The wind howled across the Vale of Ash, carrying with it the scent of cinders and forgotten dreams. Kaelmoor was a village no one remembered unless they needed to forget something worse. It was here, in this forgotten cradle of dust and silence, that Aeren was born.
He was a thin boy, eyes too sharp for his age—except one, which was clouded and pale. The villagers called him Fatesilent. Mockery, pity, and fear followed him like shadows, for in a world ruled by Fatesongs—ethereal melodies that granted people divine power—Aeren could hear nothing.
Children discovered their Fatesong at twelve, their voices becoming instruments of power: fire, healing, illusion, war. But Aeren remained empty. No note, no hum, no whisper. His mother wept in private. His father drank himself into silence.
On the eve of his sixteenth winter, the sky cracked open.
The Crimson Eclipse came, swallowing the stars. Twin moons aligned—a celestial phenomenon that hadn't occurred in over a thousand years. Most villagers hid in fear, shuttering windows and muttering prayers. But Aeren stood atop the old stone altar in the woods, drawn by something he couldn't explain.
And then… he heard it.
Not a song—but a cacophony. A dissonant, violent rift in reality itself. It wasn't just sound—it was understanding. Knowledge poured into his mind like wildfire. He saw symbols not meant for mortal eyes, equations of divinity, names of dead gods scratched onto the bones of the world.
The Entropy Codex.
The power didn't grant him a song—it gave him the ability to unravel songs.
He returned home, unaware that a god had awoken inside him.
That night, a boy born broken tore apart the sacred harmonies of the world with a single thought. A hunter tried to steal from him. Aeren's eye glowed black. The man's Fatesong—his power to control beasts—shattered. Forever.
And so the first ripple spread.
Far away, in the spire-city of Altheris, High Arcanist Veylor felt the tremble. A song had been silenced unnaturally.
"This… is the Dissonance," he whispered.
The war for the soul of Erathis had begun.