"Before the first train ran, before the seals sang. Tilbara was not a land - it was a wound that refused to close."
They call it The Era of Five Pillars, the century that followed the First scarring. The skies had not yet forgiven the world, and the sea between Tilbara and Kurogane was thick with smoke and ruin. Out of that ruin rose five pillars - not of stone, but of will - mortals who sought to rebuild what myths and betrayal had torn apart.
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Queen Orynne - The Pillar of Balance
Orynne of the Silver Veil ruled as both healer and warden. She carried no crown of metal, but a circlet woven from burnt roots of the old forests - a reminder of what the world had lost.
Under her reign, Tilbara's clans swore unity once more enough the Compact of Ash and Dawn, binding each major stronghold to a guardian family.
But Orynne knew peace could not stand on words above. It needed anchors - the stations, built across the island to stabilize the wounded ley-lines that once of Tilbara's stations.
And so she summoned five builders - each a founder of one of Tilbara's stations.
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The Founders of the Five Stations
Lord Aizuren Hiroki - The Pillar of Flame (Durama)
He forged Durama Station atop the ashes of the first battlefield. His belief: "If peace is to last, it must be forged in grief."
The walls were made of blackstone mixed with the ashes of the fallen - said to hum softly at night, as if the souls themselves stood guard. Aizuren was ancestor to Ken and Kabe Hiroki, his bloodline bound to protect the central heart of Tilbara.
Lady Evrielle Suna - The Pillar of harmony (Evalia)
Evrielle built the capital along the meeting rivers, shaping into a city that breathed unity.
Her methods were strange - she used songs and water crystals rather than stone, claiming sound could seal emotion into walls.
It was she who convinced the warring clans to gather, creating the first Council of Evalia.
Lord Harume Tenrai - The Pillar of Growth (Harama)
Once a scholar, Harume turned his home into the first Shinobi Academy. He believed children of all clans must train together or Tilbara would die again from within.
He carved Harama's walls to be round - without corners, without enemies. The academy was both his dream and his cage.
Lord Shigane Roen - The Pillar of Reflection (Shinganatsu)
A mystic who studied mirrors and lakes. He claimed that the surface of still water could hold the memories of gods.
At Shinganatsu, he built a station whose lakes reflected the future. Travelers say he vanished into one such reflection - and that the lakes still whisper his name on windless nights.
Lord Amakaze Rhyne - The Pillar of Endurance (Amakatsu)
The youngest of the five, he built his fortress into the cliffs of the northern sea. His bloodline swore eternal vigilance against the exiles of Kurogane.
It was said when he laid the final stone of Amakatsu, he looked across the horizon and wept - not for fear, but because he saw the darkness would one day return.
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The Betrayal and the Guardians
Yet unity was never perfect. As the pillars aged, whispers rose of envy and greed.
When Queen Orynne disappeared - some say taken by the Rift itself - her court turned against one another. The ley-lines began to fracture again.
From that fracture emerged two spirits:
Rudhana, guardian of ash and memory, born from Orynne's final heartbeat;
And Nagalira, guardian of echoes and mirrors, born from Lord Roen's vanishing reflection.
They became eternal sentinels of the stations, watching for when mortals would once again forget the Compact's promise.
"Five pillars rose, Five shadows fell. And from their dust, the trails were born."
That is what the archives say. But the true historians whisper a darker truth - that every age of Tilbara ends the same way it began:
With a Hiroki standing in the ruins of Durama, blade in hand,
Wondering if the trail was ever meant to be walked at all.