Amongst the ranks

Chapter 1 - Nix

Amongst the ranks

By: Sandra S

Chapter 1

    There used to be a world before my own. A world that was full of hatred, anger, and war. There was never actual peace, only a false sense of security and peace. My great-grandmother lived in this world, and the stories that she told to her daughter have been passed down to me. Among those stories, we've also learned about the stories about how our world was created, but it's only half the truth. The half-truth is this: they say there was a great accident that happened in the other world, and when the accident happened the whole population during that time went into a deep sleep for a week. After that week everyone woke up, but about half of the people woke up different.

At first, it was just appearances, people began waking with different hair colors or eye colors. The people that had remained "normal" looked down on the people that had changed but after a while the "normal" people began accepting them. But, soon after they began to be accepted the different people began to show signs of another difference. They began to exhibit magic. The people that hadn't changed became terrified of this new discovery. Why? Well because no one likes anything they don't know how to explain. Even the people with magic became scared of themselves, all because the "normals" didn't like it. Soon after the discovery of magic, the world around them changed without warning, the sun would stay up for days and the moon only for hours. The weather could be sunny one moment and then hailing the next. There was no explanation as to why this was happening. Out of fear, everyone began to blame the magical. Shortly after the families of the magical people began turning on their own blood, began kicking them out, isolating them, hating them. My great-grandmothers family included.After the magicals had been practically abandoned by their families, they all decided to come together.

The magicals searched for months for a place where they could be accepted. No one wanted them. They were the outcasts, the misfits, the unwanted. During their time in search of a new home, the magicals began to control their powers and allowed their powers to begin to flourish, soon learning there were many others like them. After months of searching, they had given up. That was until one person decided to gather the most powerful magical from each power, later to be known as a rank, and create a new world. A world where these people would be accepted and loved.

Surprisingly it worked, after a few weeks of trying they had succeeded. Even though they were exhausted and sleep-deprived, they led their people into the new world. Once they were in the new world they all arrived at a land mass which they named Vite. During the first few months of everyone being on Vite, regardless of rank, everyone was getting along and it felt like the other world . Everyone got along and everyone was learning from each other how to use their powers. But, like all good things, it didn't last forever. Soon the people began to fight because some thought they were better than others. This caused those same people that created the new world to try and find a system where people would not fight. This is how the 6 ranks were created.

Night casters, Greenies, Feelers, Manipulators, Destroyers, and Sages. The leaders decided to divide everyone like this based on the magic they possessed, and it so happened to be that everyone belonging in one rank, looked alike.

The Night caster had the powers of the moon and the night sky, they all had pale skin, that still showed signs of rosy cheeks and warm undertones, purple hair, some even had random blue streaks in their hair, and all of the average height with blue eyes.

Greenies had the power of nature on their side, they were short in height, had hazel eyes, red hair, and were tan, and some of them had freckles.

The feelers could change people's feelings into something else, they had silver hair, rainbow eyes, and were pale with average height. Many people in the beginning thought they were dangerous the most dangerous, because if they wanted to they could start a war. But, it wasn't soon that they realized that the feelers were also the most level headed people there and that there was no risk.

Manipulators could do what their name suggests, they could manipulate the elements, the land and any harsh weathers, they were tall, tan, and had brown hair. Their eyes were the most bright aqua color anyone had seen.

The destroyers had the power to destroy things, this soon gave them a bad reputation, they were deadly pale, tall, with very light blue eyes, and had Jet black hair. They could destroy things without even thinking about it.

Sages had all of the basic magics, the kind of magic people thought of in the old world, they were short, with purple eyes, and black hair. They also happened to be the smartest of all the ranks. They could learn everything a book said within minutes of opening the book.

For a while this new system of the ranks worked well, the leaders had gotten everything under control. After the rank system was implemented the magicals were able to focus more on their magic and become more and more powerful as the days went on. Although the rank system was in place, people within the ranks began to argue and show off what they could do, the rank leaders did not like it. They called another emergency meeting and it took them weeks to find another solution for within the ranks. This is why we now have sub-ranks. There are 34 sub ranks. It's incredible to think it only took them weeks to think of all of them. They gathered everyone up and told them about the 34 sub ranks, Night casters had 5, Greenies had 6, feelers had 6, Manipulators also had 6, Destroyers had 7, Sages had 5. At first, it took everyone a while to get adjusted to the new concept, but soon everyone got adjusted and everything went much more smoothly. Although everyone was getting along and there was minimum conflict, the rank leaders decided that each rank should have their place to call home and that Vite was too small for all the ranks to live together.

All the members of the ranks went their ways to find a place to call home. The night casters went North and found land and called it Nova. The Greenies went south and called their land Verdant. Feelers went South West and called their land Chrysalism. Manipulators went West and called their land Machiavellian. Destroyers went North East and called their land Catalyst. Sages went North West and called Mageia.

After their move, the ranks all felt more at home since they found lands that met their needs. Although Vite had everything that all the ranks needed, it was too small. They all enjoyed having their land and as time went on the sub ranks began to have their order. The leaders of the ranks would have meetings on Vite from time to time to discuss needs or anything that was brought up by members of the ranks. The leaders decided that they should help the people left in the old world, by giving them their old cycle of the sun. So the Night caster leader and the Greenie leader decided to go to the old world every day and bring the sun up or down and bring the moon up or down. Soon the Night Caster and Greenie leaders were the only people who knew where the portal to the old world was, and they kept it like that

Thats the story of how the world I live in was created. My world changed again when the new generation began to be born. This generation were my grandparents, and this is when our education system was created. From ages 5-13 the children go to school at their home island, where they are taught the basics of their magic and they learn how to keep it under control. Then once the children turn 14 they go to Vite academy. Vite became known as the main island and the members of ranks all came together to build a giant castle on Vite to make it the school for the older children. The children going to Vite spent 6 years at the school, learning to perfect their own magic or expanding it. While at the school they also learn about other ranks and sub ranks.

Well thats the story of my relatively new world. My name is Nix Esmeray, from house Esmeray. I'm part of the Night Casters, and my sub rank is the Dreamers. Im 15 years old and it's my second year of Vite.

There's one more thing I forgot to mention. That is that there is this concept about pures and in-pures. Pures are people whose parents are from the same rank. Sub-ranks don't really matter when it comes to being pure or in-pure. Although people whose parents are also from the same sub-ranks are considered even more pure which is a good thing, I suppose. Then finally there's the in-pures, the ones everyone looks down on. I'm not really sure why but that's just the way our world works. These people have parents from two different ranks. No one ever wants to admit to being an in-pure. These in-pure children, usually take after one parent only, it is rare for this not to happen. But if it does there are other measures taken to ensure they fall in line.