The Origins

<tabber>The Beginning =

Back in the beginning of times, when the universe was young, Earth was nothing more than an empty desert, covering the entire landscape with its massive extensions of dry sand.

At that time, life was not a thing yet. But from the vacuum, two Elements came to exist: Aether and Nether, light and darkness respectively.

Aether was a gentle and joyful entity that tended to take the form of a giant woman whose skin reflected the color of the sky and whose dark hair vastly spreaded through the world at night, decorated with shining stars.

Nether, on the other hand, was a temperamental and serious entity who preferred the shape of a massive man whose skin was dark like the night and had an aura of power as powerful and menacing as death itself.

They usually remained hidden within their domains, the sky and the underground, but one day Nether decided to emerge to the surface. From the sky, Aether spotted the big dark man and called him over. He looked up to her and they saw eye to eye for the first time. Despite the huge differences between them, it was love at first sight.

Nether extended his arm as high as he could, while Aether extended her arm as low as she could. Once they held hands, Nether pulled Aether towards him and they hugged for the first time. From that moment on, the couple started often seeking for each other's company, comfort, presence. Aether's presence mellowed Nether's harsh personality, while his presence made her tougher.

And after some time, Aether got pregnant.

Many months passed without the couple understanding why Aether's belly was constantly growing. One night, she felt a terrible pain in her stomach, so hard that the sky shook and the stars flickered. Worried about his lover's well-being, Nether used his powers to carefully cut Aether's stomach open in order to see what was going on inside there.

And in that moment, the desolate desert that today is our planet heard, for the first time, the cries of children.

The first child to leave his mother's womb was a boy who would be later named Earth. Earth was a bold boy who had inherited (and boosted) his father's powers over the ground, as well as his temper. His skin was hard and brown like dirt, while his hair had the color of sand. Once he was born, he quickly covered the world with his massive body, his legs creating ranges of mountains, his arms breaking through the sand and creating valleys.

The second child was a girl named Water. Water was a sweet and helpful girl, but could get easily angered and destructive. Her skin, just like her mother's, reflected the color of the environment around her, while her hair had a bright shade of green. As soon as she was born, she embraced Earth with her way larger body, her long hair and joyful tears of freedom creating the oceans and rivers, whose behavior would reflect on her constantly changing personality.

The third child was a boy called Air. Air was big, but thin, and his skin and hair had multiple shades of white and grey. Unlike his siblings, he was silent and not very sociable. When he left Aether's womb, he immediately occupied his spot between her arms instead of staying with the other children, his body creating the wind, silent and invisible like its creator.

The last child was a troubled girl who was named Fire. Fire was small and had a tan skin, as well as red blazing hair. Differently from the other three children, her bad side was more commonly seen than her good one. When she was born, she would constantly fight for a place in the world, just to be badly defeated by her much more powerful siblings everytime. Due to this, Nether was forced to take her to live with him in the underground.

As time went by, everything was settled down and the Elements got their places on the planet. Earth stayed with the surface, Water stayed over him and Air and Aether stayed in the sky. Nether remained living in the underground and managed to calm Fire's wrath. Everyone was happy.

Said happiness did not last for long. Everybody had been satisfied with their part of the world. They were always together, which would sound great.

But that is not how it worked.

While their actual bodies were always in their respective places, stuck together, the Elements could split their consciences. They could control their domains and wander around the world in a weaker form at the same time. Due to that, they rarely interacted, usually being in distinct locations, except for Aether and Nether, whose consciences were always together.

Their children were lonely. They were always alone for themselves, sitting in valleys, bodies of water, wind currents or underground cliffs, sad.

Until one day they realised: "Mom and dad have each other. I gotta find someone". Earth was the first to act. He spawned an avatar of himself and created a mass of rock in the nearest ocean. That called Water's attention, who had felt like a pimple had appeared in her face. She appeared in the small island in an avatar and met Earth there. Conversations happened, flirtings happened and the weather got hotter. Months later, Water gave birth to a lovely girl called Nature.

Nature was the joy and pride of her parents. With her beauty, sweetness and voice, there was not a single Element who did not like her. Her green hair created the grass, and its ornaments, the plants. Nature created all the animals with her imaginative mind, some who would later evolve or get extinct. Not only did this bring more colors and attractions to the planet, but  also renewed her family's happiness to execute their duties.

After Nature, a new romance occured not long after, between Air and Fire. Both feeling lonely and sick of their parents bothering them all the time, the two Elements began often seeking for each other's company, growing closer and closer over time, until their bond resulted in Fire getting pregnant of Electricity.

Electricity, unlike the sweet Nature, was a hyperactive boy who quickly grew troubled to handle. He took a spot with his father and grandmother and would constantly run around the world, bringing storms and destruction to wherever he passed by. His runs would often cause his white hair to fly away, creating the clouds. His rampage was eventually stopped when Nether managed to send the souls of Electricity's victims, who would always end up in his underground empire, back to the overworld, resulting in them chaining him and bringing him to the underworld.

