But, as we're here, in this land that started from the Kingdom of Albion, its banishment from Hulkegunia was clearly not the end. In fact, it was its beginning, having only had its first royal family. But, now, it was free of neighboring kingdoms, and could expand as far as it wanted, led by the great gunsmith, King Malleus Alvarez.

Malleus was the best gunsmith in the Hulkegunian Empire, which, given that magi-technological long-range weaponry was the foundation of that nation, meant he was the best magi-technologist they had, as well, although chronically overworked.

And now, he was as immortal as ever, and "trapped" in a place without anyone but him and his maidens.

Meaning he was free from any obligations and free to revel in his power, without anyone to stop him.

And so, discovered that he still had some limitations, or as he thought of it, a new frontier, in the turbulent sea that surrounded his new kingdom, and gave its name to the times. That sea inspired the name that later historians would call this period. The Chaotic Sea Era.

Malleus didn't think about expansion immediately after being "banished", since Technodyne had, as part of contacting him, given him a wife. She was a blue Terminal named Melissa. And for a while, they lived in marital bliss in their new kingdom and had a daughter, Mia, while Melissa slowly expanded their small kingdom with ice floes crafted from her natural water magic, enhanced with upgrades purchased from Technodyne.

Terminals' children, in addition to the magical abilities discussed previously, also shared the coloration of their mothers, and the according elemental affiliation, unless there was some Terminal lineage in the father, then the colorations and elements can mix. But, the Terminals' ability to connect with Technodyne, was only passed down the female line, although they don't have the wings.

In this case, Mia was as blue as her mother was, and had the signature Terminal magic, which, as usual for Terminals' descendants, unlocked at puberty. But she also had the typical new human durability, and inherited Malleus's personal inventiveness.

What really changed in the household, upon Mia's birth, was Malleus's sense of Melissa's fragility. As a first-generation Terminal, she didn't have the immortality that was engineered into humanity by Mater, so long, long, long ago, and was part of both her husband and her daughter.

As was the usual solution to their problems, they went to Technodyne, who provided multiple solutions, mainly copies of what Malleus himself had used, and they decided on more Daemonblood. Unfortunately for them, it still didn't work as expected.

Which is to say, it sent the fledgling kingdom into immediate ruin, sending the Chaotic Sea Era, into the Great Flood Era.

---

As implied by its name, the Great Flood Era of Albion's history was typified by a Great Flood. It was caused by Daemonblood reacting with Melissa's blue-colored self, turning her into some kind of water demon.

In the end, Mia was the only survivor of the Great Flood, as her parents were banished in a last minute purchase from Technodyne, and she ended the Era living on a iceberg floating on an endless sea.

So marked the beginning of the Iceberg Era.

---

While Mia was only living being in the endless sea following her parents' banishment, she wasn't alone. She had the maids, which weren't technically alive, and it was a very large iceberg.

Lastly, she had a Kingdom Seed of her own, although, it wouldn't work very well without actual soil to plant it in, unlike a Kingdom Gem. But it was what she had.

And she wasn't even the only living being for a whole day. Although she wasn't old enough to be a Terminal, she could still get one. When night fell, and the moon rose, as it did every night on this new world, not like she had known any other...

In any case, with the coming of the moon, Mia invoked one of the oldest rituals known to new humanity. The one given by Pater to summon food. And as expected, it came with a Terminal ride-along.

This one was a fiery red, named Anise. And so, Mia could start selling off her maids for something useful, as the Black Card of her family’s magical wallet was still cooling down, and the fall of the Kingdom meant she couldn’t access the treasury at the bottom of the sea.

While there normally would have been a depreciation in value due to wear and tear, Malleus's upgrades made the maids worth more on resale than on initial purchase.

But, Mia didn’t have to sell off her the longest companions she’d had just to survive, because as luck, or fate, would have it, Technodyne was willing to provide Mia with land, and a husband, at no cost.

Seeing no reason to not take such a generous offer, she took it, and, when the forest arrived, the Whitewood Era had started.

---

The Whitewood Era was defined, like all the Eras of Ai'Ren are, by location, location, location. This location, was a snowy wood, all covered in white.

When Mia took the deal, her iceberg ended up floating on a frozen lake, in the aforementioned wood. And looking right at her, was her future husband, Chisel Maleficar, ruler of the castle that she eventually saw in the distance.

Chisel, was a werewolf, and apparently, one of their magical abilities was to be able to recognize their true love on sight. But, he had to find her first.

So he had a wish, and since the lake on his lands was magical, it provided Technodyne with an opportunity to satisfy his wish.

And satisfy it they did.

But, the tale of Albion's fall started repeating itself, this time with Sylvania, Chisel's forest kingdom.

After Chisel and Mia's son was born, the red-haired, red eyed, Malus Maleficar, Mia was worried about Chisel's impending death.

