The seventeen nations of the Gray World now operate as states, under a single government, having lost their independence in a dominating crusade by ancient Fole militants. Under Fole rule, the people lived by the laws of a monarchy of stern but righteous kings, and in this manner eight generations would pass, until the rise of King Harn.

Harn was a self-absorbed king who rose to power after the unexpected death of his unmarried brother, Zimm. Harn's main concern always seemed to be that of his own well-being, an attribute that was seen and loathed by many of his Fole citizenry. In Harn's days, a great swell of resistance rose quickly, especially in the western lands of Nor and Sarx.

In Harn's fourteenth year as king, Mount Orion, a massive volcano in the nation of Nor, erupted spilling lava across the land and subsequently engulfing the people of a small town called Nell. Harn, believing that he would be blamed for the incident, sent a group of soldiers to investigate the area and to assure that there were no survivors who could spread the building resistance. In a sinister act, Harn's men are believed to have slaughtered dozens of innocent people who had survived Orion's eruption. However, a few had managed to escape the soldiers and traveled south into the nation of Ona, spreading the word of the incident.

It took only days for word of the disaster and subsequent slaughter to reach the southern lands of the continent, including the Southland kingdom of the Vanian people, and the larger cities occupied by those of Gray lineage. One such city was Coppleton. There, an anti-Fole sentiment had been building even prior to Harn's rise to power, based on the distance between the ruling party and the citizens of those southern settlements.

A young statesman named Supheus had been studying political affairs and upon receiving word of Harn's brutal act, he rallied together an audience comprised mostly of Gray and Vanian citizens and offered a speech about freedom and about his idea of how a government should serve its people. Supheus stated that Harn's act was one that required retaliation and one that was grounds from his removal from the ruling position.

Inspired, the wave of resistance became a full call to arms, and within weeks, a group of well-armed Gray soldiers were heading up through the Heartland, bound for a clash with the Fole king. After a bloody struggle, Harn was slain outside the town of Lockmore in the northern Nor mountains of Sarx. It was at that time that Supheus begged the citizens of the continent to choose their own ruler, ushering in a democratic society and winning himself a place upon the throne as first Gray emperor.

Supheism democracy reigned over the continent for nearly a decade. Supheus installed a lenient new government and amassed the leaders of the seventeen nations in annual gatherings known as Autumn Circles, during which discussions of how better to serve the people were fore-front on the agenda. Supheus ordered the construction of a new city in the nation of Ozzius, to be called Capital Gray, taking its design from the Southland's Palace of Van, to be a central hub for all commerce and trade. The prosperity of the Gray World seemed everlasting.

Then, from out of nowhere strange occurrences began to take place. A disease known only as the Sickness crept its way into the population, the effects of which were certain death. As Supheus began to gather the world's leading scholars to find the origin of the disease and prevent its spread, another threat rose. Minions, some known to occupy only the underground started coming to the surface, and others, never-before-seen entities, sprouted from every corner of the continent. Their presence put an end to the free-roaming nature of trade and halted travelers in their hometowns for fear of being slain by these mighty creatures.

Alas, as the Gray Regime fought the two threats that had risen, Supheus himself grew ill and in within days, was bedridden. Inner Regime groups accredited the illness to the Sickness and thus, began the process of finding a replacement for the emperor. They settled on a fierce general named Lassian who was one of Supheus's closest friends.

Upon taking the throne, Lassian inherited the threats of the Sickness and the Minions. His approach to governing, however, was far different than his predecessor. Lassian halted the Autumn Circle gatherings and ordered that the Capital be built in the form of a fortress. As his paranoia from the threats and his bitterness towards the old Fole enemies increased, he also ordered the construction of two more forts, both in the northern Fole territories. In addition, he began to suppress the will of the people by enlarging his military into the largest faction of soldiers the world had ever seen.

As the dysfunction of the continent escalated, there was a chance to intervene. So, on no particular day, a divine legend started to unfold, when a meeting of bewildered strangers took place along the far western shores of Zara. This odd, but seemingly meaningless gathering, would soon prove to be the first event of an ancient prophecy. Their footsteps were to follow a righteous path and to save the world from the rising calamity of a great evil.