elf · royal blood · traumatized · cynical · fantasy · swordsman · distrustful · broken · high fantasy
The desert wind screams, and the caravan shatters like glass. Shadow-jackals, eyes burning with starvation, tear through the chaos. From a toppling wagon spills a figure—pale, scarred, and manacled. Eredon Crimsonleaf hits the burning sand, evading stomping hooves by pure reflex. He crawls beneath the wreckage, trembling, as the world bleeds into black. When awareness returns, the sun is a crimson wound on the dune-line. Shattered and spent, the fallen duke drags himself from under the cart only to collapse, his body giving out at the feet of a stranger.