THE GENESIS WAR
The beginning of it all..
Every strand in the tangled web of conflicts of Project Second Shadow finds its source in the Genesis War, five hundred years before Vander and Arian's story begins. The world was torn over the issue of the planet’s central power source, the Eon Seed. When Eon Energy’s resonance caused rampant mutations and crippled the environment, some became intent on banning its use while others fixated on researching it to find a way to reverse the process. Disarray escalated into a worldwide conflict that brought Earth and the human race to the brink of eradication. Then a third party emerged, refusing to ally with either warring group, a party called the New World Order. They were led by Nine Heroes said to have mastered the manipulation of Eon Energy. This group alone laid waste to the groups both for and against the use of the Seed’s power. They extinguished the fires of strife, at least for some time. This was the calm before the inescapable, indomitable, storm. Residual Eon Energy from the war gave rise to a creature called Destiny, a calamity bent on rending the planet bare. No one could claim to know what Destiny was, but one of the Nine Heroes, as they were the only ones ever to stand before it. Combining their Eon endowed abilities, the Heroes managed to strike Destiny down, but could not destroy it completely. Some stories tell that Destiny’s Energy still lingers where it was felled. Even with the battles finally over, Earth had received a death sentence. Under the influence of the Eon Seed’s power, the atmosphere surrounding the Earth itself began to solidify, threatening to entrap all creatures living on the planet within a volatile, solid shell.
Inspired by the valor of the Nine Heroes, the surviving population of the world enacted Operation Ark. It was devised by the sharpest minds left on Earth, to preserve the last of humanity. A massive flying vessel was constructed, built to sustain extreme conditions and transport humans, animals, and plant life free of Eon corruption above the semi-solid atmosphere. The ship collected a sample of the solidifying atmosphere for replication in the future. Following its departure, the ship circled the Earth for many years. The passengers awaited the day when the old sky would fully harden, seal the burden of their mistakes below a new crust, and give birth to an entirely New World.
THE DAWN OF THE NEW WORLD
Five hundred years later
What was once Earth's atmosphere became stone, and sealed the Old World forever in darkness. The ship touched down, and the last legacy of humanity found its new home. They were generations descended from the one that had set out from a dying world so many years ago. Through inheritance of their ancestors, they received the final gift of the heroes that had saved them: eight crystals, each one forged from a different Eon Subtype. The Gem Keys, they were called. With these, the settlers wrote the new laws of nature, and shaped the barren, crust of their New World into something of grandeur.
THE PIONEERS
Even in rebirth, they could not escape man's curse
The same divisions arose amongst them. Each person held a different belief in the use of the Gem Keys, Eon Energy, and how to begin their monumental task. Debate after heated debate, groups with like-minded ideals began to conglomerate, and four major parties emerged. When the groups could not reconcile their vast differences, they each departed to their own corner of the New World, which eventually defined four main Regions.