Our story starts a little over four months previously. Also, four years previously. And four hundred years previously … and four thousand years … and fourteen thousand years.
Let’s work our way forward.
Fourteen thousand years ago, human settlers invaded this dimension from another, fleeing the death of their universe. They were ill-prepared to deal with a world where magic existed and where they could neither easily die nor reproduce. They survived and made a home here, but it’s most important that you know this: two of the settlers were brothers named S’arric and Rev’arric. S’arric was popular. Rev’arric was smart. Eventually, Rev’arric came to loathe that difference.
Four thousand years ago, a second invasion occurred, this time by a race of telepathic, incorporeal monsters who thrived on pain and fear. This invasion damaged the barrier between this world and its twin, a shadowy Afterlife from which all souls came and eventually returned. Afterward, humans could be killed and could have children, but this seemed an ill reward for being slowly destroyed by demons they couldn’t fight.
Rev’arric, smart man that he was, figured out a way. He devised a ritual to empower Eight Guardians, giving them godlike powers and the ability to follow demons even into the Afterlife. But he assumed he’d be one of the people picked to receive these powers, and when his brother was chosen instead, Rev’arric was overwhelmed with jealousy and hate.
So, when he discovered that the dimensional breach the demons had created would eventually annihilate the universe, he didn’t hesitate at a solution that required his brother’s destruction. He tricked his brother into participating in a second ritual, meant to elevate Rev’arric and turn his brother into a thrall under his control. Instead, it turned Rev’arric and the eight other participants into insane dragons and turned S’arric into a horrifying monster under no one’s control. This obliterated their country, formed the Blight, killed millions, and created both the Cornerstones and the sword Urthaenriel. Their people, the voras, eventually imprisoned S’arric (now called Vol Karoth) at the cost of their immortality, but not before he killed the rest of the original Eight Guardians. One of the Cornerstones, the Stone of Shackles, was used to bind the demons, effectively ending the war. But it was too late: the voras had been plunged into a dark age from which they never recovered. A cycle in which Vol Karoth’s prison would weaken and could only be repaired by the sacrifice of an entire people’s immortality would repeat several times.
Over four hundred years ago, Vol Karoth’s prison weakened once more, but this time he woke. The Eight Guardians (now called the Eight Immortals) had been resurrected, but none of them were prepared to fight their former leader. Worse, upon waking Vol Karoth broke the sun, turning it from yellow to orange-red. After repairing Vol Karoth’s prison, the Quuros emperor, Kandor, invaded the Manol and was slain. Kandor’s wife, Elana, snuck into the Blight to bargain with the morgage. While there, she remembered that she’d once been S’arric’s lover, C’indrol, and so tried to separate S’arric from “Vol Karoth.” She succeeded, after a fashion, sending fragments of S’arric’s souls into the Afterlife, where he slowly healed. S’arric, Kandor, and Elana would all later volunteer to be reincarnated to stop Vol Karoth, joined by the first emperor of Quur, Simillion.
Four years ago, a street thief named Kihrin stumbled upon a demonic summoning, gaining the attention of a particularly evil necromancer named Gadrith, a particularly evil demon named Xaltorath, and a particularly evil Quuros prince named Darzin. The latter snatched the boy up, claiming to be Kihrin’s father. In reality, Darzin’s master, that necromancer, Gadrith, wanted an artifact that Kihrin unknowingly wore: the Stone of Shackles. Kihrin ran away, and while he technically escaped Darzin, he didn’t escape being sold into slavery and auctioned off in a far-away land. There, he was almost purchased by Rev’arric (now cured of his insanity, passing himself off as human, and going by the name Relos Var). Instead, Kihrin was purchased by a cult working for the Goddess of Death, Thaena (one of the Eight Immortals). Kihrin spent the next four years on a tropical island, training. Also falling in love, having his heart broken, running afoul of a different dragon, discovering he was the reincarnation of S’arric, and trying to convince himself that his feelings for Thaena’s son, Teraeth (the reincarnation of Kandor), weren’t romantic.
Four months ago, Kihrin returned to the Capital City with Teraeth and a weather witch named Tyentso, in order to stop Gadrith’s plans and free Gadrith’s son Thurvishar (who was the reincarnation of Simillion). Instead, Gadrith captured Kihrin, gained the Stone of Shackles, sacrificed Kihrin to Xaltorath, sparked a Hellmarch, and swapped bodies with the Emperor of Quur. But Kihrin didn’t stay dead, and he uncovered what Gadrith had been seeking: the god-slaying sword, Urthaenriel, which Kihrin promptly used to kill Darzin and Gadrith, and destroy the Stone of Shackles. This broke all the gaeshe that kept demons under control, unleashing chaos. Also, Tyentso ended up becoming the Empress of Quur.
Kihrin fled the Capital, hoping to find an ally against Relos Var in the form of a mysterious figure called the Black Knight. This turned out to be Janel, the reincarnation of Elana and the last of the four volunteers. She’d fought her own battles against Xaltorath and Relos Var, but now wanted Kihrin’s help killing the dragon Morios, whom she believed would soon destroy the Jorat capital, Atrine. Although this threat was real, it was also a trap set by Relos Var, meant to separate Kihrin from Urthaenriel. It worked. It also woke Vol Karoth and damaged his prison.
Four fortnights ago, the Eight Immortals dispatched Kihrin, Teraeth, Janel, and Thurvishar to the Manol in order to make sure the last immortal race did their part to repair Vol Karoth’s prison. The vané king said no—by drugging the four and leaving them in the Blight to die. In the aftermath, they realized the situation was more complicated than they’d realized, and that the Eight Immortals weren’t pure of intentions. When Thaena proved willing to murder her own son and destroy an entire nation to repair Vol Karoth’s prison, Kihrin was forced to ally with Relos Var to stop her. By the time the dust settled, four immortals, including Thaena, were dead. Kihrin decided on a rash course of action: to merge back with Vol Karoth in the hope of ruining Relos Var’s plans to replace the Eight Immortals with himself.
Four days ago, Relos Var’s apprentice Senera switched sides. She kidnapped a dozen people during a dual kraken/dragon attack on the island of Devors and took them to a magical lighthouse outside the normal flow of time. She’d hoped that Kihrin’s loved ones would help him fight off Vol Karoth, but the group realized it was the wrong approach: Kihrin and Vol Karoth were no longer separate entities. The only way to “win” was to help Kihrin—and themselves—overcome his trauma.
And in a few minutes, Kihrin—once called Vol Karoth, and before that, S’arric—will break free from his prison. Janel and Teraeth will return to the Manol to reclaim a throne. Thurvishar and Senera will try to recover Urthaenriel. Empress Tyentso will struggle to save an empire that’s always hated her. Relos Var will begin his final plans to control the dragons, enslave Vol Karoth, heal the dimensional breach, and make himself a god. Lastly, Xaltorath will attempt to steal enough energy to unravel the universe.
And here we go.