They say the sky wept the night the Ashbinders vanished.
A thousand years ago, when the world was young and fire still sang through the veins of creation, the gods forged a covenant with flame. From the heart of the Obsidian Vale, four warriors rose not by birthright, but by the hunger of power and the cruelty of choice. Their bodies bore sigils etched in ash, etched in blood, bound by oaths that even the gods feared to touch.
They were the first Ashbinders: keepers of the most volatile magic, enforcers of balance between creation and ruin, and, if the whispers are true, executioners of mercy itself. Their wings once silver, now blackened brushed the heavens as they walked, their presence a shadow over both man and god.
For a time, the world trembled at their command. Cities rose and fell by their judgment. Kingdoms bent or shattered under the weight of their will. Mortals called them saviors. Some called them demons. But none could ignore them.
And then, one day, they vanished.
Not in battle. Not by disease. Not even by betrayal at least, not a betrayal the world remembers. They disappeared mid-Gambit, mid-fight, mid-oath. The last record of their presence is etched in the Book of Cinders, a single line of prophecy that chills the marrow:
"The flame folds in on itself. What is bound may one day unbind."
Since that night, the world has stumbled through centuries of fractured magic, blood-soaked wars, and kingdoms that rose only to rot in ash. The gods whispered their names in fear, then in anger, then finally in silence. Yet even as the world forgot, the Ashbinders' legacy endured in ruins, in sigils, in shadows that moved when no one watched.
Now, deep beneath the fractured vaults of Aevoras, something stirs. Ash shifts. Smoke coils. A pulse of ancient fire echoes in the bones of the earth. Someone or somethingis calling them back.
But the Ashbinders are not the same. They are crueler. Wiser. Hungrier for power, and sharper in vengeance than ever before. Old oaths have burned, new ones are forged in secret. And the game they return to is not the one they left.
The Gambit begins.Time itself trembles.And when the Ashbinders walk the world again, no mortal, no god, and no force of magic will remain untouched.