The Rune of the Forge: Rebirth in the Lands Between
He died in a workshop, proud of his last creation - a flawless necklace shaped by his own hands. The next second, a gun barrel and two words ended everything: "Nothing personal."
When he wakes again, it isn't in the world he knew. The air tastes too alive, the flowers glow too brightly, and the face in the pond is not his own. Obsidian skin. Hair braided like flame. Eyes molten, swirling with fire. Worse - he's a child again.
This is the Hinterland, home of the Shaman Village... and the birthplace of Marika, the girl who will one day ascend as goddess of the Golden Order. She is a child too, curious and alone. In this quiet village, an unlikely friendship forms: the girl of fate and the boy of ash.
But fate is never gentle. The Hornsent, zealots of the Crucible, will raid the village in fire and blood. Thoryn will fall, his body crumbling to ash and seeping into the earth... only to return centuries later, reforged by the world itself.
By then, Marika will no longer be the girl he knew. She will be queen, goddess, and tyrant of Order. And Thoryn Ashblood, the boy reborn in obsidian and flame, will carry his own Rune - the Rune of the Forge - to stand as her rival.
Creation or Order. Rebirth or Permanence. The Forge or the Erdtree.
The Lands Between will burn anew.
