It is madness to survive in the face of inevitable oblivion. It is madder still to refuse to do so. In this way, we are all as living beings doomed to an existence of insanity.
- Master Amadeus Kharam, c. 7441
Candlemere Keep
I originally built Candlemere Keep as a place wherein I could be left in peace with my studies for the rest of my life. Distant, remote, and without any other to contest my rightful place therein, I set about building a humble tower wherein I could find sanctuary from the ceaseless torment of my curse, at least within the confines of the Cage.
That was quite a few millenia and several lifetimes ago. With a nation and a heap of new knowledge and terrible realizations behind me, I sought to reconstruct Candlemere to be something else, something more than a living crypt. Here I would undertake my grand design.
Originally it would be a prison, I decided. A place where the undesireables of society, innocent or otherwise, would be kept under watch. As it became increasingly apparent that Agrowan would deny my request for a privatized facility, more so by public opinion than the easily manipulated beaurocracy, a catastrophe paved the way for a new plan. A genocidal destruction erradicated an entire region of the kingdom, turning it into a sickly, irradiated swamp. In the wake of this devastating event known as the Horrid Birthing, I offered a service much needed by the now desperate, disillusioned, and broken.
An asylum.
Here I would mend the spirits and minds of the citizenry away from their fraught loved ones. Here they would serve a higher purpose.
New Management
I was to be Candlemere Asylum's director. Despite my advanced age, the delicate nature of the operation meant that only I could be trusted with continuing its intended purpose. Yet even then I knew all too well that my disciple would betray me.
Francis Reliyehn. A promising young woman with very impressive psychic potential that lay dormant deep within her mind. I would need someone with her talent if I was to do my work.
In the beginning, Reliyehn proved to be a capable understudy. I spoke, and she drank the teachings greedily. Too greedily. In her eagerness and inexperienced she revealed too much of her nature too quickly to me. This coupled with the disturbing truth behind the genesis of her mental powers meant that her betrayal would be inevitable. This variable was factored into my calculations.
What I had not expected was the realization that a previous apprentice of mine was still alive. His choices had driven him down a dark and self-destructive path. Knowing that if he was active enough for me to hear of him, he would eventually succeed in whatever insane scheme he was plotting, I cast my name out into the cosmos, whispered for him to hear. He came, as intended, and an uneasy agreement was struck: He would aid my mission, and I would send him to places where he could advance his knowledge. A dangerous bargain, but a calculated one.
My apprentices' betrayal needed to come sooner, then. I planted the seed of resentment and entrusted in her my disdain and fear of her predecessor. This was all she needed. Dealings were made. Pacts sworn.
I was killed not a week later. What they did with my body, I do not know, but Reliyehn seized my right eye that she have access to my office. She plundered the records. She raged. But no matter her efforts, no sign of what she was truly looking for could be found. She left well enough alone.
Less than a year later, she has perverted my asylum into something far more monstrous. Something hideous. Of course she continued to make use of the Iris to masquerade its appearance, keep the secret buried.
All of this went according to my design.
The Pieces On The Board
Reliyehn's sick imagination, exacerbated by the constant whispers of what dwells in the dark space between stars, ushered in renovations to the asylum. She met expectations, even exceeded them. I cannot put her creativity in doubt. Yet, I have put a limit on her capabilities.
The asylum's door is only capable of opening and closing for those who have received my mark. Of these, only two exist after my death: Reliyehn and Zachs, the head orderly. A fey creature known as a bagman, Zachs is brutal yet efficient at retrieving inmates. Without my authority to reign him in, however, I imagine Reliyehn will have little concern with reigning in the wretch's wanton bloodlust. I would have rid myself of Zachs sooner had his death not hinted at my potential misgivings for my apprentice and reined in her boldness. He is a compromising piece on the board as it stands.
She had grown in power by now, no doubt due to her dealings with the things in the dark and their hidden emissary in the city. Enough to be a threat to my former apprentice. I needn't do more than watch the tower of their alliance crumble under its own weight as Reliyehn, ever smug in her superiority, drove a wedge between them until such a time as she could not provide him with the knowledge I once did and she proved too much of a threat and a nuisance to tolerate. His betrayal was swift, and struck where she would be most vulnerable: the Iris.
The aforementioned Iris, also known as the Deep Iris Stone, is a minor artifact capable of enshrouding a three-mile radius in a constant illusion hiding the truth. There are of course limits to this, limits which Reliyehn in her recklessness failed to keep in, and the means of its destruction is rather simple. It need merely be shown an image too powerful and awful for it to be able to hide. My apprentice discovered this and very swiftly resumed to shatter the iris, bringing about the end of the asylum's masquerade and turning its white, pristine walls into the pitch blackness of its original design.
But how does disrupting her plans aid me in any fashion, you must wonder. Petty revenge is of no use or interest to me, and I am already dead. Yet the timing was perfect as I knew it would be, for within the asylum had come four who had been destined to meet and through whom, as my unwitting knights, would eliminate my now-useless disciple and my dangerous former apprentice.
These individuals shall be given faces. Their histories I shall lay bare.