The Good and the Bad Sides

The representative color of Atma, the Shape of Balance, was a deep blue reminiscent of the oceans.

The ebb and flow of its waves, its highs and lows, formed an image now associated with balance.

Far from being a straight line, there are good and bad sides to everything: a situation, a new technology, life itself.

Every thing holds pleasant moments and others that are more difficult.

Raising a child in absolute comfort distances them from the reality of those who are less fortunate, and from the efforts they must make simply to survive.

On Esperia, the use of magic had improved the living conditions of the Espers, but at the cost of depleting the Aether, the life source of the planet, which had led to the destruction of nearly all of their ecosystem.

Some new technologies had gradually made dialogue impossible between Espers of different elements, until the breaking point that caused the war of Chaos.

Of course, these technologies had never been intended to create such a situation. But here again, a need for balance was essential: great possibilities imply great responsibilities.

And the Espers had not yet become aware of the need to develop inwardly as well, in order to adapt to the new realities of the world they had ultimately created.


Our latest tales

  • A Simple Speck Among the Stars

    A Simple Speck Among the Stars

    Before the Chaos War, amid the agitation of the world, Cha Cha often took the time to reflect, going against the need to always move faster in the society in which he lived. Yet when admiring the sky and its stars, it is so easy to realize just how each person is nothing more than…

    Read more

  • Making Choices

    Making Choices

    The civilization of the Espers had changed greatly. For millennia, they had influenced nature, the soil, mountains, rivers, seas, and all the surrounding ecosystems. Access to more food, one of their fundamental needs, had profoundly changed their ways of life, which, little by little, had transformed their civilization into the one we now knew. The…

    Read more

  • Nature Has No Price

    Nature Has No Price

    The functioning of Esper society was based on a simple concept, but one that was now causing a serious problem: nature has no price. The Espers had freely taken control of the land, rivers, and seas, without ever needing to provide anything in return. For decades, recent technologies had also begun to reach the skies:…

    Read more

  • The Collective Shadow

    The Collective Shadow

    The Espers had something special and powerful when they acted as a group. Relationships of trust allowed cultures and ideas to be exchanged, and had greatly contributed to the development of their society. But while the StarDust allowed the Shadow within each Esper to be revealed, this intriguing ability of the Espers to unite in…

    Read more

  • Learning to Listen to Your Shadow

    Learning to Listen to Your Shadow

    The post-Chaos War was a new world where the Espers around the world now had to learn to listen to their Shadow. It was an easier task for those who had already made a habit of listening to themselves and taking time for themselves, without the futile distractions that allow them to kill time. For…

    Read more

  • Knowledge Is Not Innate

    Knowledge Is Not Innate

    The world before the Chaos War appeared, on the surface, to bear the signs of one of the most modern and advanced civilizations. Magic had enabled the development of technologies that would have seemed like sorcery to the ancestors of the Espers. But although the world as a whole had modernized, every new Esper still…

    Read more

  • Daily balance

    Daily balance

    Since her birth, Atma, the Shape of Balance, had found in Shala, the Shape of Time, an almost motherly figure. The two were very close and often appeared together, which was a boon for the Espers. For both were representations of abstract concepts that were sometimes difficult to remember or understand, so seeing them together…

    Read more

  • The Power of Habits

    The Power of Habits

    By understanding how deeply habits were the anchor of their own lives, the Espers had realized that they could change many things simply through habit. The power of habits seemed almost magical. Step by step, little by little, what had seemed impossible at first suddenly became possible, even easy. And by following the few principles…

    Read more