Ruin Creek

Ruin Creek was a human settlement on the southern tip of a small continent to the north of Teras Isle. It was most famous for housing the surviving remnants of the royal bloodline of House Ashrim, until a black knight was released from an ancient puzzle box dating back to the Undead War. The rift was sealed by Daephron Illian with his own life force to contain the Vvrael, which he had accidentally unleashed in his quest to summon an Ur-Daemon. Daephron first appeared as an Elven babe due to temporal distortions, rapidly growing into his actual age until the process killed him.

The puzzle box had been sent with Princess Chesylcha Sukari Faendryl's wedding party as a gift. However, a court mage named Malaphor recognized it was not an ordinary gift box, sensing that it contained great power. It was saved from the destruction of Ta'Ashrim by being carried on the boat that contained surviving relatives of their Patriarch.

Malaphor studied the box for several thousand years before succeeding in unleashing its prisoners. The "knight" that Daephron Illian had accidentally conjured slaughtered Malaphor, and went on a murderous rampage before finding its way to Wehnimer's Landing. It was chasing after his apprentice Tindal, who had escaped with the babe through a gateway. Breaking the wards on the box allowed the Vvrael to reach into the world from their temporal rift through the faultering Eye of the Drake. The scene of the ship escaping the Ashrim Isle would later appear in the temporal distortions under Melgorehn's Reach shortly before Althedeus was defeated. There was widespread temporal rifting at the time. The image was preceded by an Ur-Daemon being assaulted by Drakes.

Behind The Scenes

The "black knight" was less powerful than the black reaver that had been released from a box in Danjirland a few years prior, which also went on a killing rampage in the single-minded pursuit of its target. They are almost indestructible. This knight was a "corrupted human" who was vanquished in the Elven Village. Ruin Creek is geographically located roughly where Mur Fostisyr was on the continent on Jaiman. Malaphor is a portmanteau word of "malapropism" and "metaphor", possibly referring to the extensive mix-and-matching of underlying subtexts in the Vvrael quest that were much deeper. His apprentice Tindal having an underlying meaning is unclear. It may refer to the theologian William Tyndale who denounced prayers to saints, reflecting Castle Anwyn's relation to St. Patrick's Purgatory.