History of Naiko

This article intends to serve as an overall general history of Naiko. For more detailed information on each section, refer to individual articles.

Ancient Era

The Ancient Era refers to the oldest recorded period of Naiko's history, though most records have since been lost and most of the civilizations lost, destroyed, or built over. The only two civilizations with enough information to piece together a loose idea of their cultures are the the Ancient Civilization (also sometimes referred to as the Drake Civilization) and the Lost Elemental Cities, of which only a few cities are known of the many that may have existed.

The Ancient Civilization (Drake Civilization)

The Ancient Civilization is a civilization believed to have existed during the Ancient Era. The term "Ancient" in its name and the name of its related locations is a translation of a word whose true meaning is not known, and is sometimes translated as "Drake" instead.
The only information about this lost civilization that survived into the Three Kingdoms Era is the Ancient Scrolls, a group of documents uncovered from an unknown location on the Eastern Continent. These scrolls refer to a number of geographic locations and buildings that belonged to this civilization that all seem to hold a powerful magic, and do not line up with any known locations on the Eastern Continent. It is never fully understood if this is because the locations do in fact exist, simply on a different continent, or once existed on the Eastern Continent but no longer exist in the same forms as recognizable from the scrolls.
The scrolls are written in a script that by the Three Kingdoms Era is no longer known by any species on the Eastern Continent, though some scholars believe that one key word used to describe the civilization and locations could be translated as "Drake", and thus potentially hold a connection to the Dragons.
The species that this civilization consisted of remains unknown, though once again some Three Kingdoms Era scholars suggest Dragons, Fairies, or Elves, among others.

The Lost Elemental Cities

The Lost Elemental Cities were a kingdom of city-states on the Eastern Continent during the Ancient Era. Though ruled independently, they cooperated as one large kingdom until they fell one by one. None of the cities survived into the War Era, and there are only written and drawn depictions of a handful.
Three Kingdoms Era scholars believe there could have been as many as dozens of these cities in the peak of their time, but only six are confirmed to have existed (Dirt City, Sky City, Flame City, Fuze City, Plant City, & Love City), plus a seventh generally agreed upon by most scholars (Water City).
Each of the cities was centered around a natural element, and as such it is believed by Three Kindgoms Era scholars that they were inhabited either by Elemental Elves or a precursor to their species, potentially Elemental Spirits that are mythologized to have gifted Elemental Elves with their magic.

War Era

The War Era is named such as this era of Naiko was marked by large-scale war between nearly all major kingdoms in the The Eastern Continent. As older civilizations fell, the remaining kingdoms began to vie for dominance.

Alliances

As war broke out as the many species began to compete for land, two alliances formed: the Fey Alliance on the western side of the continent, led by Fairies and Pixies and joined by some Sprites, Elves , and Memaids, and the Troll Alliance on the eastern side of the continent, led by the Trolls and joined by the Goblins and various other creatures that the Trolls were able to get to join them.
During this period, the Dragons withdrew their presence from the Eastern continent and returned to their homeland on the The Western Continent, citing their distaste for the seemingly needless bloodshed among the other species.
As the Fey Alliance and Troll Alliance were both enormous forces with the strength to fight and the desire to expand their territory, the conflict lasted for multiple generations. By the end of the war, it was common for people on each side to refer to all those in their alliance simply as "Good" and all those in the opposite alliance as "Evil".

Outcome

Eventually due to weakning numbers of the Troll Alliance and technological and magical advancements in the Fey Alliance, the Fey Alliance claimed victory. The Trolls and their allies were pushed back to the mountain range central to the Eastern Continent, dubbed the "Troll Mountains", and the Fairies and some Pixies claimed all the land from the mountains west to the coast. For the most part, the Pixies, Sprites, and Water Sprites returned south to their homelands and the Elves north to theirs, though some chose to remain in the Fairy kingdoms.
At the beginning of this era, the various species on the Eastern continent were distributed across the lands in small settlements, with no central governing bodies. As the war went on, most of the species began to build up towns, cities, roads, and infrastructure connecting each area to itself and eventually building up their lands into kingdoms. By the end of the era, all of the species involved in the war had formal governments, most notably the Fairies and the Pixies who remained in the Fairy lands, whose Three Kingdoms would become the strongest political force in the following era after their eventual victory.

Three Kingdoms Era

After the generations-long battle dubbed "the Great War" ended, the three kingdoms who had been leading the victorious Fey Alliance decided to solidify their alliance to prevent them from one day turning against each other. Thus, the alliance of The Three Kingdoms was created, joining the three separate kingdoms of the Everlands, the Emarisa Lands, and Idol-While together as political allies. This triumverate of political powers went on to greatly shape the political, economic, and cultural climate of the Eastern Continent for the next several centuries.

Inter-Species Relations

With their new-found power, Fairies began to establish themselves as one of the dominant species on the continent. The kingdoms of the Everlands and the Emarisa Lands were ruled and mainly populated by Fairies, and the Pixies who ruled and mainly populated the kingdom of Idol-While soon came to be seen as more similar to Fairies, in contrast to the Pixies that returned south to their homelands in the hills after the war. The two groups of Pixies began to be referred to as "Fey Pixies" and "Hill Pixies" accordingly.
After the war ended, the Three Kingdoms set up and expanded trade and travel routes between the kingdoms of all the species that had joined in the Fey Alliance in hopes of fostering a sense of unity between the kingdoms. Though many of the other species preferred to remain in their own lands, this did lead to some sharing of cultures between the various kingdoms.
The Allied Troll Kingdom as it came to be known, however, was cut off from the entire western side of the continent, forced to live in the mountains or expand eastward. They slowly withdrew from the border with the Three Kingdoms over time to avoid confrontations, as their numbers had decreased greatly during the wartime. This led to Trolls eventually becoming somewhat mythologized to later generations during the Three Kingdoms Era, as they were rarely seen by any Fairies, Pixies, or other species.
By the late Three Kingdoms era, Dragons had not been present on the Eastern Continent for centuries, and were generally considered extinct or even just a legend by many, despite written records of them, including prophecies about their return, existing.

The Prophecy of the Seven Kais

Nine-hundred and eighty-four years after the end of the Great War, an heir was born in each of the Three Kingdoms, as well as in four of the other major kingdoms. These seven girls were part of The Prophecy of the Seven Kais, an ancient prophecy that would send the seven heirs on a quest together to bring peace to Naiko.
At the time the heirs were born, the prophecy was initially considered simply mythology in most cultures, believed to be a relic of past times. The prohpecy claimed the seven Kais would bring peace to a war-torn world, but the political climate had remained peaceful for the last few hundred years since the end of the Great War as the kingdoms of the Troll Alliance had secluded themselves away from the kingdoms of the Fey Alliance, who had let them live in peace.
However, as the heirs began to come of age, the Allied Troll Kingdom began to push back towards their border with the Three Kingdoms, causing tensions to ramp up, even eventually skirmishes between the two sides began to happen. Seeing the need for a peaceful resolution to the tension, the heirs from the Three Kingdoms began their quest to reach out to the four other Kais. The heirs from three of the allied kingdoms were easily convinced to join the effort, but the seventh Kai, heir to the Allied Troll Kingdom, was initially unwilling to work with the other kingdoms due to the political tension between them. As more and more battles began to break out, though, she was eventually convinced to join the quest with the hopes of preventing a second Great War from breaking out.
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The Return of the Dragons Era

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