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Cyron
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Karma: 0 |  | War of the Elements
« Thread Started on Nov 25, 2006, 10:59am » | |
War of the Elements- The Story
I will soon begin writing the story that sparked my idea for the rpg; It will involve most of the active characters from the original rpg and some cameos by characters from this one. I may post it chapter by chapter in here... haven't decided yet. I still have some outlining and organizing to do before writing it, but i felt like starting the thread where i shall post the story.
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Cyron
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Heat is for the warm hearted
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Karma: 0 | | Re: War of the Elements
« Reply #1 on Jan 14, 2007, 12:59am » | |
War of the Elements
Prelude:
Darkness pursues the very essence of the being of man. It invades, attacks, and destroys all that defines a person. Eventually there is no return; it is an insatiable corruption that cannot be satisfied and never ceases to grow. It starts in the minds and hearts of all; quickly eating away at the pureness obtained at birth. For the weak, submission is quick, and they are forever lost. For the strong, the struggle is arduous, and must be endured till death. It is an acid, and corrodes at the defenses, slowly eating them away until there is nothing left as it was. Change is inevitable and how much pureness is left through it all defines who someone is. It seeps through every pore, but does not stop there. Darkness consumes.
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Cyron
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Heat is for the warm hearted
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Karma: 0 | | Re: War of the Elements
« Reply #2 on May 21, 2007, 9:33pm » | |
((subject to change))
Chapter 1: Phoenix
The Phoenix: the legendary bird of fire; a symbol of rebirth, of life, of renewal. That is how Phoenix Ignatum obtained his name. His father had been a great soldier, he was told. Honor-bound and decent, he had been a great contribution to the country and the war. Shortly after Phoenix’s birth, doctors came to inform his mother that Cpt. Rishon Ignatum, his father, had tragically died in battle. He died with honors they said, and offered their condolences. The sad weight of this horrible news countered his mother’s joy of the birth of her one and only son. Thus in her sorrow she turned to him, a new hope, a new beginning rising from the ashes.
Phoenix grew up without a father, without his influence and love. He had to watch other children with their fathers, see that love between them, and wonder what he had done to deserve to have that taken away from him. He often found himself asking why he was so different, why his father had been snatched away from him. He had never even gotten to see him, had no memory, no snippet to hold onto. He drudged through his childhood always wondering and suffering. Worse yet was the fate of his mother. Completely alone with her child, she was forced to step up, but not without some expenses. The pension checks from the government had stopped being sent years ago. For all his contributions and work, the government seemed to deem his father deserving of a few honors and a medal, but not enough so to ensure the soldier’s family could live on anew. It didn’t matter much to Phoenix anyway; a few meager paychecks a month was not enough to pay back for a lifetime of loss. For his mother though... His mother had over three jobs at once for as long he could remember. A lifetime of having to support two people on her own had taken its toll on her. Her face had become sullen, her expression tired. Her hair, which had once been a bright, exuberant auburn, had now become dull and listless with the onset of early aging.
Phoenix felt his mother’s pain, knew what she had to endure to support them, and both loved her and appreciated her for it. Yet he couldn’t help but feel deprived. His mother was always working, and when she actually was home, she was usually too tired to do much of anything. In a way, he was left without much of a family at all. The very second he could walk and reach the cupboards to feed himself, Phoenix was left alone. The loneliness of the situation really got to him, and he often found himself lost in deep thought. This day was no different as he found himself going out for one of his many walks.
As he stepped out of his house, one of a few in a small community, the sun blared down upon him. It warmed his entire body and filled him with a natural sense of happiness that was otherwise left virtually void. He would need happiness in the coming days. He slowly began to climb up the incline of the side of a volcano, leaving the houses behind and getting high enough to see the entire island. This is where Phoenix had lived his entire life; a tropical paradise, his island was one of many that made up the Vulcan Islands. The volcanoes had extinguished long ago, leaving behind a chain of islands. These islands were found directly centered in the country of Pyron, between the much larger Flame Island to the west and the mainland to the east. It was an easy-going lifestyle here. Far away from the bustle of Flame Island and the ravages of combat on the mainland, Phoenix had lived a relatively quiet life for the past eighteen years.
