Year 426 of the moon calendar.
A weak-looking young man was lying in a busy street in the middle of a cloudy day. He was watching people having their daily businesses with a foggy look on his face. He turned his head right and saw bakers speak loudly.
Bakers: "BUY FRESH BREAD!!! BEST BREAD YOU ARE GONNA FIND IN ASHENVAIL!!!!"
And turning his head left, he could see other people, old women, speaking.
Old woman: "Did you see that homeless boy?"
Other woman: "Yes, poor little creature in the street at such a young age."
Old woman: "Poor? I believe that these pests should all be killed for contaminating the streets.
The boy thought to his head, "Don't worry, old farts, I'm going to die soon anyway." The boy streched his arms and back and watched his reflection in the window. His skin is white, though he looked sickly pale and exhausted; he has deep blue eyes, but now they rather looked like all the will to live just ceased to exist, instead replaced by a lost and foggy look; he was clothed in old rags with some dirty boots with holes in them; he had some long brown pants that little could do against the cold autumn winds; his hair was of the deepest black and completely messy; he was about the average height for a 16-year-old; his only possession was a piece of paper with a signature; it read a name.
"Patriarch of the House Blackthorn Wulfric," but that was all the nameless boy needed.
He looked up, and suddenly he was swept by a gust of wind and felt the cold creep into his body, making him shiver.
The boy watching the sky with a very intense look had a choice in front of him: either stay here and die from the cold or try to become transcended by beating the trial or die trying.
So the boy stood up and started walking as if this were the last day. With a foggy look on his face, he walked, and after some time, he seemed to have reached his destination.
He stopped in front of a grave that was simply a dam dug with a stick on top of it. He watched the nameless grave and was swept by incredibly powerful emotion—a mix of grieve, sadness, rage, regret, and most of all, a desire for Vangeance. The boy stood still on his knees in absolute silence and stillness for an unknown amount of time—was it seconds? Minutes? Hours ? The boy could not tell the sense of time was completely devoured in front of the nameless grave; it was as though the world had stopped.
The only thing that made the boy know he was still alive was the cold that creeped in through these old and destroyed rags and the sounds of people in the streets of the crowded city. The boy was in a profound state of emotion, which he did not know what to call or how to express. The boy had neither flowers nor gifts for the nameless grave; he had only words. With tears flowing from his eyes down to his cheeks and slowly falling right on his lips, he said, "I'll be back," and then went on his way.
The nameless boy made a choice: leave everything in the past, everything his name, humanity, and honor the things that defined him, the things that made him individual and different from others, for the sake of forming something anew.
From the outside, he might have looked like the young wolf cub was walking the steps towards his grave, and perhaps he was, but the young man did not care or think anymore; he had only one desire, vangeance, and it was only when his feet started to hurt that he realized he had reached his destination.
He was standing in front of a cathedral, and it wasn't just any; it was the Awakening Palace, a place where people go in order to transcend their human limits and become more powerful. To become more powerful, they take on the "Trial," which is a conjuration of a scenario that happens in another world, the world that is known as "Nowhere." In AshenVail, people treat trascended with the outmost respect.
Trials are doors that act like a link between AshenVail and NoWhere, and they are divided in 7 colors, with every color being more difficult, starting with the easiest, the White, which had a survival ratio of 1/10. The other colors are
[white green yellow, orange, red, purple, black]
and each of them is divided by 7 paths.
[PPain Fear Rage Vangeance Solace Hate Envy]
Each path rewards the challenger with different kinds of powers and weaknesses that were mostly individual.
In Nowhere, you have to overcome dreadful opponents, monsters, and difficult trials in order to survive and transcend human limits.
Most of this information is well known to the general population, even though the young boy scraped as much information as he could in the last few weeks.
The boy was now standing in front of the cathedral, and he felt awe looking at the spires that were high enough to reach the skies, with jewels carved perfectly into the stones by a master artisan that was long forgotten, becoming a part of a story that probably will never be told and perhaps it never will.
Bathed in the cold glow of a clouded sun, the stained-glass windows almost seemed lifeless, casting a strange feeling on the ancient stone walls. Upon entering, the boy experiences an intense hush, which is broken only by the gentle sound of his footfalls on the chilled stone floor. The boy is met with the great bridge, clear of any obstacles, where the sides of the tall building rose up and up gracefully, meeting in the middle with the place of the biggest nun's cross. The dim gray light coming from out of the windows was also adding more to this profound sorrowful atmosphere.
The boy walked up a few meters and stopped in front of a priestess. She seemed to be around the age of 20. She had golden hair that radiated beauty and fertility with almond blue eyes and a pretty face that made you feel like she was trustworthy. "Are all these trascended this pretty?" The boy thought in his mind, not taking much time to admire the beauty of the priestess the boy spoke.
Nameless boy: Im here to take the trial.
Priestess: Young man, is that what you truly desire?
Nameless boy: Yes.
Priestess: Do you know that the path you are pursuing will be full of dread, pain, and despair?
Nameless boy: I know.
Priestess: Than I shall not hinder you; what color would you like to pick?
Nameless boy: I want to go to the black door and go for the path of Vangeance.
Priest: Are you sure? Not many people in the whole world came back after choosing black; also, vangeance is known to have some of the most dreadful challenges.
Nameless boy: Yes, I am sure.
Priestess: What is your name, young man?
Nameless boy: I am no one.
After grinning, the priestess said, "I hope the goods will accompany you on your terrible journey, young man."
She then led him to a door that was black, but not just simple black. The door seemed to break the fabric of reality itself; it was as if the boy was watching reality crack in front of his eyes, and as soon as he opened it, he was plunged into a pitch-black, seemingly endless emptiness. He sank deeper and deeper into this eerie quiet. The boy's awareness starts to grow, examining the limits of this dark space. The weight of loneliness changes in this beautiful and dark emptiness; it changes from an oppressive silence to a concert of whispers and thoughts that reverberate in the very fabric of nothingness. The nameless boy can feel the rhythm of existence pulsating through him—an ebb and flow that parallels his own heartbeat. And Then,,,