When the seven gods found Thuun, it was nothing more than a mass of chaos. The oldest and strongest of the gods, Void, took that chaos and ripped it apart to create primordial matter and pure mana. Taking the primordial matter, Will and Truth joined forces to create all forms of normal matter. Once they were done, the world had been formed, but it was a static world, dead and unchanging.
So, Instinct and Memory stepped in, turning the pure mana into all forms of normal mana: into fire mana, into wind mana, into tide mana. With mana breathed into the world it was no longer static but continuously changing. However, the gods were still unsatisfied, their creation changed, but they could predict every second of its life.
So, Emotion and Fate stripped a piece of their own souls, and combined it with those of Will, Truth, Instinct, and Memory to create the aura. They took this aura and they filled the lifeless world with it, and soon it was lifeless no more.
Satisfied with their work, the gods decided to nourish it, taking turns acting as the sun. Every seventh day it was Void's turn to nuture the world, but they did not shine, they simply watched as the world developed.
Through the endless history of the world, Void watched. Void saw the Primordial Era where creatures of all manner and size grew and thrived. Void watched as the world changed and the primordial beasts all died. Void watched the remaining creatures continue to change and the myriad races first began to walk the world.
The myriad races were intriguing to Void. They were beyond mere beasts, having developed the ability to reason. They were like the gods. They had Memory and worked off of Instinct, but they were more than that. They had developed Fates, and Emotions with which to lament that. Most importantly, they had a Will to find the Truth of the world.
Void watched as they gained a tentative mastery over manipulating matter, once the domain of the gods alone. The myriad races created tools to improve their lives, then weapons to end them. After separating the chaos, Void did not interfere with the world for it was too boring, but now Void was curious. How far could the myriad races go if they could control not just matter, but Aura and Man too?
So, Void, taking pity on the myriad races, shaved off a piece of its divine soul, and gifted it to them, joining the souls created by the other six gods. This created the stars, the only light that shines on the day called night.
With Void's gift came an end to the Ancient Era, and the birth of the Golden Era. Every member of the myriad races had a Void Soul which allowed them to control Mana and Aura as their hands controlled matter. Each being had a star, and through watching their movements, one's fate could be discerned.
At first the other gods did not notice, for they did not care about the actions of mortals, but once the myriad races grew powerful enough, they started to create new forms of Mana and Aura, ones that had never existed before! They had begun to take part in the act of creation. They were becoming more and more like the gods.
So the gods decided to reset Thuun and try again. They joined together to create a single great sun to burn away the myriad races, destroying the glorious civilizations of the Golden Era. Before Thuun was destroyed, Void stepped in. It did not wish for the fun to end, and combatted the other six gods. Now instead of six days and one night, each day had both as the six gods fought, unable to destroy Void. When the days are long and hot, the six gods are winning and nature thrives. When the days are short and cold, Void is winning, and its gift becomes stronger, allowing civilization to thrive.
Although Void stopped the destruction of Thuun, the Golden Era still ended setting civilization back thousands of years. Worse yet, because Void is busy fighting, although it still blesses members of the myriad races with Void Souls, not everyone gets one, and those that do are weaker than those from the Golden Era.
Even so, the myriad races rebuilt on the ruins of the Golden Era. Although all of the world's Mages and Knights had died to protect the myriad races from extinction, the most powerful of them had their stars remain even after their death. From these stars one could still receive the legacy of the Golden Era.
Those that inherited the legacy of the Knights formed clans, controlling the people and land. Those that inherited the legacy of the Mages redeveloped lost technologies and formed schools to ensure they were never lost again.
Thousands of years have passed since the end of the Golden Era, and the Modern Era has reached its pinnacle, matching the strongest of the Golden Era, with Grand Knight and Archmages walking Thuun, forming Great Clans that controlled vast areas and Magic Academies that contained all the knowledge of the world.
In one of those Great Clans, the Dragon Clan, a pair of twins was born. The two girls were of high status, and their bloodline affinity was high. Even with a weak Void Soul, they would be able to become Knights in service of the clan.
So as the two grew up, they were trained in the arts of combat from the moment they could walk. The eldest of the two, Caelia was a prodigy. No matter what her instructors taught she picked it up instantly. She was also well learned in the sciences, both social and magical. So when their eleventh birthday came, and Void gifted each of the twins with a powerful soul, the Dragon clan celebrated. There were two new powerhouses born into their family.
As women they were unsuitable to become Grand Knights despite their potential the clan elders sent them to Vegrin Academy, a prestigious school for magic led by the most powerful Archmage in Thuul. Every Knight Clan hoped to have a powerful Mage working for them, but few were willing to pledge their services. As such, the Dragon Clan had high hopes for the twins.
