I hate the rain. I rarely afford myself the luxury of extreme emotions but there is so much about the rain that I absolutely abhor. I have seen gods and I have seen mortals become gods. I have seen war and I have seen peace. I have seen the tides of the world itself churn and remake everything before my very eyes and somehow, nothing can stop the rain. The ancients who founded civilization ruled it and brought it to ruin. From that ruin it was reborn at the hands of mortals and so they named it “Embre” for the ashes we rose from. When the rain falls, the embers die and the ashes are washed away. It rained on that day and that’s how I knew it was over.

Embre has never been more fractured and broken than in the Age of Kingdoms. In this time, every man and woman of power took claim of the shattered empires abandoned in the Age of Strife. The Judgment War saw the anger of gods and saw those same gods bleed. And when god’s bleed, we all cry. In the name of that blood, the lords and ladies that would become kings and queens proclaimed they had the right to by the very blood in their veins; lines traced to the gods or those that had slain them.

On the smaller of the two continents that make up Embre, a cluster of kingdoms once resided. Among them were the kingdoms Brace, Jellette, and Sol. Brace was a militaristic country, lead by King Heirel. Jellette was a strong economically driven country ruled by King Ashel Jellette. Finally, the Sol kingdom was the smallest of the three and the more peaceful. Not particularly prosperous, the Sol kingdom survived on the kindness of their Queen, Lhianna De Sol, and she, in turn, gained their fierce loyalty and undying love.

Unfortunately, loyalty, love, and kindness will not keep a small kingdom standing for long. The king of Brace saw the territory as merely land waiting to be conquered. With oceans on two sides, the Sol Kingdom was boxed in, adding irony to its perilous position as its coastal position was what gave Sol its greatest value. Brace bordered the Sol Kingdom on the south just as Jellette bordered on the east and King Heirel was ready to expand.

Although Queen Lhianna became aware of his plan, there was little she could do to stop the impending invasion. Brace’s army was larger, better trained, and more experienced. The Sol Kingdom’s army was simply not enough to defend and there was no negotiating with King Heirel, try as Queen Lhianna might. The King was determined to gain the “gate to the mainland” with dreams that it would put him above his rival, King Jellette. With the conquering of Sol, Brace would be set to eclipse the Jellette’s glory. These dreams were not meant to come true.

When things seemed to be at their bleakest and only a week remained before the invasion, a large group of travelers entered the kingdom of Sol’s main city. Originally thought to be a scouting expedition for Brace, a group of strong warriors terrified man of Sol’s citizens by their presence until they were stopped by the palace guards protecting the castle gates. The leader of the band of travelers stepped forward and asked to speak with the Queen. This man, named Alexander, was permitted to speak with her if accompanied only by palace guards.

Alexander introduced himself as the commander of a small army that has lost its kingdom. In a plot to overtake the land, a rival kingdom tricked Alexander’s king into sending the army across borders, leaving the territory unprotected and easily invaded. Vulnerable, the entire land was conquered in a day. After the trickery, Alexander, and his army refused to serve the new king and thus the lost army began to wander west, through the mountains of Bahemos Rest, in search for a place to belong. Their wandering had taken them to many places, many kingdoms, across Southern Embre, and the Sol Kingdom was the end.

After listening to the story of how the Lost Army was placed in self-exile, the Queen sympathized and allowed Alexander and his men to stay for as long as they needed. However, she warned them that the kingdom would fall at the hands of another and the Lost Army would find its new King less kind. Alexander proposed a deal.

Alexander volunteered his army to help defend the kingdom of Sol from Brace if the Queen would agree to allow Alexander and his men to make the Sol kingdom their home. The Queen agreed much to the disapproval of her general, Harkon. Regardless of the general’s objections, Alexander led his army and a legion of Sol’s men to the border where Brace planned to invade. The rest of Sol’s army stayed behind Alexander’s, in case the Lost Army failed to repel the invaders. Brace’s army saw Alexander’s command of roughly two hundred men set up to stop the several hundred sent to overtake the kingdom of Sol and was both insulted and amused.

