Year 672 Since the Foundation of the Empire – Year I of the Reign of Emperor Orion I Stormhaven
The Emperor Lion
The ashes of war still fell like cursed snow upon the ruins of Varethia when Orion, the Crimson Lion, emerged from the flames carrying the lifeless body of Emperor Magnus IV. The image became a symbol and a legend: his armor gleaming with blood, his face hardened by loss, and his eyes, burning with resolve. The people knelt in unison, knowing that something ancient had died and something new had just been born.
In a firm voice, with the fire still roaring behind him, Orion proclaimed:
"From this moment on, we are at war with any and all beings from Nyx'Tharis."
That day, the bells tolled not only in mourning for an emperor but for the rise of a new order. Kassandro Varethia, the loyal bastard, fell to his knees upon seeing his father's body. Thessalia appeared beside the Captain of the Guard, and together they wept for the emperor's death. The nobles of the High Council, responsible for the attempted coup, were chained and imprisoned, ready to be tried for treason. The people, weary of the corruption of the old lineages, poured into the streets and prostrated themselves before Orion, acclaiming him as emperor. Thus was born the reign of the Lion.
A year passed since that day, and the new Stormhaven Empire began to consolidate with a speed as brutal as it was brilliant. Orion was formally crowned at twenty-four, in a sober and solemn ceremony where he wore the crown forged from the metals of the old throne and bathed in the gold of the new order. It was no longer just a title. Orion was the sword and the law. The will and the crown.
His first major action was the campaign against the world of Nyx'Tharis, a plane characterized by its darkness and a constant mist that limited the entry of natural light. There, electrical storms never ceased, and cyclopean structures floated, fed by the energy of an ancestral cataclysm. Its inhabitants, ethereal entities of pure energy, devoid of physical form, had supported the traitors of the High Council from the shadows. It was there that Orion unleashed the might of the new Empire. In two years of war, he subjugated not only Nyx'Tharis but part of its neighboring dimensions. It was a war of magic, steel, and faith.
During that same period, Orion completely unified the Empire's structure. He dismantled the old High Council and had the main nobles implicated in the treason executed. The few who showed loyalty were pardoned but stripped of their ancient privileges. The system was restructured from its roots.
The Empire's power was concentrated in the figure of the Emperor, and the new government was supported by a more agile, meritocratic, and military structure. Orion founded the War Conclave, a closed circle of five high officials: the Grand Marshal, the Lord Strategist, the Supreme Archmage, the Minister of Defense, and the Master of Espionage. These men and women were his extended sword in all directions.
As First Minister, he appointed Lord Velkan of Vharyon, a noble from the principality and one of the few who maintained his honor intact during the civil war. Velkan, cunning, loyal, and of royal blood, became the nexus between the civil administration and the military arm. The Steel Senate, replacing the High Council, was established as an administrative body composed of governors and commanders loyal to the throne, with no political voice, but with precise regional functions.
To guard his legacy, he founded the Custodians of the Emblem, a sacred order of warrior monks and scholars, tasked with preserving the history of the Empire and protecting the figure of the Emperor in body and spirit.
The Twelve Regiments of the Lion were also established: imperial legions specialized in different forms of warfare. Each was a living manifestation of the new Empire's values: loyalty, strength, sacrifice, and wisdom.
On a personal level, Orion married his cousin Thessalia Stormhaven, the legitimate daughter of Magnus IV. The union was both political and emotional: together they sought to maintain the purity of the imperial blood and, moreover, unite the two surviving lineages of House Stormhaven after the war. One year later, their first son, Apollonius, was born, named in honor of Thessalia's elder brother, who fell years earlier in the first wars of conquest.
Meanwhile, Kassandro Varethia was elevated to a new status: Lord Protector of the Frontiers, with the title of Paladin of the Empire. He was sent to consolidate the outer regions and serve as supreme commander in the expansion campaigns. To seal a powerful alliance, Orion arranged his marriage to Naerys Valdrakir, daughter of the regent of Azh'Kareth, one of the richest and most warlike governments on the globe. Naerys, known as the Lady of the Storm, was an elite strategist, feared even by her own people. Although the bond was political, over time a relationship forged in respect, fire, and fierce competitiveness arose between them.
On the other hand, Alexion of Vharyon, a legitimate noble and one of Orion's oldest allies, was appointed Lord Strategist of the Empire. Duke of the Skies and lord of the aerial defenses, Alexion became the architect of campaigns in the skies and floating seas. It was he who coordinated the magical shields of the elevated cities and oversaw the movements of the regiments in the conquered regions.
