Welcome to Gaia! ::

===Prologue===

A few pages from the textbook of a student. Only words ornament the pages and it’s almost as if one must squint to read the letters.

…and so it was that in the year 2006 A.D., humans located and contacted the first celestial being—what was formerly known as an alien. The beings gladly received the invitation of man and descended, incognito, to our planet in hopes to further kinship and a mutual brotherhood between the two races.

At least, that had been their understanding.

The problem was, these celestial beings were of such limited intellect that they could not comprehend that the rooms given to them were cages; that the diplomats and leaders they so wanted to talk to would never come; that the people who smiled and pointed and laughed outside the gl*** wanted not communion between the two, but entertainment.

One of these celestial beings, an alien named Sgird, called Sputnik by the humans (in a perverted parody of the first object in space), escaped. While he himself was not of particularly high intelligence himself, his thought process was good enough to ensure that one day he would rise to be a leader—a savior to his people and an abomination to the human race.
Sgird was intelligent enough to see that something was amiss and tried to call for reinforcements, only to find that his communicator had been disabled. Nothing that a few quick problems couldn’t fix, however, and by stealing the right tools he was able to make it fully functional once again.
He managed to release a few other aliens and, in an attempt to overthrow their oppression, were brutally murdered. Even the phasers that they had managed to steal back were no match for those procured by the humans, who had dissembled the alien design and modified their own weapons, making them better. We shall cover this more in Chapter 4c.

Having heard the situation and distress call from their companions, the aliens touched down and demanded their release. When the humans declined to do so, they fired. It was with that first shot that the Earthian Wars were begun, of which this was the first battle. More information is available in Chapter 3 of this text.

The aliens were driven easily back, however, and retreated in shame; but unbeknownst to the humans, it was within fifty years of their time (approximately two human years) that a much stronger race of celestial beings reached out and, in turn, embraced this weaker race. Thanks to millions of years of development these beings were far more mentally, physically, and technologically advanced than the humans. They perhaps saw a younger kinship in this oppressed race and offered their brotherhood—in return, their beings would be granted a part of the Earth to reside on when the humans had been eliminated. The treaty was readily accepted by the smaller race.

It is only in contemporary times that we have come to find that the stronger aliens had no such ideas of “brotherhood” and “kinship”; they viewed the weaker race only as a shield for themselves, a way of thinning the human race before they invaded. We will discuss later on several other theories.

Whatever the reason, the humans were completely caught off guard by this new technology in the hands of their old enemy. Humans gathered to fight; but bit by bit, though they barely won a handful of wars, we were driven back into a small wooded area dedicated to the divinities, their numbers going shockingly from seven billion to just a few thousand. The particular colony in question was numbered a few hundred people.
The hideout was found out, however, and the aliens invaded. Certain victory was ensured.

But something curious happened when the last alien had taken a step into that forest; a great light came forth from the trees, the earth. It was a power comforting to the humans, washing over them and making them feel safe.

When the light receded, the aliens were no longer there; all that remained were piles of fine white ash that were carried away forever by the wind. This was the first instance of a goddess making itself known to mortals, although it would be some time before the truth of the matter came to light.

The group of humans had a small while to celebrate their “victory;” however, it soon became apparent, as reality set in, that this war was far from over. The celestial beings, they had concluded, could not have advanced that quickly. The only solution for their rapid advancement was a much more competent race. They were going to be back.
And the humans would have to be ready.

It was around this time that a small group of humans, many of them who had been leaders at one point, rediscovered the Elves. Once cast out during the Middle Ages when magic was thought to be “the Devil’s work,” this group of intellectuals saw the amazing potential in the subtle but powerful magic the Elves used in their everyday life.

After conversing with their new allies, the humans found that the Elves were not the only race; in fact, the small group they had come upon was only part of a greater population that had been sent out to recover five other races that had been sealed away by their respective Goddesses—just as they had been before the Goddess in the forest had been activated.

