The First Shadow

Thousands of years before the events of Born of Blood and Ruin, six elves uncovered a power they were never meant to touch. The Gift changes them, mind, body, hunger, and unleashes a darkness that twists the kingdom from within. Sylven’s dream of purity becomes doctrine. His hunger becomes law. And the city’s future becomes the war readers will one day recognize. This is the first sin. The first blood. The first step toward the world Vaelen inherits. Every story has a beginning. This one is written in crimson.