Magik used to be supreme in days long past, until we learned that a well-placed bullet can equalize things.
For four thousand years, the world existed in a state that some current writers call "high-fantasy". Society was divided into two groups: the haves and have-nots, those with Magik and those without. Kingdoms ruled by tyrants were put in the public eye, towers for mages built reaching to the heavens in some strange way, as if they were wanting to be part of the heavens themselves.
The city of Ashmare was one of these cities, boasting a storied history that stretched back most of the four thousand years. Ruled by kings whose names are more generic than their dry personalities: Mark, John, Louis, Peter, etc…
We as a people evolved from thatch villages built to protect us from the dangers of the beasts that thrived outside the walls, to the stone walls of castles and high walls that promise security but offer prisons. Most of the cities fell two thousand years ago when the Demon King rose and began his assault on humanity.
Fun fact for people, the Demon King isn't a Demon. Demons can't cross the material planes and have to be summoned by black Magik. The first Demon King, Aerith, was a Wood Nymph who rallied countless beasts to her cause to raise humanity to the ground for the sake of nature. She promised her followers that she would protect their families and homes if they would just give her their everlasting support for her cause.
With the Demon King's tyranny, humans and other humanoid races rallied to form a fighting force. They called their meeting place Ashmare, and as such, their base of operations. Across another few decades, heroes rose and fell one by one until hope had almost been lost. Right as the dusk of the humanoid species began, a child came to the forefront, Kirie Stephensdaughter, a Natural Mage.
Natural mages are rare, beyond the taught mage bloodlines like Weirhouse, Creig, and Robertson. Natural mages are just that, a mutation, something that kick-started a bloodline, and these few people tend to be monstrous in power. Thus began the ten years called the Golden Age of Hope, a new age stretching its fledgling wings with humanity's hope on Kirie Stephensdaughters shoulders. She created the Pact of Ashmare, a promise to purge the evil that plagued this world. She kept true to her word.
In the year 0 of the Golden Age of Hope, Kirie, with her companions Ricard, Daulph, and Sara, took down the Demon King in a fight that leveled half the continent. The rift from the conflict created what's now known as Kirie's Chasm, a trench torn so deep into the Earth that no one could see the end.
Decades came and went, and the heroes died one by one from age, illness, or misadventure. The world began to forget the people, but remember the legends. Kirie became a saintess, a martyr to her cause of Mage equality, bringing to life the Magical Doctrine —a document that granted equal rights for mages in the upper echelons of society. As expected, the oppressed peoples rose for more and more power until, after four hundred years, an Oligarchy took place. The deposition of the King and his line, which stood for millennia, was not even argued. Who would fight against the descendants and the students of the Saintess Kirie?
This all leads to the modern day. Mages run a unique problem, one that only other mages can solve; thus, the BEM or the Bureau of Equalization for Magic was born. These are mages of no renown who are taught anti-magic warfare to handle problem cases. They have no faces, no names, only a badge, a weapon of their choice, and free rein to eliminate the problem children of the Saintess. Most of these men and women had a moral code, couldn't be bought for any price, and they took pride in their duty. Most of them did anyway.
"A History of our Nation" by Aeri Connors