The couples did not last for long. Despite his deep love for Fire, Electricity's arrival had badly worried Air about her temper and influence, which caused him to take distance from her so he could think for himself for some time. This event happened shortly after Earth and Water had had a serious fight. Its reasons are uknown, but the two Elements' rage shook the landscape as their powers clashed. Water fleed, wanting to be alone, and bumped into Air. Both managed to comfort each other and their respective moments of weakness made them go further, resulting in the birth of Ice.

As soon as she was born, Ice grabbed her mother's hands and froze them, creating the planet's Poles. She was more similar to her father, cold and reclusive. That was kind of an advantage, due to her parents' deep fear that their mates would find out about the affair. They raised her in secret, in a corner of the world barely anybody used to go to, aided by the always helpful Aether. However, Earth and Fire unavoidably discovered the secret by sneakily following Water and Air all the way to the hideout, where they found both taking care of the girl. The landscape was heavily damaged in the viscious fight that broke from such finding, but Earth and Fire's rampage was eventaully cooled down by Aether.

However, the grudge never faded away, which was the likely reason to why the betrayed Elements decided to have a child themselves. Terrible mistake. Nothing is worse for a child than being born because of anger instead of love. Because of that, Fire ended up giving birth to Chaos.

Chaos was the embodiment of destruction, the master of the tragedies. While not outright malicious, his mere presence was enough to make people scared and angry, and he could summon every kind of natural disaster a person could think of, depending on the environment. He respected nobody aside from his parents and Nature, who could make friends with everyone. Despite not having intended to cause so much trouble, Chaos was the key factor to the fall of the Elements.

For many centuries, the world stabilised. The Second Generation Elements would take care of the primary needs of the planet. Nature would protect the fauna and flora. Ice stayed in her domains, in the Poles, expanding its limits. Aether would roam the skies day after day, sometimes flying down and granting a good person's wish. Nether was busy administrating his underground realm of the dead, which would sometimes lead to Electricity finding a way out and rampaging around the world, just to be taken back later.

But Chaos ruined everything. Despite not wanting to, his presence caused everyone to revert to their primal instincts. The family stopped recognizing each other and started fightning like beasts.

Water and Earth started clashing for territory, floods, tsunamis and earthquakes destroying the developing human civilization. Air sent massive tornadoes all around the world, aided by Electricity's terrible lightning storms. Fire and Ice went on a rampage, destroying the landscape with their opposite powers. Nether, enraged by the huge amount of deaths, started sending the souls back to the world, increasing the havoc. Even the peaceful Nature, blinded with the rage of having her plants and animals destroyed, went on a violent frenzy towards her family.

In the middle of all that, Aether was not affected by Chaos' influence, maybe for living so high in the sky, maybe for her superior power. Either way, she tried her best to kick her family back to their senses.

She tried speaking. She sent gifts. She cried. She even hit her familiars, but they were just getting more and more violent, bringing the world and everything in it to the brink of extinction.

And in that moment, while watching her family falling apart, Aether had a desperate idea to stop that madness.

The heartbroken deity reunited humans, a few selected ones from the hundreds still alive. These humans in special had been educated by her in the arts of magic and sorcery to protect their home cities. Now, they were using it to destroy the creators of everything they knew, everything that existed.

Aether explained her plan to them. It took several hours until they had all agreed to do such a dangerous and saddening stunt, but they did. The very same day, the mistress of the cosmos sent a message to all the other Elements, using the sky as a board.

**The final showdown awaits us. You shall all meet in the center of the world, where everything began. The last stand that separates you from purging this planet from each other!**

If they were in their perfect judgement, they would have gotten suspicious. They would have thought it being a trap.

But if they were in their perfect judgement, they would not be fighting in first place.

So all the rampaging nine Elements met in the center of the planet, the location now being an island, where Aether and Nether had first met. When everyone was there and ready for the final confront, Aether descended from the sky right on a crack in the ground, in the exact same place where she had first touched her lover. She gave her family one last depressed look before the plan began.

The leader of the humans, a bold man called Ragnar, did the signal for his acquaitances. Each of the nine men activated the spell Aether had taught them and targeted one Element. The entities tried to break free from the powerful spells, but the humans' magic aided by Aether's power were too much for them. One by one, the Elements were banished from the material realm and sealed into the crack where it had all begun. The humans were about to close it when Aether did something they had not predicted. She willingly jumped in the seal, unable to stand the heartbreak and loneliness for eternity.

With the Elements' consciences sealed away, the planet began working the way we know today. The fauna and flora slowly but surely regenerated from the titanic war and humanity resumed developing.

However, the Elements were not fully sealed. Their essences, their powers, would roam the Earth, as the world would later be named, searching for an appropriate host. The existence of Elementals would help keeping the balance of the environment and prevent it from collapsing.

The same humans who sealed the rogue deities away became immortal as a side effect from their contacts with magic. Using the opportunity, they opened a training academy for Elementals in the very same island the Elements began and ended at.

Even if not convoked, the ten Elementals would always try and find the island by themselves, following instincts previously uknown to them. Some say it is to keep the balance. Others say it happens by mre coincidence.

But the biggest theory, the one most believe in, is that the Elements are trying to find each other again. The reason they always end reunited is believed to be a way to apologise for their behaviour and be a family once more.