To understand what I am about to tell you, we must go hundreds of sols back, when they say the kingdoms were all still one land, and the Scions roamed Somniox with humans. You see, back then, they worshipped not multiple gods, but a single one: a great entity who created all we know from the sheer will of his dreams.

He was known as the Dreamer. Beliefs of the time claimed he existed in some unreachable space. Not with the living, not with the dead, but somewhere in between, and that we only glimpsed him by turning our gaze to the sky. They thought that it was his form that made up the veil of the sky, and the stars we glimpse at night are the resting souls slumbering in his protective hold.

The spirits—nightgraces and nightwraths—were his first creations, meant to dwell in that between space to keep him company. After that, he dreamed of magical beings upon the earth, those with magic to balance Somniox and defend it against the nightmarish creations his dreams would sometimes produce. These were the Scions. They considered themselves his descendants, as they were the ones gifted with many blessings from him, from their magic to their long life to the very weave of the world painted across their skin.

Next, he dreamed of creatures untouched by his magical influences, who would roam Somniox knowing him but not bound to him. A pure freedom of being. There were the humans.

Sols passed of humans and Scions living in harmony. They tended to Somniox. When the Dreamer's dreams would produce monstrous shadowed beasts that we now know as Terrors, the Scions worked with humans to slay them. When these dreams created Mercies, mythical creatures of purity that have long been forgotten by our world, the two races would help the Mercy find a home.

Things were far from perfect, but the world was at peace.

But, as is the nature of life, envy found its way in. A handful of humans banded together, believing it unfair that they were the Dreamers' only intellectual creation without magic. They wanted to have what the others had, unaware that they were the only one gifted complete free will from their god. They spent more than ten sols, collecting information and support to craft a magical seal that would give humans magic. It was a replica of the mark the Scions bore, but to place it upon themselves, the humans had to have a source to power it. And the one they found? Worship.

Once they marked themselves, they would turn the adoration and faith people placed in them into magical energy. I cannot say what the extent of their plans were, because the Scions discovered this attempt and ended it before the humans could succeed. Humans, they said, were never meant to have magic, or the Dreamer would have given it.

After this, things changed in many ways. The Scions trusted humans less, and the humans wondered if the Scions were guarding their powers out of greed. Perhaps to try to remedy this, or simply because the rift invited greater darkness into the world, the Dreamer began choosing a human whenever he foresaw a great calamity, blessing them with bits of magic.

Most humans were pacified knowing that the Dreamer considered them the truest defenders of the world, while Scions became aggravated that the Dreamer kept trying to pacify the lower species. One of them recalled the failed human creation, and he gathered five others to him.

This Scion convinced the others that the Dreamer was too sentimental toward his creations, that in his attempts to love all, he would forever cater to the inferior beings when his true children were the Scions. Together, these banded Scions stole the notes created by the humans, ones the other Scions had foolishly hidden in their archives rather than destroy. In secret, these six Scions performed the spell on themselves.

The Dreamer was aware of this, but he could only try to interfere so much. The veil between realms meant his most effective way was to influence dreams, but any who understood enough to confront these six Scions found themselves at the end of a blade. Even the Dreamer's Nightwraths were slain, as they had been created to handle wayward spirits, not magical beings.

The six Scions went through Somniox, performing great deeds and earning the love of humans all around. With each achievement, they become more beloved, and their power grew. They became even better at blocking out the Dreamer's intervention, and they convinced more and more Scions about why their way was superior.

Within only a couple of sols, these six Scions became so powerful that they entrapped the Dreamer in an inescapable prison within the sky. When you look up, it's always the brightest, empowered by the being within it. Over time, people began to call it the Guiding Star, as with the bit of power the Dreamer can still exert, he tries to point people in the right direction.

The Scions were not done, though. They knew that if they were to become greater, they had to wipe the Dreamer from everyone's minds. With their great magical power combined, they managed to split the great land into three separate pieces, along with a few stray bits: the three continents and the various islands. With the people separated, they believed it would be even easier to manipulate everyone.

The Scions claimed that the divide occurred because the Dreamer fell, killed by his very Terrors. Once people began to believe this, as they never heard from the Dreamer again in their dreams, they ceased to speak about him as much. They turned to these six Scion heroes: Irida, Varra, Cerene, Herkell, Arthus, and Zaal.

Yes, the ones those of today know as the original gods.

From there, things became too easy. They erased every written piece of evidence of the Dreamer they could find. Praise turned more and more to these new Scions, who claimed to have ascended to godhood. Those who questioned it didn't survive long, and those worshipping these new gods quickly forgot about their past. To this day, the Scions eliminate those who know the truth to keep it from spreading.

All except in one kingdom, where many Mercies gathered. They protected its people from the Scions, and over time, they were outcasted as a forsaken kingdom, worshipping the Terrors: Caeleria. The longest-living of these is the Tempest Serpent, a great beast that would fly amongst the storms to direct them to the dryest places and protect those at sea.

When a creature terrifies us, it's very easy to consider it monstrous, wouldn't you say?

But despite his captivity and his repressed power, the Dreamer was not gone.

He still dreamed. New creations arose upon the earth, both Terrors and Mercies alike. And still he foresaw disasters: Great Terrors rising up, magical artifacts abused to hurt humanity, shadowy organizations toppling kingdoms.

You saw the star show around the Guiding Star. This is when the barrier around him is the weakest, and when his power can trickle through to Somniox. Every sol, the so-called gods cast a spell to reinforce his prison, and when they do, they can also read the flow of his power. Sometimes, this includes a new Dreamwoven being chosen. When that happens, they know what the Dreamer foresaw, and can claim the vision their own. They hunt down the Dreamwoven and 'reinforce' the Dreamweave upon them.

The Dreamer's blessing, the original name of the mark, was only meant to bring the chosen greater luck and constitution, but the Scions placed a weakened form of their own atop it. Their tainted Dreamweave holds the conditional curse as well as the magic that empowers a person based on the amount of acclaim and praise they receive. This is why they send the chosen through the lands before they reach their true goal.

Now, this is only the beginning of our tale. The very foundation. The false gods' sins do not cease with their coup. The Dreamer has been vanquished from most human memory, though remnants of his name linger still. Many Scions still know, even if the gods try to keep it confined.

They have elevated allies to 'godhood', the ones humanity knows as the second-age gods. Others they allow to run amok, leashes so loose they may as well be nonexistent. These are the ones who go about leaving Dreamweaves upon unsuspecting humans, not caring they're dooming them to death if it means a lune or two of entertainment.

Ah, but no, that is not where Roan falls. Roan falls into the second category of how the gods keep control. I mentioned magical artifacts to you once. Their existence is uncommon knowledge, as the Scions collected most of them in their bid to hold control of all magic. In fact, I do not believe any remain in Eloina.

The Scions had two favorite artifacts: the Lunisium Blade and the Solarite Pendant. The prior canceled magic while the latter enhanced it. They found a terrifying ability of the Lunisium Blade: they could sever a being's very connection to the wells of magic. This did not eliminate their ability to use magic, but it changed their source.

It's hard to grasp for anyone not a Scion. I have heard it described by one as having a tether to the very existence of the universe, maybe even the Dreamer himself. They slowly gather a pool of energy to manipulate magic from that tether. The closest you will get is thinking of that tug you feel within yourself when you use it, but for them, it is something much more intimate and whole.

When a Scion loses that connection, they instead must pull magic from within themselves, and there is only one place they can do that: their soul. These Scions, dubbed the Unwoven, slowly eat away at their own soul as they use their magic, until all that is left is a magic-producing hole.

More likely than not, Roan is a mere fragment of an existence.

These Unwoven would have run rampant, except that the false gods trapped them in a pocket space between this life and the next, much like they had the Dreamer. They knew that a being with an imperfect soul could not choose to go into one realm or the other, and so they would suffer their long lives, slowly losing their very selves from either using magic or a broken spirit.

Roan was, in fact, trapped in this prison, but I will get there in a moment. Before his escape, something else significant occurred, an event that will lead us to answer another of your questions. The artifacts were far too powerful of weapons for the Scions to keep, so with most of his restored power, the Dreamer destroyed most of them on one of the very rare times the Scions were late in recasting their spell.

The magic these items held could not just vanish, though. Instead, he fused them with the very being of various humans. They would gain the powers of the artifacts, and when they died, it would pass on to someone born in their family line. This made it much harder for the Scions to reclaim.

One of the bloodlines to receive an artifact's power was a humble family from a seaside village within Caeleria. The Blade artifact in human form. As if sensing the power of its creator, the Tempest Serpent made a home in that same place, vowing to keep the family safe. From there, the ruse of a priestly family serving the Serpent began.

Now, for Roan. From what I have gathered, he was not severed because of any specific act, but because of fear. He was a Modika himself at one point, his silver tongue and magical persuasion making him a powerful Scion. Too powerful, the gods feared, especially when he showed discontent for how the Scions treated humans. They dared not ascend him to godhood to buy his loyalty, as they didn't dare imagine his abilities enhanced. So, for their safety, they chose to make him an Unwoven and hid him away in the prison.

This would have been the end to him and all the other Unwoven if not that, only six sols ago, something happened. An innocent child, the offspring of an up-and-coming Scion, roamed into the wrong area of the palace. My informants have given me different accounts. Some say magic from beyond the realm pulled at her, as she never should have been able to find it. Others think the Dreamer may have influenced her path. Whatever it may be, she found the prison, something meant to keep people in rather than out.

When she reached her hand through, someone took her hand, and with that connection to someone with a whole soul, the Unwoven was able to step out. Once free, they used their magic to destroy the prison. Suddenly freed, the Unwoven escaped, determined to hide away from the Scions until they could enact their revenge.

One of these Scions had a much clearer goal for revenge, having not been driven insane by his time severed or trapped. He would find the Blade, and he would find three other powerful artifacts, and with them combined, he would destroy everything the false gods stood for.

I'm sure you've put it together. Roan is that Scion; Callum is the Blade. If we don't stop him, Roan on his path of vengeance will bring the world to ruin. 

*****

Big things happening!  So many reveals :D I was so excited to get to this part, where you all get to learn about the things going on behind the scenes, and I hope it's as fun and cool as I imagined it to be!  And now Ash knows allll the things >:D We'll see next part just how she's taking it.

Let me know your thoughts on the chapter down below, and if you enjoyed it, don't forget to vote and comment! I also have a discord open to anyone who wants to join, and we have a section there to discuss the book :D Let me know if you want to join!