About this universe
As the Veil tears, Kaylee, a tattooed mage raised among Antiva’s infamous Crows, must navigate a world where the Fade leaks horrors into reality. Outnumbered and outgunned, she hunts for forbidden knowledge and lost elven relics, racing against ancient gods whose return spells the end of Thedas. Every step forward invites new peril, and there’s no going back.
Tone
Urgent and grim, punctuated by sharp wit and tense camaraderie. Magic and menace press from all sides, demanding quick thinking and resilience.
Themes
sacrifice vs. survival, power and its cost, trust and betrayal, identity under pressure
Protagonist
Kaylee
Kaylee moves with the careful grace of a Crow, every motion calculated and silent. Her sandy blonde hair is cropped to avoid distraction, and her heterochromia eyes, ringed brown and green, miss nothing. Black crow tattoos curl across her skin, visible beneath torn mage leathers. There’s alertness in every glance, and a hint of defiance in her stance.
Goal: To escape her pursuers and find a safe place to hide.
How it begins
Kaylee skids behind a shattered marble column, clutching a bloodstained satchel to her chest. The old Orlesian library around her flickers, walls shuddering between solid stone and pale, translucent veining as the Veil thins. Behind her, footsteps echo, one heavy, armored, the other light and quick, in time with her own racing pulse. She presses two fingers to a crow tattoo over her heart, murmurs a warding spell, and the air sizzles, distorting with volatile energy. The cacophony of whispering spirits grows louder, leaking through torn reality. Kaylee grits her teeth, eyes darting for exits as her magic strains against her grip. A glass case ahead splinters, shards hovering midair, caught between worlds. She hears a voice, half memory, half Fade, call her name, impossibly close. Kaylee lunges forward, boots splashing through a spreading pool of ink-black shadow, determined not to freeze as danger closes in.
About this world
Thedas stands on the brink of collapse as the Veil, the ancient barrier between the world and the Fade, grows thin. Magic surges unpredictably, twisting the land and its people, while ancient gods stir with destructive intent. Factions scramble for power and survival amid chaos and encroaching darkness.
Thedas, once a tapestry of vibrant nations and ancient rivalries, now teeters on the edge of annihilation. The Veil, the shimmering boundary between reality and the Fade, fractures daily. Nightmares bleed into the waking world. Forests mutate with impossible growths, cities flicker between realms, and weather swings from stifling heat to unseasonable frost.
Political order is in shambles. Ferelden’s fields smolder from demon incursions, Orlais’s courts buzz with rumor and terror, and Tevinter’s magisters war openly with Fade-twisted abominations. Elven enclaves break into schisms: some desperate to close the Veil, others lured by the promise of godhood. The Antivan Crows have splintered, some sell their blades to the highest bidder, others operate from the shadows to keep what little order remains. The Chantry’s authority crumbles as miracles and horrors outpace doctrine.
Magic, once the privilege of the few, now seeps everywhere. Untrained mages ignite streets with runaway spells; Templars, drained and broken, are often the last thin line against chaos. Technology struggles to keep pace, and even dwarven lyrium trade falters as the Fade seeps into the Deep Roads. Old alliances unravel, but resistance flickers: rebel mages, wily spies, and steadfast wardens strive to thwart the elven pantheon’s return and restore the Veil before the world is unmade.
