Saint Joseph, Missouri: August 1991
Cries of a newborn echoed through the room as exclamations of joy and well wishes spread around the room. The father of the newborn raised his son high with pride. "Everyone, I wish you to meet the latest generation of the Mitchell familia, Xavier."
More wishes for health and good luck came thick and fast. The Mitchell familia was the local overlord family in Saint Joseph. The last forty years they had dominated the local business and magic resource points. The family was also the only family in the area that ran their own orphanage.
All these things were just a few aspects of what made the Mitchell familia the one family you didn't want to offend. Hundreds of the city's residents applied to become outer members of the familia every day. Most were hoping that the family would see potential in them and devote some of their resources to nurturing them as mages.
This world was ruled by the mages in it. With the presence of demon creatures that had flooded into this world magic had become the only way that humans had to survive. It was September 3rd, 1904 when spatial rifts to other planes of existence had opened and hordes of creatures later termed "demon creatures" flooded into this world.
Conventional weapons were not as effective as people could hope. Especially against the monarch level creatures. Nuclear weapons had been one of the great hopes of humanity until they discovered it generally took more than one to kill a monarch level beast. So the world turned back to this thing called magic in the vain hope that there was something to these legends that would allow mankind to survive the onslaught.
There was something to the legends after all as it turns out. If there had been any one trait that made humans such a dominating species it was their ability to learn. They took the old tales of magic and developed a system for fighting against the demon creatures. Several different types of magic came about.
Elemental magic such as fire or water magic was the most common. There was also dimensional type, status type, abjuration type, and primal types. Primal magic was the oddest as it was rooted in controlling natural laws of the universe. Things like gravity and energy.
The Mitchell familia had been an ordinary family until 1907 when Connor Mitchell had been in the first wave of people who had succeeded in awaking magic. He was considered one of the pioneers of magic. The awakening of magic had changed the mindset of the world. Those who were gifted in magic were near nobility given special privileges in return for safeguarding an area against the demon creatures. Some particularly talented individuals like Connor Mitchell had started an entire familia of mages meant to combat demon creatures and push the boundaries of magic.
This was how the Mitchell familia came to be. Over the years they had done fairly well for themselves and were considered an overlord familia. That was a familia that was given governorship over a city to administer laws and guard against the demon creatures. The Mitchell familia had only developed well enough to administer a small city like Saint Joseph, Missouri. There were a few 'divine' familia given jurisdiction over large cities like Saint Louis. The truly large cities like Los Angeles and New York often had several divine familia competing over their jurisdiction.
Today the head of the Mitchell familia had welcomed his first-born son into the world. A festival was held in the city at the Mitchell familia's behest. They called in street performers, bands, and food vendors from all over the area so the every day people of the city could celebrate with them.
Now that he had named his son the Mitchell familia head took his son into the inner sanctum where a mural wall of the family history was displayed. Here an old man was waiting by a crystal pedestal. The baby was placed on the pedestal.
"Now I'll need to draw a drop of blood to see which element your son will favor." The old man was one of the best determiners in the country. He had determined the favorability of three generations of the Mitchell familia. The Mitchells were famous for their summoning magics. Connor Mitchell had been the first summoner mage in the world.
Summoning magic at the primary level allowed you to summon a beast from the astral plane to fight for you. Connor Mitchell had first summoned a first-tier demon wolf to fight for him. Every time he wanted the wolf to fight for him he had to construct the summoning gate. Over the years he had developed the summoning element to the level where he could summon entire hordes of up to two hundred such creatures. He also developed the contract summoning. The contract summon stayed in a small pocket of space separate from the astral plane and was always on standby for the summoner.
Connor Mitchell had risen to become a peak advanced mage before his death. Even though there were several levels above this it was only in later generations that people had begun to reach such heights. Even today Connor Mitchell was recorded in the annuals of history as the "Father of Summoning Magic." Nearly every person in the familia after him had also awoken the summoning magics.
For this reason the summoning element was considered to be of the utmost importance to the Mitchell familia so much that they tested for a person's affinity as soon as they were born. Though it wasn't always one hundred percent accurate more than ninety-nine percent of the determinations were correct. The old man took a lancet and gently pricked the finger of the infant. Ignoring the child's cries the old man inserted the drop of blood into the receptacle at the base of the pedestal.
Light of varying colors began to move up from the base of pedestal to the top where the baby lay. Different colors would represent different elements of magic. Generally a person had a personality or affinity to one kind magic when they were born and if they awakened to become mages that was the element they would get. It was only when breaking into the higher levels that mages would awaken other forms of magic.
The summoning element would generally emit a prismatic array of colors due to the summoners ability to randomly summon a creature of any element. The colors moving through the pedestal moved faster and faster until finally the entire thing let out a silver with a blue tinge to it. The familia head sighed in disappointment that his son wasn't predisposed to summoning magic. He turned to the examiner to see the man in a state of shock.
"Mr. Montgomery, are you alright? What is it?" The Mitchell familia head asked nervously. It would be terrible if his son not only failed to awaked the summoning element but also got one of the less desirable elements like the water element.
Old man Montgomery shook his head and looked at the familia head. "I must say you must be one of the luckiest and unluckiest people in the world. The element your son is predisposed to is the extremely rare spacial element. Only one in a million mages will awaken the spacial element as their primary element."
One out of every three people in the world became a mage. That meant there was a billion mages in the world which in turn meant there was only a thousand mages who's primary element was the spacial element. The familia head was stunned. It seemed his son had very rare affinity.
The familia head shook his head, "What did you mean by the unluckiest person? Isn't it good that my son has an affinity for such a rare element?"
Old man Montgomery nodded, "It surely is but it is also a great burden. Spacial mages have a massive potential but they are equally hard to train and procure resources for. The only places I've heard of there being resources for it are near the spacial cracks."
The familia head winced. The spacial cracks were some of the most dangerous places on Earth. Not just for the fact that that was where the demon creatures had emerged but also because the environment. The natural laws near the cracks were all very odd as the laws of the worlds on the other side of the crack would seep into this one. Varying degrees of gravity, temperature fluctuations, weather phenomena. These were just some of conditions one might encounter near the spacial cracks not to mention that the few demon creatures you did run into were fearsome existences strong enough to survive such a place.
The Mitchell familia head grinned ruefully. "You may be right sir but it's a burden I'll willingly bear."
Old man Montgomery nodded his head. "Good luck to you Mitchell and congratulations." The old man turned and left leaving the familia head with a headache on how to organize an expedition to a spacial crack to acquire resources for his son.