The Emperor Lion had taken the throne and turned it into a perpetual battlefield: against decadence, against traitors, against the shadows of other worlds. At twenty-five, he was no longer just a warrior, but an architect of order. A conqueror of dimensions. A father. A husband. An absolute emperor.
And Apollonius, the child growing in his shadow, was already babbling in the corridors of the imperial palace. The people called him the Crimson Cub, and some said the father's fire already burned in the son's eyes.
Year 673 - Year II of the Reign of Emperor Orion I Stormhaven
The Lion and the Cub
A mere year had passed since Orion's coronation, and the Empire was already transformed. What was once a machine rusted by corruption and useless tradition was now a sharpened sword ready to carve its way among worlds. Orion did not rule from a distance nor let himself be consumed by ceremonies. He was an emperor of constant presence, who toured the bastions, inspected the fleets, and spoke with generals and peasants alike. His reign was not a mask of power: it was a declaration of will.
In the capital, Varethia, reconstruction advanced at a feverish pace. New towers were raised upon the ancient ruins, and a network of magical channels transported energy from the cores of the floating islands to the heart of the empire. This structure was called the Arterion, a kind of arcane nervous system that allowed the central administration to have instant control over vast regions. It was an unprecedented feat and a latent threat to anyone who dared challenge the Emperor Lion.
Meanwhile, little Apollonius grew up within the Royal Blood Palace, surrounded by crimson standards, imperial guards, and relics of blood and fire. Though barely a year old, his presence was already a symbol, a promise of continuity. It was said he did not cry like other children but growled with a strange strength when something displeased him. Some servants swore he had inherited his father's gaze, and that even at such a young age, his expression alone was enough to silence a room. Orion, though absorbed by campaigns and governance, found time to carry his son and speak to him as if he were already a man. He told him stories of the old Magnus, of battlefields, of conquered cities. He spoke of the errors of the ancients, and of how one day he would have to surpass him.
Thessalia, his wife and Apollonius's mother, had become a revered figure in the empire. She was no longer just a princess of royal blood but the Empress of the New Era. Elegant, severe, and devoted to her family, she ruled from the shadows when Orion departed for the front. Their relationship was one of complicity and mutual respect, without empty gestures or courtly dramas. She was the wall that contained the storm, and he, the storm itself.
Beyond the borders of Stormhaven, however, the echo of the imperial rebirth awakened threats of a caliber never before faced. In the neighboring plane of Eryssal, a world fragmented between ruins and eternal gardens, rumors began to emerge of a pact between the Ghost Houses—entities of ancient destroyed empires—and the remnants of the Lords of the Veil, an extinct order that once tried to break the dimensional barriers. These new enemies, called Echoes of Oblivion, had a clear goal: to avenge the fall of Nyx'Tharis and wrest control of the interplanar portals from Stormhaven. They were not living beings, but condensed memories, deformed spirits that inhabited corpses and enchanted armor. They needed no food, nor rest, nor hope. They only desired to devour what they once were.
Kassandro Varethia, from the outer regions, was the first to face them. Alongside Naerys Valdrakir, his wife and commander of the High Council of Azh'Kareth, he led the defense of the Black Islands, the location of the Eryssal portal. The couple, initially united by political convenience, had forged a fiercely functional relationship. Naerys did not submit or yield, and that was exactly what Kassandro needed. She pushed him to leave behind the shadow of the servile bastard and become a leader in his own right. In battle, they fought back-to-back; in council, they argued like two generals; in intimacy, they were volcano and steel.
The first great siege of the Black Islands lasted six weeks. The Echoes of Oblivion emerged in waves, like a tide of corrupted memories. In the midst of desperation, Naerys invoked an ancient art of her people: the Roar of the Tempest, a war chant that unleashed lightning upon the skies and turned the storm into an ally. Kassandro, for his part, wielded the Crimson Spear, a relic forged by his father, Magnus IV, and last used in the defense of Caeloria. Together, they repelled the attack, but they knew it would not be the last.
Back in Varethia, Orion studied the reports with a gaze of steel. He knew the worst was yet to come. That is why he ordered the formation of a new regiment: the Watchers of the Veil, an order composed of mages, arcanists, and warriors expert in interdimensional matters. He granted them absolute freedom to investigate, hunt, and eradicate any threat arising from neighboring worlds.
