The Fivefold Legend
"They called him a thief, a traitor, a legend. But Elias Veyne was just a boy who refused to kneel."
In the sun-washed kingdom of Valenor, where the royal House of Solas rules with divine right and the power of Royal Edict—commands spoken in sunlight that cannot be disobeyed—Elias Veyne is born into the shadowed edges of the middle class. His father is a scribe, his mother a weaver, and his older brother Theron a loyal soldier-in-training. Elias is unremarkable in every way—until the day he fails his exams and realizes the truth: knowledge is power, and power is locked away from those not born beneath the sun’s blessing.
When the royal Choosing Ceremony assigns him the humble Verdant Art (a Path meant for farmers and healers), Elias refuses his fate. He sneaks into the royal library and steals the first of many forbidden truths: Frost Logic, the icy discipline of the war-torn continent Veymar. His theft burns half the library down, branding him a criminal—and awakening a hunger for more.
Driven by fury and the memory of his brother’s betrayal (for Theron, ever the loyalist, disowns him), Elias flees Valenor. His journey takes him across the five continents:
Veymar, where he learns Frost Logic by standing in frozen rivers until his legs go numb.
Kharaz, where he bargains with a merchant-lord for Coin’s Will, trading his blood for power—and debt.
Sylvain, where rebels teach him the deadly side of Verdant Art, poisoning his own veins to grow weaponized thorns.
The Unnamed Isle, where whispers tell him the final Path—Echo Walk, the power of the dead—awaits.
But power comes at a cost. Each stolen discipline wastes his body: his hands frostbitten, his voice ruined from mimicking Royal Edict, his skin rotting from thorns. Worse, the Solas family hunts him, twisting his legend into that of a madman.
When Elias returns to Valenor, it’s not as a hero, but as a living rebellion. He proves that Royal Edict can be wielded by anyone—shattering the divine right of kings. The people rise, the palace burns, and in the chaos, Elias confronts Theron, now a captain in the Solas army.
Their final stand is not between brothers, but between faith and freedom. Theron, bound by duty, fires the execution shot—but misses on purpose. Elias, his body failing, dies mid-speech, his last words unfinished.
Legends say he walks the Unnamed Isle still, a shadow with five scars—one for each continent, and one for the brother who loved him too late.
