History of the World
The world of Ar Tonelico is that of a dying world. Many years ago, a race of dragons encountered humanity and began integrating their societies and knowledge, eventually giving way to the race of the Teru and the basis of Sound Science. Eventually, a great tower stretching to the heavens would be completed, part of two others that would come to be eventually be known as the Towers of Ar Tonelico, and would serve as an amplifier to utilize Song Magic across the world.
A young girl by the name of Shurelia was created via advanced science, and tasked with the job of interfacing running the functions of the tower.
But a great calamity, the Grathnode Inferia, would occur due to sabotage, when one of the power generators of the tower exploded, the excess of energy released perpetually covered the entire planet's sky in a field of fatal plasma (the Blastline) that boiled anyone who enter it unprotected, and the pieces of the generator fell to the earth and gravely wounded it, causing a deadly miasma of fumes to cover all the land. Thus, the only area left for humans to inhabit were a few floating land masses surrounding the tower, located between the blastline and the miasma that would fittingly come to be called the "Sea of Death".
But another calamity would occur later on, as a foe from within the tower, known as the Mother Virus, would sieze control of the systems and rage war.
Dramatis Personæ
Shurelia: The oldest living being in the world of Ar Tonelico, she was the first revyvetail ever created, and was tasked with the job of maintaining the Tower of Ar Tonelico located in the Sol Ciel region. She often clads herself in her Linkage Suit, a suit of armor that enhances her connection to the Tower.
She briefly met Equestria many years ago, and though their time together was brief, a lasting friendship was formed between the two rulers and she would have an impact on Equestria greater than she could ever guess when she gave the alicorn a gift.
Redesigned the Elma tower guardians to be white and have a horn in honor of her friend.
Ayatane: A knight-like human who apparently gave birth to the changeling race for some unknown reason before vanishing from Equestria for many centuries. He has once more returned and is involving himself more directly in the affairs of the land for some unknown reason, though he makes many references to his Mother, whom he seems to regard quite highly.
Is able to shift into the form of a mechanical horse-like being, Elma-DS, which is actually a corrupted form of the Tower guardians.
Demon Virus: A manifestation of Mother Virus's hatred and suffering; she dispatched this creature when she felt Discord enter the Binary Field and attempt to alter it with his chaos magic. Under ordinary circumstances, had Discord not been constantly being worn away by the Binary Field and able to navigate it properly, he would have easily defeated this virus, but the Virus had home-field advantage and was able to delete and fragment a portion of his being before the spirit escaped back to Equestria.
It would follow, but there seems to have been a temporal flux between the portals, as it arrived far later than Discord did and could not sense the chaos spirit, who had been trapped in stone by Celestia and Luna. A manifestion of Song Magic, it was unable to exist for long in Equestria where no one was actively singing it into existence.
Fortunately (or unfortunately) it felt the dark desires of a sleeping unicorn in the Crystal Kingdom, and took refuge in the unicorn without him knowing it. By doing so, the Virus fed the unicorn's dark ambitions and greatly boosted his magic, offering the knowledge of magics not ever seen in Equestria, all the while repairing itself so that it might one day hunt down its prey as it had been bid.
The unicorn would soon call himself King Sombra, and Sombra would make the Crystal Empire vanish by utilizing a magical form of the Flip-Flop conversion technology that the viruses of the tower use to phase in and out of the physical and digital realm.
Glossary
Hymnos: The chief form of magic in the world of Ar Tonelico. It can only be utilized by Reyvateils, a race of females who are near indistinguishable from humans; The language of hymnos has many dialects, and it places great emphasize of making clear the intent and emotion of the singer, which is then sent to the Tower of Ar Tonelico, which processes the request and creates a form of magic appropriate for the task required and the mindset of the caster.
For some reason, Queen Chrysalis was able to sing a song of designed to paralyze its victims; it is unknown how she learned of or was even capable of using the magic of from a foreign world within Equestria.
Flip-Flop Conversion: A technique by which advanced viruses can manifest outside of the data realm of the tower and enter into physical reality. All attacks, Song Magic or otherwise, have no effect on Virus as long as they exist in the realm of data, however Viruses are only afforded this protection at the cost of being unable to manipulate the physical in any manner.
As King Sombra was sealed beneath the icy tundra, he would invoke a corrupted magic version of this to hide the Crystal Empire and its residents away from Equestria until both he and the Empire returned.
