"Our story begins way back in the ancient days, when magic was still mysterious, the people of the world spoke but one language, and the eight great tribes of Earth were isolated from each other; in these days, the people knew nothing of space ships, moving cities, war machines, or even wars. All the knew was that Earth was made of eight different lands, each with their own peoples, customs and technology, all connected in the middle of the world by a single magnificent city-- known only as Central.

All of the tribes were insular at the time; they lived separately and never saw reason to communicate or trade with each other. People would scarcely ever leave their own villages, but to leave their own tribe was unheard of in all the lands. The only communication with the outside world was when the people of Central travelled about, and occasionally, would survey the lands for their own reasons, which they kept to themselves. Even then, the people of Central seemed eerily quiet and distant; even though they didn't know it, all the tribes agreed that there was something creepy about the surveyors from Central, and their incredibly distant, clinical nature.

There was but one further exception to that: every hundred years in Central, was hosted the Great Warrior's Festival. Each tribe would choose their greatest fighter, and after bestowing on him a suit of magic armour blessed by the entire tribe, they would send him off to represent their tribe-- and thanks to the magic, fight with all their combined strength-- in the tournament in Central. It was only through this festival that the people of Earth knew anything of the other tribes at all.

And so it came to be that, just three and forty years since the last festival, the leader of the people of Central himself, a man named Balrog, travelled across each of the eight lands bringing a message: in the spirit of a greater unity amongst the people of Earth, they would not wait another seven and forty years for the next tournament: one would be held in just a matter of months. Many of the tribes were skeptical, and wondered why this was really necessary, but unlike the rest of his people, Balrog himself had a certain charm, and was known to be rather convincing; it wasn't long before all the tribes of Earth had agreed to take part, and began to prepare their greatest warriors.

Of those eight tribes, the poorest, smallest, and least technologically developed was the one known as Athens-- named for a prehistorical city of the old world. It was home to more of a village than a city, with most of the populace working on farms in the countryside. One of those farms is where our story begins: where a young Athenian would be chosen to fight in Balrog's new festival." -- A Complete History of Ancient Earth, Volume 1: 0 AU - 135 AU, Chapter 2: Before Unification