The clan expected Caelia to thrive thanks to her powerful soul and keen mind, but it was the younger of the two, Selene who stood out. Despite her talents, Caelia was a cripple. Her Mana body and Aura body were both pitifully weak making her unsuitable for cultivation since her progress was nearly nonexistent. No matter how much she trained, Caelia's constitution never improved and she found herself among the worst at the academy.
Selene however bloomed. Originally she lived in the shadow of her sister's talent, but now she was considered the Dragon Clan's best hope of having an Archmage in their service someday. Both her Mana body and Aura body were far stronger than the average person and with a powerful Void Soul to match. Her progress was so astonishingly fast that the headmaster, Archmage Valtros Vegrin, took her in as an probationary student. Although no Archmage would consider a member of a clan as a potential heir, the headmaster still valued Selene greatly.
In spite of her disability, Caelia worked harder than anyone. She trained non-stop and hoped that by studying harder she would somehow bridge that gap in talent, but at the end of the first assessment, she flunked her exams and was facing expulsion. Before her expulsion was finalized, the Dragon Clan stepped in. They pulled some string that allowed Caelia to stay on as Selene's maid.
From that day on, even though she was no longer a student, Caelia continued to attend classes and shadow after her sister Selene. In exchange for tutoring her sister, Caelia was supported with cultivation resources from the Dragon Clan. Even so Caelia never managed to advance further than Acolyte even after Selene became a revered First Level Mage at twenty-six and graduated.
It seemed then that Caelia's journey as a Mage would end, but Selene's pity drove her to petition the headmaster to allow Caelia to remain on as staff. Many dropouts that were unwilling to accept their fate would stay in the academy to act as living batteries to fund the experiments of the students. It was an incredibly dangerous job and most that took it died after a few years in accidents.
For Caelia, the position was rather secure instead. With the Dragon Clan's influence, she was exempted from having to work with the students in their experiments, and instead was tasked purely with mundane tasks as a janitor. In addition to that, Caelia was still getting resources from her clan.
Although Selene was powerful, her comprehension abilities were weak. She would frequently visit Caelia for help with magic, a service she paid well for. This allowed the sisters to remain close even though their lives were so different.
Decades passed like falling rain, and at some point Caelia had managed to become a Mage Apprentice. However, that was the end of her journey. After reaching Tier One Apprentice, Caelia's progress completely halted.
Selene however kept growing, becoming a power Seventh Level Mage, just a step below Archmage. At some point she had stopped needing Caelia's help with magic and now their visits were purely social ones. Although they still saw each other frequently, the two began to grow apart and what used to be monthly visits, became yearly ones, and eventually almost stopped altogether.
Caelia refused to give up though. Even if her talent was abysmal, she still had her most powerful tool, her mind. Since her constitution was the problem, she resolved to fix that first. She researched strange and esoteric topics, and even though she didn't need to, began to participate in the experiments of students she thought might be able to fix her problem.
By the time Selene stopped visiting every year, Caelia had become grey-haired and her body was a mess from all of the haphazard experiments she'd participated in. It was only here, on the edge of death that Caelia began to lose hope, and it was only once she had given up on magic that she found a new path forwards for herself.
Despite it having no effect, Caelia never stopped cultivating, and although her Aura Body and Mana Body never improved, she could feel something else gradually getting stronger. Some spiritual body other than the usual two.
At first it was a blurry and indistinct feeling, but eventually Caelia was able to perceive it clearly. Legends spoke of how the world was formed by the gods from matter, mana, and aura, but that wasn't quite true, Thuun was actually made of was matter, energy, and souls. Mana and Aura were just the means through which the gods modified and controlled energy and souls.
The myriad races had always assumed that matter was different from the other two, static and unchanging. As such, although they discovered the Aura Body and Mana Body, they never tried to look for a Matter Body. After all, wasn't that just one's normal body?
During her long life of research, and having discovered hints of a Matter Body, Caelia refocused on that. She believed that since energy and souls had means to control them, perhaps it was not one's hands that controlled matter, but something else entirely. Something Caelia named Alchemy after the experiments of mortal chemists.
When Caelia turned ninety-two she finally discovered how to start on the path to become an Alchemist. Much like a Mage needed to first use their Mana Body to form a Mana Seed, Caelia developed a process to use her Alchemy Body to form an Alchemy Seed! It was a mindblowing discovery, but even after trying to bring it up to the academy faculty, no one cared.
The Alchemy Souls of most individuals was too weak to detect, and even Caelia had not yet figured out a process to make it easier like the meditation methods of Aura cultivation or the sigils of Mana cultivation.
Worse still, she knew she was dying. Even if becoming an Alchemist would allow her to gain an extended lifespan like with Mages and Knights, how long would it take for her to even work out a path to Alchemy Apprentice? She simply didn't have enough time. She'd discovered Alchemy too late and now it would die with her.
Her only hope now was to pass on her research to her more talented sister, in hopes that Selene might be able to explore the path of Alchemy.