Grestal
Long ago, in the far away depths of space, a moon size orb of Valoxnic, pure crystalline magic, was shot across the cosmos after a dying star exploded. After floating aimlessly in space, for a hundred thousand years, the Valoxnic eventually, as if fated to do so, collided with a frozen planetoid made completely of water. The collision, along with the influence from the gravity of the nearby sun, forced what remained of the two celestial bodies to fuse together. The synthesis of the two ethereal elements created the comet known as Supernal. With a long iridescent tail, that dazzled purple sparks, Supernal lit up the skies of the planet Oren for ten thousand years before destiny once more took hold. It was in the middle of Summer when Supernal crashed into Oren. Even though more than half of Supernal burned up in the atmosphere, after it breached Oren’s skies, what remained impacted a great mineral ridge. Oren, a planet teeming with massive veins of obsidian, is a lush green planet with an abundance of fauna and flora, yet no magical creatures. That was, until Supernal arrived. The Valoxnic and water, that made up Supernal, amalgamated with the obsidian and formed a new magical species known as a Grestal. Born from Valoxnic, the Grestals are the only creature in the Universe that can create shards of pure Valoxnic. The Grestals produce the crystals by eating trifolium, processing the planet nutrients in their stomachs, to which a crystal grows, they then later regurgitate a tiny shard of Valoxnic. Grestals can produce two sharps of Valoxnic a year. Because of this, once the Grestals were discovered, they were taken from their home planet and traded across the Universe. Some civilizations purchased the Grestals to liberate them and let them live freely on their planet. Others confined the Grestals to farms, so they could harvest the Valoxnic for trade. After a thousand years of trade and captivity, the Grestals ultimately learned to use the crystals to defend them themselves. They learned to use the sharps in an illusionary manner, to hide their homes. They also eventually learned that by smelting the shards with aragonite they could create an object call an Egis. The Grestals decided, after they gained their freedom and as a form of remembrance, to start melding an Egis to every newborn Grestal’s forehead. For the Egis, as mementos made of crystal, allows any individual who wears an Egis to manifest and control powerful, and extremely lethal, configurations of concentrated magical energy. Energy that can be used to create small spherical barriers, swords, shields, daggers, and if enough energy is combined, from a large collection of Egis, a small portal, that can travel up two thousand miles away, can be created. Being one of the few creatures in the Universe that were born from pure magic, the Grestals should be revered and protected. For they now live in hiding and are rarely seen.
© Joel Marine