The first record of magic on Kepler dates to the year 76 AAH (After Arrival of Humans), when Birch Talon fell while climbing the ridges of the Eastern Plateaus and avoided injury by controlling the air to slow her fall. The aerodynamic tendency was later exercised by both Talon’s son and daughter. Although other Easterners began displaying magic traits, the Talon family became widely regarded as the most powerful in the East. A similar incident occurred on the West Coast in 85 AAH, when Solomon Fordham was observed flying a hang glider for over twenty-four hours. The Fordham family pioneered aviation in the West until their tragic demise.
In the meanwhile, two families from North and South Kepler, respectively, also acquired powerful elemental gifts, theirs associated with thermodynamics. Thus, in each of the four corners of the mainland continent, one family line was gifted with more magic than any others. These “Cardinal Families”—as we call them today—served naturally as regional leaders, displacing the need for central leadership from the original Mortal City of Gandhi as the Keplerian population increased in size.
In the year 276 AAH, Kepler officially divided into four nations: The Western Republic, The Eastern Confederation, the Northern Kingdom, and the Southern Kingdom. The event is known as The Cardinal Split.
Over the years, it was widely accepted that the Cardinal Families of the East and West were more magically gifted than the Cardinal Families of the North and South, but the latter proved to have more longevity. Though no one knows whether the Cardinal Family of the West would have maintained either its magic or its power if not for the arrival of the Immortality Virus along with the Immortal Ships in 492 AAH, it was only two decades after the last member of the Fordham family died that the Cardinal Family of the East renounced its leadership claim to the Eastern Confederation, conceding control to the Confederation’s several clan leaders.
Kepler at large was shocked to discover that the reason for this shift was the decline of magic in the Talon family, which had failed to produce any members with First Degree magical capabilities in over three generations.
(Falling Fast From East to West is a fictional book published in Vasher, Sandra. Sisters of the Perilous Heart, Mortal Heritance Book One. Mortal Ink Press, 2020.)