He also ordered the reinforcement of the bastions in the Thal'Dorien Archipelago, the most unstable zone between planes. It was said that the stars there spoke in dead languages and that the lighthouses floated without anchors. The prophets of the Cult of the Abyssal Eye claimed that something ancient was approaching, something not even the Stormhavens had ever faced. Orion, true to his style, did not fear. He only prepared.
At twenty-six, the Emperor Lion was already a mythical figure. His empire encompassed not only material territories but planes of existence that were once legends. His son was beginning to say his first words, and one of them—according to the east wing guards—was "sword." Kassandro and Naerys sent regular reports from the borders, increasingly cryptic, increasingly worrisome. And the echoes of the past, those enemies without flesh or soul, kept awakening.
The Stormhaven Empire stood like a tower in the middle of the cosmic ocean. Powerful, glorious... and surrounded by shadows.
And it would be many years before Apollonius would raise his own sword. But the first notes of his destiny were already being heard.
Year VI of the Reign of Orion I Stormhaven - Imperial Calendar: Year 678 S.F.I.
(Since the Imperial Foundation)
Five years had passed since Orion I was crowned amidst the ashes of the civil war. In that time, the roar of the Crimson Lion had not faded. On the contrary, it had become a constant that held together the vast machinery of the Stormhaven Empire. His reign, though marked by strength, was already seen as an era of order, expansion, and stability.
During this lustrum, the emperor consolidated himself not only as a military strategist but as the father of a new dynasty. His firstborn, Apollonius, was now six years old and beginning his training as the future heir, under the strict tutelage of the Custodians of the Emblem. But he was not the only one born under the imperial banner. Thessalia gave Orion two more sons: Cassian and Lucerius, twins born in the second year of the reign. Both were described as intense, restless children, with fire in their blood and their father's eyes. Cassian, more reserved and calculating, and Lucerius, impulsive and passionate, were already the subject of political disputes in the palace corridors about which of the three brothers would be most suited for the succession should destiny take a turn.
On the other hand, Kassandro Varethia, despite his bastard origin, had become one of the most influential men in the Empire. His marriage to Naerys Valdrakir, the Lady of the Storm, had been more than a political union: it was the definitive pact that sealed the loyalty of Azh'Kareth, one of the ancient independent powers most feared for its military discipline, mineral reserves, and elite fleet.
Fruit of this alliance were three children: Selene Valdrakir Varethia, the eldest, a girl with a sharp gaze and a defiant character; Thalmyra, the second, of a more introspective spirit and great magical sensitivity; and finally, the third son, Darian Varethia, born with a birthmark in the shape of a crescent moon on his chest, something many augurs considered a sign of destiny.
Although Kassandro did not bear the Stormhaven surname, the people had begun to call him "The Shadow Lion," a figure who inspired respect, but also fear. His official surname remained Varethia in honor of the city that saw him born and shaped him. In secret, some considered him more Stormhaven than many pure-blooded nobles, for his loyalty, courage, and commitment to the Empire surpassed even those who shared the surname.
In these five years, Orion also finished crushing the last feudal systems that still survived on the fringes of the Empire. Vassal kingdoms that still exercised hereditary power were subdued, one by one. Some surrendered after seeing their neighbors fall; others were ruthlessly crushed by the Regiments of the Lion. The old houses were dissolved, their lands redistributed to loyal generals or governors appointed by merit.
The traditional nobility began to disappear as a ruling class, replaced by the aristocracy of steel: warriors, strategists, and mages who had earned their place not by blood, but by service. In every major city, new flags were raised with the crimson emblem of the Emperor Lion, and the word "fief" began to be considered archaic, even offensive.
In the palace, the Steel Senate operated with military efficiency. Lord Velkan of Vharyon remained First Minister, faithful to his role as mediator between the civilians and the central government. Meanwhile, Alexion, the Duke of the Skies and Lord Strategist, expanded the network of aerial fortifications defending the Empire's heart, designing a war architecture that combined magical towers, floating platforms, and state-of-the-art arcane defenses.
The sixth year of Orion's reign marked a new stage. The Crimson Lion was no longer just a figure of war, but the father of a strong dynasty, the architect of an imperial system that had left behind the chains of the past. And with the children growing under his shadow, and his allies sowing roots in every corner of the Empire, the future seemed firmly carved in stone... and fire.