Thankfully, Mia had saved her Kingdom Seed, since she didn't need to grow her own Kingdom when she had Chisel's. But, that allowed Chisel to use it, to become as immortal as his kingdom.

Unfortunately, Chisel's shapeshifting nature created some adverse effects on his kingdom.

When he shifted, everything in his kingdom did too.

And that shift changed the Whitewood Era, into the Hungry Jungle Era.

----

From the name, I think you can guess that the Hungry Jungle Era wasn't exactly a ray of goodness and light. And you'd be right in that guess.

However, unlike Albion's own fall, Sylvania's was a little bit better, because that kingdom wasn't actually the whole continent. Malleus sending the land to his wife was a favor paid for with help from the forest fairies, so they could all escape plan from some nebulous threat scried on the pond that Mia ended up in.

Also, when Malus was born, he got blessings from all the forest fairies.

All those differences from Albion, meant that when Chisel shifted into a wolf, and Sylvania shifted with him, Malus stayed human, and with the power of taming animals, given by one of his blessings, and a few other blessings for success in love and life, he became the de-facto ruler of a new, alien Sylvania, where plants were like animals, the former king was stuck as a wolf, and the former queen was stuck watering her forest kingdom with her water magic.

The blessings also seemed to have influenced Malus's lady love, which, following in the footsteps of his father, was bought from Technodyne Technologies.

That lady love, was Prime Hulkegunia, the Princess and heir to the Empire of Hulkegunia.

When Malus learned of his new wife's claim to that Empire, he felt compelled to take his family back to their ancestral homeland, and install himself as Emperor.

But, the costs to do that were prohibitive, and, like his father before him, he needed the help of the forest fairies to make such a teleport possible, as Malleus didn't want to give up any of his kingdom, even if he could possibly summon it back after he had taken the throne.

By that time, the forest fairies had not only learned and disapproved of Malus's plans, they had a counter-plan. As both a measure to prevent Malus from taking their wealth, and as a way to fight back against his plan, they spent all of it on Technodyne Technologies, to summon a hero to save them, and the royal family of Sylvania from the strange compulsions that they seemed to have been afflicted with.

And so, they received their savior, Apple Snow, along with a starter set of maids, and the Kingdom Seed that was used to grow Castle Whitewood.

To the fairies' surprise, they had summoned a commoner female version of Malus, born to what was technically the same mother, but whose father was someone called Silas Snow.

On arriving, Apple, due to her werewolf heritage, immediately fell in love with the fairies' head wizard, Magnus.

He would soon become her king, and decided to stay and fight against her half-brother to save her new land, and rescue the version of their mother who had turned into some kind of strange butterfly creature, watering and empowering the plants of Malus's kingdom.

Such was the war between her and Malus, that historians named a new Era after it, the Apple Orchard Era.

---

The Apple Orchard Era, was defined by the war of the same name, the Apple Orchard War. And, when it ended, we moved to our current era, the Soft Snow Era. From the name, and how Castle Whitewood is the capital of our nation, I think you can figure out who won.

---

You have questions? "Why is the world called Ai'Ren? Why are we living on the Patchwork Continent, and how did the world get bigger than Sylvania?"

Well, those are very good questions, and they're all related to the massive upheavals of the war, and how, unlike all the other wars of our long, long, long, history, the Apple Orchard War was fought without much oracular support.

I'll give you a quick summary, then you can come back tomorrow for more story, okay?

Technodyne Technologies had a lot of things for sale, and the wars of the Hulkegunian Empire and its past, had deliberately stuck to the safer ones for its populace, because mutually assured destruction was very, very mutual and immediate, given the predictive power of their many oracles, plus it wasn't used that much, since back in the Glass Age, every kingdom had many rivals, and taking out one, just meant another got stronger while you weren't paying attention.

But, the Whitewoods and Sylvania weren't fighting like that, because while Malus didn't want to lose any of his kingdom, he didn't really care about its *state*, so long as its borders didn't shrink.

Technically, he was empowered by the massive war effort turning his kingdom into a wasteland, as it let him use Technodyne's land restoration to get the materials for the recipes stored inside his maids to craft things like Homing Bullet guns.

In contrast, Apple’s territory surrounded Malus’s, and she wanted to keep it nice, so it was slightly more of a containment operation for her, and having to fend off Malus’s attempts to corrupt her land.

While Malus could’ve used the Black Card to leave at any time, he wanted all the land he could get, and that hunger was his downfall. Never giving up trying to expand, wasted his resources.

All the while, Apple knew he would never be satisfied until he got everything, so she kept expanding her land, summoning in more kingdoms, and using up her resources to take risks like EyeCandy Glasses. Eyeglasses made of sugar glass, that, when eaten, give eye-based effects, like oracular sight, beams of magical force, or other effects, but also had side-effects, usually involving temporary loss of eyesight.

Yes, yes, there’s tons of holes in how that precisely led Apple to victory, but that’s why there’s a whole ‘nother section on the Apple Orchard War.

Have a good day!