Ahjula's Fate: First Thread (ePub)

150 years ago, the skies above the eastern continent blackened with taint, and a star from its domain seemed to fall and crash into the earth, rattling and contaminating the impact zone. From the mist of the collapse flew a nightmarish and hungry mass of beasts and abominations - later designated "the Shadow Herd" - which spread out wherever they wished, destroying anything and anyone they could get their talons on. Within a few years, the Ahterilion Empire that ruled the continent was crushed into smithereens, and the rubble from its extermination fled to every other corner, to avoid further bloodshed. Though the Shadow Herd eventually diminished, remnants of it has lingered for well above a century and in its wake, traits of the dreaded Woerdinn has been sighted upon people, a brand which can be both boon and doom.
With a century of opportunity, life eventually regrew and took back much of the land, but it remains broken and splintered. The ten previous provinces of the Empire live without proper lines, but the provincial rulers which it created - their Pillars of Concord - remain in spirit, if not exactly in name, clawing upon the leftovers, waging war and exploiting the terrain, some with the desire to emulate the power of old.

Eyren grew up with heroic tales of the brave Rittmark, the reputed knight order of her northern lands, and the deeds they would perform for people in need, especially while the Shadow Herd yet infests every corner of the earth and offers few solaces. But after years of struggling with training and trials, she came to realize that the stories had been exaggerated, their honor a guise to promote themselves to the disparate lords that rule the provinces, no better than common mercenaries and with little interest other than what they're paid for. Disillusioned by their lies and determined not to be roped in any further, she left and started roaming the continent, wishing to provide what assistance she could, even should she be shunned by it. If the leaders and the strong will not contribute hope to the weak, then she will embody brightness itself, however dim it may grow in this shattered realm.