Chapter 19: The First Human Empire
Sitting in his seat, Luca, last night, read the academy rules book. He didn't want to, but Damien insisted that he read it, telling him that to be able to bend the rules to your favor you have to first know what those rules are. So reluctantly that night he spent reading it. One of the rules was that if a teacher didn't show up after 15 minutes then the students could skip that class. Five minutes passed, yet the teacher wasn't there.
Looking around, Luca saw Reed talking to the people around him and introducing himself. The students responded one by one and showed etiquette done by nobles, Sergio taught him how to do it and what it was. You straighten your back and speak your full name, emphasizing what noble family you were from. Then you would shake each other's forearms and maintain respectful eye contact, it was tradition, but Luca disliked it.
Reed was part of a merchant family and told them that if they needed some exotic items, he could get them for a good price. Most of the students are nobles from different countries on the Santuari continent. The students smiled back when introducing themselves to Reed, influenced by Reeds' charm.
"It looks like this kid, Reed, is trying to make an impression on them and establish a possible connection for the future. He was taught well from what I see, can't you smell the ambition that was coming from him. Do your best to form a good connection with him, it might prove to be useful." Damien said.
There was the sound of someone spitting and then a slap was heard. Luca turned to his left. He saw a fight between two kids, fighting with bare fists. Both are only in the first stage of cultivation. He heard people nearby whispering.
"Did you hear those two are from rival kingdoms."
"I heard one of them insulted the others mom."
Hearing the whispers Luca got the general picture, he didn't expect all the kids to get along. He happened to spot Kamar looking down at another student bragging about his wealth.
"That's but mere pocket change in my eyes!" said Kamar with a look of contempt at the kid.
Luca sensed something that immediately got his attention, and he felt an oppressive aura coming their way, towards the open door to the classroom. A black leather boot stepped in, followed by red and black pants. Finally, the person was visible with a scar running past the side of his lower jaw. He was wearing a double-breasted black coat.
The man's silver eyes inspected the students, some of which were still oblivious to his entrance. He walked to the front of the classroom with silent footsteps and made it to the middle of the class. Luca had never seen a man with silver hair until he met this person. The person styled his short silver hair into a Pompadour which matched his square face. He got to the middle and looked back at the class. He let out a weak killing intent that caused many of the students to scream, but everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at this man.
"I'm your history teacher, Ingar." Ingar looked around the class at every student
Luca felt like he was being stabbed by Ingar's intense eyes.
"Many of you have come to Cypress Academy from different countries, many of you are nobles but when you're in my classroom, that means nothing. If you have something to say then get out of my class. If you want to fight, take it somewhere else. Now let's start your first lesson." Said Ignar with a deadpan expression
Of course, one of the kids in class spoke up even though he was sacred.
"You can't –"
"Out." Ignar interrupted him and snapped his finger, causing the kid to be teleported out of his classroom.
For the first time, Ignar lifted his eyebrow and looked around the class to see if anybody wanted to be next. Luca expected Kamar to be next, but to his surprise Kamar was quiet and even stood up straight, looking at the man with the utmost respect!
"Do any of you know how to become a Knightsmith?" Ignar asked the class.
The class was quiet, and nobody spoke, they looked at Ignar but where they were afraid to speak.
"You can speak in my class when I ask a question." Ignar said.
"Um …. if you have a cultivation manual for Knightsmiths, you can become a Knightsmith." A shy girl said avoiding eye contact with Ignar.
Ignar sighed as he looked around and saw that nobody was answering.
"I expected as much, this was a trick question, you can't become a Knightsmith. You're born a Knightsmith. The Knightsmiths where the first to conquer the Santuari continent and every royal family on the Santuari continent are descendants of the first Knightsmiths. This means that every Knightsmith is related to royalty."
A lot of the kids in class sucked in a deep breath, Luca's mind was blown. That meant that his bodyguards, Griffin and Eve, are related to Sergio! He was surprised that the nobles didn't know about this.
"I can see that many of you are surprised, that's normal since the royal families of every country don't speak of this, it's an unwritten rule not to talk about it. The reason I'm telling you this is because we're going to be learning about the conquest of the Santuari continent and the founding of the 12 kingdoms, which is all linked to the Knightsmiths." Said Ignar
Luca admits that when he first got to this class, he didn't expect much, but now he knew that he was wrong and should pay attention. Since their cultivators, the students didn't need notes, papers, or pencils. Their brains stored everything, and they processed information faster. This meant that they could go through their memory and process what they were taught in class at a later time.
Leaning forward with his eyes as wide as possible, Lucia paid attention to the lecture.
"Every young noble is taught that the Santuari continent was the first place where humanity settled down and created the first kingdoms. But this is wrong, about 1,300 years ago, humanity had established an empire. But this empire wasn't on the Santuari continent; it was originally located where the Holy Alas Empire is. In the past angels, devils and demons were rare. Humanity learned about cultivation and slowly many small tribes grew into small city-states. Eventually, they were united under the rule of Shona the Great, the first and last human emperor. Building a strong empire where millions of cultivators lived and flourished. This empire was known as the Shona Empire, which only lasted for 300 years." Ignar spoke with a hint of melancholy.