Predicting an easy victory, Brace sent their first wave of roughly eight hundred men to crash against the line of the lost army. Alexander and his men met the wave with strength unseen since the fall of Tartaros of Strife. The lost army fought like gods against meager men. Those who put their lives against such an overwhelming force found their brothers and sisters slain and the glory of their nation failing in the face of a contemptable enemy.

Alexander stepped forward, bidding Brace send another wave of soldiers to meet with destiny. Brace sent double the strength; double the numbers. Behind that wave, riflemen readied a row of East Embre’s new innovation, guns, and trained on the lost army. Clouds spread over the field, casting shadows over all. As the lost army readied to take on the next wave, the Sol Army let a flurry of arrows arch over Alexander, his men, and Brace’s frontline to rain death upon the riflemen. Harmonized to the screams of the impaled riflemen, the lost army rushed the second wave of Bracene soldiers, delivering death once more.

The general of Brace, frustrated and humiliated, resorted to one final attempt. He commanded the remainder of the Bracene invaders to storm the lost army, attacking with everything they had at once. A fool’s gambit. Thunder rumbled and rolled in the sky only to be outdone by the sound of men charging at each other. Rain dappled against armor and caused blood to run from the dead and wounded. Swords clashed and sank into iron and flesh. Limbs were severed, blood was drawn, and hearts were pierced. Men collapsed with their last breath and as their bodies fell to the ground, some heads would precede them.

It was this assault that the lost army received their first causalities. Under the Warrior King’s command, death only came from carelessness. Lettings yourself become separated from your comrades, becoming distracted, charging in foolishly; these were mistakes that you cannot live to repeat. The Bracene army was suffering to the latter. The Bracene General called for his men to take Alexander and ignore all others. “Cut off the head and the body dies”, he proclaimed. Alexander was mobbed by enemy soldiers. His giant blade held over him and swords clattered down from above. He crouched and changed the angle of his sword just fast enough to block each blow before it came in contact with Alexander’s head. But he could not keep it up for long.

It is said that for that moment, Alexander became a god. Lightning split the sky, lit the battleground, and exploded in the midst of Brace’s men, striking Alexander. While he should have burst apart as anything else would have, Alexander remained in one piece. Electricity danced from the crater where Alexander was struck down. The smell of burnt ground and hot flesh overcame the smell of blood. It was the lost army that grinned in triumph, and it was the Bracene soldiers that looked on in horror.

Alexander rose. From the crater he rose as if gravity could no longer hold him. Splits of electricity clung to his body and writhed in the air like snakes slithering around his form; each with a life of their own. His eyes were empty save for the lightning flowing through his body. That electricity curled around the sword and faster than eyes can follow, a white blur carved its way through the Bracene army, straight to the general. Before he registered Alexander having even left the crater, the upper half of the general’s body slid cleanly from the lower half. The sound of his torso hitting the ground with a heavy “thuck” noise was the call to retreat for the rest of the Bracene army. Cut off the head and the body dies. That Kingdom of Brace lost the day, as well as the war, as well as any hope of ever conquering the Kingdom of Sol. The lightning left Alexander’s form after the death of the general, but the power remained in the memories of all those who marched with him, and all those who dared to march against him.

“Warrior King” soon became a true moniker. For defending the Kingdom, Queen Lhianna announced Alexander as the new leader of Sol’s army. The two became close and over the peace that came from Brace’s defeat, love soon rose. Alexander spoke to the queen about marriage. Talk soon turned to their eventual union. Once wed, Queen Lhianna presented Alexander to the people as King Alexander Lione. As Lhianna took Alexander’s last name, so she did rename the kingdom in honor of its hero and the new king. The Lione Kingdom grew under the peaceful heart of Queen Lhianna and the stern hand of King Alexander. From her kindness came the love of the people, from his discipline came order to the kingdom, and from their love came a prince and a princess. Prince Kael Alexander Lione was the first of the royal children. Four years later came Princess Melody De Lione.

It was a time of great prosperity. Unfortunately, not all good things last and radical change soon breeds resentment. All the light that the queen and king cast over the Lione Kingdom also created a darkness to lie beneath. It is in that darkness that a plot grew; a plot of hatred, of envy, and of promises to bring a great disaster to the royal family and two innocent children.