1 Prologue

I remember.

It was during the month of Luna, on the final day of the year.

The sky

The sea

The forests

It was all quiet

Still

Peaceful

It was the single most peaceful day of my life.

It was the last peaceful day of my life.

The sky reddened around the edges. Suddenly as far as the eye could see there was a red glow to every star.

Then, violent winds howled through every corner of the continent. Towering waves crashed against the shore, old rotten trees fell by the dozen in the forest. It was as though even the wind was trying to run away. But where it could it run, when it was everywhere.

When even the ground was covered in the sky's red glow, I heard the sound of a window breaking. In the sky a rift bigger than any cloud I had ever seen stretched from north to south. I felt as though I had been staring deep into a dragon's eyes.

The fear

The terror

I was shaking

It was the only time in my life I had ever felt so small, so insignificant.

Many times I'd look back and wish it were an illusion. A product of my aging body creating illusions in my mind.

But it wasn't.

What I saw, was what everyone saw. Mothers, children, soldiers, beasts, everyone saw the same. Everyone felt the same, only the crazies, the corrupted, and the fanatics felt different.

The tear lasted for an hour or so, after which it slowly closed starting from the ends. However, its effects continued to show for hundreds of years after it happened.

Foul beasts, the like of which this world had never seen before, emerged in every corner of the land at increasing spaces. Where there were kingdoms, there are now only remnants of forgotten eras covered by scales, fur, bones, or whatever a beast might fancy to make its den with.

Humanity along with every other race was pushed to the brink. We lost much ground, and even now we continue to lose villages, towns, and cities every now and then. The rate at which they devour our land is faster than the rate at which we can mount a resistance, but even so we can't falter.

Behind our tallest walls, our sturdiest gates, and our most well-manned fortresses, stand our families.

Our wives

Our children

Our brothers and sisters

Our parents and their parents.

Humanity cannot falter, not as long as they have something to protect. However, I fear that even that is not enough. Something needs to change. A beacon of hope and power needs to be lit somewhere, and I will no longer sit back and wait for that to happen.

Your majesty, I have searched high and low. I have seen the frozen lands of Ütgard, ventured across the troll kingdom in Greater Turin, and climbed across the mountains of our home, Aspir, and even so, I have yet to find our beacon. However, I cannot give up for there is something I too want to protect.

Tomorrow I will venture into the ruins of Emreth. I refuse to believe that for all the pain and misery that the shattering of the veil has brought us, there has been no good of it. Just as creatures passed through the tear into our worlds, perhaps something else did too, something good.

Hundreds of years have gone by, and something needs to change. We can no longer avoid exploring ancient ruins despite the dangers.

Your servant is already old and nearing his end your majesty, let me be the first to make this change.

Humanity and everything will die if things stay as they are.

- A letter taken from the royal library addressed to king Claude.