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Description

I realized that I failed to post a proper introduction for Alex publicly! Much overdue for that, considering that she is essentially the protagonist of the story (if not the "main" character). I have also decided to call this setting “Amaranthine” for now. Even when abridged as much as possible, her story’s a bit long, but here goes:

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Alex was born in a remote, rural town called Deepstone. Like many of the settlements in Amaranthine’s "present" time period, it was built underground to insulate it against the bitter cold of what was essentially a magic-induced "nuclear winter".

She was taught hunting and tundra survival skills from a young age, and seemed to be on track to grow into a self-sufficient, socially-minded young woman--embodying all the virtues her culture valued most.

But one day, something terrible bubbled up from the depths of the cave system beneath Deepstone. Alex was out hunting with her father on the surface when an uneasy, sickly feeling began to creep up her spine...

The Shadow--a thick, viscous, black sludge--had come to claim their town. It oozed up from the cave system beneath the town, squirming through the tunnels, smothering and absorbing everything in its path. Alex had heard tell of this thing--a dark, infectious magical blight that turned livestock into monsters and disappeared travelers on lonely backroads--but she'd never heard of it doing this. She didn't know it could.

Alex soon realized she was the only survivor. She had no choice but to venture out onto the tundra--alone.

With no other options, she turned to the only other settlement she could reach on foot: the militaristic city-state monarchy of Ironfrost. There, she acquired citizenship and received military training. On the surface, she was a shining example of a foreigner who properly integrated and became a model citizen. But underneath the professional, clean-cut front she put up, Alex was tortured by what she had witnessed. She knew that she did not want to be here, working for a foreign monarchy she did not believe in. Ironfrost held the official position that the Shadow did not exist and was nothing more than an invention of superstitious rural folk, after all, but Alex knew better.

A lot more happened here. Long story short... she made a connection with an underground group called The Rising Dawn, who seek to stop the Shadow. She sprung someone from jail and thoroughly torched her reputation with Ironfrost. She seems not to care, though. From Alex's perspective, as long as they stopped the Shadow, nothing else that happened to her mattered.

It was while working with The Rising Dawn at a remote research outpost deep in the snowy mountains that a certain someone was discovered , (unfortunately) alive and well. Whether he is a help or a hindrance or both remains to be seen, but Alex has a bad feeling about him. Though he is quite knowledgeable about the Shadow--being the one who unleashed it upon the world in the first place--and many of her colleagues think that he’s too self-absorbed and dotty to be a real threat, Alex isn’t so sure about working with him. He sends the same creeping feeling down her spine that the Shadow did...

Description

I realized that I failed to post a proper introduction for Alex publicly! Much overdue for that, considering that she is essentially the protagonist of the story (if not the "main" character). I have also decided to call this setting “Amaranthine” for now. Even when abridged as much as possible, her story’s a bit long, but here goes:

------------------

Alex was born in a remote, rural town called Deepstone. Like many of the settlements in Amaranthine’s "present" time period, it was built underground to insulate it against the bitter cold of what was essentially a magic-induced "nuclear winter".

She was taught hunting and tundra survival skills from a young age, and seemed to be on track to grow into a self-sufficient, socially-minded young woman--embodying all the virtues her culture valued most.

But one day, something terrible bubbled up from the depths of the cave system beneath Deepstone. Alex was out hunting with her father on the surface when an uneasy, sickly feeling began to creep up her spine...

The Shadow--a thick, viscous, black sludge--had come to claim their town. It oozed up from the cave system beneath the town, squirming through the tunnels, smothering and absorbing everything in its path. Alex had heard tell of this thing--a dark, infectious magical blight that turned livestock into monsters and disappeared travelers on lonely backroads--but she'd never heard of it doing this. She didn't know it could.

Alex soon realized she was the only survivor. She had no choice but to venture out onto the tundra--alone.

With no other options, she turned to the only other settlement she could reach on foot: the militaristic city-state monarchy of Ironfrost. There, she acquired citizenship and received military training. On the surface, she was a shining example of a foreigner who properly integrated and became a model citizen. But underneath the professional, clean-cut front she put up, Alex was tortured by what she had witnessed. She knew that she did not want to be here, working for a foreign monarchy she did not believe in. Ironfrost held the official position that the Shadow did not exist and was nothing more than an invention of superstitious rural folk, after all, but Alex knew better.

A lot more happened here. Long story short... she made a connection with an underground group called The Rising Dawn, who seek to stop the Shadow. She sprung someone from jail and thoroughly torched her reputation with Ironfrost. She seems not to care, though. From Alex's perspective, as long as they stopped the Shadow, nothing else that happened to her mattered.

It was while working with The Rising Dawn at a remote research outpost deep in the snowy mountains that a certain someone was discovered , (unfortunately) alive and well. Whether he is a help or a hindrance or both remains to be seen, but Alex has a bad feeling about him. Though he is quite knowledgeable about the Shadow--being the one who unleashed it upon the world in the first place--and many of her colleagues think that he’s too self-absorbed and dotty to be a real threat, Alex isn’t so sure about working with him. He sends the same creeping feeling down her spine that the Shadow did...