The Sundering (Mythic Age)
In a desperate bid to stop the Dark King’s rise, five warrior-mages sacrificed their mortality in a forbidden ritual that split the world. This created the Mirror Realm of Shadow Fen, and bound five aspects of the Dark King into enchanted bone sigils. The guardians vanished into this twilight realm, beginning the eternal vigil.
The Long Vigil (Aeons following the Sundering)
For countless generations, the guardians defended the fractured realm of Shadow Fen from intrusions, monsters, and the creeping influence of the Dark King. Three of the original five perished over time. Their sigils became dormant, buried or hidden, awaiting worthy successors. Hadron and the Technomancer endured.
The Rise of Kappa (Late Vigil)
In a distant realm of twilight, Kappa, a master of alchemical sorcery, was plagued by visions of a weeping sigil. Following these dreams, he was pulled across worlds into Shadow Fen, where he claimed the Sigil of the Drowned Star, taking up the burden of resisting the Dark King’s dream-warping power.
Voice of Stonebeard (Shortly after Kappa’s arrival)
Thorin Stonebeard, a ranger of the Fenlands, discovered a ruined shrine and was drawn to a buried relic. He unearthed and bonded with the Sigil of the Withered Tongue, granting him power over silence and resistance to corruption. He joined the guardians and forged his magical guitar from the shrine’s remains.
The Technomancer’s Leap (One year before the Battle)
Sensing instability in the sigil bindings, the Technomancer stepped into the mortal world voluntarily—the first to cross over. She vanished from the Fen to study the modern realm’s technologies and prepared for a time when music and magic would once again merge.
The Battle of Shadow Fen (Modern Era)
The Dark King’s forces launched a devastating assault. During the chaos, a rift tore open across realms. Hadron, Kappa, and Thorin were flung into the modern world, their sigils still active but diminished. Shadow Fen was lost—left in ruin.
Exile and Arrival (Immediately after the Battle)
The three exiled guardians reunited with the Technomancer in the modern world. They discovered that music could resonate with the sigils’ power, channelling the ancient bindings through mass emotional energy. They formed the band Shadow Fen, repurposing stage performance into magical ritual.
Amplified Resistance (Present Day)
As their music began to awaken dormant magic, the final sigil—the Maw—called to a mortal drummer, who became The Forgemaster. With all five sigils active once more, the guardians now use music to maintain the prison. Every concert is a hidden spell. Every riff, a strike against corruption. Shadow Fen endures.
