Raizan

"Before the storm, there was silence." —Common adage When the Tides of Darkness swallowed the Isle of Uzimo, it was as if the world itself convulsed. The once-sacred land, home to an ancient warrior tradition, was defiled by the shadow of Valderon. As his infernal corruption surged through the heart of the isle, burrowing beneath temple ruins and shattered shrines, a celestial balance had been broken, and from its fractured remains, a storm began to stir. Amidst the wreckage, atop the highest peak where the winds shrieked in mourning, lay the remains of a forgotten altar dedicated to Raizan, the Storm Kami, which had long stood in reverence to the forces governing the skies—forces that now seemingly lay forsaken. It was here, in the heart of destruction, that lightning struck not once, not twice, but eight times upon the sundered stones: A summoning. Before Uzimo fell and Raizan rose, though, it was the Supreme Arbiters—Tya's stewards of balance—who cast Valderon into the depths of infernal purgatory after his descent into madness, deeming it a dark necessity to prevent the rise of the Chaos Dominion. Having once been a member of their own Collective, his banishment was more than an act of duty; it was a betrayal that ignited a deep and bitter enmity, laying bare the darkness within men's hearts. After the demonic factions conspired to free Valderon from his dark imprisonment, he endeavored to plunge the world into chaos, and it is from the depths of this chaotic void that Raizan was summoned back into being: A deity born from the heart of the inferno itself, Raizan, the Shattered Tempest, stands as a force of pure destruction and untamed potential, the antithesis of a world bound by balance and order. Now, Raizan's thunder drum pounds through the crackling sky once more as he descends from the ruins of his forgotten shrine. Before him stands a twisted tableau of betrayal and carnage—the ruin left by Hiroto's treachery, the burn of Kigiri's scorn, and the scar left by Valderon's plunder. For the Supreme Arbiters, Raizan symbolizes a terrible power, a demon birthed by their own selfish pursuits and attempts at domination; for the Chaos Dominion, a dangerous force of unbridled destruction, seeking to bring any—and all—to their final judgement in the depths below. From the shores of Tya, eyes turn skyward as the first rumblings of thunder echo across the sea. Ominous clouds swell on the horizon, churning as if they were a living thing, their depths laced with flickering veins of violet lightning. Fishermen race their boats ashore, merchants hurry to shutter their stalls, and warriors grip their weapons with quiet resolve. A storm is coming—not of rain and wind, but of ruin and reckoning. Soon, all of Tya will find itself within the eye. The storm has begun.