archer forrest

Some pointers about Archer's world.

Basically ours on the broader sense. History is almos the same.

The biggest difference is the existence of the Heralds. Who are the Heralds? The Heralds are people extremely well attuned to the energy that flows in the world, which allows them to manifest and control an Element. We're talking classic elements here, but the Earth and Wind Heralds can mess with the periodic table just to shut someone up, though.

There are six "canonical" Heralds for the six "canonical" elements: Fire/Water, Earth/Water and Light/Darkness, with the Herald of Light being usually seen as the de facto leader, although there isn't a leadership system per se. There also hasn't been a Herald of Darkness in like forever and it's usually portrayed as evil, because Darkness = Bad.

Each Herald has a "Temple" (actually more like a small country) dedicated to their Element where they take on Acolytes; those with potential in an element that wish to learn more about it. About 4% of the world population has potential and more often than not it's only in a single element, although sometimes they show potential in several. The Heralds usually have control over their main element and a few others to a lesser extent.

There's always been Heralds and elements in this world. Or almost as long as there's been civilization, so it's just another fact of life. The Heralds are all largely neutral and uninterested in affecting the world in any way (it's actually frowned upon trying to use their abilities to do what they consider to be right) so for the most part history has happened just like it "should", although their interest in keeping the world healthy has moved them to force companies and even countries to be more environmentally conscientious. So the world is noticeably better in some areas.

---

More specifically to Archer:

Born an orphan, raised alongside Maximillian "Max" Howard.

Very early on Archer and Max ditched the system and went their own way. It was awesome, only that it wasn't.

Street rats, stealing yo' wallets, living of scraps.

At 18 life takes an unexpected turn when Max suddenly starts manifesting Light strongly enough to make others notice. Combined with the fact that the Herald of Light had been dead for almost the same time (and that a new Herald is born more or less when the current one dies) all kinds of interest sparks around them. They're taken to the Water Temple (a movable underwater city, basically) where he and other Light Acolytes are put to test to see if one of them can be the actual Herald of Light.

Archer only manages to stick around when she discovers she can use Water and as she's the ultimate newb she's taken under the wing of the current and very recent Water Herald, Camilla.

THEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN.