[Pending Title] Part 1 of ?
I, am the villain.
I'm labeled as a cruel maleficar of the Empire. I supposedly support the enslavement of Terrans and Beast-Kind alike. I supposedly support the brain-washing propaganda, the imprisonment of others into "dutiful" subjects, using "Magick" to manipulate, deform, destroy, purloin, and wrend life on this useless, barren, waste of a planet the Terrans have called Earth.
You know what? They're right. I did commit a majority of those acts. I was good at doing it too. I proudly roamed through the burning carcass of a Terran city and marveled at how my culture, my people's will, conquered the people of Terra so easily.
That was, however, before their "Awakening". We underestimated their will to survive, their annoying tenacity to do the unthinkable, instead of rolling over and submitting. It would be too prideful to say that some victories came without a cost. I'll give Terrans credit where its due, they do know how to fight; even if like barbarians and other uncouth sorts. During the first two years of the "Awakening War", the Terrans suffered defeat after defeat across their globe with only minimal victories that we considered actual defeats. Their mechanical prowess and preference for it in combat far exceeded our own machinations. The Beast-Kind had willingly given up soulless war machines for a power that nature itself provided.
What happened then? How did such ignorant and self-abusive beings match us and fought us to a stalemate in the third year of the war, and so quickly? The "Awakening", as my people, the Beast-Kind, called it, wasn't supposed to happen. The Terrans, seemingly overnight, matched the Beast-Kind in our Elemental harnessing abilities and turned it into our downfall. Then, not only did they have their walking soulless machines of war fighting us, but Terrans who summoned ravaging flames and drowning waves with a furious energy.
So, that's the history of the "Awakening War". For the last half-decade after the war, a strenuous peace has existed. The areas of Terra we conquered in our initial invasion is now our territory. We can't go back home to our world, yet. The Terran's destroyed our interstellar carrier during one of the last battles before the peace treaty was signed.
As an out of work conqueror, I wandered from one city to the next, in both Terran and Beast lands. doing construction work. Having a natural control of flame and water, and odd combination among my kind, I usually work on landscaping before the Earth workers come in behind me...but that's irrelevant. Working for Terrans and my own kind, it was surreal. They Terrans were always leery of my abilities, and too often did I feel the prod of their weapons in my back as they searched me for any "surprises" I might have been hiding; they did pay rather fair though, considering...I'm getting off topic again.
During my travels, I kept hearing the same question in the same debate between Terrans and my people. "Why? How? How did they use the Elemental arts ?" As I travelled between the different lands and people, I continued to hear the question being brought up in bars and pubs, inns and motels where I stayed. Finally, it got to the point to where I needed to do some digging of my own. I visited the ruins of a Terran city. Destroyed in the beginning stages of my people's invasion. It was left untouched by the Terrans. Save for the obelisk monument of black stone and metal in the middle of the city. I didn't care what it represented, though the thought of them mourning their dead did made me consider what I haven't done for the friends I had lost. I thought visiting here would help me in my search. This is where it began, this city. In the rubble I found a sign with the cities name carved into the charred and broken wood, Porto." It's name didn't mean much to me, when it burned I was elated with its destruction. Now that the war was over, the emptiness of the city, or its skeleton, resonated with my thoughts.
It was there, in front of the Terran monument, that I would begin my new life. As a protector and seeker of the truth. I would join former enemies, lost friends, and beings I never would have thought to exist. Together, we were all in a journey to discover what puppeteer was hiding behind the curtains of war, and why the destruction of both Terrans and Beast-Kind would benefit them.
And it all started with the smashing of a piece of rubble into the back of my head...