Fibsh

The Maruloix are an intelligent, underwater peoples of Earth. They take on many characteristics of ocean creatures, depending on the race and genetic heritage and birth location. They've been here for an extremely long time. I haven't worked out just how long yet. It goes back SEVERAL generations. Their relationship with humanity is extremely rocky. Therefore they stay in the water. They can survive living at the bottom of the sea as well.

They rely on magic over technology, though they have been modernized they see technology as a human development, and since they see humans as beneath them on the evolution chain, they don't feel a need to "stoop to their level."

Any Maruloix you ask today will tell you that their earliest recording was of the "goddess" Aria's feat over four super elementals (we'll call them Monoliths as Bos started me on that), of water, fire, earth, and air. Long, long ago, the Maruloix and elementals came into contact with the water elementals. The elementals that exist on Earth are here to protect life itself; to maintain a balance and keep the intelligent creatures in check.

Through means or another, the water elementals began to commune with the peoples, introducing them to their magic and assisting the peoples in advancing as a species.

To make a long story short, the elementals and Maruloix found peace for period, and it drew the attention of other elementals. Further the Maruloix advanced and further their knowledge in magic grew. One major feat was the ability to nurture the land of the sea and promote its health; coral beds and underwater plants and minor organisms thrived and flourished.

The Maruloix learned of the conflicts between certain elements, and how imbalance grew from this conflict, if one element was overbearing to the second. Some of the Maruloix peoples began to exploit these elements, combining the two and seeking to achieve power, to really come out on top as an advanced species

Elementals didn't like this. Soon, the Maruloix wanted to imbue themselves with the power of the elementals. (This part is VERY important for the Crystal Guardians which I will get into as well)

The Maruloix would imbue coral crops with this magic, to create tools, weapons, and eventually, bind the coral to their own bodies, to enhance themselves in a myriad of ways. Things began to fall out of balance; the elementals, weary of this development, began to withdraw their contact with the Maruloix. Hungry for advancement and power, the Maruloix pursued the elementals, demanding they be shown more, more, more.

Greater elementals came forward, and attempted to withdraw all the elementals had given to the Maruloix, but the Maruloix fought back. War broke out. Powerful Maruloix mages came forward, having perfected their magics, and carried this war on. It lasted for years. Just enough time for the Maruloix to formulate an Archmage.

Now the archmage had perfected magic of each element type. (As a point of reference, were Engel to master each element, she could be considered an "Archmage" in this sense. But she has only mastered fire and is practicing water, and has barely touched earth. She's not skilled enough to master all four elements)

The Archmage was a woman known as Aria. She was depicted as wearing many precious gemstones and minerals; she used these precious stones and minerals as a place to store copious amounts of power; several energy pools which she wore on her body. These will later become known as "the Crystals."

By means of Aria's hand, she actually defeated four Monoliths of each element, causing them to retreat to their own dimension to regain power. And defeating a Monolith is no minor feat; it would take hundreds of years for a Monolith to properly withdraw enough energy to regain form on this plane of existence.

The Maruloix won the war, but that's the same as saying the bad guys won.

The elementals now had more reason to abandon the Maruloix completely. Which they did, leaving behind everything the Maruloix had been taught.