This is about exactly where the hell the (Mana) Senshi were during the Silver Millenium.
The Moon Kingdom and the planet the Mana Senshi hail from (Fa'Diel) never had contact with other, thus it is impossible that they were ever members of Usagi's court. It is also impossible because they were not princesses, they were priestesses of their own element. Naturally, Kaitlyn was the highest ranking priestess as Mana is the most important element (for without Mana, there is no life, and without life, there is nothing...yes =P). The priestesses' jobs were basically just to hang out around the eight palaces, guarding the Mana Seeds and shooing away intruders and keeping house and the like. All of them were endowed with the power of their particular element, thus they were no weaklings. They lived very solitary lives, as protecting the Seeds from evil was a full time job (Fa'Diel seemed to be an absolute magnet for megalomaniacs). However, some do say that the Priestess of Mana was not among them...
Y'see, there were very few kingdoms on Fa'Diel (as it was rather a small planet), and the most notable among these were the kingdoms of Pandora and of Tasnica. At the time of the Silver Millenium, Pandora's Queen had not currently given birth to any offspring (which was naturally making her husband a bit antsy, but that's a different story. =P), though Tasnica's royal family had a prince. This prince was born premature and was quite weak and sickly, thus as he was growing up everyone made fun of him (the fact that he had asthma and a bad case of xenophobia didn't help matters). He was forced to ascend the throne at around age 12, when the King died, executed by a war enemy (his mother died giving birth to him) The grief from his father's death (his father being the only person that was really nice to him at all) and the pressure from everyone around him often proved too much for him to handle, thus he liked to make pilgrimages out of the kingdom to the various palaces. It was on one of these meccas that he met the Priestess of Mana, and they hit it off and it was all good. =P Everything was happy for awhile, until the completion of the Mana Fortress, a great vessel which had power that was supposed to rival that of the gods'. This, naturally, ticked the gods off, so they sent their demons down to ravage the world. In the ensuing war, all the Priestesses (and a Priest) were killed trying to defend their particular Seed. The Tasnican prince, heartbroken by the loss of his love (*sobsob*), drove a sword into his heart and died, his hand still clasped with hers.
Meanwhile, unhappiness continued until the Hero appeared with the Mana Sword, smashing the fortress and bringing peace back to the land. The Mana Tree took pity on her Priestess and the young prince, and so sent them to be reborn on future Earth along with the other Priestesses (and one Priest...) as protection, so they could find peaceful, happy lives. Unfortunately, something went wrong in the process and the prince was never reborn on Earth... but in another place, a dark, cold, and unfeeling land known to most as the Negaverse.
While all of this was happening on Fa'Diel, Queen Beryl and her pals were devastating the Moon Kingdom (so basically, everything was pretty sucky everywhere), meaning that Usagi and her court were sent to Earth at the same time the Mana Senshi were.
And that's how it happened.
(or something... =P)
Mana what?
Mana Tribe--A group
of men and women that protect Mana, basically. Women, when they die,
become the spirit of the Mana Tree, and men (while they're alive. =P) become
the ManaKnight (though there has been some cases where a female is the
Knight, as well, and man is a protector of Mana...)
ManaKnight--Basically,
the Hero(ine), the one who wields the Mana Sword and fights the forces
of evil that are constantly threatening the land. Not exactly the
greatest job in the world, but hey... it's a living. =P
Mana Seed--Seeds
wherein are contained all the power of Mana. There are Eight such
Seeds, all of which reside in the Palaces.
Mana Palace--The
resting place of the Elementals and the Seeds. Eight palaces are
scattered throughout the world.
Mana Elemental--The
Eight creatures which represent the elements of the land. They are
as follows:
-
Undine--Elemental
of Water: Undines are water spirits, recognized in most earth/nature religions
(i.e., Wicca). I've never seen a picture of what the traditional
undine looks like, but the one in secret of mana/the seiken densetsu series
is sort of a crossbreed of a young girl and fish (as you can see ^_^).
Undine lives in the cave next to the Water Palace, where Sage Luka hangs
out. In mythology, the undine is a soulless spirit who gains said
soul when she marries a mortal man, bringing with it all the pain and unfluffiness
of being a human (as was told to me by Court :D) -
Sylphid--Elemental
of Air: Sylphs are air spirits, also recognized in earth/nature religions.
Traditional sylphs are lithe fairy creatures with wings, though this one
looks a bit like a plump, blue-skinned dwarf--possibly why it was renamed
'Jinn' in Legend of Mana. The Wind Palace is north of the Sprite
Village, and Sylphid lives there along with the Sprite. -
Shade--Elemental
of Darkness: If you can't really tell what's up with him, just know that
he's clutching his single eye and he has little bat wings. Shade
lives in the Underground Palace located within the Lofty Mountains, and
his place is probably one of the only ones that is supposed to be filled
with dangerous creatures (to test whoever would seek out his power).
As you can imagine, he and Kiera got on well together. In the game,
Shade's magic could only be used by The Sprite/Popoi. -
Salamando--Elemental
of Fire: Salamanders are fire spirits, recognized like undines and sylphs.
Salamando (as you might expect) lives in the Kakkara Desert, in the
Fire Palace. He's a little arrogant and has sort of an attitude,
but I like him. -
Luna--Elemental
of the Moon: Luna lives in the Kakkara Desert as well, in her own Moon
Palace. The Moon Palace, however, can't be reached by normal means--it
is pretty much hanging in space, and the only way to get there is to be
ferried by Karon (twisted version of Charon, I'm sure ^_^), the Chobin
Hood that runs the boat there. Luna is renamed 'Aure' in Legend of
Mana and has more of an association with gold than with the moon. -
Lumina--Elemental
of Light: Lumina lives on the Gold Isle, in an enormous tower (a.k.a. the
Light Palace). In the game, Lumina's magic can only be used by The
Girl/Purim. Lumina is renamed 'Wisp' in Legend of Mana, probably because
it bears a resembling to a will o' wisp...or I always thought so anyway.^^; -
Gnome--Elemental
of Earth: Gnome was probably the brattiest of all the Elementals.
He lived in the Earth Palace, which was also located underground, in the
village of dwarves. -
Dryad--Elemental
of Tree (Mana): Dryads are tree elementals, seen in a lot of mythology.
There's disagreement over this dryad's gender, but since they tended to
be female in mythology, I say it's a she. The Tree/Mana Palace is
located on its very own continent, which is beneath the sea for most of
the game. In the game, Dryad posesses the powerful 'Mana Magic' which
is used to unlock the true Mana Sword, but which is also unfortunately
sealed until the final battle. This IS Kaitlyn's Elemental, so I
guess technically you could call her 'Sailordryad', but it's really Sailormana...
^^;;
Mana Sword--The ultimate weapon, it can only be wielded by Sailor Knight or Sailor Mana. Appears to have somewhat of a mind of its own.
Mana Tree--The Tree of Life--all things begin and end with the tree. It's (as you might have already gathered) an enormous tree, situated at the heart of a place called the Pure Land and surrounded by other various foliage. ^^;
That's all, I think.
(and no, I did not make all this Mana stuff up, the lovely people over
at Squaresoft did. I just happened to think I could twist all this
into a neat crossover. ^_^)
Allow me to reiterate once
again: