In the beginning, there were 8 Beings of substantial power. They were unaware of how they came to be or their relationship with each other, but they knew they had a duty. To give life to this world.
They started it by naming it. They weren't certain what a name was initially, just that something inside them led them to conclude that this was the first step.
They named the world Efelia.
Then they progressed in creating actual life in the empty land before them. Everything they did together, so everything contained an equal amount of each of their energy or their Element, as many would later call.
They created the sky with its stars, the sun, and its 3 moons, although one could see only two of them at the time.
They covered the empty lands with forests and plants or designed mountains and volcanoes and ice lands and swamps to keep the variety in their world.
Followed came the different beasts that could survive in those different environments, and even if most of them had to kill each other, the Beings were ok with that, as so was The Balance.
They didn't know what The Balance was other than something they had to keep, or the world given to them would come to an end.
But time passed, and nothing new happened, and the Beings grew tired of that endless circle. So they created something new, something they hadn't tried to do so.
Each of them would create a single living being using their own Element, and only theirs.
And so came to be the Firstborns, the first of each of the 8 Magical Creatures.
As with every creation of theirs, the Beings named them, but they had two names instead of one.
The first name was a personal name, while the second was a name categorizing what they were. That way, when those 'children' of theirs had their own children, they would have a name for the people as they could give them a more personal name too.
The 8 Firstborns were Kezarug the Demon, Oruss the Dragon, Malcerine the Fairy, Darien the Vampire, Krik the Satyr, Vivia the Mermaid, Mawu the Unicorn, and Wulfrun the Werewolf.
The firstborns were more intelligent than any other of their past creation, and they could use the Elements too. Some could use only one, while others could use multiple ones.
Soon a question was asked by the Firstborns to their creators.
Who was the strongest among them?
The Beings never wondered of that, as they seemed each to be of equal power. So they decided to test the creation that separated them from each other, their Firstborns.
Their Firstborn would go through 7 tests, and depending on the results, a leader would be decided. Normally each Being would decide one test, but the Being who made Darien decided he didn't want to create one.
First was the Test of Strength, which the Creator of the Dragons decided. The dragons were the larger among all the Firstborns and had to be the strongest physical among them. The test was for each of the children to have a boulder whose weight was adjustable to be 100 times their weight. They couldn't use their Elements on this test.
The only ones that finished this test were Oruss and Darien, with Darien taking first place.
Next was the Test of Magic, or control over the Elements, which the Unicorn's Creator had made. The Unicorn's control of the Element was perfect, but Darien was the final winner once more, as he used the Elements in a more creative way than Mawu. The Elements that were available to use were Air, Fire, Water, and Earth, but some of the children had unique Elements created for them to use and only them. But Mawu and Darien could use all of them, while Darien could also use a fifth one, which later would be called the Dark Element.
It followed the Test of Music that was meant for the Krik to prove his worth. Still, even if its music wasn't like anything that the beings ever heard, Darien won once more, as he used his Element and what was later would be called the Vampire Charm to pass the feelings of his music in the hearts of the audience and not just their ears.
Kezarug's Creator set the Test of Speech, having each of the Firstborns giving a speech about a specific topic, and once more, Darien with his Charm was the final winner. However, it was close, as Kezarug had a similar ability and seemed to have earned quite a few things from that moment that helped him evolve this ability.
Vivia's creator decided for the Test of Underwater Combat since Mermaids would be stronger underwater, but once more, Darien prevailed, using the Element to his advantage.
The test made for the Fairy was a flight race. Oruss was great at flight, but because of his size, he wasn't as agile. On the other hand, Darien could transform himself into a bat, which allowed him to keep up with Malcerine, and this time the test ended with a tie between those two.
The last test was the Test of Stealth, which was the Werewolf's test. Each Firstborn would hide from the rest and keep themselves hidden for as far as they could.
The eventual result was close, but Darien won with a difference of a few minutes, actually.
When the tournament was over, the Beings created a Ranking with the results, which had Darien being at the top of the list as expected.
The Ranking was used and taught to each of their children to keep them in order, especially since Darien seemed to have been getting the hang of being a leader.
After him, every Vampire created could use only one Element, and only a few could use the Dark Element. The Vampire Charm was something that every Vampire had, but its power varied. These changes were something that the Beings had agreed upon after Darien suggested them so that his people would not become too powerful and scare the rest of the children, or magical races, as they later decided to call them.
Everything was peaceful, as the Beings were living among their children. But everything comes to an end at some point.
The Beings disappeared one day, leaving behind to their Firstborn a single message. To take care of the humans and keep the balance. The message's meaning confused them, but soon they noticed a new race appearing out of nowhere.
Darien and the rest kept their distance while seeing how these 'humans' acted and what powers they had.
But as time passed, they noticed the humans not using any of the Elements, and most seemed to survive barely. If that continued, the humans would die, and they were ordered to take care of them.
All the Firstborns had shown themselves to the humans and help them, but they seemed to be scared after seeing them and ran away. Some among them didn't have a form similar to those of humans, but nobody among them all the Beings ever had a problem like that.
It seemed like humans liked only the ones who looked like them.
Darien was a little pale, and his ears were pit pointy compared to a human's, but he could use his magic to change his appearance. Some of the other Firstborns did the same, and they tried again to speak with the 'humans.'
Soon, they found out that humans were incapable of using any of the Elements, no matter how hard they tried. They didn't even seem to have an Element of their own.
Physically, they were pretty weak, and their mental capabilities varied among them.
They had tried to test them on everything the Firstborns could do, but nothing worked.
The Firstborns gathered and discussed what to do with humans. Since they seemed to be pretty useless, and their order was also to keep the balance, some suggested to get rid of them or let them perish.
But another group wanted to protect them and help them by providing them with resources.
The two groups argued with each other as one wanted to help them, but the other didn't want to become slaves to provide what they needed.
In the end, the majority let Darien determine what to do, as he had earned respect among most of them.
Darien said that they would help the 'humans 'develop. Even if they couldn't use any of the Elements in the way the 8 races could, they were quick learners and were adapting in everything else. Darien decided they should keep their existence a secret as much as possible, so he and the others talked only with specific humans they considered trustworthy.
He decided for 8 Magical Races to form a Council to discuss these kinds of events, but they would vote to make a final decision, and only he would have to decide what they would do in case of a tie.
They put the Firstborns, who were better in stealth, in charge of looking over the humans and what they would need while discussing and deciding what they need to do when the time came and to send messages to the ones they had picked worthy.
And so they kept peace and balance, as the magical races had their existence hidden from the humans. Some humans even joined their ranks as they turned into half-breeds, but only for people who proved worthy, and the reason to be considered was different for each of the Magical Race.
Darien even made his own children, using his blood and flesh, and was almost perfect copies of each other. Both of them were female, and he named Aella the one whose Element was Air, and Pyre the one that had Fire Element. The two girls were the purest of the Vampires ever created other than him, although it was unknown how the Princesses came to be.
Then one day, Darien and the rest of the Firstborns fell into a comatose state.
Darien had left a message behind for his daughters, which asked them to do the same thing that the 8 Beings asked them to do; to take care of the humans. Nobody could tell how the firstborns came to the state they currently were, but some rumors said that they needed to do it to keep The Balance.
The reality, though, was far and darker than that.