In the celestial realm of Aetheria, magic was the very fabric of existence. The strength of one's elemental affinity dictated their place in the world, from the lowly street sweepers who could barely conjure a breeze to the Archmage-Kings who commanded continents.
At the absolute pinnacle of this world stood Seraphina of the Phoenix Clan. Her beauty was legendary, a transcendent radiance that made the moon bow in shame and the sun pale in comparison. She was peerless, ageless, and utterly alone. Consumed by a desire for a heir worthy of her legacy—a child born purely of her own supreme power—she performed a forbidden rite: the Solemn Genesis.
This ritual required a tremendous sacrifice: a third of her blood essence and a fragment of her own immortal soul. From this sacrifice, woven with pure celestial energy, a child was formed within her. There was no father. He was hers, and hers alone. A perfect being, or so she believed.
When the child was born, she named him Kaelan, meaning "eternal strength." But as the elders of the Phoenix Clan gathered to witness the awakening of his innate affinity, a horrifying silence fell. The Orbs of Elemental Communion remained dark and inert. Kaelan had no affinity. He was a null. A void. A creature of flesh in a world of spirit, an impossibility born of supreme arrogance.
To Seraphina, perfection was everything. This flaw was an unbearable stain on her legacy. Coldness, colder than the void between stars, extinguished the fleeting warmth she felt. One stormy night, she wrapped the infant in a plain cloth and descended to the mortal city of Ravenfell. With a heart of ice, she left him in a rain-soaked alley behind a grimy orphanage. She did not look back. A single, perfect tear fell from her eye, sizzling and evaporating before it could touch the ground—the only testament to the piece of her soul she left behind.