Once, in a dimension beyond time, Ilthea was born. Blessed with a divine soul, she left her place of birth to follow her natural calling to the mortal realm where she wanted to learn all there was discover about mortal beings and what powers lay dormant within their souls. During her research, the kind-hearted goddess met a powerful elf named Tenebris Everbright. A prodigious intellect, the high elf made use of his extreme life span through the pursuit of knowledge. This lead to him being a dedicated disciple of Ilthea, who had by this point established herself across the continent and was a rare example of a celestial being being easy to contact and willing to deal with mortals.

Over time, they became friends. Tenebris followed her teachings, and they worked together on researching souls and their latent power. But Ilthea was wise, and divine. There were many rules set in place by her to ensure they harmed none. Though this slowed progress considerably, she was happy to whittle away at the mysteries of mortal creation indefinitely. Exploiting her trust, Tenebris started to dabble in the forbidden, seeking the forbidden lore and rites without a care for their true cost. Desiring ascension so he could stand as an equal to his beloved Ilthea, Tenebris went too far and offered his soul to the primordial beasts known as the Great Old Ones. Dark, ancient beyond understanding and the embodiment of evil chaotic energy, they offered him a trade. Merge the infernal dimension they have been trapped in for eons with the mortal plane, and in return he would be granted access to The Knowledge, a collective memory passed between all Primordials and a source of infinite and impossibly powerful arcane lore. As he worked towards their goal, he lost the parts of himself that made him a good-hearted fool and descended into pure madness.

Realizing what he had done, Ilthea confronted him. She demanded he destroy the tome which held the rituals he used to contact the entities. Realizing their goal was domination and destruction, the benevolent goddess feared for her beloved mortals. Refusing, Tenebris instead attempted to open the rift and begin the merge. Throwing all of her divine essence at the blight, she was able to force it shut and reject the presence of Primordial Ones. Having been corrupted by them, Tenebris became banished from her consecrated grounds, losing access to his main library and all his research. This came at great cost to Ilthea: she had lost most of her divinity keeping the primordials at bay. Doomed to wait in her library as a shadow of her former self, she has been gathering as much strength as possible and hoping for untainted allies to come and receive her blessing and her knowledge of how to end the Corrupted Archfey.

As for Tenebris, he is now a being of ink and shadow. He lurks in this newly constructed library, searching for ways to break through Ilthea’s banishment and reclaim his ritualistic tome so he can finish what he started and finally achieve the true immortality he has been searching for, no matter the cost.