Upon reaching the top, Phoenix sat and looked out over his home. A few towns and communities were scattered across the lush island but there was little more than that. It was a smaller, quieter island. Off in the distance, the horizons of neighboring islands could be seen. A light breeze casually blew through his hair. Those that could remember his father said he looked just like him. He had the same hair, eyes, body... the list goes on. Their opinions meant little to him as he had no idea what his father had looked like and could not judge for himself. He, though, had deep red hair with auburn streaks running through. His eyes were a dark green and gave him a sort look that made him appear lost in thought, which he often was. He was slim and sort of lanky, not reaching to the extremes in height but still remained around average. As a Pyron, he was of a race of the beings who inhabited this world, known as Elementals…
There are several different races of Elementals across the globe, eight dominating countries arising with a select race in control. They are called Elementals because they are acutely in tune with their environment, so much so in fact that they can mentally control an aspect of it. As a Pyron, Phoenix could control heat and flame, perfectly designed for his subtropical island. Unlike some of his kind, Phoenix wasn’t keen on using his powers and only ever bothered in times of need. He had become skilled with them, though, through various means of practice. He had learned with the rest of the island youth at lessons, but he sometimes liked to try on his own. There wasn’t much else for him to do really. “Guess it all paid off then...” he said to himself, the gentle sound of waves caressing in the background.
“Phoenix...!” A shout rang out from down the mountainside. As Phoenix glanced down to see who it was, a familiar face rose up to meet him. It was that of his childhood friend and neighbor, Kari. She seemed to have a nervous look about her, the usual gleam in her eyes replaced with worry. The two of them had grown up together, and she was Phoenix’s closest friend. As she reached the top, Phoenix looked back over the island. She walked over to him, looking at him inquisitively before speaking. “I’ve been looking for you...” She paused a moment, sitting down next to him. Turning to him she said, “I heard about the letter...” She paused again, unable to think of something to say. After a bit of awkward silence the best she could come up with was, “I’m sorry...”
Phoenix gave a weak smile as he turned his head slightly to look at her. They had become so close of friends over the years due to the fact that their lives were very similar. Kari too knew the pain of the absence of her father; while he wasn’t dead and gone forever at least, his status as a Sergeant in the Pyron Army kept him from being home almost at all. Her mother was more or less a snob, living a lavish life of luxury off of her husband. She treated Kari like dirt when she was actually home, but luckily in a cruel sort of paradox, she was often away, living that lifestyle with suitors of her and cheating on Kari’s father indefinitely. He was so rarely around though, that he never even began to suspect that she would ever commit such adultery and didn’t even have time to bother her about all the mysterious bills. So there they had been; two neighboring children, devoid of the love and care they deserved with only each other to console with and understand.
Phoenix’s attempt at a smile seemed to serve little condolence to Kari as she brushed her burnt red hair out of her face; a nervous habit she’d always had. She shuffled uncomfortably as yet another awkward silence set in, the wind, waves, and call of some birds from above making the only noises. She kept glancing up as though she wanted to say something, but thought better of it and glanced away again. After several minutes of them looking out over the ocean, the tranquility in stark contrast to their moods, she finally said something. “So when do you leave?” She asked blankly.
“Tomorrow…” Phoenix mumbled. She was referring to the letter that he had obtained that very morning of course. Now that he was of age, the army could enlist him. Having no choice in the matter, Phoenix had opened the letter trembling with the realization of what it was. He was now drafted into the Pyron Army, a grunt officer like they all started. More than likely he’d be sent straight to the front lines, nothing more than a shield for the slightly more experienced officers behind. A shortage of volunteers and an escalation in the forces of the opposing Hydrotian and Cryotian armies upon the mainland had increased the need for a draft. Unfortunately with all the hawk mindsets upon Flame Island, the draft had passed resolution with relative ease. His generation was being whisked away with little discretion for a war Phoenix didn’t even understand.
The trouble was that he didn’t understand war, period. What force could possibly bring two entities to clash over trivial matters that in the grand scheme mattered nothing? He didn’t know or care to know. So far what had it begotten? Families torn apart, tragic deaths, convictions by the public over who was loyal and who a traitor, or who showed the most patriotism. Oh what a grand and glorious war to fight in when the only outcome was suffering. They weren’t defending themselves, tearing away from some oppressive force. This war was over squabbling and petty power dominance that in the end would kill the world over. As long as there were people with such ideals, ideals that there was need for control and dominance, then there would be war. There was no stopping it; it was a fact of life Phoenix had come to both accept and reject. It was the fact that haunted him from the day of his birth, that there was nothing he could do to stop the suffering and yet he had to. And now here he found himself, sitting around reflecting, enlisted for the very thing he had come to reject.
What was worse was that there was nothing he could do. Thanks to the imperialistic views of much of the country, anyone that spoke out against the war was a “traitor”. What it boiled down to was that you had to agree with the mainstream or you weren’t “loyal” and were thus dubbed a coward or a traitor. Should Phoenix even breathe a word of not believing in the war or that it went against his moral beliefs, he’d be slammed in jail before he could blink. Others before him had tried and all met such a fate, it was pointless. No, he wouldn’t be a martyr; he had accepted the fact now that his purposes, his dreams – they were all in vain. He was to be absorbed into a society that was far beyond from his beliefs.
