The story so far.
Isakk was born into the slums of the empire, taken as a boy to serve at a forgotten border camp under the cruel Commander Wideroth. There, stripped of any real freedom, he learned to survive through nothing but instinct and quiet defiance.
Sent to scout the east ridge, Isakk was ambushed by goblins, only to be saved by something he couldn't explain. His wounds had healed. His memory had gaps. Following the trail back, he stumbled upon a destroyed village, and within it, a demon disguised as a lost little girl.
The fight nearly killed him. It should have killed him. But through sheer will, teeth, and a stolen dagger, Isakk overcame her. In her final breath, she cursed him, leaving behind a burning sigil in his palm, and with it, a fragment of her consciousness. Her name was Xerile.
Back at camp, tragedy struck closer to home. Anna, the pregnant woman he shared a tent with, gave birth, only for Commander Wideroth to try and take the newborn for twisted alchemical purposes. Isakk intervened, and paid for it, thrown into a pit of rotting corpses meant to be his grave. It was there Xerile first spoke to him properly, guiding him toward magic buried deep in his blood, magic he used to claw his way back out.
What followed was retribution. Isakk hunted down the camp's alchemist, responsible for dozens of deaths, and ended her. Then he turned his blade on Wideroth himself, delivering the death the man had long since earned. With his enemies dealt with and Anna safely asleep with her child, Isakk deserted the camp for good, walking into the wilderness as both a murderer and a free man.
His path led him to Aldenmere, a small, unremarkable village clinging to peace on the empire's forgotten edge. There, he lied about his past, calling himself a mercenary, and slowly found something he never expected: comfort. An old man named Tomas took him in without question. A little girl named Sable followed him everywhere, unafraid. For the first time, Isakk began to heal, piece by piece, even as Xerile's voice lingered constantly in the back of his mind, patient and watching.
But peace never lasts long in this world.
Aldenmere burned in the night. Sable's mother was killed. Tomas, the closest thing Isakk had known to family since his own mother, was struck down by an unknown figure wielding magic no ordinary man should possess.
And now, sigil burning bright in his palm, Isakk stands at the edge of the wreckage, forced once again to decide exactly what kind of man he's willing to become.