[Crono]

All good things come to an end.

Long ago, humanity was a fresh, new race. We, the residents of Valhalla, were quite pleased with our most recent creation. So pleased, in fact, that we decided to bestow upon them something reserved for the Gods, something we had never given any mortal creature; the greatest gift and largest responsibility of all: free will. We all grew quite fond of our "children," and visited the mortal world of Rune-Midgard to teach them the art of Magic (whatever small amount humans are able to wield, at least).

But time passed, and the humans began to use their free will to do things that sickened us. Our children... they were stealing, cheating... murdering one another for power... it was truly deplorable. We grew increasingly disgusted by them and by Odin's judgment we stopped visiting, and the humans eventually began to forget our very existence. Thousands of human years passed, and any remaining knowledge they had of us or the art of Magic was simply regarded as mythology. Our forsaken children reached the so-called "peak" of their society. They had developed great technologies, and, of course, better ways to kill one another. They thought themselves Gods.

All of this was of course instigating a gain in power of the Evil armies of Loki and Hel. They became strong enough to rival us, and a war known as Ragnarok was waged. Both sides suffered great losses, and the world of Rune-Midgard itself was stuck in the middle. Our war left the planet decimated beyond recognition, with nearly all of its inhabitants killed in the crossfire. The Valkyries, led by Brunhild, brought the greatest of the human heroes to Valhalla, and left the rest to roam what was left of their land.

By now, our armies were depleted, and Rune-Midgard remained littered with the armies of Evil. Yggdrasil, heavily guarded by our finest warriors, remained relatively unharmed.

Some humans chose to grab whatever weapon they could find in the rubble and trained to vanquish the Evil roaming their land. Others, tainted by the great Evil, chose to train only to hunt down the good and kill the innocent. In order to regain our favor, they would have to destroy the Evil spawn with the help of Valhalla's greatest champions.

And so begins humanity's quest for Deliverance.