Welcome to the center of the Earth.
As
close as anyone will be able to get to it anyway. No, the Earth's core
is not a molten mass of fire and brimstone, but one of magic. Magic
exists, but we who live on the surface of the Earth have seen it
receding, disappearing, for several millenia. Slowly it has been
reaching less and less of the surface, until only very sensitive
individuals could even detect it, let alone use it.
The decline of
the presence of magic increased rapidly after the elves retreated to
the core of the Earth, both persecuted by humans and mocked by the
scientific discoveries of the Middle Ages, and even before then, that
were slowly replacing the concept of natural magic and otherworldy
beings. The elves who stayed to try and stop us from killing the
earth, and who still do, were affected greatly by the drainage of
magic from the surface. They shrank, diminishing into nothing but
spirits no more that a foot high at the most. They used to be as tall
as humans and walked among them in the past like normal people. These
elves, who not everyone can see because even these small creatures
produce their own magic to a certain extent, continue to hold a grudge
against those elves that deserted the surface in the Middle Ages.
These core elves live in a world that is devoid of natural
sunlight, being in a gigantic carvern that encompasses three kingdoms:
one good, one evil, and one with no preference to either. Hikari no
Oukoku(The Kingdom of Light), the First Kingdom, has for its princess
a woman named Fern. Her heritage, known only to a selected few, is
half human. Humans are taboo to the core elves, no matter what kingdom
one is in. Generally any mention of humans is looked down upon. One
can imagine the problem it would cause for Fern if all of the kingdoms
should find out. It is the goal of The Third Kingdom, Yami no Oukoku
(The Kingdom of Darkness), to reveal this fact and to obtain the power
that Fern, as the first human-elven mix of royal blood, possesses to change the face
of the Earth. The Second Kingdom, Daichi no Oukoku (The Kingdom of
Earth), has remained neutral in the struggles between the other two
until now.
The fate of the princess and the wolrd rests in the
hands of The Second Kingdom.