Enlightened Ones
General Information
Home: Zeal
Era: 12000 B.C.
Leaders: King Zeal, Queen Zeal
Chrono Trigger
The Enlightened Ones compose the citizenry of Zeal, magically empowered (though mostly by leeching off power sources such as the Sun Stone or Mammon Machine), impossibly cultured, and ardently devoted to the highest arts and exploration of human potential. The Enlightened Ones formally became a people after the Sun Stone was located and Zeal was formed; the group able to use the power of the artifact took to the sky, and developed a begrudging prejudice against the Earthbound. The Enlightened soon created a culture of their own; their cities were gilded with the colors of silver, white, and gold, and were filled to the brim with knowledge and ruminations. Magic became an art to be explored and researched at Kajar, and as magic and the society of Zeal began to fulfill the basic needs of life, some Enlightened Ones took to dreaming for enlightenment at Enhasa. Knowledge and erudition reached a peak that would not be found again until thousands of years later, as the people of Zeal tackled philosophical questions such as the presence of fate and delved into the fundamental composition of the universe.
They were summarily led by their chosen King and Queen, who were magic innates, and the Gurus of Time, Reason, and Life, who commanded much wisdom in their studies. The byproduct of Enlightened civilization was a pronounced arrogance and blind ambition; their former brothers, the Earthbound, were considered subhuman, while visions of immortality came to dominate the aspirations of the group. Both vices would result in the destruction of Zeal and the dissolution of the Enlightened Ones, as the power of Lavos was underestimated and the Mammon Machine awoke the monster beneath the crust. Though Zeal was annihilated, several Enlightened Ones survived the Fall of Zeal and stumbled upon Last Village, the last remaining human settlement. Stripped of the basis of their prejudice against the Earthbound -- magic, and the civilization of Zeal itself -- the Enlightened Ones mingled with the former cave dwellers, and lived in unison thereafter. This marked the end the Enlightened Ones as a formal division.
