I gather a short sword for you; my heart and courage bear witness beneath the stars. A hundred generations of Canglan's blood and turmoil, now wiped from the blade's edge.
A hundred years ago, the sky above the Canglan Realm had no ionosphere.
Back then, people could see the true river of stars. It wasn't a hazy band like the one in textbook illustrations; stars fell in swathes, streaking fiery tails as they crashed into the earth. The history books record: “Stars fell like rain, unceasing for three months. Mountains and rivers turned black, and all life was laid waste.” No one knew where the stars came from. They only knew that when the stars fell, the earth split open into abysses, from which billowed black mist. Hidden in the mist was “Sun-Eater,” an ancient evil god that fed on star marrow and opposed all order.
To seal away the Sun-Eater, three hundred Star-Wielders gave their lives to forge chains from star marrow and drive them into the planet's core. Their blood soaked the land, becoming the “Star-Wielder bloodline” of later generations; their souls scattered into the firmament and formed the “Star Paths,” the “eyes” through which later Star-Wielders sense stellar energy.
The day the Sun-Eater was sealed, a bell rang out between heaven and earth. The surviving Star-Wielders raised a stele on the Starfall Plain and carved these words into it: “So long as star marrow endures, the Sun-Eater will not awaken; so long as the Pact of Light remains, all living things will endure.”