These thoughts had plagued him all morning and he’d finally reached that sense of calm acceptance. Kari however, didn’t look like she was ready to; she clearly didn’t want to lose her closest friend to the war that had torn her family asunder as well. “Phoenix… please…” She was on the brink of tears, her light blue eyes glistening even more. She grabbed his arm gently and made him look at her, almost as though she was begging or praying for some sort of alternative to this mess, some sort of magical solution that would arise by chance and all could be happily ever after. “There must be some way… there has to be something we can do…”
“No Kari, there’s not,” he said solemnly, looking down upon her with sympathy. Deep down she knew it too, and nothing more was said between them before the tears gently flowed down her cheeks and she quickly reached out to embrace him. They had a strong connection together, and they both knew there was no way, no reasonable alternative to dodge this. They didn’t have to exchange anything else because there was little else to exchange. Phoenix would leave tomorrow and all that was left to say was their goodbyes. Phoenix simply returned her embrace slowly, and rested his head upon hers, and they just stayed like that for quite some time as the sun slowly passed overhead.
That’s how the day could have ended had not more calls risen up the mountainside. “Hey! Kari! Phoenix!” A close friend of theirs, Aidan Kai, came bounding up the mountain. The ever present glint in her eyes only even began to hint at her fiery personality. She was a bit of a tomboy, and was always getting into scraps when they were little. Ironically, she too had lost her father to the war; everybody on this island was affected in some way it seemed. Yet she represented a parallel contrast to Phoenix. While the loss of his father made him resent the war, her father’s death had only strengthened her resolve for it. Her father died the noble death, she claimed, and she would live on to avenge him and make him proud. Phoenix sometimes worried that she suppressed her sorrow underneath anger and a need to live up to her own set of unrealistic expectations. She never showed any outward signs of such suppressed feelings, but when stored up those feelings had a nasty habit of erupting.
At the moment though, as she ran up to meet them, she was positively glowing and gave Phoenix an almost proud sort of look. It was unusual and made Phoenix a bit shifty as it unnerved him a bit. She stood there, just nodding her head for a second as she caught her breath. “Just heard the news Phoenix… had to find you as soon as I could.” She smiled as she sat down next to him, and gave him several good pats to the back. “That’s the way; always knew you had it in you. Gonna blast yourself a couple of frostheads? Well save some for me, I have a score to settle you know!” She laughed, completely unaware of the discomfort and awkwardness the subject had brought. She was too lost in her eccentric attitude and ramblings to notice though. “Yeah, I’m gonna join the second I hit eighteen, and I’m not stopping until every last one of them are in the ashes.”
Now that she finally took a pause, she realized the silence of her two friends. The topic was of course harsh with both of them, but Phoenix still tried to return a smile, albeit horribly faked. She wasn’t oblivious of course but mistook his distress for nervousness. “You nervous Phoenix? I suppose it’s only natural. But don’t worry, I know you’ll be fine. Besides – anyone messes with you and they’ll have me to answer to.” She gave another small laugh but to no avail. She stared at him, a bit saddened to see her friend upset. Phoenix had never been able to share his views on the war with anyone outside of Kari. How could he? Not in this nation, and not to Aidan. He and Kari would simply become passive whenever she brought the topic up (which was often). It wasn’t just the nation’s consensus on war that kept him from doing so, but the fact that he didn’t want to oppose something she believed so much in, something that she nearly based her entire life upon. Other than their ideals of war, the three of them were very good friends.
Sensing the general mood but still mistaking him for just being nervous, Aidan stood up. “Come on Kari. Let’s leave him to prepare. He’s got a lot to think about”
“Actually I think I’ll -” Kari started, but Aidan had already helped pull her up, and was now escorting her down the mountainside.
“You take care now, Phoenix!” Aidan called, still pulling Kari along with her, blustering out almost as quickly as she blustered in.
Kari had time to mouth meekly, “Goodbye Phoenix…”watching him as the two of them descended until he was out of eyesight. He watched as she disappeared, saddened to see her go. Aidan had barged in and out with haste, disrupting the moment, but it was for the best he supposed. He could now better let go of himself and everything he stood for more easily. He could just let it all go, lose himself, and be assimilated as he drifted into the “Pyron dream”. He sat there as those thoughts drifted throughout his mind, the evening slowing passing into darkness.
