Heron worked hard to reach the goal. However, by the time he finished writing the rune, it was nearly dawn. He fell asleep and woke after breakfast, almost running late for his daily tasks in the infirmary. In addition, his hands got swollen from the intensity of writing the run.

Irene felt sorry for how much effort he had to put in, so she healed his hands and even gave him easier chores and enabled him to rest before lunch.

After lunch, he came to the library and found Anton doing his reports.

"Teacher, I have finished the task you've given me."

Heron put out the parchment where he wrote the B rune for half of the page. Anton stood up and took a look.

"My, my, it seems you were indeed up to the task. This may actually work out, Heron. If you do one rune each day, you'll be able to start transcribing literature soon. Then, as promised, I shall reward you by teaching you about the formation of the federation and some concepts that you should have been educated about while you lived in your village."

Anton then went to bring a scripture. It was a book rather than a scroll.

"I should make it clear that I'm not a cleric, so I will not be teaching you prayers. But as a scholar, I shall teach you some basic history. I'll do this rarely as there is much work to do, but to understand how our world works, you must know what the cause of the current worldscape was.

The scriptures use some olden phrasing, so I'll be retelling it in a modern narrative as I read it. Understood?"

Heron nodded.

"Then let us begin," said Anton with a smile.

***

The history of the Riana federation starts after the event known as "the great fall." Most of the oral history before the event has not been preserved, or it is hidden in the archives of the clergy of harmony. What we know about the events that transpired is due to one of the earliest scriptures that has been passed through generations.

Before the great fall, magic was available only to practitioners who gave their all and transcended their human forms in order to establish the connection with the spirits of the elements. These masters of magecraft then went through the lands helping town folk and villagers alike. The magic was not obtainable by the regular folk.

But one day, a mage appeared that was different than the others. While he practiced magic, he also searched for ways to make it available to ordinary people. It took him a long time, but he had found unique stones near the volcanos that had properties to gather mana. They were transparent crystals-like stones but would change colors depending on which mana property they interacted with.

And so, the mage started to fill these crystals with mana. Then he started giving them to the people in order to test if they would be able to wield the given power. But then things took an unexpected turn. People managed to use the crystals, but in doing so, they started to infuse their life force with the crystals, and when crystals overpowered them, they would die, sometimes with horrific deaths like immolation or plants growing out of their bodies.

Even though the initial tests failed, the mage kept with his research. However, some who survived were ostracized and were labeled as the rejects, now known to us as the fallen. They met fates worse than death and have lost their humanity. They became monsters infused with lifelines of flora and fauna. People within the city from where the test subjects came drove the mage away and rumors spread through other cities. With no other willing subjects in the cities, the mage would turn to villages later.

But he needed to find a way for the crystals to work without harming the wielder. And then it dawned on the mage. If the catalyst with a lifeforce is required, the usage of animals or plants might give results.

By the time he had come up with a solution, the rumors had spread to the villages. But the luck had it that he found one village in dire need of assistance, where they would offer some volunteers if the mage helped the river flow once more. This was an easy task for someone who wielded power, and upon completion, the research began.

The plants bore weak results, but animals yielded better. And so the focus was on them. But even with these better results, the mage wanted to create tools instead of rituals that would produce magic instead of using live animals. And mage was aging slowly. And while he found methods to keep himself young, maintaining form became more complex.

But to the mage's fortune, things were about to get better. While overseeing the rituals, the mage noticed that their blood would pale after the animals died, as all nutrition was drawn from it. Was then the blood that drove the magic? It was not, but something else caught the eye of the mage as he experimented with the animals. He could see the glow traveling through their eyes as they were dying. It was as if their soul was sucked away. It must be the mana of the living. So it was a matter of what kind of living thing he was using that he'd get different results. Those with longer lifespans gave greater output, while those with lesser lifespans gave less.

The mage then learned how to extract the souls into the crystals and infuse them with various mana properties. He now only needed to keep them away from the casters in order for them to use magic. And so villagers started making staffs, amulets, chalices, and other objects which would be used to cast spells.

As the progress was made, the mage started dying. He was fortunate to survive for so long, but it required him a lot of focus to rejuvenate his body. He wanted to spread his newfound method throughout the world, and he was desperate to prolong his life. So he started heading towards darkness that would set events of the great fall in motion.

He started to drain people of their lifeforce and blood to regenerate his body. The younger they were, the more life he'd get, he imagined. So he went after the orphans, as the likeliness for someone to notice or care was little. And he was taking children from the cities. He'd leave for the city disguised and prey upon those left on the streets at night.

There was another problem brewing. The crystals he'd use were not so easily found, so he started to work on the magic to generate more of them. But he had no luck with generation. He had to prioritize what tools could be made and who could use them. Also, gems created from the crystals and molded for the tools would run dry upon several uses. And while they could be filled back, each time effect was weaker.

As a result of these problems, a divide was caused between the villagers, who started forming factions and trying to appease the mage for access to the tools.

Aside from the test village, information started to spread around to the other villages, and so many chiefs came and tried to bribe the mage. But as he was shunned by many, he didn't give in. As others wanted the power, alliances among other villages started to form as they thought of forcefully taking the tools. The conflict was brewing.

The rumors of the invasion found their way into the village. Fearing that escalation was gonna damage the work that he was doing, the mage decided to preemptively stop the escalation. His solution was to attack one village as an example to others who'd think to attack him.

And so one night, he went to one of the adjacent villages and set it ablaze. He wanted to minimalize casualties, but villagers wouldn't stand back and just let him go unpunished. And so formed a flaming circle around the village and started shrinking it until all the houses and people were nothing but ashes and soot.

The following day, he tasked one of the villagers to serve as a messenger and give details to the chiefs of other villages that should they proceed with their plans, their villages would meet the same fate. But wanting to ensure that peace would last long enough for him to move the research forward, he promised that any village that brought the crystals along with wildlife to him would get tools made.

But as expected, other villages wouldn't collaborate with a mage that just burned a village down to prove a point. So they needed a plan. As they couldn't fight on equal terms with the mage, learning just how much power he had, they decided to gather resources and hire a mage that would aid them in the battle.

Scouts were sent out to find any mage willing to help the villagers. And so gears of war started to grind, and a new chapter for the continent was about to begin.