Magnamane. That's what they were calling the majimonster that was causing havoc at a place called Cloud Veil Valley. Several months before it caught the attention of the Emperor, the local lord tried to subdue the beast by hiring several hedge binders. what he neglected to tell them was that the Magnamane was a Gold grade 3 star monster and was leading a pride of Lionyxes, Sparkfangs and actual lions.
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"Wait, gold grade three stars? They also changed how the monsters are ranked in strength?", Voxea interrupted. "I guess? I was told that all monsters could be broken down into five grades and four stars in those grades. Order being, bronze, silver, gold, platinum and diamond...oh, and that each grade had a maximum of four stars until they break into the next grade", I responded and explained.
"Huh... fairly similar to the old system. Though I remember there being grades beyond that..."
"What?"
"Never mind, just continue the story".
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The hedge binders got wiped out by the fearsome beast, but managed to escape with their lives. It was then that the lord decided to reach out to the Emperor, and he decided to send experts from the Storm Striders and Crystal Roses, due to their specialties in training Lightning and Earth affinity monsters, respectively. When the Emperor gave this mission to the rivaling houses, they agreed to put aside their differences for the glory of the Empire and send this monster back to the Aether...on the surface. In reality, the leaders of both houses planned to bind the Magnamane in order to increase their personal power, as well as act as an insult towards their rival.
As such, my mother and father got sent by their respective households, each with their own retinue of binders, to go destroy(bind) the Magnamane for the glory of the Emperor(their respective household leaders). The distance between Cloud Veil Valley and the Imperial Capital was about a week's journey on foot, but my parents said it felt a lot longer with all the fighting that occurred between the two of them.
Aside from the wild majimonsters, one of the problems with traveling through the Wildlands is the general lack of roads, lack of safe places to rest for an evening, lack of easy access to food and water and other binders or crazy hermit fighting you for the aforementioned safe places and resources. Needless to say, my parents and their respective companies ended up having a lot of binder duels between each other over everything from camp sites, to watering hole access, to claim over game and even over places to answer nature's calling. Honestly, hearing about how much they fought made it seem highly unlikely they would end up together and have me.
Well...up until they finally fought Magnamane.