IceAndWave/SianLetter1

The Soulgate was meant to be Creation's shield; a conduit ensuring that those we overthrew would never have the means to rise and trouble us, by sending the souls of the dead straight back into the Wheel. But, when we opened it, an outrushing of black Essence slew every mortal creature within a league, and hundreds of our Terrestrial cousins. Worse, this concentration of death tore a hole in Creation and merged it with the very realm I had been striving to protect it from.

Now, the ivory spires of Ashok-Tar are inhabited only by the dead, the City Under the Mountain is a corpse-realm, and the white walls of Ondar Shambal guard nothing but shadows and dust. It was only with great effort and sacrifice that the Soulgate was finally sealed.

The Deliberative exonerated me of all guilt, instead laying the blame for the slaughter at the foot of an incompetent Terrestrial sorcerer, but I know the truth. I have dedicated the rest of my life to repairing the damage I caused, but can one atone for the deaths of twenty-three million people? I don't truly know, but I mean to try.

Know this; we made the Soulgate too well - it cannot be destroyed, nor can it be forever sealed. Bound by artifice and sorcery, it was meant to be almost impossible to reopen, but only almost.

If you are reading this then it means that events are in motion that, if unchecked, could lead to it being opened again. I cannot conceive of a being that would wish to open it, but arrangements were made; loops and whorls were set into the fabric of Fate itself, to try to ensure that any attempt to do so would not be unopposed.

To you who are reading this I, the greatest murderer in Creation, apologise for what is to come. In my defence I can only say that I thought I was doing the right thing.

Eben Marama:Master of the Fortress Osseous