Prologue
The fallen leaves tell a story…of how an abandoned child became the champion of a Carian Queen. In our home, across the fog. The Lands Between.
The tale of Raith begins in the libraries and laboratories of the Academy of Raya Lucaria, whereupon the sorcerers thereabout deigned experimentation upon man and beast. Inspired by tales of foul grafting in Stormveil Castle to the south, they seeketh to meld Glintstone, the very amber of the stars, to flesh, for such was the potency of magic by mere contact that all sorcery derived. What new wonders, then, might one reach when bonded to it!
Some made protest, claiming such a fate to mirror those of the founding masters Lusat and Azur, and indeed the comparison was not utterly unfounded. A consensus was reached; no sorcerer would undergo such process, but mighty beasts, grafted with Glintstone, whose fates must be subdued by means of Starlight Tonic, might be utilized. With such beasts at their beck and call, the Golden Order of Marika might never again challenge them nor intrude upon their lands!
Many a creature suffered and died within those walls, twisted by the cosmic energies of Glintstone. Frustrated by a lack of promise in common beings, the sorcerers sought ever more exotic entities; Albinaurics, Misbegotten, Omens…there was talk of subduing a Dragon for experimentation. A Twinsage Conspectus made case that a younger host was needed for greater ease of graft, rather than resilience of body, proffering a beastman cub of distant Faram Azula, whose flesh adhered far more naturally than any other host. Satisfied with his findings, what, then, was to be done with the sole survivor thusfar?
Twas to be that the sorcerers, having finished their study of the wretched cub, did see fit to offer it as tribute to their Queen, bidding her raise it as her shadow, as was Malekith to Queen Marika the Eternal and Blaidd the Half-Wolf to Lunar Princess Ranni. Though ventured as poorly concealed insult, for great was their disdain for their once-considered champion, Rennala accepted the babe, and wrought upon it rebirth by the Amber Egg that was her keepsake of Lord Radagon. Birthed anew via forbidden art, the crudely grafted Glintstone melded more thoroughly, becoming truly as one with his flesh. His eyes, once pure amber, were now laced with vibrant, shimmering blue. As well, so did his humors improve, no more a huddled wretch, becoming again a lively sort, full of curiosity and mirth. Whether his memory retained of such dark days hence, none can say for certain.
Doting upon the cub as her own, the Carian Queen did see fit to raise him in the Grand Library; her prison, and was thus left by the sorcerers with her “shadow”, singing lullabies into his crib. She read to him of the many legends of the moon and of the stars. The primeval current which was the darkness of the cosmos. Though he knew not the words themselves, surely the nature therein did impart. By what other means, then, was Raith to cast Glintstone Pebble ere speech came upon him? Or Glintstone Stars, a sorcery of the Olivinus Conspectus, ere he could inscribe upon scroll and parchment?
In the years that passed, some began to wonder if the jest was no longer, and indeed Queen Rennala might have such a Shadow…