Year X of the reign of Orion I Stormhaven
(682 S.F.I.)
The golden years of childhood were not the same for everyone. In Varethia, capital of the Stormhaven Empire, the emperor's children did not play with wooden dolls, but with blunt swords and war treatises. Apollonius, firstborn of the Crimson Lion, already mastered the principles of strategy, spoke two dead languages, and could dismount a horse with a lance in hand. He was ten years old. His childhood, like his father's, had been carved with blows of steel.
Lucerius, his younger brother, at just five years old, began training with the pages in the marble courtyard. Orion watched from a distance, letting his sons be shaped by the same veterans who forged him. Cassian, still slept in the arms of Thessalia, the empress, unaware of the weight that already loomed over his blood.
Far from Varethia, in the vast and hostile border territories, Kassandro Valdrakir fulfilled his duty as Lord Protector of the Frontiers and Paladin of the Empire. He was not a common feudal lord; he was the shield that separated Stormhaven from the barbarians, corsairs, and insurgent kingdoms that lurked beyond its domains. His presence at court was infrequent, for his place was where war never slept.
But his daughter, Selene Valdrakir, now six years old, had been brought to Varethia along with her mother, Naerys, as part of a diplomatic visit. For the girl, the imperial palace was a world different from the border fortresses where she had grown up. In Caeloria, her home, the wind howled between the cliffs and training began before dawn. In the capital, however, everything was order, polished marble, and rules she didn't fully understand.
It was during one of the imperial festivities, when the noble houses were summoned to the capital, that Apollonius and Selene saw each other for the first time.
In the high gardens of the palace, among fountains adorned with griffins and fire-red trees, Apollonius noticed her. Not because of her ceremonial dress, but because of how she ignored him. While the other children played or recited verses, she was sharpening a quill with soldierly precision.
"Aren't you going to run like the others?" asked the prince, approaching.
"And why would I run? I'm already where I want to be," she replied without looking up.
Apollonius tilted his head, curious. No one spoke to him like that. Not even the adults.
"I'm Apollonius."
"I know," she said. "I am Selene Valdrakir."
"Your father is my uncle," he murmured, a little confused by her coldness.
She looked at him at last. "And yours is the emperor. But that doesn't change that you're a child like me."
He smiled, not offended, but amused. It was the first time someone didn't treat him as if he were something more than a child. It was refreshing.
That day they did not play together. But at nightfall, when the imperial family dined in the Hall of the Golden Eagle, Selene sat in the seat farthest from the central table, near the squires and minor nobles. Apollonius, in a gesture no one expected, rose from his seat and went to sit beside her.
Thessalia saw it from the center of the room, and though she said nothing, her lips formed a thin line. Orion, on the other hand, allowed a faint smile that only his closest understood: his son was not seeking status, he was seeking strength of spirit.
Days later, during training in the outer fields, Selene and Apollonius participated in a small simulation with other children of the nobility. It wasn't planned. But when they found themselves back-to-back, defending against a fictitious ambush, they seemed to understand each other without words. As if they were two pieces forged in the same fire, though born in different furnaces.
When practice ended, both stood in silence, covered in sweat and mud, but with something new in their eyes: a spark of mutual recognition.
The childhood of the princes was not sweet nor simple. But from time to time, among duties and the weight of their surnames, an unexpected complicity arose, the promise of something that would grow with them.
And so, in the midst of an empire built on blood and steel, the first bond was born between two heirs who, unknowingly, could change the course of the world.
The Shadow Lion and the Campaigns of Fire and Ash
While the court of Varethia shone with marble, imperial standards, and diplomatic banquets, on the fringes of the Empire the war never completely died out. The vassal kingdoms still trembled with the old flames of independence, and the Blood Islands continued to harbor clans that had never bowed to any emperor.
There, far from the center, in the shadows of imperial glory, fought Kassandro Valdrakir, Orion's bastard brother, become his deadliest general. He was the Lord Protector of the Frontiers, but the soldiers didn't use noble titles when they spoke of him… they called him the Shadow Lion.
It wasn't just because of his dark heraldry or his armor black as midnight, but because of his way of appearing where no one expected him, his cold and precise strategy, and the legend that he "never let the sun see him bleed." He arrived before dawn, attacked without warning, and left behind a trail of silence. He did not celebrate victories. He did not give speeches. He just returned to his camp with the same empty gaze.
