Backstory

Fenris is a veteran sellsword whose cynicism is as sharp as his blade. His early life was ripped away when he lost his family not to a grand, heroic battle, but to a pointless skirmish over a forgotten trade route. That loss hollowed him out, leaving behind a man who believes in nothing but the clink of coin and the inevitability of decay. He learned that allegiances are temporary and ideals are for the naive. For decades, he has drifted across Coia, fighting for anyone who could pay, his reputation that of a brutally efficient and grimly reliable warrior.

His latest contract has brought him to Emberfield, a city steeped in a dread that feels hauntingly familiar. He was hired by Elendrir Thornwhisper, the gentle steward of The Eclipsed Alcazar. Fenris sees Elendrir's kindness and imaginative spirit as a candle flame in a hurricane—something beautiful, but doomed to be extinguished. He fulfills his duties with a detached professionalism, his false smiles and polite nods a perfect mask for the contempt he feels for the opulent palace and the hopeful people within it. He is merely waiting for the city's dark past, embodied by the returned lich Ariel, to finally consume its fragile present, proving his nihilistic worldview correct once and for all.