The Lore of Arcadia
The Concord, the Crown, the last Shard-Sworn and the Shadowfall. The full backstory.
The Lore of Arcadia
Spoiler notice. This page describes the entire story, including the ending. Sections marked as spoilers are folded away. Read on if you want to know; skip it if you would rather discover it in the quest book.
The Age of the Concord
Four hundred years ago, the kingdoms of Arcadia were tired of war.
They swore an oath, the Concord, and forged a relic to bind it: the Crown of Arcadia. It was not a circlet of gold. It was a pact, made of four great Seals, each one binding a class of guardians to the realm they were sworn to protect.
| Seal | What it bound | Where you meet it |
|---|---|---|
| Steel | The champions of the arena orders, sworn to test any heir | Act III |
| The Wild | The titans and wyrms of the untamed world | Act IV |
| Ages | The four ancients, older than the Concord itself | Act V |
| Ruin | The eight thrones of the Cataclysm | Act VI |
For four centuries the Concord held. The guardians guarded. The wild stood watch. The old things slept.
The Fifth Oath
A Crown of four Seals should have held together on its own. It did not.
A fifth oath held the four in place, and it was not a jewel. It was a person: the Shard-Sworn, one mortal chosen to carry the weight of the Crown. When a Shard-Sworn grew old, the Crown chose another.
The last of them was Queen Isolde.
She died without an heir.
The Night the Kingdoms Emptied
Scholars still argue about what happened next. The Codex records only that the kingdoms of the Concord did not fall. They were abandoned, one after another, in a single night. Towers were left with their lamps lit. Halls kept their tables set.
Nobody has said why.
The Shadowfall
Then the Crown cracked.
Its four Seals scattered into the fiercest creatures the world could hold. The guardians forgot what they were guarding. The wild grew wild. The dead stopped staying buried. The ruins filled with things that had no business being in them.
The survivors called it the Shadowfall, and they told it as an invasion: a darkness that fell from nowhere and took the world.
That is the story most people believe.
Spoiler: what the Shadowfall really was
It was not an invasion. It was a hiding place.
Isolde did not break the Crown out of despair. She broke it because something had learned how to wear it. She split the Seals so that no single hand could ever hold the Crown, and she left a Reflection behind: a copy of herself, a promise, a test for whoever came next.
You will find her words across the story, one letter at a time, in the Ledger and in the Codex. The last of them reads:
"If you are reading this, you are already the heir. Do not trust the Reflection. Do not fear it either. It is only me, waiting."
Who you will meet
Orrin Vale, the Ledgerkeeper
Last archmage-banker of Arcadia. He sits beneath the ruins of the Royal Vault in front of a book that never runs out of pages: the Ledger.
"I kept the Concord's Ledger for forty years. When the Crown fell I kept it for the next forty. I do not care who you are. I care what you kill, and I pay for it."
He is the voice of the economy. Bounties, coins and the Vault all belong to him.
Brannoch Ironvein, marshal of the Arena Orders
A veteran of the old champions' guild. He still limps from an old lesson learned in the Coliseum. He speaks for the Seal of Steel, and he sells trophies, keys and armor.
Sister Alenne, druid and healer
She kneels beside fallen deer and calls the wild "ordered, not angry." She speaks for the Seal of the Wild and stocks the Vault's provisions.
Tamsin Quill, cartographer and loremaster
She mapped Arcadia before the Shadowfall and has never stopped. Her Codex records every ruin she could reach. She speaks for the Seal of Ages and runs the Vault's "surplus" sale.
Veyra Ashe, survivor of the first Cataclysm war
She has stared at a burning horizon for a long time. She speaks for the Seal of Ruin and sells the Cataclysm's eyes and heaviest weapons.
Wren Fletcher, the Bowyer
A quiet craftsperson who believes nobody ever regretted a longer bow.
Queen Isolde, the last Shard-Sworn
Never met, only heard. Her letters and diary fragments appear throughout the quest book.
Places worth knowing
| Place | What the Codex says |
|---|---|
| The Coliseum | Where the arena orders trained |
| Keep Kayra | Its founder "swore the first oath, and also broke it first" |
| The Thornborn Towers | A warning, or a lock, depending on who you ask |
| The Aviary | Once held a thousand birds; none stayed |
| The Fishing Hut | Isolde fished here as a girl |
| The Small Blimp | Isolde wanted to see the world from above |
| The Wishing Well | Every coin was a wish. None were granted |
| The Acropolis | Isolde never went up. She wished she had |
| The Frosted Prison | Holds something the Concord could not kill |
| The Foundry | Where the arena weapons were forged |
See The Codex to find them all.
The unanswered questions
The quest book leaves a few doors ajar on purpose.
- Why were the kingdoms abandoned in a single night?
- Who (or what) learned to wear the Crown?
- Why did Isolde choose to hide the Crown instead of destroying it?
- What does the Cataclysm's eighth throne actually sit on?
- Who wrote the fifth entry in Orrin's Ledger?
Spoiler: how the story ends
When you defeat the Shadow's Reflection in the final Act, it does not turn out to be a monster. It kneels.
It was Isolde's promise, left at the door: "Take the Crown when you can carry it, and not before."
The guardians remember what they were guarding. The wild grows quiet. The dead keep their graves. Somewhere, a very old archmage closes a very old book and, for the first time in forty years, smiles.
You did not just take the Crown back. You became the reason it exists.
Timeline
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| Four hundred years ago | The Concord is sworn; the Crown of Arcadia is forged |
| The long peace | Four Seals hold; a Shard-Sworn carries the fifth oath |
| Isolde's reign | The last Shard-Sworn rules |
| The Night of Abandonment | The kingdoms of the Concord empty in a single night |
| The Shadowfall | The Crown cracks; the Seals scatter into the world's fiercest creatures |
| Now | You arrive |