Lord Theodore's Perspective.
Seventy years ago. House Theodore capital.
Opathelia.
The city spread beneath the spire like a jeweled tapestry, its streets neat, its towers proud. From my study window, I could see the distant smudge of the Ashenveil Forest on the horizon, a perpetual bruise against the sky. For decades, I had looked at that forest and seen our purpose. Our noble duty. The reason for our existence.
I was wrong.
I just realised it. My eyes showed it all. The eyes of Veracity that I had. The eyes that I had from birth.
They had always been there, those eyes. Citrine and cold, they marked me as Theodore, as heir, as something more. But it was only recently, in the quiet of my study, surrounded by the accumulated records of centuries, that I understood their true gift. They did not just see. They saw through. Lies dissolved before them. Histories revealed their fractures. And now, they showed me the truth of my own house.
Our family was used.
The words were a bitter pill, swallowed alone in the dark. I had built my life on a foundation of righteous vengeance. The founder's family, slaughtered by Ashenveil monsters. A noble house born from tragedy, dedicated to protecting others from the same fate. It was a beautiful story. It was a lie.
The founder's family was not killed by monsters…but it was killed by superior dragon Antherra.
The name burned in my mind. Antherra. A superior dragon of immense age and cunning. His domain bordered the Ashenveil, a cursed land of corrupted Aether and endless horrors. Superior dragons are now split into different factions. Antherra's area bordered the Ashenveil Forest. He had a problem: the forest spawned monsters constantly, a tide of corrupted flesh that threatened to overwhelm everything. But instead of wasting his own resources fighting them, he found a cheaper solution.
The forest is an extremely dangerous place. No food, monsters, corrupted Aether. And monsters that erupted from it. A nightmare landscape that required constant vigilance. Antherra, to not put his resources in destroying monsters, used the founding Theodore to make all monsters go after him. He fooled everyone. The forest's unique nature was that it expanded. It needed a lot of resources to stop it from expanding. The monsters that came corrupted the trees and if not killed.... lead to expansion.
A simple spell. A twist of fate. Absolute Manipulation—his unique ability—bent the will of a grieving man, twisted his quest for vengeance into a tool for dragon convenience. The founder thought he was fighting for justice. He was fighting for a monster's laziness.
This caused a curse in House Theodore.
Every superior dragon has a unique ability. This was not in any books. Antherra's ability was 'Absolute Manipulation'. A lower bound unique ability. Lower bound—meaning it was subtle, insidious, not the flashy power of fire or lightning. It worked on minds, on perceptions, on the very threads of fate. He was able to control monsters and humans. And through that control, he had shaped my family for generations.
Every Heir now had to defend against the monsters that came to attack the territory. The monsters didn't come naturally. They were sent. Directed. A perpetual siege designed to keep us weak, busy, and believing in our sacred duty. This caused the slow downfall of House Theodore. Resources bled. Lives lost. Potential squandered.
The previous heirs did not much use the ingredients gained by killing monsters. They saw only the fight, the survival. They didn't see the opportunity.
When I came into power I used them all. The monster parts—hides, bones, organs, cores—were valuable. Alchemical reagents. Enchantment components. I built trade routes, established contracts, transformed death into wealth. The family fortunes rose on the backs of the very creatures sent to destroy us.
But wealth wasn't enough. I needed knowledge.
The church was in the dragon's hand. I knew that. My eyes confirmed it. The rituals, the doctrine, the Awakening—all tainted. All serving the ancient enemy.
My eyes showed that the Superior Dragon has grown old. Antherra, for all his power, was mortal. Dragons age. They weaken. His power grew weaker and when he would die in a few decades he would leave all his land to his son, who would become a superior dragon after a few centuries. A new tyrant, young and hungry, inheriting the same twisted game.
The cycle will continue. I needed to break this cycle. The cycle of endless pain and suffering.
But I was not innocent. The truth of my own hands was written in blood.