"In the past humanity had a stronger understanding of the primordial energy around them, allowing them to create stronger and more powerful spells. Their spells could manipulate the laws of the universe in ways that we still can't do today, you could say that ancient spells where stronger than ones we use today. They created a language to influence the primordial energy around them. We now call this ancient language Shorus. It could bend the rules far more than Salvon could, but to do that it needs a sacrifice of sorts. To gain something you had to give something in return, also known as an equivalent exchange." Said Ignar.
If such a powerful empire existed than how did they fall, was what was going through Luca mind, itching to know the answer.
"The reason for the fall of the Shona Empire was a sad one. In the past angels, devils and demons were pureblood. Their origins are still unknown, but they only ruled over a few cities. Humanity never really interacted with them much. But their strength was way above humanities. A single angel could take on 50 human cultivators at the same level. But due to their low numbers, there was a balance between humanity and the other races. Bloodline holders never existed back then, but one day a foolish girl fell in love with an angel and was able to give birth to the first bloodline holder. This hybrid was stronger than any human but weaker than a pureblood angel. The first hybrid is only known by the name of the Betrayer, it was said that he felt lonely and wanted to find others like him but he was the only one of his kind. He eventually found a way to use the blood essence of pure blood angels and give it to multiple humans by using a ritual." Ignar paused, which caused a lot of the students to silently complain.
"The Betrayer showed his plan to a few powerful nobles who agreed to his plans. They did the unthinkable and kidnapped angels. They took as much blood essence as possible and killed them. The ritual at first was unsuccessful, but after improving it a few more times it succeeded. The Emperor was unaware of this and was kept in the dark. The Betrayers' success led to some nobles to experiment with other races, and this proved successful. But the nobles didn't know about the side effects, where your personality slowly changes after you became a bloodline holder. This lead to the nobles slowly developing a contempt towards the Emperor and Humanity. The nobles secretly built an army of bloodline holders. While the angels, demons, and devils became aware that their kind was being stolen by humans. Which lead to an alliance between the three, the first and only alliance between the three. They attacked the Empire in full force. This war caused the Emperor to focus his attention on the war." Said Ignar
"The Emperor eventually learned about bloodline holders and ordered the nobles who went against his back to be put on trial but didn't expect a rebellion to occur when he issued these orders. With the Empire having to face external and internal conflicts it slowly crumbled. Only a few months had passed and half of the empire had fallen, but also a conflict started between the purebloods and the bloodline holders. Which gave the Empire some breathing room." Said Ignar
"In these desperate times, the Emperor was able to find some of the Betrayers research notes and learn of the ritual that he used to create bloodline holders. Since humanity was too weak to fight the enemies at its door. The Emperor started Project Hope, putting all of the Empire's remaining resources to find a way to increase humanities chances of survival, he first experimented with spirit beast and created the first mid-bloods but he wasn't satisfied. He didn't like the side effects that, that caused the person to be influenced by the bloodline. So, he took even more drastic measures. He thought that if humanity couldn't beat bloodline holders in either physical or magic power, then they would specialize. But to do this he had to use a curse, to take away magic power in exchange for increased physical strength. This is where the first Knighsmith was created. A Knightsmith would be cursed to never be able to wield magic, in exchange, their physical abilities where boasted above a high-bloods physical ability. But the Emperor didn't realize that the curse was hereditary, meaning that this curse would forever run in the veins of their offspring. But this was the best that they could do." Ignar sighed
"He also created another type of cultivator, a wizard, and they were cursed to have a weak and fragile body in exchange for better magic skills than high-bloods. The Wizards are currently on the other side of the world, living on Islands. Wizards are rare here in the Santuari continent, but there is one wizard currently teaching at Cypress Academy. Now back to the lesson, even with all of the Emperors effort it was too late, the Empire fell, most of the Shorus language was lost and humanity fell into a dark age that you know as the Age of Calamity. It was later discovered that these events were partially part of the Betrayers plans, but he didn't expect that the nobles would dare to create demons and devil bloodline holders. These events also lead to the disappearance of pure-blooded angels, devils, and demons. We aren't sure if they went extinct but there haven't been any signs of them in over 1000 years. But thanks to the Knighsmiths and wizards, a part of humanity was able to escape this horror." said Ignar
"The Knightsmiths and mid-bloods wanted to go into the Vad forest but most of the wizards and some Knightsmiths disagreed and wanted to head to the sea. So they went their separate ways. The Knightsmiths went into the Vad forest and discovered the Santuari continent." Ignar was interrupted by the Academy bell that signified the end of class.
Ignar dismissed the class and walked off. This history lesson was like a bomb, and all this information exploded into Lucas's head. At this moment Luca learned that this world was more mysterious than he could imagine and more complex than he wanted it to be. Obviously, there was way more to this story, but a lot was likely lost over time. This also made him excited. He loved to learn new things and went to his next class with excitement.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Slade_Anubis
Slade_Anubis I hope that you guys like the bit of lore that I introduced.
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