In the days before kings, when the cliffs of Solcarin first were etched by the hand of the First Builders, there flowed a river of frost and shadow. From this river rose those whose veins carried the old blood, a lineage untouched by mortal ambition, yet burdened by the weight of what must come.
It is written: “He who sleeps beneath steel shall awaken when the tides of kingdoms shift. And his breath shall be fire upon the forgotten.” [fragment missing] The elders spoke this with trembling voices, for they glimpsed the binding of one who was both prisoner and sentinel.
A figure encased in runed armor, neither wholly man nor wholly spirit, was prophesied to rise where the stones meet the wind. The chronicles of Solcarin [illegible rune] describe the rituals performed by the Veiled Custodians, who tended the armor with whispers of both devotion and dread.
Translator note: some manuscripts read “frozen blood” rather than “old blood”; context suggests lineage rather than literal frost.
The armor, a crucible of both flesh and will, was entrusted to the currents of destiny. Its purpose was recorded in glyphs now eroded, yet the echo remains: “It will cradle the fallen, and it will remember the oath, though men forget the meaning.”
From the shadows of the northern precipices, there came voices — ghosts of Solcarin’s own — warning of cycles that would not be broken. They spoke of rivers burning, of walls falling, of children whose laughter carried the spark of lineage unknown. The inscriptions warn of a younger sibling, small yet bound by fate, who shall witness the return of the encased knight.
[illegible rune] — fragment damaged, perhaps referencing “bloodline” or “sorrow”
The Custodians wrote further: the knight’s awakening would be heralded by three signs:
- The sky shall turn iron, and the wind shall bear the cry of ravens.
- The pulse of stones shall echo in the veins of the living, and tremors shall move unseen.
- A shadow shall stretch across the lands where kin and traitor alike dwell, and the name of the fallen shall be remembered.
Thus, they concluded: “Even in silence, the frost remembers. Even in shadow, the old blood waits.”
Translator note: multiple tablets corroborate these signs; one source adds “and the rivers of ash shall run red.” Whether symbolic or literal is uncertain.
The figure encased in steel was never meant for the mortal eye. Yet its presence shaped the destiny of kingdoms and the rise of heirs unseen. Those who survived the calamities of Frostholt carried whispers of this prophecy in their blood, though none knew the full measure until the time of awakening arrived.
[fragment missing — final line of tablet lost, likely concluding with the vow of protection or curse upon the armor]