The Rise of the Havidian

[The Historian]

The magical society we know in Aurelis today, and is so ingrained in every inch of the world that we cannot imagine a world without it, was not always a given. In the old days, magical beings were persecuted and either hid their powers, or embraced them and were forced to eke out an ample existence as outlaws. Through painstaking endurance, avid historians have found traces of magic in the old world and pieced together the ancestry, but there is no knowing how reliable it is as much has been eradicated and the majority of ancient documents are palimpsests, since families with preternatural members hurried to cover any mention of magic to protect their family’s name.

Although there had been many attempts at recognition of magic and equality up to that point, it was not until the Havidian came to power in the year 703 that the tides turned and magic became more accepted than feared. Until the seventh century, Aurelis was exclusive human territory where, much like today, family name and honour were crucial to a place of relevance in society. The difference, of course, being that magic was treated like an latent disease, poised to proliferate, uprooting society and causing serious harm. The family name a person inherited upon birth very much fixated the social environment in which an individual would spend the rest of his life. People were conservative and latched on to established tradition, celebrating those that stayed truest to their own culture. The young were taught to reject and fear the unknown, and naturally, being content in the current situation and having the most to lose, the wealthy and influential had the most reason to oppose the rise of magic.
Naturally, their views on the matter prompted the less well-off to follow suit in order to bolster their own position. What better world for future generations of their family than wealth; revered, unchallenged, influential? And since associating with people who possessed magic besmirched the reputation they clamoured for, such people were hastily stamped out and culled before even rumour could spread.

It all changed when the Havid family made the decision not only to refuse to kill their children, but to celebrate and cultivate their gifts. Each of these five children had been born with powerful, unique strengths. In due course, the family was forced to flee to a reclusive sanctuary where the children were in no danger from the shock and anger of the people.

Growing up, Rachut, Vidu, Zelene, Usember and Elthia Havid had only each other's company. Despite their parents' unconditional love, they were lonely and rebellious and eager to go out into the world they had never been a part of. The world where, they inferred, their childhood microcosm existed, but thousandfold the larger; the world that expanded beyond the seven people they had known all their life. Instead of appreciating the protection their parents had forged for them, they felt restricted and cheated and so, when Usember reached his twentieth year in 691, he left his parents and siblings behind. Not for as long as he had imagined, however, since shortly thereafter his siblings followed suit.

It did not take them long to discover why they had been hidden away. They found themselves to be strangers, outcasts, and were in constant considerable danger in the early days – if children with magic were rare, then five adults with cultivated magic were unheard of. If children with powers were feared, they were feared even more. Instead of the reverence they had imagined, they received a less than gracious welcome and it taught them to be cunning and manipulative. Vidu and Zelene in particular resented the hatred against them, and through their actions, the bond between the siblings began to wane.

By 701, the Havidian had attracted substantial attention to themselves, and each sibling earned a widespread reputation. By 703, the bond between them began to crumble and the strife that would rise up between them would tear Aurelis apart, changing it forever.