Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the world was at the peak of its era in the pursuit of power and knowledge. People ascended to the heavens and returned, walking amongst mortals. Great Buddhists, Evil Demons, Heavenly Celestials, Unfathomable Sages, Riders of Grand Majestic Beasts, Beloved Beings of Nature. Countless kinds of beings rose and fell. Countless kinds of method to ascend were known but a sudden change in the world changed that.
Pandemonium spread throughout the world and countless grand races and even grander sects and organizations fell. The huge surge had come to an end as each race went to one place or another to hide, higher beings ran to the higher realms to hide from the destruction of the lower realm. Countless deaths in all races happened and many are said to have been pushed to extinction.
Today, the world has regressed to what can be called a mediocre shadow of what was once a massive power that ruled the world. The races have each slowly crawled out of their holes and slowly spread their numbers once more, rediscovering what was once lost. New sects were born, clans spread, nations rise and war once more appeared.
Still the catastrophe had not only drastically changed the world but the energy of nature. Where once all kinds of power filled the air all over the massive planet no longer did this power appear. Instead the grand energies seemed as if something had snuffed a huge amount of it, now the areas were each energy appeared each possessed different kinds of energy. One region could simply have Qi, another could have Qi where each area within a region had specific element to it, there was mana which permeated the air in other regions, Spiritual force in others, infernal energy in another and so each massive region slowly claimed their own resource and their growth slowly diverted only towards these energies.
Only there was one type of being that could survive and grow in each and every kind. The most mysterious which were all called Riders. Beings who were one with their mounts born for each other and cultivated together.