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Cyron
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Heat is for the warm hearted
Joined: Aug 2006
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Karma: 0 | | Re: War of the Elements
« Reply #3 on Jun 21, 2007, 12:49am » | |
Chapter 2: Drifting
Stratus; Cirrus; Nimbus; Cumulous; Aaron went through all the various cloud formations that passed through his mind, forming them with a flick of his wrist. He summoned light breezes to pick up moisture or disperse it as he lied upon his bed, looking up at the sky through the window on the adjacent wall. It was something to pass the time; anything to get a break from yet another grueling day. He was supposed to be working now, training with the rest of the troops, but at the moment he didn’t care. He just wished he could lie there on his bed for the rest of eternity.
But hadn’t that always been the case? Ever since he was little, he was always wandering off by himself. He was a loner, a thinker. He hadn’t wanted much to do with any of the other children at school, hadn’t cared about the lessons. He’d experience it for himself rather than being told what to do or how to act. So he skipped school whenever he could, but of course that led him to trouble. That’s how he came to be at the Aerotan Military Academy.
Daily training sessions, rigorous shaping; such was a militaristic way of life. It certainly wasn’t his choice – far from it. In fact it seemed that everything that happened to him was never his choice. He’d come to accept it by this point, but it didn’t make it any less frustrating. It all extended from his childhood. Shoved from foster home to foster home, he finally ended up with a highly strict man who could not accept the way Aaron wanted to live. He promised to “break” him, and when he finally got so frustrated with the futility of the task, he shipped him off to this forsaken place. That had been three years ago, and not much had changed since.
A crash down the hallway outside of his door was enough to awaken him from his daydreams and make him look up. He knew what was coming, but it was expected. He lightly sighed as he started the countdown. “Three… two… one” The door was blasted open so hard, that it now pathetically hung by one hinge and swung loosely back and forth. Papers and other objects were blown about by the huge gust of wind that now entered the room. It was his commanding officer, Ryelle Tempest, and she was more than displeased.
“Jade!” she screamed, standing there glaring at him. It had been quite some time since he’d seen her this angry, but her temper was almost legendary at the Academy. “Where were you!?” He sat up, his calm gaze unaffected by the look upon her face. This was the third time this week he had skipped the training sessions and now he’d have to pay the consequences. The past couple of times she had all but short of killed him, and from the looks of things she might just follow through this time. “Well!?”
Aaron shrugged, looking up rather carelessly. “Around.” She immediately proceeded to backhand him across the face, leaving a rather nasty imprint of her steel tipped gloves.
“Ingrate!” She now began pacing slightly back and forth within the room. It was definitely not a good thing to have her agitated so early on, but Aaron didn’t care. He was actually starting to get angry himself. He was sick and tired of this life, being told what to do and who to be. Who was she to dictate to him? He kept a cool façade though, if anything just to spite her, and he knew it would agitate her even further. She continued ranting, “You’re a disgrace as a soldier of this army, and a disgrace to this country! And it’s not even that. You and half the rest of this worthless army could continue making imbeciles of yourselves for all I care, I couldn’t give a damn! You’ll all get shipped to the front lines and that solves that, but it’s when you bring disgrace upon a higher officer that I get angry! How do you think I looked when one of my own soldiers was missing when the commanding generals came for an inspection today? Oh what’s that? Slipped your mind, did it?” In actuality Aaron had forgotten all about the inspection today, not that he cared at this point. It was all he could do to keep himself from yelling back; his fists had already clenched automatically and now his eyes began to narrow. She stepped up to him, now bearing down upon him. “Well don’t worry; I’m sure I can beat some sense into you. You’ve shamed me in front of some of the highest officers in this country, and you can rest assured you won’t again!”
It was too much and Aaron couldn’t take anymore. He sneered and shoved her out of his face. “Yes, it’s a big shame I made you look bad in front of daddy dearest.” He struck a nerve and he knew it. He wasn’t certain whether she was more shocked he would rise to that level or just plain angry. He quickly got his answer as she reached out, grabbed him by the neck, and slammed him into the wall, holding him there and choking him. Definitely angry.
“You’ll regret those words…” Her face was now inches from his, teeth gritted and her right temple throbbing. “You like skipping my training sessions? Well you’re about to make them all up, and I’ll see to it personally that the entire process is a living hell for you. And the next time you do something like this, you won’t have that mercy from me.” She snarled and shoved him to the ground into the stand next to his bed. The lamp on top was sent flying and shattered into hundreds of pieces on the floor. “You have five minutes to prepare yourself. Five. Use them wisely as they’ll be the last enjoyable five minutes you’ll have for a long time.” She then snorted, and turned on her heels heading toward the door, still pitifully hanging there. She paused though, and turned to face him once more. “And clean up this mess!” She kicked the doorway, and the door finally slumped to the ground off of its last hinge as she left the room.
