forge this bey just as Jupiter showed him, then Jupiter promised that Zeus would win the war against Hades, for this bey was a powerful weapon that held the might of the stars, and with the will of the heavens behind him there was no way Zeus could lose.

In the morning Zeus woke, and remembered his dream. He rode immediately to the jade quarry Jupiter showed him in his dream, and at the bottom of the quarry he saw the still-smoking remains of the fallen star. Zeus immediately carved the star crystal and forged the star metal into different pieces, just as Jupiter did in his dream. Zeus named the bey Jade Jupiter, in honor of his patron god, and for the jade quarry in which the star landed.

With the new bey Jade Jupiter, Zeus was unstoppable. The first and only of its kind, Jade Jupiter could level an entire army with frightening speed, and contained more power than any other weapon. It could even summon the visage of Jupiter himself, and call down lightning to smite its foes. With this new and powerful bey, Zeus defeated Hades and his allies, and saved the kingdom.

Though Hades had tried to kill him and take his throne, Zeus couldn't bring himself to kill his brother. Instead Zeus spared him, and gave Hades a small area of land for him to rule over. The three kingdoms that had allied themselves with Hades were absorbed into Zeus' kingdom, quadrupling the size of his domain. There was peace throughout the land, as Zeus used his bey to protect the well-being of his people.

Jade Jupiter was the first bey, but gradually beys became more common, as wealthy nobles hired expert craftsmen to make beys for them. King Zeus himself forged four new beys as a reward to certain individuals for their outstanding service. These beys were stronger and more powerful than other beys, for they contained fragments of the same star that Jade Jupiter was made from. These four beys were Variares, Mercury Anubius, Scythe Kronos, and Death Quetzalcoatl.

Peace and prosperity reigned throughout the kingdom, and people believed the Peace of Zeus would last forever. But it was not meant to be. Fifteen years after King Zeus defeated Hades, another star fell from the sky – this time landing in Hades' kingdom. King Hades, remembering how his brother defeated him with Jade Jupiter, ordered the fallen star to be brought before him so Hades could create a bey of his own, one more powerful than even Jade Jupiter. With his new bey Hades meant to destroy Zeus and conquer his kingdom once and for all.

The heavens, unwilling to let Hades destroy King Zeus and his kingdom, chose five bladers from Zeus' kingdom – warriors who would rise up and defeat Hades and his evil bey. The heavens sent a prophecy to Zeus' seer to warn him of the coming danger, and of the need to gather the five bladers and bring them together before it was too late.

And thus began the end…