Kazehana
Vivacious Flora
Hello friends! I thought I might throw this out there because I want to do something a little more intricate with the plot of a story and I have free time to devote to it. It might be a little rough around the edges but please let me know what you think! Be warned, it's a tad long : )
The known history of magic
After being imprisoned for a thousand years, the temporal ritual on a collection of magical humans has expired, thrusting them forward through an anomaly known as the Passage of Time. A collection of all ages, these people were thrust into the modern age without any indication of what they've missed. The time-locked region occupies a large portion of a well-known park in a large city. The ancient flora and peculiar animals immediately caught the attention of mass media, spreading the story and mystery across the globe within days. The ancients humans scattered either out of fear, confusion, or instinct.The known history of magic
In the weeks to come, sightings of magic took public interest by storm, quickly alerting the mages that their practice was no longer heard of in their current time. Their memories clouded by the passage of time, the ancients could not be certain of their status or safety, causing some to lash out at anyone who tried to get near. The government quickly took over considering their volatile nature, actively searching for and reprimanding any and all ancients by any means necessary.
With no time to waste, any and all information that could be gathered was performed using the top research facilities. Books were consulted, ancients were observed, and technology was innovated. Within a month, a majority of the classified information was leaked regarding the progress they had made. It was now public knowledge of their origins and nature, though information could not be confirmed to be entirely accurate. Using this knowledge, the government has begun to develop tools they might be able to use to combat the magic of the ancients.
Without the proper control, they could not be sure they could prevent a civil war or worse, a mutiny over their positions as head of state. This sort of uncertainty and lack of control would not fly under this government's jurisdiction.
The only confirmed facts about the ancients was their ability to form pacts with non-magical people. If a pact was formed, the two involved would be spiritually tethered by red strings of fate. This allowed the mage to increase their power and the non-mage human to have protection. However, if this pact was made, the mage was bound to the lifeforce of the human, making this a last resort for the majority of the ancients.
However, a few opted to take this last resort as a means to protect themselves from the onslaught of threats posed to them in the modern world. The humans who were able to land pacts with the ancients quickly became the most powerful and influential aristocrats on the continent. The government retaliated by offering a reward to anyone who could successfully eliminate all ancients not tethered to a single person: their freedom from governmental persecution and to live their lives without constant pressure and fear. If this was not completed within the next quarter year, the government would have to take the matters into their own hands, though they did not specify how. While the rationale of the offer was in question given the particular details they included, it was effective in creating panic nonetheless.
Shortly after this announcement, those who had already created a pact became frantic considering their lives were now at stake. Those ancients who had achieved full power through the pact now became a threat to their peers, as they would be able to easily eliminate any ancient without a pact or just as detrimental, force their hand. However, the war among tethered ancients was much more volatile and destructive, often leaving chaos in their wake.
As more and more ancients were subject to forced pacts, the rules became more clear. Each ancient could only be bound to one human, but any given human could form pacts with an unknown limit. Each ancient is limited to a specific field of magic that makes them unique among their peers. There are 50 known ancients to exist, with the 3 most influential and powerful, known as elders, to be uncaptured and largely unknown.
While some were able to escape with their lives, 4 ancients have been reported to be eliminated, and 23 are currently under pact with a human since the government announcement a month ago. The elders are all currently untethered and alive, leaving 20 other ancients to be untethered alongside them. The highest known number of ancients tethered to a single human is 3.
