Their world was designed by gods to be paradise. Defiant of entropic forces of the universe by being its own eternal light source. This planet without a sun instead became a hellscape. Some mortals are capable of godly power when they speak the same language the gods spoke. But this history is actively erased to protect the last three remaining kingdoms who have managed to contain this. This has been the violent way of things for generations.
Chapter 12, The Unnamed Order reveals the organization that maintains the fragile status quo. They are the generational levelers that keep the peace. We meet Magnus, the leader of the Order. He is an honest man, but too young for his position and for the nature of his duty, a calculative pragmatist who thinks like a bureaucrat. He knows little desire for the simple pleasures of life, understanding fully the enormity of the stakes. His duty is to stall, as long as he can, the inevitable end of civilizations.
The chapter begins from these words: “As Karma gazed up at the pillar protruding from the void canvas, the thunderstorm still creeping at the campsite from far, far away, he had to rub his eyes. He must have been seeing double, because there was no longer just one hooded reaper. There were two.”