Everyone of my siblings died. Because of me. I in my greed killed them all to take the throne. The memories surfaced—fights in dark corridors, poison in wine, a sister's scream cut short. Six siblings. Six corpses. Seven steps to power. I had told myself it was necessary, that I was the strongest, the most fit to lead. But that was the dragon's manipulation too, wasn't it? The paranoia, the ambition, the willingness to destroy my own blood—all nurtured, all guided.
But I realised… it was all a fake. The rivalry, the competition, the glorious victory—it was all theater. I was a puppet who had killed the other puppets and called himself king.
In the next decade (40-50) I started preparing. If I was a puppet, I would cut my own strings. I would build something that could survive the dragon's death and challenge his heir. I became a swordmaster.
I pumped up my army. Recruited, trained, equipped. The monster trade funded it all. Since I didn't have any siblings, I had to gain more power alone. No allies within the family. I would have to look beyond.
The Ashenveil Forest has borders to 2 great kingdoms. Haier and Ironhood. They both bordered the forest but very few monsters came, because of the power of the superior dragon forcing monsters into House Theodore. They lived in peace while we burned.
I visited both of them and secretly made a pact of non-aggression, profit trade and a pact of alliance against the forest. They were skeptical at first. Why ally with a distant house against a threat they barely felt? I showed them ledgers. I showed them the true scale of the monster incursions. I showed them what would happen when the old dragon died and the new one took interest in expansion.
I made very good relations with both of them and sold the ingredients of monsters to make huge profits. Ironhood's smiths wanted dragon-scale alloys. Haier's alchemists wanted cores and glands. Everyone benefited. Everyone grew dependent on the trade. And slowly, quietly, they agreed to stand with us when the time came.
The sunstone barrier doesn't work in Ashenveil Forest. Even the strongest barriers don't work in that corrupted forest. It's a no man area. No protection. No rules. A lawless killing ground between our territories.
On the left of it was Antherra's domain, on the right of it was House Theodore. On east there was the 3 powers. (Church, king, Mareux). North side of house Theodore was Ironhood and further north there was Haier. A map of alliances and enemies. The dragon to the west. The human powers to the east. The northern kingdoms as potential shields.
In the next decades (60-80) I decided to expand my family. I married. I gained a lot of power. My Aetheric skills grew. I fathered children. Seven of them, golden-haired and strong.
Before that I decided to make a test environment for them. A crucible. A way to see who had the mind to see through lies, the will to seek truth, the strength to bear it.
I made the shed, hidden library, tower and the garden. I planted the book in the first child's room, watching through hidden means. Would they reach for it? Would they explore? In the hidden library I added the secrets hidden in algorithms. I decided the one who will uncover the truth before the ceremony will succeed in the test.
The reason for this was to check who has intelligence to lead and the one who will clear all of this…. I promised my wife before dying that the one who would pass the test will become the Heir. A sacred vow. The one who solved the puzzle, who learned the dragon's secret before the Awakening, would inherit everything.
The first test, dropping the book, was done. A simple primer, placed where a curious child might find it. But none grabbed the book. Seven children. Seven opportunities. All of them ignored it, or were too young, or were not watched closely enough by whatever forces I had arranged. The book remained unclaimed year after year.
The first child was able to crack only the shed and enter the library late, a few days before the ceremony. Alistair. Very Strong like me , capable, a natural leader. But slow. Too slow. He found the library, yes, but the algorithms were beyond him. He took the surface knowledge—the military tactics, the political treatises—and ignored the deeper code.
The second child was able to crack in 6 years. Lyra. Quicker, sharper, more devious. She was less stronger than Alistair, but her Aether perception was the best on the continent. She found the shed, the library, and began to work on the algorithms. They took the knowledge of the library and tested their Aether. Lyra was able to crack some codes but time ran out and she failed. She saw fragments. When her Awakening came, she was still guessing.
I was getting anxious… who will crack this. And who will become the Heir.
The years passed. The third child, Elara, showed promise but lacked obsession. The fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh were competent but unremarkable. None of them found the truth. None of them saw the dragon behind the Church, the manipulation behind the mission, the centuries of lies that built our house.