The Prophecy of the Traitor

Before it was the Isle of the Sacre, this land was called the Isle of the Sacred Armors. Eight armors were kept there — worn by eight men and women chosen to defend the Black Amber Gate against the evil of the world. These guardians were called the Knights of the Sacre. Their mission: to perform the closing ritual of the Gate with each generation.

Among the young protectors of the isle lived Kleindinar — a curious, studious boy with a passion for ancient grimoires. He was not yet a knight. He was only a keeper of the libraries. But he read everything.

One evening, rummaging through the corridors of the library, Kleindinar came upon a grimoire he had never seen. On its cover: nameless symbols. Inside: the story of a knight — the Knight of the Keys.

Kleindinar closed the grimoire. He remained still for a long time. Then he went back to it. And digging deeper into the archives, he discovered that the Knight of the Keys was no legend. It was the beginning of the protective closing ritual of the Amber Gate — the one the eight sacred knights were bound to perform.

Kleindinar decided to learn it. In secret. Alone in his cell, at night, he deciphered the ancient symbols. He did not yet know what he was setting in motion.

As he was learning the ritual during one of his nightly sessions, something strange happened. Kleindinar was teleported. Instantly. Without warning. He found himself standing before the entrance of an unknown cave.

Kleindinar went down. At the bottom of the cave, at the very edge of life, lay an immense old serpent. A serpent at the end of its days. And Kleindinar understood — it was the Knight. The one who had never had his throne. The one who had vanished into the forest centuries before.

Kleindinar approached the old serpent. In its eyes he saw something he did not expect to see: sadness. Not hatred. Not anger. Only an infinite sadness, and a breath fading away.

Kleindinar said: “I can help you. We can give you back your throne.”

At that very instant — as if the gods had waited for that precise moment to intervene — Héréclès appeared. With him: Solkanaus and Dragus. And a guard of mages from the Isle of the Sacre, come to slay the serpent.

Too late.

The heart-exchange spell had just been completed. The ancient serpent god — once Lord of the Elements, Nerecleiss’s gift to the earth — had just transferred his power. Kleindinar the Young, keeper of libraries, son of no one, now carried within him the power of an ancient god.

And that power — fed by centuries of resentment, betrayal, and covetousness inherited from an ambitious mother — was corrupted within the space of a heartbeat.

Kleindinar vanished beneath the earth in an instant. The three gods could not catch him — his power was now such that it would have destroyed Terra itself had they fought.

It was then that a mage of the guard had an idea. Before Kleindinar disappeared entirely, he placed upon him the Seal of the Heart’s Replacement — to deny him complete immortality, and to create a flaw: the possibility of tearing out the heart.

The three gods gathered with the guilds of Terra. The Black Amber Gate could not be destroyed — Shabakan was too powerful. But it could be sealed. Kept closed. If — and only if — 14 magic seals remained in place. One per guild. A commitment from every pillar of Terra.