Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

Maquia belongs to the Iorph, a secluded race of long-lived beings who stay apart from human affairs. Though surrounded by her kind, she has always felt isolated, having lost her parents early in life. She yearns to see the world beyond her home but hesitates to leave, heeding the warnings of her clan’s leader. Then the kingdom of Mezarte, driven by ambition, invades her homeland. Having already subjugated the remnants of the giant dragons, the Renato, the king now seeks to claim the Iorph’s immortality for his bloodline. The humans and their Renato slaughter most of the Iorph, and during the chaos, Maquia is seized by a rogue Renato. After it collapses in a distant forest, she is left stranded-until she hears the cries of an abandoned baby in a ruined village. Despite knowing nothing of humans, parenting a child who ages far quicker than her, or how to quiet her own loneliness, Maquia resolves to raise the boy, naming him Ariel. She clings to the hope that, somehow, they can make a life together.