The year is now 2020. A great school of magic, founded by an Elf named Dante Araquenosse with the help of surrounding humans, was constructed in order to aid the revival of the respective races and awaken the Goddesses in preparation of the impending invasion. Thanks to the research of a young human, a cure for a biological disease carried by the celestial beings has been found, and with the addition of a science section to the school we come to the modern-day ShinKami School of Saviors, whose primary goal….

===Timeline of Earth (2006-2020)===

March 2006:
Blips that have been registering on audio equipment and radars have finally been located on the moon. Training begins for a mission there to locate their source.

November 2006:
Ship has been deployed. Two weeks from now, contact on the moon will be made and the Celestites will be discovered.

January 2007:
Per months of convincing from the government, the first of the Celestites make contact on Earth. Others will follow, the last arriving shortly after Christmas this year.

December 2007—April 2009:
the Celestites are kept in what they believe to be visitor’s rooms. In reality, these are viewing rooms through which human scientists and tourists can watch the aliens with ease.

July 2009:
A forthcoming Prime Minister named Norman Prinwaltz grows distressed at the thought of what the continued abuse of the aliens will yield and begins lobbying for their release. A small group of politicians that stands with him finds itself diminished as some are assassinated, some resign out of public outcry. One of the assassinated is Melinda Larine, Greg’s former wife. Prinwaltz loses the election for Prime Minister and begins to formulate the basis of what will be the International Head Organization for the Preservation of Humanity.

August 2009:
Sgird begins to sense something is wrong and tries to contact reinforcements. His transmitter, however, has been disabled.

Late August 2009:
Sgird steals some basic tools to fix his alien technology and call the aliens still on their home planet. Sgird begins to gather other aliens and escapes, beginning to plot a rebellion.

October 2009:
Sgird and his companions are killed by their own modified weapons, having been adjusted by humans for their own betterment.

November 2009:
Earthian War begins. Professor Prinwaltz speaks out against the continued imprisonment of the aliens and needs constant surveillance to prevent assassination. He begins to gather together his followers and plan for worst case scenario.

Late November 2009:
The aliens are forced to retreat in shame and critics of Prinwaltz come back with a vengeance. Prinwaltz, however, senses this is just the beginning and continues to garner followers and prepare to go into hiding, if necessary.

December 2009-October 2015:
No sign of the aliens. The few that remained captive are either sold off as slaves or killed and used for study. Little known to the humans, the aliens have been making preparations….

Thanksgiving 2015:
The great American Holiday becomes the greatest tragedy in human history as the aliens invaded, slaughtering and murdering now with better weapons and more tactical strategies. Prinwaltz, being well prepared, gathers his followers and takes refuge in the now-named Forest of Mana. Paris Lovinghal, Javelin’s husband, is killed in a car crash three weeks prior to the invasion.

Late November 2015-December 2017:
Most of the human race has been decimated and reduced to a few hundred thousand, either from slaughter or alien disease. Prinwaltz’s little group is discovered in the forest of Mana and pursued. It is when the aliens came that the Goddess Mana awoke, destroying the group of invaders. It is theorized that the Elves, who had sealed themselves away, awoke as well.

January 2018:
Prinwaltz meets Herei Fang, another former political figure and rebel leader of his own. Together, while discussing ideas for repelling the alien forces, they come upon a small Elven village and are welcomed by Dante Araquenosse.

March 2018:
Dante suggests to Prinwaltz that perhaps the powers of the Goddesses and other races could be garnered and imparts the magical knowledge of the association between Goddesses and adolescent boys. He suggests a gathering of them and the three begin to plan out the school. It is around this time that Lorioth Manneth discovers an unusual mutation in the white blood cells of humans present in the Forest of Mana that kills a disease brought by the aliens…

April 2018-April 2020:
The school is built with support from nations around the world. Lorioth Manneth perfects his cure to the alien disease and is invited to come to teach at ShinKami. Greg Larine, Javelin (who by now is an expert in the field of Magical Research), Ardanay Veilwood (a general from Belgium whose tactics won quite a couple wars for humans), and Kyuu Shinji (invited by Professor Araquenosse), gather at the school and prepare.

May 2020:
The first students are inducted into ShinKami.

Current:
We are in the year 2022.