Chapter Text
Once upon a time, as all good stories begin, there was a peaceful and rich kingdom that was settled on beautiful green meadows and lush wooded forests, between towering misty mountains and a clear sea. Rivers traced through it's lands, bringing water to fertile farmlands and making the realm prosperous by creating a bustling trade route.
The dynasty in power had been ruling the kingdom peacefully for generations. No one alive had ever known war, or hunger, or suffering. Medicines from far countries created health for every person. Everyone believed that peace and prosperity went hand in hand. The latest king and queen promoted harmony for their people, and ruled with grace and mercy.
That isn’t to say that the kingdom was unprepared for any problem that should arise. The king and queen boasted a large navy and an even larger army. Each soldier was a skilled warrior trained in martial arts and swordcraft. Allied kingdoms often called upon these forces for aid, and the Xianle had not seen a defeat for hundreds of years.
As skilled as this army was, no one was as skilled as the king and queen’s own son, the crown prince, Xie Lian. He was able to study under the best masters that had come from far and wide since a young child, and no kingdom could boast anyone to compare to his ability, or his beauty. He was the prize of Xianle, admired for hundreds of miles, and he was made the subject of fairy tales and tales of valor alike.
But even he wasn’t so skilled as to protect his kingdom from what was to come, as peace in the mortal world never lasted forever.
The armies of Wuyong descended upon the land once when Xie Lian was still a child, and they were swiftly defeated. There were some losses due to the battle, but nothing that could not be recovered.
No sooner had the kingdom finished rebuilding and repairing after the attack, Wuyong had attacked again. The enemy fighters came and destroyed and left, like a tsunami that left the land coated with dead bodies and blood. And Wuyong continued like this; attacking just when Xianle was catching its breath, from somewhere new, without anyone knowing that they were coming. Scouts and emissaries were killed before they could report the attacks. Jun Wu destroyed Xianle’s weaker allies to prevent them from coming to Xianle’s aid. There was talk of spies and treason within the courts of Xianle, for how could an enemy be so powerful, and know so much to defeat the most skilled army and navy in the land, without knowing secrets beforehand?
But Wuyong's ruler, Jun Wu, counted on this. He created chaos from the outside, and discord from within. He was the product of generations of skilled warlords and rulers, and had learned not only warcraft at a young age, but also how to destroy and conquer without a care for those hurt or killed along the way. He wasn't a tyrant so much as he was an unstoppable force, and he ruled a populace that was raised as he was. Peace was not valued. Everything worth having was worth taking.
Jun Wu whittled away the strength of the peaceful kingdom bit by bit, until no country wished to trade with the kingdom, lest their merchants be killed and pirated. With no medicine or foreign trade, the prosperity and health of the kingdom began to dwindle. With crops being destroyed, hunger began to spread, and farmers abandoned their fields.
The king and queen did their best to protect their kingdom, but their fight was with an enemy that came and went, striking before fleeing, and always faster and stronger than their own forces.
Jun Wu did not believe in reprieve.
He wanted Xianle, and he was patient. He would get what he wanted, and it only took time. His strategy was to weaken the enemy bit by bit, until there was no fight left in them.
Xie Lian saw the last battle between Xianle and Jun Wu right before his seventeenth birthday.
It was the battle that Jun Wu commanded personally.
And it was the battle that destroyed Xianle for good.
Xie Lian’s last memory of Xianle as it had been was from the cutouts of a fleeing carriage containing himself and his parents. The lands burned in flames so fierce that they pierced the sky in swirling vortexes. The moon and stars were blacked out from smoke. Screams echoed from near to far and back again as Xianle's citizens were cut down.
The palace was crumbling into ruins. Its once grand halls and beautiful courtyards were now being consumed by flames. Xie Lian watched as the roof began to slide into the inferno, and upon a hill created from the ruins stacked upon each other came to stand a tall man who Xie Lian would soon come to call his benefactor and guardian.
Jun Wu stared at him as they fled, his sword to his side, with his blue-black hair whipping out from under his helm into the wind.
The new terrible king of Xianle.
