Engjell appeared in her room with a flash of light. She immediately pounced onto her king-sized bed, collapsing onto it. The soft mattress welcomed her lovingly in its sweet embrace. She rolled around on the bed childishly, finally feeling relaxed and relieved.
However, her joy was short-lived. No matter how hard she tried to forget Candida's words, they haunted her relentlessly: the Convergence.
The Convergence was at hand, and she had no idea how she was going to escape this year's ceremony. She told herself that next year would sort itself out, but for now, she needed to figure out how to deal with this year's Convergence.
Before discussing the Convergence, it is important to explore the history of Aurora and the origins of the archaic and barbaric culture surrounding the Convergence, although many, if not all, Aureans would strongly disagree with her views on the subject.
This world was once known as the Zolan Empire, a world wracked with turmoil, war, plagues, and even more war, the greed of humanity had poisoned the land, and famine wrought the land without pause, but in the midst of the chaos instead of coming together, humanity turned against each other and their gods. And greedy callous men, saw it as an opportunity.
So began the dark age of inhumanity, crime ran rampant, looting, rape, cannibalism, murder and war broke out in all the land. Throwing the already tumultuous world on the brink of collapse. To the people all hope was lost, they were just lambs up for slaughter, it just depended on who got there faster.
Then they all prayed, pleading with their now-silent gods for a rescuer—someone to stand in the gap and fight for them. But all to no avail; just when they were about to give up hope and wait for death, the goddess Aurora descended. She was the goddess of creation, and in her fury, she uprooted all the evils of the world, bringing all rebellious men to their knees with her thunderous methods.
Aurora ushered in a new era—an era of peace, prosperity, and abundance. From that moment on, the world regained its calm. Love overflowed, and all creatures submitted to her in a mixture of awe and fear, worshiping her with love and adoration.
When it was time for the goddess to ascend back to her realm, she left her children in the land to rule and supervise it. We call them the heirs, for they were destined to inherit the land of Aurora.
The new world was renamed Aurora in honor of the goddess who had rescued them. This new world was even better than before. The Austreans, as they were called, were powerful, beautiful, and magical beings filled with wondrous gifts.
The world of Aurora was transformed; the Austreans brought with them magic, science, technology, and the most mystical of creatures. However, integration with the natives of Zolan—now Aurora—required change. Thus began another dark age.
When the Goddess Aurora descended, she was not alone, three other Powerful beings, gods descended with her, and after the goddess was done and had suppressed all forms of unrest, she left with one of the gods, her mate, and two remained to keep order but one of the two that remained became corrupted in his quest to integrate the Austreans and the natives of Aurora. Performing all sorts of abominable and forbidden experiments, using both mortals, mystical creatures and animals alike to achieve his goals. Unsatisfied, he stretched his claws to the Austreans, the children of goddess Aurora, and created the most horrific of monsters, and various abominable creatures.
When the goddess heard what happened, she descended once more to suppress the god who had grown obsessed and gone mad in his quest. Only to be met with unimaginable resistance, almost losing her essence in the process, it was only after all the forces of the higher realms came together to suppress the mad god were they able to seal all his powers and cast him away, to the ends of the earth, never to be seen again, his name was Theon, the once powerful god of knowledge and science, who was done in by his own obsession.
This was a lesson taught to both the Austreans and Aureans alike, a cautionary tale of what happens when you let your emotion rule you, that no matter how powerful you are if you can't control your emotions, your emotions will control you. And we all know what happened to the last god who let his emotions get the best of him.
Although the god Theon, had wrought unimaginable havoc in his quest to integrate the special gifts of the Austreans into the natives of Aurora, it would seem it was worth it because from then on the Convergence came into existence.
A ceremony or should I say a ritual, in which the natives of Aurora takes in the special blood of the heirs, with a mixture and blend of potions, after which they mate with the Austreans, in a cumulative bid to sublimate their newly received abilities. Transforming them in ways they never imagined. The new and modified beings were now known as the Aureans, everything about them had changed, from their, looks, physique, blood and even their hair had changed, the new awakened beings, possessed unimaginable strength and abilities, mimicking the heirs, their awakeners.
As the saying goes, the good times did not last. Millennia of interbreeding with the natives had affected the Austreans.
Their blood was no longer the color of pure gold, as described in the ancient texts; it had become tainted, almost turning into red gold. Only the blood of the royals, the strongest of them, remained gold, but even this blood lacked the purity it once had. As a result, the royals refrained from participating in the convergence, choosing only to mate among themselves. Consequently, while they held great power, they were pitifully few in number.
In Aurora, blood is everything, and it is ranked as follows:
- Gold: Royalty (Austreans only)
- Red Gold: Dukes and Duchesses (Austreans only)
- Silver: Marquesses and Marchionesses (Austreans only)
- Royal Purple: Earls and Countesses (Austreans only)
- Purple: Viscounts and Viscountesses (average low-class Austrean citizens and some special Aureans, including my father)
- Blue: Barons and Baronesses (high-ranked Aureans only)
- Green: Average Aureans
- Yellow: Low-class Aurean citizens
- Orange: Unawakened Aureans
- Red: Mortals
As you can see from this ranking, the heirs' blood ranges from gold to purple, with purple-blooded Austreans being the lowest ranked among them. My father is one of the very few who awakened purple blood during the convergence, earning the title of Viscount. He oversees the Aurean side of Oritdon on behalf of the Heirs. Although he holds a glorified title, he is, in truth, just a watchdog—albeit a powerful and intelligent one.
While the blood of the Aureans ranges from purple to orange, very few Aureans manage to awaken purple blood. Those with orange blood are not officially considered citizens of Aurea until they awaken. Should they undergo the Austrean ceremonies and rituals and fail to awaken, they are deemed defective and rejected by society. Even the remnants of mortal society refuse to accept such individuals. They are viewed as anomalies, misfits of nature who belong nowhere in Auroran society, and are widely known as the forsaken.