On a distant island far from the four kingdoms of Nyvalis lived Cassian, the first queen of Sylvarya. Time had not touched her face only sorrow had. For centuries, she guarded the heart of all elemental power: the Aethercore a living relic pulsing with divine light, set atop a sacred altar of wind and stone.
A protective barrier shimmered around the island, spun from Cassian's own magic. But outside, the sky trembled storm clouds gathered not of nature, but war. Hadra, her own bloodline's shadow, had come to seize the Aethercore. A descendant twisted by greed.
"There she is!" Hadra spat from across the shore. Her armor gleamed black as obsidian, her voice cutting through the rising winds. "She's drawing power. She's going to use the core against us!"
Cassian stood at the altar, her fingers barely touching the Aethercore's surface. It glowed brighter with every heartbeat.
"She dares defy Eiros… the fool," Hadra hissed.
"Velar'tash!" (Damn it.)
Hadra then used *vael'shara* to escape.
A flare of energy pulsed outward, and Cassian raised her hand. Wind howled, and in a single breath, the soldiers Hadra left behind were swept away — cast into the sea like ash on a tide. Only silence followed.
She closed her eyes. Guilt sank into her bones.
"Forgive me, Eiros," she whispered. "I asked for your voice. You gave me none."
The vaelari's (god) command still echoed in her memory as clear as the first day she heard it.
"The Aethercore must never be divided. To fracture it is to fracture the world."
But it was already fracturing kings with hollow hearts, armies that burned trees and temples, people desperate to conquer what should never be owned. She could no longer protect the core in one place. So she made her choice.
With her sigil-blade forged from wind, light, and oath she drove its edge through the Aethercore. The altar cracked. Light burst into the sky, splitting like rivers into four separate currents. The world seemed to hold its breath.
The One became Four.
Additional information:
Vael'shara is a special ability only bestowed to those of royalty sylvaryans. (Cassian's descendants)