Okay, if I’m going to rework Divine Strength, the backstory’s probably a good place to start.

Now, the idea had always been that the Queens didn’t always exist. I mean, their goddess forms more or less always did, but they lived in an ethereal realm separate from the material one, and humans knew about them through occasional visions and such. At some point the two realms started to merge, bringing magic to the material realm. Eventually, this process resulted in the goddesses appearing in the material realm, but since they had no material bodies they would have dissipated and died if not for being placed within the Crowns. This is where the age of the Queens began.

I was also going with the idea that the Queens initially waged frequent wars with each other, leaving the land in a very chaotic state and possibly leaving much of the landscape devastated. At some point, they came together and established a truce which has persisted up to the time the story is set to start. But, I guess I never really put much thought into why they made such a huge change…so, combining this with a desire to try out some other non-Queen related magical creatures, I have an idea.

What seems most logical is that there was something so dangerous that the Queens knew they had to work together to defeat it, and the age of peace arose in the wake of that. So, some sort of magical creature was unleashed! The idea right now is that four terrible creatures appeared: one from the north, one from the south, one from the west, and one from the east. (Not entirely sure what kind of creature…my first thought was serpents, but that might be a bit too obvious. Now I’m tossing together weird hybrids and seeing how that goes.) These creatures thrived on the chaos the Queens were engulfing the world in, and so they advanced upon this land and turned chaos into utter ruin. Now, this could range from just destroying things to literally consuming reality as they advanced, I haven’t decided yet. The Queens are unable to stop the creatures on their own, and so decide the only way they can prevail is by working together. Luring the four monsters to one spot at the center of the region ruled by Queens, the monarchs combined their powers in a fateful battle, eventually slaying the creatures!

…But, for a little more intrigue, maybe the Queens weren’t able to totally kill the creatures, probably because they were born from the primal force of destruction that can never be truly destroyed or something. (“You cannot destroy me, for I am nothing” and all that.) So the Queens dragged the fallen creatures back to the four edges of their region and sealed them away—the Queen of the Sea trapped the western creature at the bottom of the ocean; the Queen of Fire plunged the creature from the east into a massive volcano; the Queen of Ice froze the northern creature in a mountain cave so cold that only those born of magic could endure it; and the fourth creature was lost to the southern forests, its location known only by the Queen of Nature. The Queens agreed that they must cease their senseless violence, knowing it would only give new life to the four wretched creatures. (They need a group name…The Ruinous?) A truce was called, symbolized by a neutral meeting place being built on the grounds where the creatures were slain—the Hall of Ether, a place filled with magic that made violence within its walls totally impossible. The Queens began to rebuild the world, and the creatures passed into legend.

Now, a concern of mine here is that, if these super evil creatures are around, I feel like there will be an expectation that they’ll all be revived or something for the plot/climax. And, I don’t want them to totally override the plot, though they’ll probably become relevant somehow. Plus the abomination-sounding names I’m coming up with at the moment might be a little too silly. (Norsklantal, Sojethalat, Esvayila, Wezgyan…it’s hard coming up with something that has few/no Google results…)

I am starting to like the sound of “The Ruinous”, though…