Astaroth Arcanum

Astaroth Arcanum was raised in Greywood, a remote settlement in the plains of Aelthir. He left not to chase greatness, but because remaining would have meant watching the last memory of his community disappear.

Greywood

The elders around Astaroth had lived through the destruction of the former world. They spoke of Aelthir’s lost libraries, faiths crushed beneath imperial monuments and the sense of common order that had once bound its people. To them, these were not distant legends. They were wounds carried into old age.

Greywood emptied slowly. Younger residents left for wealthier states, easier lives or the security of established powers. The elders died one by one, leaving Astaroth with their stories, their faith and the name of a god earlier emperors had tried to erase.

Departure

Astaroth crossed the plains of Aelthir alone. He carried no army and no inherited wealth—only the words he had been taught and the belief that Greywood’s final ember did not have to die with the village. When he reached the place where he intended to settle, he did not recognise it by sight. He recognised it by feeling. He knelt, recited the old words and began.