“When the stars fall and the towers wake, the Soulborne shall walk the Ashen Path. One will rise, bearing flame and shadow, to either damn the world… or deliver it.”

— From the Lost Verses of Velkharn 

The Legend of the Ashen Crest

Long before kingdoms and bloodlines shaped the world, there were nine sacred crests—gifts from the god-spirits to bind order to chaos.

But one crest was lost.

Forged from a broken god and soaked in betrayal, the Ashen Crest was cast out, sealed in obsidian, and erased from history. A curse disguised as a gift.

Those born bearing its mark—the Soulborne—were hunted. Feared. Forgotten.

Until now.

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Prologue – The Mark Beneath the Ash

The legends say the gods abandoned us.

The scholars say they were never there.

But I remember the fire.

I remember the tower.

And I remember dying.

The day the Obsidian Tower split the sky, I was just a boy.

Ash fell like snow.

Screams drowned the thunder.

And somewhere beneath it all, I was reborn.

With a crest seared across my back—black as shadow, burning like flame.

The Soulborne mark.

They said I should have died with the others. That I was cursed.

But an old swordsman found me first.

He gave me a name.

Kael.

He taught me to move in silence. To wield the blade like breath.

But nothing quieted the fire in my soul.

Or the voices that came when I slept too long.

Now… the towers stir again.

The old gods whisper.

And the mark is no longer silent.

I never asked to be chosen.

But if the world fears what I am—

Then it will fear what I become.