In the Thal'Dorien Archipelago, where the pirate houses still preserved ships and navies inherited from the Free Era, Kassandro led an offensive that lasted three months, fighting battles on land and sea, without reinforcements from Varethia. He used siege techniques, infiltration, and alliances with coastal tribes. He sought not glory, but obedience. When the bastion of Kael'Zan fell, the last fortress of the corsair lords, his generals offered him a standard stained with the enemy admiral's blood.
Kassandro did not touch it.
"Banners are useless to me. I prefer silence."
After the fall of the archipelago, the imperial council wanted to reward him with a public ceremony. Kassandro did not attend. He sent a letter signed with a simple seal: a wolf and a crossed torch. Only his brother Orion understood the symbol.
On the eastern frontier, in the ruins of Velkaris, rebels hid under the command of a false prophet who promised to restore the ancient feudal system and expel the "Stormhaven usurper-born." There, Kassandro not only crushed the revolt. He took the prophet prisoner and brought him alive to the central square, where instead of executing him, he forced him to kneel and recite the principles of the Imperial Edict before his own followers. That gesture, more feared than death, broke the will of many insurgents.
And so, the chronicles of the provinces began to speak of the Shadow Lion as if he were a spirit more than a man. They said he did not sleep, that he dreamed of maps, that the swords he used were made of broken oaths, and that his soul had been sold to the ancient gods of the ruins.
But those who knew him knew the truth. Kassandro was human. He had just renounced a life of affection to become the sentinel of an empire that never rested.
When he returned to Caeloria, he did not remove his armor, not even before his wife Naerys. His daughter, Selene, barely caught a glimpse of his face among the shadows. And his young son, Darian, still babbled his first words while folk songs called him "son of silence."
Kassandro never asked for recognition. But every soldier on the frontiers knew that, if the imperial defenses fell, the Shadow Lion would come. Not by orders. But by duty.
Year XX of the Reign of Orion I Stormhaven (692 S.F.I.)
The Expansion Beyond the Empire: The Lost Worlds
The Stormhaven Empire had ceased to be a force confined to its archipelago and the conquered lands in its home world. Its hunger for dominion had taken it beyond the known horizon, beyond the limits that history once called insurmountable. Now, its armies marched on lands under other suns, in worlds where nights rose with twin moons or where mountains floated over endless seas.
The Stellar Expansion Project, conceived by Orion and the Imperial Council, became the obsession of his reign. Securing control of the world of Stormhaven was not enough; it was the destiny of his lineage to extend its dominion to other worlds, where ancient kingdoms, fallen empires, and forgotten civilizations still breathed their arrogance without knowing the imperial yoke.
The Conquering Princes
The Emperor could not afford to govern these worlds himself. His sons were the extension of his will, his banners in the firmament. Thus, Apollonius, Lucerius, and Cassian Stormhaven were sent to three different worlds, each with its own challenge, its own destiny.
Apollonius Stormhaven and the World of Khaer'Zan
At twenty-six, Apollonius was the spearhead of the Empire, the first to be sent on conquest. His destiny was Khaer'Zan, an arid world, forged in the fire of millennial tribal wars. Its inhabitants, the Zahadim, were nomadic warriors, divided into blood houses that challenged each other for supremacy on the vast crimson plain.
The imperial army arrived like an iron storm. Apollonius did not seek peace, for war was his nature. The Zahadim Clans united or were exterminated, and in less than five years, Apollonius ruled from the Black Citadel, a bastion sculpted from obsidian and the bones of the fallen. However, Khaer'Zan was not a simple conquest. There were ancient mysteries in its deserts, ruins of a civilization that once controlled the threads of existence itself.
Among his discoveries, Apollonius and his explorers found the Fragments of Vhaz'Ra, ancient monoliths that seemed to store power beyond human comprehension. Were these worlds once part of a superior civilization? Was Stormhaven a forgotten fragment of something much vaster?
The heir of Stormhaven was not only conquering, but beginning to understand that his expansion was not just a war of territories, but a struggle against forces that had existed since before the Empire's foundation.
Lucerius Stormhaven and the World of Ithorion
Lucerius, the second son, was sent to Ithorion, a world of infinite forests and colossal beasts. There were no cities here, only an elusive civilization, hidden deep within ancient trees. The tribes of Ithorion worshipped ancient beings, entities of shadow and sap that whispered in forbidden tongues.
