Prologue:

In the shadows of a world scarred by the relentless march of time, where the echoes of history's blood-soaked symphony reverberate through the ages, a tale of grim ambition and boundless longevity unfolds. The land, a canvas painted with the hues of power struggles and the brushstrokes of treachery, bears witness to the relentless dance of those who yearn for immortality.

Amidst the ruins of an ancient citadel, its stone walls weathered by the centuries, a solitary figure stands silhouetted against the dying embers of a sunless sky. The air is thick with the scent of decay, the lingering memory of battles waged long ago. Valerian Blackthorn, a man cursed with the elixir of life, gazes upon the horizon with eyes that have borne witness to empires rising and falling, to the ebb and flow of civilizations swept away by the tides of time.

In his hands, he holds a relic of forgotten power—a tarnished amulet, its gemstone pulsating with an ethereal light. The amulet is both his salvation and his curse, a conduit through which he draws his stolen vitality, a vessel that binds him to the ceaseless cycle of existence.

As the wind whispers through the cracks in the citadel's walls, Valerian's mind drifts back to the moment when he first grasped the forbidden knowledge that granted him this unholy gift. The faces of those who once walked beside him, now lost to the ages, haunt his memories like ghosts. Friendships betrayed, alliances shattered, and the merciless calculus of survival etched into his very being.

The path to immortality, it seems, is paved with betrayal and steeped in darkness. And so, as night descends and shadows lengthen, Valerian Blackthorn, the ageless harbinger of an ancient secret, sets forth once more into a world where mortals scheme and destiny weaves its cruel tapestry.

The stage is set, the pieces are in motion, and the immortal's gambit begins anew. The price of eternity will be paid in blood, and the echoes of this tale will resonate through the annals of history, a cautionary tale of the unrelenting thirst for power and the curse of everlasting life.