On the continent to the south, there's a place called the Heran Empire. They've been at war with... well, almost everywhere else, for a while.

[Levy sighs, shaking her head.]

The whole story is pretty complicated. This world operates in cycles. Each time, something called the Calamity awakens to consume the world, and the Heroes of Light are summoned to fight it. They've never succeeded once.

The leader of the Heran Empire is Emperor Garland, a man with memories of all of the previous cycles who wants to continue the cycle. Not much is known about him, but he's using the Empire's resources to fight against the Heroes.