I. The Blooming Dawn
In the First Age of Harmony, when the gods still walked among mortals and the lands were young, the eastern continent of Hanatera was blessed with endless spring. Upon its hills grew forests of cherry trees whose petals never ceased to fall, and from their heart was born a spirit — Sakura no Hime, the Maiden of Blossoms.
She was said to be born from the first sigh of the wind and the first bloom of dawn. Her hair shimmered like morning petals, and her eyes glowed with golden light — a reflection of the sun's first warmth.
Where she walked, fields awakened, rivers sang, and the slumbering roots of winter stretched toward her song. The people of Hanatera built shrines in her honor, offering her poetry, sake, and the first blossoms of each year. In return, she blessed them with fertile harvests and gentle seasons.
Her symbol — a single falling petal — became the mark of renewal and grace, carved into temples, armor, and the very gates of cities.
II. The Ashen Spring
But beauty cannot last forever. In the Fourth Age, when greed and fear spread like weeds, the harmony of the land began to wither.
The Lords of Iron, seeking dominion over Hanatera, waged war upon each other. The cherry forests burned to feed their forges. The rivers ran red with battle, and the wind carried only smoke and sorrow.
Sakura no Hime watched as her groves fell, her temples shattered, and her worshippers perished. Still she tried to heal the wounds of men — whispering peace into the wind — but her voice was drowned by the roar of war drums.
At last, when the final blossom fell into the ashes of the last tree, she knelt upon the scorched soil and wept. Her tears, tinged with grief, soaked into the roots of the dead trees and turned them crimson.
With her final breath of divinity, she bound her soul to the land itself, vowing:
"If this beauty must die, let me die with it… and let my sorrow remind them of what they destroyed."
III. The Withering Twilight
Thus was born the Fallen Sakura Spirit, known in legends as Kurozakura, the Dark Bloom.
Her once-luminous form grew pale, her hair fading from pink to blood-red at its ends. Her golden eyes turned violet, heavy with grief. Her silken robes became torn shadows, embroidered with wilted blossoms that shimmered faintly like dying embers.
No longer the herald of spring, she became its mourning ghost. Where she walked, the air grew still and cold, and black petals drifted in her wake. Temples once devoted to her now stood as ruins beneath a blood moon.
Yet even in her sorrow, her power endured. The villagers whispered that she still lingered in the mist — neither vengeful nor merciful, but bound by longing. Those who entered her domain and prayed sincerely among the fallen petals sometimes found their fields blooming overnight… though others vanished, carried away by the wind.
IV. The Cycle Eternal
The scholars of the Spirit Orders teach that Kurozakura's curse is also her blessing — that in her despair, she became the keeper of the cycle itself: death that gives birth to new life.
Every spring, when the cherry trees of Hanatera bloom again, their petals carry both her grief and her hope. The first pink petal that falls upon the wind is said to be her tear — the last remnant of the goddess who would not let beauty fade completely.
And so, in the land where seasons are born from sorrow, the people still whisper prayers beneath the blossoms:
"May the Spirit of Sakura see our hearts, and grant that even in our endings, something beautiful may begin again."