Aaron glared at the now empty doorway, as he slowly rose to his feet. He massaged his neck, and kicked what was left of the lamp out of his way in anger. Five minutes… As much as he hated to disappoint her, he wouldn’t be here in five minutes. No, his mind was made up. He wasn’t going to be passive any longer, and from this moment he would take control of is own life. He had drifted along in apathy for far too long. He walked back over to his window, this time flinging them right open. Quickly grabbing a few essentials, he then rose up and flew right straight out, carried by wind currents and the air itself. He propelled himself forward and into the sky, over the peaks of the mountains that dominated this half of the country. The sky had become cloudy and dark during his scuff with Ryelle, and it definitely matched his current mood. He had no idea where he was going, but he didn’t care. He was finally free.
***
As Commander Ryelle Tempest marched down the hallway, she wasn’t sure whether beating that runt Aaron Jade had made her feel less angry or even more. Crushing her inferiors into submission always left a sense of satisfaction in her; even walking down this hallway she felt slightly smug as heads would peep out of doorways and frantically rush to shut them as they saw her coming. Yet for some reason, this case was different. Jade stood up for himself, and no matter what the repercussion was, didn’t seem to care. This infuriated her, and the fact that an underling could anger her so, only infuriated her more. He was only a lowly grunt officer after all! Though she had to admit, she used to like him.
Ironically, both she and Aaron had come into the military at the same time. They shared the same rank, same experience, and same training. She too used to stand up for what she believed in, what mattered to her. The two of them had even shared what one might call a friendship at a point. She however, wised up, and they had a falling out. She learned that it was not what was best for her, but what was best for this army and her country. She quickly rose through the ranks to become one of the highest officers in the army, while he remained put among the low ranks. While it was true that she had pushed herself hard for this, trained herself to be better than all the rest, she couldn’t say that having the highest general in all of Aerotis for a father hadn’t helped. Favored into her spot or not, she deserved respect and made sure she’d damn well get it.
She’d always had a touchy spot concerning her father, and Aaron had the gull to touch upon that nerve. She knew he had skipped today’s training lesson just to spite her. The looks upon the faces of her father and the other high generals during the role call of the inspection had been enough for her to want to kick his face into the dirt. She worked so hard to prove to everyone, including her father, that she deserved this rank, and his impudence went against all that she had achieved. An assurance to her father that he would be severely punished, and that she would not tolerate insubordination, was enough to soothe things over, but did not put down the question of her lack of over dominance upon the troops.
Needless to say, Aaron would pay for this insult to her. She wasn’t so sure she could restrain herself from full out killing him, but somehow she’d just have to manage. Whatever relationship there had been between them before was dead now, and the only thing she had to look forward to involving him was his face meeting the heel of her boot.
As she rounded the corner of the hall, she glanced at her watch. It had only been three minutes, but having finished her minor inspection of the residence base, she decided he’d had enough time. Five minutes, three minutes; it didn’t matter to her. She briskly walked down several adjoining hallways, heading back toward his room. Coming up to it, she noticed he hadn’t fixed the door or even cleaned up the place really. It was just another thing she could punish him for. As she stepped through the doorway, she snapped at him. “Jade! This mess is unacceptable! Your time is up and you haven’t even…!” It was only then that she realized he wasn’t even there. A few things were missing off his desk that had been there previously, and the windows now hung wide open. She ran to them, jumped, and burst through on a wind current. She hovered there, scanning the skies. He was nowhere in sight and she knew he would never try to hide from her somewhere on the base. The coward was running, and she was once again left with mixed emotions. She could almost laugh that she had instilled enough fear into the rat to cause him to run, but it was once again insubordination and she had not kept him under her control.
This time though, the situation was in her favor. Jade had just become a deserter by leaving the army; an act of treason. As his commanding officer, it was then up to her to see him tracked down and duly prosecuted. In this case she would see to that task personally. Sensing disturbance in the air pattern heading to the east, she quickly memorized his immediate direction before heading back to prepare. Perhaps she could even persuade her father to let her kill him herself. But that would be later; for now she needed to prepare for the hunt. She had let Jade drift and slip through her grip of control for too long now. That would all change in an instant. She would track him down and turn Aaron’s disloyalty into her own gain. He was far from escape and far from being free of her wrath. She headed back, those anxious thoughts racing through her mind, as the sun set into the twilight hours.
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