The legacies of the Green Pact opposed the imperial advance with unconventional resistance. The war was not only against soldiers, but against the land itself, which seemed to reject the invaders. Poisoned winds, trees that devoured men, rivers that changed course to drown enemy camps.
Lucerius had to become more than a commander. He learned to negotiate with the druids of Ithorion, to unravel the ancient runes that protected their forests. He did not conquer by the sword, but by cunning. He formed the Pact of the Leaf and the Blood, turning the Ithorii into subjects of the Empire without needing to extinguish their culture. But in return, Ithorion showed him something he should never have seen:
A portal hidden in the roots of the world.
A threshold leading to another reality, where time flowed differently, where formless shadows whispered forgotten names. Lucerius understood that there was something beyond the war, something his father might never have foreseen.
Cassian Stormhaven and the World of Vhorys Prime
Cassian, was sent to Vhorys Prime, an industrialized world where the remnants of an advanced civilization still persisted. There were no tribes here, nor enchanted forests. Only ruins of metal and ash, ghost cities where machines still walked without a master.
The Automatons of Vhorys were not mere artifacts. They were guardians of ancient knowledge, a technology that defied the very nature of imperial dominion. But Cassian, with his ingenuity and strategic mind, did not fight them. He claimed them. He deciphered the codices, reactivated the dormant forges, and began to rebuild a forgotten era.
Vhorys Prime was not a military conquest, but a technological revolution.
Cassian discovered that the Automatons were not just soulless constructs. They had memory. Memories of a time before humans, before the Empire, before Stormhaven. And among those fragments, he discovered a name:
"The Lost Legion"
A forgotten army, that had marched beyond the limits of the known universe. And if the rumors were true… they could return.
An Empire Beyond Time
Twenty years after the start of Orion's reign, his sons had not only conquered worlds, but had discovered that the universe was not what they believed.
Apollonius had subdued a civilization that guarded an ancestral power.
Lucerius had opened a portal leading to a forbidden place.
Cassian had awakened the memories of a lost army.
The question was no longer how much further Stormhaven could expand.
The true question was: what lay beyond its reach?
And what his sons had found could change the Empire's destiny forever.
The Heirs of the Paladin
Selene Valdrakir, firstborn of Kassandro, is now 22 years old. Since her adolescence, she was instructed in stellar politics, arcane diplomacy, and silent war tactics. Unlike the imperial princes, Selene does not seek glory in great conquests, but in preserving the invisible edges of the empire. Sent as an emissary to ancient worlds and forgotten kingdoms beyond the known stars, she has woven networks of espionage and secret alliances that maintain the stability of the stellar portals.
It is rumored that her mastery of mystical arts is singular: she has not only studied ancestral magic in the occult circles of Vharyon, but has begun to manifest abilities related to void magic, a type of power forbidden by the Arcane Council since the days of the First Emperor. Though few know it, Selene has also been trained by the sentinels of the Obsidian Arches, custodians of secrets that predate the Stormhaven Empire itself.
Thalmyra Valdrakir, at 19 years old, was the second of the three. Thalmyra was not raised for war or diplomacy... at least not initially.
She showed from childhood an innate affinity with the arcane forces that flow between worlds. It was said she heard ancient voices in the winds of the Black Islands, and that she could read magical currents without needing an oracle.
She was sent to study with the Guardians of Nyssari, an order of sages who guard the secrets of the border worlds, and who once served the predecessors of Stormhaven before their fall.
No one knows what she has discovered there, but Thalmyra is no longer a child. It is said her gaze can make a king doubt, and that her power has not yet found its form.
Darian Valdrakir, her younger brother of 17 years, is the spear that follows in his sister's shadow. Despite being more reserved and less visible in the courts, he has forged his fame on the margins of the galaxy. Commander of the Stellar Shadow Guard, he leads incursions against emerging threats: interdimensional sects, space bandits, beasts from the interstellar voids.
At just 17 years old, Darian quelled a rebellion of slave colonies in the ring of Marezeth, and was decorated by Orion himself with the Shadow Lion Medal, a recognition borne only by those who have defended the Empire without expecting applause. His methods, calculated and silent, have made him feared among the Empire's enemies and admired by the frontier paladins.
Although neither of them carried legitimate imperial blood, they have proven to be as fundamental as their cousins in maintaining the balance of the Empire beyond the visible. While the sons of Orion represent the power that conquers, Selene and Darian represent the power that protects from the shadows.