Prologue: The Age Before Ashes
AGE OF AETHARION
Before the world was carved into thirteen broken thrones, before the red eclipse tainted the skies of Thal'mire, there was Aetharion the age of gods.
In that divine time, the Aetharions ruled the world not merely as kings, but as creators, shaping the winds, the lands, and the stars with the words etched into their flesh sigils, divine markings born from the flame of the Origin itself. Among the many noble houses that bore sigils, none rivaled the House of Vel'Zareth the second most powerful lineage, only beneath the High Thrones of Aetharion.
The Vel'Zareth bore a rare and terrifying gift. Within their blood ran a pact older than words, a power that allowed them to tame the Azürheins god-like beasts that roamed the veiled dimensions beyond mortal sight. Massive, divine, and driven by elemental rage, the Azürheins bowed only to the sigil-bound Vel'Zareth. Each family member could bond with one… but even then, few survived the communion.
Their house sigil was once a glowing spiral sun entwined by Red Moon, symbolizing eternity and dominion over the wilds of divinity. But everything changed the night the moon died.
On the night of the Great Eclipse, thirteen shadows descended beings who called themselves the Aeclipsar. Born from betrayal, chaos, or perhaps from within the very gods themselves, they slaughtered the Aetharions. Even the Vel'Zareth, wielders of Azürheins, fell. The Azürheins themselves vanished, scattered, or were sealed.
But not all Vel'Zareth perished.
A few escaped wounded, cursed, and changed. They etched thirteen black thorns around their family sigil a silent vow that each thorn represented one Aeclipsar to be slain. They whispered this promise across generations, but over centuries, the bloodline thinned… until only one remained.
Now, in the 746th year of the Aeclipsar Reckoning, no one remembers the Aetharions. The world believes Thal'mire was shaped and ruled by the 13 godlords the Aeclipsar each controlling one of the Thirteen Continents. History has been rewritten. Truth, erased.
But Kael'Vorn Therion Vel'Zareth, last of his name, walks a path no scripture dares record. Hidden in shadow, carrying only the faded sigil of his house now branded and forbidden he seeks the lost Azürheins once loyal to his blood.
So far, he has bonded with only three. But thirteen thorns still mark his sigil.
Thirteen truths must bleed.
And the forgotten age must rise from ashes.