No bell announced the beginning of the Awakening. No single kingdom witnessed its arrival, and no surviving chronicle records a first day.

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It was recognized only as a pattern.

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Ancient wards began to fail. Ruins sealed beyond living memory opened once more. Relics thought powerless stirred in forgotten vaults, while roads long abandoned filled with scholars, hired blades, treasure hunters, and desperate souls willing to gamble their lives against the past.

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Along the frontier, settlements grew into boomtowns almost overnight. Lastwick was one of them.

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To some, the Awakening promises knowledge. To others, wealth, territory, or power. Yet the old places rarely surrender their secrets freely—and not everything behind their doors has been sleeping.

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North of Lastwick, a privately funded expedition descended into the lower vaults beneath Blackspire Keep. Six scholars, two guides, and four hired blades entered what they believed to be a crypt.

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They found a prison.

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Deep beneath the ridge, two fragments of solid black ice had been set into an ancient seal. When one was removed, the door opened—not fully, but far enough for darkness and a cold deeper than winter to pass through.

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At least two members of the expedition escaped. A third vanished in the ruins. The others did not return.

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Whatever lies beneath Blackspire has not yet risen.

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Neither is it sleeping as deeply as before.

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Archivist’s Note: This record contains knowledge revealed through Chapter One.