The continent of Stelle was home to many elven territories that had established themselves into six powerful kingdoms after a prolonged era of conflict and turbulence. Each realm held its own set of beliefs about how they should live their lives and who they should worship, which shaped every facet of their individual existence. And amongst these six domains, two supreme kingdoms -Strexxa and Aephis- represented the discordant energies existing in all elves; darkness and light.
The dark elves of Strexxa upheld the pillars of logic, ambition, strength, and greed. Exorbitant, unregulated emotion was a foreign notion to the elves of Strexxa and deeply frowned upon by its citizens. Knowledge ruled their society with an unrelenting grip, rationality, and reason being its paramount tenets. Strexxa's unrivaled technological innovation and inimitable intellectual prowess made them seem extraterrestrial, their gluttonous zeal for power and an unquenchable thirst for domination making them feared by all of Stelle.
What others called "darkness" and cowered away from, Strexxans called "The Void" and whole-heartedly embraced. They believed that everything came into being from nothingness and that true, unrestricted power came from this innate darkness residing within them. Embracing this void, listening to its beck and call, and honoring it, allowed Strexxans to manipulate their very surroundings. They could create vast illusions that were the fuel of night terrors spread across Stelle, conjure up items out of thin air, and phase -teleport- across short distances simply by willing it in the dead of night.
The most formidable Strexxans were known as "Dark Lieges," who were beings that had mastered more sinister aspects of Sihir -magic-. These Strexxans could become invisible at will and phase across shadows to almost any location, in spite of the distance. And of Dark Lieges, only a select few held enough power within them to unleash the truest extent of darkness; Ebon Aura. It was an insidious ability that was inherently responsible for Strexxa's rise to dominance, and those outside Strexxa hardly understood how it worked. All they knew was that they would pray for death if they had the great misfortune of coming across an Ebon Aura user.
Death was a more benevolent fate than the horrors of Ebon Aura that awaited them.
The antithesis of Strexxa, Aephis was the prosperous elven kingdom of light, where beauty, order, and harmony triumphed above all. These elves valued traits like nobility, wisdom, joy, peace, and kindness and were renowned across Stelle for their benevolent natures. They believed that all came into existence because of light, their chief deity being the sun. Aephis had a rigid gender and employment-based caste system where everyone knew their place and avidly served their royal family, who were thought to be descended from the sun himself.
The citizens of Aephis could utilize the more virtuous aspects of Sihir to manipulate light in varying degrees, allowing for easy glimmering -teleporting- across short distances and the ability to heal almost any physical injury as long as they willed it. As such, Aephis had the most advanced medical system in all of Stelle, combining Sihir and a holistic approach to their healing. The strongest light elves -Solar Sages- could harness and wholly employ the sun's power. This allowed them to use light as a weapon and permitted them to soar through the skies for as long as they wished. Solar Sages made up a measly 7% of Aephis, so encountering one was indeed a rare sight.
The most skilled Solar Sages had the strength to tap into a power long-lost in Stelle: Illuminant Genesis. Said to have been crafted by the first light elf, it was an ability used to form the world and all living things. It enabled one to create anything with pure light energy, and every male elf in Aephis had the desire to attain it. Employing Illuminant Genesis allowed for an elf's will to be imposed on the very fabric of reality itself. As such, if they could not handle this immense power, they were vanquished by it, their bodies charred beyond repair. This led to Illuminant Genesis becoming a treasured knowledge, deeply guarded within Aephis.
Most Solar Sages were indeed pacifists and spent their lives traveling throughout Stelle, blessing and helping the less fortunate through their accelerated healing abilities. They were regarded as one of the highest echelons of being in Aephis, residing directly under King Virion, Aephis' current ruler.
King Virion was regarded as one of the most prominent kings in Aephisian history and ruled his people akin to a shepherd who tended to his flock, ensuring everyone served their proper place in his society. And of all of her father's glorious ideas and brilliant decrees, Princess Celeste feared the decision he had just made was her ruin.
Even though he'd implemented the caste system in their kingdom over 100 years ago, she saw proof that it made the empire more prosperous and harmonious as she aged. And when he'd continued to enforce -and bolster- the strict gender roles in their society that had been put in place by her maternal grandfather, she never wished for a different life, as she didn't know of one other than this.
Like her citizens, she believed that she and her father were descended from the sun, and because they were, it was their divine right to rule over the beings of Aephis. Their king was regarded as the physical embodiment of the sun they worshiped, and by listening to his will, they could carry out the will of his light, producing peace upon and throughout Aephis and Stelle.
And it was because of this that everyone present in the palace turned a blind eye to how their king treated his daughter.
King Virion was a kind, compassionate man; a man who cared for his people more than most kings ever cared for their citizens. He constantly bent over backward for his kingdom, and ensured that everyone present lived a pleasing life, where they wished and wanted for nothing. He volunteered and gave of himself consistently, and did his best to ensure that his citizens knew that he cared and that he was always there for them.
But when he was alone with his daughter Celeste within the confines of the palace, his carefully placed mask fell off.
Celeste's father became a violent, ravaging man with a temper whenever he was near her; a man who threatened anyone who dared criticize his actions towards the princess with death.
And like the dutiful servants that they were, they turned a blind eye to the princess' abuse.
Their king was their sun; who were they to intervene?
And Celeste now believed that her father's current decree to the land was his greatest punishment of all for her.
The 100-year-old elf had just become of legal Aephisian age to marry and anticipated her father had gathered their kingdom for a speech to announce he would marry her off to a nice elven man of their court. In fact, she'd welcomed it, as she'd been raised from birth with the knowledge that once she took over as queen, it would be through her union with the subsequently chosen king that the next generation of love, light, and peace would be born.
So why was her father stating in his address to the citizens of Aephis that she would marry the heir to Strexxa, the kingdom of darkness and depravity?
It took everything within her to remain calm while she gazed out upon her citizens from her position behind her father. As all of Aephis witnessed her serene facade, they too relaxed, trusting in their royal family to unite their kingdoms and spread love and light to Strexxa.
Only… Celeste was anything but calm.
Within her, an unsettling storm was brewing.
The princess felt palpable levels of anxiety and dread as her father spoke about her upcoming union with the Prince of Strexxa and grew faint when he expressed how blessed their union would be. She gripped at the folds of the trail on her dress and fiddled with a hidden thread in a poor effort to calm herself. Her father's voice sounded like a distant echo, and Celeste was barely able to comprehend his words, all of her energy going to present a calm facade to her people.
Her heart pounded bitterly in trepidation, and though the crowd members could not see it, sweaty beads of unease collected across her brow. For the first time in her existence, Celeste felt an emotion unknown to her; boundless terror.