Chapter Text
Air, Water, Fire, Earth, Light and Darkness. You don’t have a choice as to which element you get, you’re born into one. A mark will appear on the skin to show which element you belong to. Those born into the air element with have a yellow mark, usually spaced slightly with ovals in different sun looking shapes. Earth elemented marks are usually the largest, spaced out like roots and a light green in color. Water elemented marks are a bright sky blue, medium in size and consisting of mostly small circles and thick lines. Those who are fire elemented have dark blood red marks, usually the smallest out of all the elements, and are made up with jagged lines and lightning like shapes. Light element marks are white, shaped to look like flowing air waves. There is only one person with the Darkness element, and his name is Zarkon. He tampered with his fire mark which caused his skin to turn a dark grey and a new, dangerous, power emerged.
Because of how deadly Zarkon’s powers were, the Light tribe cast him out to the edges of the forest in which all the elements lived. Angered, Zarkon teamed up with the Fire tribe, giving them a new name, “Galra”, to start the rebellion before they revolted against the Light tribe. They succeeded in killing almost all the Light wizards, except for 3: The King, Queen, and their little boy Coran. Earth, Water, and Air watched the destruction in horror before deciding to join forces with the royals. With all four elements teamed up - or what was left of the Light tribe - they successfully defeated and exiled Zarkon and the Galra.
After the war, the Royal family was then sworn protection from the three tribes, since Light tended to live longer than all the other elements. The King immediately built a school - naming it after himself - to celebrate the joined tribes, and so they could all live in harmony in case the Galra decided to strike again. He hand carved the door all by himself into a blue wood found only on the bottom of the ocean. It took a whole day to raise the massive door into it’s place in the biggest and oldest oak tree right on the edge of the highest cliff. It’s roots so big they reach out of the ground, spreading on for what seemed like miles and down the sides of the massive cliff. The king thought to use those roots as bridges to reach the door. When entering past the main door, the roots inside spiral down in intricate weaves and loops leading to the lobby of the academy. Earth wizards moved some of the roots to the sides, creating a fairly large opening into a lobby of sorts.
The lobby was very open despite being underground, with polished stone floors and a high ceiling. In the middle of the lobby stood a medium-sized cherry tree, its flowers always in bloom and it’s trunk almost a dark navy blue. The ceiling just above the tree was removed to let the sunlight surround the tree, almost like a light case. Wind always blew through its’ flowers, every now and then sending a petal or two flying around the room. Water gushed openly from certain holes along the trunk of the tree. It was the perfect centerpiece to signify the unity of all four elements. Behind the tree sat five different archways, four of them representing the elements, and one specifically meant as a training/medical arch. Behind these arches and up a tunnel of steps, lie different ecosystems for the elements so all the wizards could live in the comfort of their elements to replenish themselves at the end of the day. Though all the elements had different arches, their ecosystems were joined together so it could be easy for a wizard to visit the other elements homes.
Earth wizards named their home Terra. Their ecosystem took up the largest part of the academy, it being a really dense forest made up of low trees and small streams. Earth wizards built their homes in the branches, creating almost a city in the canopies. Unda, or what the Water wizards call their ecosystem, was filled with rapids and pools of all different shapes and depths. The small pools were separated by large dark boulders in which the Water wizards made their homes out of. The Air ecosystem was named Aerius, it being the hardest for the other elements to visit seeing as they lived on floating islands above the Terra and Unda. To help the other wizards, rope bridges were created between the different islands as well as advanced pulley systems to carry a small group of wizards up. These islands were mostly covered in open valleys, small streams, and with several groups of trees. The Air wizards made their houses from logs gathered from outside of the academy. The training and medical ecosystem was called Lorem, consisting of numerous clusters of trees. Each cluster represented either a rank or medical needs. These trees were tall, with staircases wrapping around the trunk leading all the way up to the canopy. Their railings were decorated with coordinated colored stones to represent either rank or medical. The Light ecosystem stood in line with Aerius, with a long white bridge through the middle of Terra to lead to a huge white castle. This castle had different towers, decorated with light blue energy stones. Everyone called the castle Altea.
These ecosystems, connected and intertwined in some way, helped the wizards get to know and work with the other elements. The king wanted this, so that not only can the wizards strengthen their own powers, but get even more strength from working with the other elements they’re not accustomed too. The king wanted to protect the academy, but he couldn’t do it by himself. He wanted some wizards to be elected as guards and soldiers for a possible upcoming battle against the Galra. However, you weren’t allowed to fight the battle until you reached a certain rank.
There are 7 ranks all together, named after their old magic language, each having their own individual color. To tell which rank you were, you got a stone of the color matching the rank for identification. Each three person group leveled up together, so these groups didn’t split up the dynamic they had gotten used too. It didn’t matter what you did with the stone once received, just if you had it on your person at all times. The first rank is a black colored stone, named Burthr meaning birth. The second rank is Fëon, also known as flower represented by a light purple colored stone. Skölir, or shield, is the third rank with a green colored stone. Sverd, or sword, is represented by a yellow colored stone for the fourth rank. The fifth rank named Varda as in guard, is depicted by a red colored stone. This is the rank in which you can begin training to be a palace guard. The sixth rank, or Skulbaba as in dragon, is a blue colored stone. In this rank, those who have been training to become guards can then branch out and train to be soldiers. The final rank is a clear colored stone, named Paladin for leader.
A few years after the school was completely finished, the Queen happily announced she was pregnant. The tribes rejoiced with the news, throwing a huge celebration that lasted for at least a week. Although a month before the birth of the baby, a Galra wizard snuck into the castle and managed to poison the Queen in hopes of killing her and the baby. However, the Queen was very strong and managed to hold out long enough to give birth to a beautiful baby girl, in which she named Allura. The Queen died a few minutes later, after naming her daughter. The King was quick to fall into a pit of despair, and passed a few years later. Coran, at the young age of 16, was crowned King. Hundreds of years passed by until Allura was old enough - in Coran’s eyes - to start strategizing their armies. The Galra was beginning to make a move once more and there was only one person who could stop them.