The Legend of the Stones
Among the tribes, there have been countless tales of how the world was created. The subject of the world’s beginning is a favorite debate between scholars, and even wars have erupted from the differences between beliefs. Yet one belief is a constant within all others: before there was time, and before there was existence, there was the Crystal.
Made of the thousands of hopes, dreams and sorrows of worlds past, the Crystal is what perpetuates existence in the world; without it, there would be no life or death, no good or evil; ultimately, no existence. From this Crystal, the world was born, and life with it. It’s often true that some of life’s hardest trials await us in our youth, and for this young world the adage held true. The world, barely a child, was beset with catastrophe from its beginning by dark forces that set out not only to destroy the world, but the Crystal, as well. In order to battle the demons that threatened to destroy their beloved planet, twelve heroes emerged from the ranks of its children. These children called themselves the Zodius. They challenged the darkness in the midst of its plan to engulf the world, and in order to bring about its defeat, sacrificed their lives. With the darkness banished, the world became a peaceful place.
The Crystal did not forget its heroes. Taking them unto itself, it created twelve living stones from the Zodius’ souls and gave them to the people of the world, promising them protection if the darkness ever arose once more. For a time, the people did not know what the stones’ purpose was. They were dangerous and unwieldy; people who held them would find their hands aflame, others still would transform into hideous monsters. It seemed that a stone would deem for itself who was worthy to wield it. Those few chosen found that they could call upon the hero whose spirit resided within the stone in times of need, and came to be called the summoners. Many summoners became heroes themselves, calling upon the Zodius to protect their people. However, many more still used the Zodius for deeds far less worthy.
Used for evil purposes, the stones themselves eventually became a threat to the world, and after much battling, were locked inside a great artifact known as the Zodiac Wheel. This wheel was kept on display in the great cathedral of Murond for countless generations. An old legend says that in a time of great peril, if one calls upon the power of all twelve Zodiac stones, the world will once again find itself at peace. This story, once regarded as sacrosanct, has now been reduced to merely an old wives’ tale told to children before they are sent to bed. Still, it is a comforting thought.

300 years ago: The War of Stars
A great civil war had beset the nation of Ivalice, one that had lasted generations long and promised little hope of future peace. The Elvaan Duchy of Gallione, seized with a lust for power, had set to expand itself across the whole of the continent with the intent to conquer. The people of Zeltennia, Favoham and Lesalia had formed a shaky alliance in order to defend themselves from the invasion, setting Humes, Kooka, and Galkan slaves against the Elvaan conquerors. Lionel, protected from Gallione by its skilled Yukish mages, seemed impenetrable but offered no help to the struggling alliance. The once proud Viera were hired as contract assassins and mercenaries by both sides, and along with the Nu Mou whose tiny nation was crushed entirely by the Elvaan, suffered the most losses. In an effort to put a stop to the ongoing war, the leaders of the ever-neutral Murond Holy Capital managed to arrange a conference between the leaders of the nations to petition for peace. Representatives from each nation and race arrived at the capital one by one, each hoping to gain something different from the meeting. Whatever was discussed to this day remains a secret, but a treaty between the nations was decided upon, be it however tense.
To solidify the bonds between the nations in brotherhood and friendship, Queen Florencia Drowaa of the Murond Empire decreed that the Great Zodiac Wheel would be broken and that the twelve stones be divided between the delegates. Few are certain of who received what stones and how many, but it is known now that each race and nation held at least one stone – though the tally is certainly different now. With peace upon the land, Queen Florencia passed at the end of her life a hero of all the races, and the guardian mother of her church. Little did she know that the bonds she had worked so hard to forge would eventually break, and that the nations now had access to new and powerful instruments of destruction: The summoners.

A Brief History of the Summoners
In the distant past, it was common for a person to possess a simple rock that would call forth great magical power. Called summoning stones, these gems granted the user the ability to bring anything into our realm-from great magical beasts like Shiva and Ifrit to household furniture and dead fish.
Over the years, however, the art of summoning was lost. It seemed that the more useless summons had randomly increased in number, and the stones that called the worshipped ancient creatures of old had entirely disappeared.
Of course, with the breaking of the Zodius Wheel, a new interest was sparked in the ancient magical art of summoning. Summoners began appearing, claiming to be the 'most powerful' but it seemed that most could only summon worthless things. It was only a matter of time, however, before true summoners began to rise up. These people did possess the magical capacity to call forth the ancient gods and some were rumored to even be able to harness the Zodius stones to bring powerful spiritual warriors into the realm.

The Present
Over the years, officials lost track of the legendary Zodius stones, which were once powerful treasures of the Murond Church. The calm created by Queen Florencia Drowaa melted into squabbles over politics, religion and land. The squabbles soon grew and governmental leaders were urging their people to JOIN THE ARMY and make their country proud.
The Hume capital of Lesalia was the first to issue an offer to all summoners who proved useful. Double pay and other fringe benefits were given to all those who were able to summon forth creatures. The Elvaan and Kookan societies followed soon after with similar offers.
It was at this time that the Holy Mother of the Church of Murond, Miranda Rasnada, stepped in to interfere. Mother Miranda, wanting to bring about a peace similar to the one Queen Florencia had brought 300 years prior, spoke with the leader of the Holy Murond Empire, King Kaplan Drowaa. She explained to him that by gathering the stones originally broken from the Zodius wheel, they could possibly bring back the 12 great heroes to save them in this time of need.
King Drowaa complied and sent out a message to all the lands of Ivalice: Great, great rewards would be given to those who could bring the twelve Zodius stones together. Even greater rewards would be given to the ones who could harness the stones and summon the twelve great heroes.
And so, summoners stepped forward, claiming once again to be powerful enough to summon forth the great heroes of old, and thousands of summoning stones began appearing; most, however, weren't even summoning stones at all.

TEH STORY IN LyK 10 SECONDS LOLZ~*
First there was the crystal and the crystal was life itself. From the crystal sprang the world and all life on it. There were summoners and summoning stones and everyone was happy, because you could summon up just about anything you wanted if you had the right stones.

Some bad people lived on the planet, too, though, and they met with some bad people not of the world and decided to destroy the crystal because they didn't understand it. Twelve heroes rose up and destroyed the evil people, but died in the process. The crystal felt bad and turned the heroes into powerful gems.

This was a bad move on the part of the crystal, because over time evil people got their hands on the stones and turned into great demons that caused trouble. This initiated a fear of the arcane art of summoning, and people stopped being summoners. After the demons were dealt with, the stones were gathered together and formed into a great stone wheel which was placed above the altar in the great Church of Murond.

Time went by again and stuff went back to normal, and then there was a war. And the war lasted a very, very long time, so Queen Florencia, leader of the Holy Murond Empire ended the war through many, many peace talks. In an effort to keep everyone peaceful, she split up the Zodius Wheel and gave the countries zodiac stones for them to remember the great peace by.

Another stupid move. Over the years, the stones were lost and squabbles started again. The majority of Ivalice is on the brink of war, but Mother Miranda was like "No way, dudes." and is looking to gather the original twelve Zodius stones and summon the creatures in them to save the world from another war.

*Fast-version of the story idea stolen from Dream Sentries