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Rave is 21, the kind of young man who blends easily into a crowd—quiet, slender, with dark, gentle features that mask a mind sharper than most ever notice. But behind his tired, shadowed eyes lies a weight far too heavy for someone his age to carry. His parents are gone, claimed by the cruelty of Emperor Valtharion's regime. Their deaths left more than just an empty house—they carved a hollow space inside him, one that no amount of time seems able to fill.
He wasn't anyone special growing up. School was something he drifted through, neither failing nor shining. But those who looked closely—really looked—might have caught a flicker of something deeper in him, something coiled and waiting. That depth, the quiet fire behind his gaze, has only grown since the day everything fell apart.
Rave grew up in the Crimson City, a place as beautiful as it was bleak. Brown clouds hung like bruises in the sky, forever dimming the sun's warmth. The houses—dark oak, weather-worn, clinging stubbornly to the hills—stood like sentinels against the gloom. To Rave, the city wasn't just home. It was a mood, a feeling—a place that mirrored the weight in his chest.
That city, like so many others, lies within the Shadowfen Dominion—a swamp-choked kingdom ruled by Emperor Valtharion, a man as distant as he is feared. No one knows what lies behind the mask he wears, only that his eyes see everything. He governs from the shadows, his will enforced by the Absolute Authority—an organization with no mercy and no need for it. Dissent is met with silence. Or worse. The heads of rebels displayed at the grand port don't speak, but their message is loud and clear.
The Dominion is vast and unwelcoming. Sunlight is rare. The land is thick with tangled trees and the air smells of rot and rain. It's easy to get lost here—geographically, emotionally, morally.
Three cities hold what passes for power in this land:
Shadowfen City
Crimson Fall City
Nightshade City
Each one is under the thumb of the Authority. Each one survives by bending—or breaking.
Those who dare to oppose their iron grip find their fate sealed—their severed heads displayed as a grim warning at the kingdom's grand port, a chilling reminder of the price of defiance. Rave's parents' deaths were a testament to this brutal regime. Rave's story begins in the aftermath of loss. The world has taken much from him, but not everything. Not yet. Beneath his quiet demeanor, something is stirring. A shift. A choice. And soon, the life he's known—this shadowed, silent existence—will no longer be enough.
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