Simon's History
While travelling through Latari Forest as a child, Simon's family is attacked by Travelers of Enosh, killing his father and driving his mother insane. Simon is saved by a mysterious cloaked man with a six-foot-long, pitted blade and chains winding up his arms. The man guides Simon back to Myria Village and tells him he should return to the forest in the future.
Eight years later, Travelers serving Overlord Malachi of Damasca arrive to gather sacrifices for the Hanging Trees, which seal the Incarnations, Travelers who have been corrupted by their Territories. The attack kills his mother and devastates his village, and his friend Leah is kidnapped. Soon after, another villager his age, Alin, is revealed to be Eliadel, the prophesized Traveler of Elysia, meant to overthrow Damasca. Frustrated by the unfairness, Simon decides to set out to find the power to stop the Travelers himself. He returns to the forest to seek out the stranger who saved him, but finds someone else instead: a madman named Kai who talks to his sword, Azura, and his dolls, who seem to whisper to him. Kai takes Simon as an apprentice and brings him into the Territory of Valinhall, the House of Blades, where Kai draws his power.
Simon lives in Valinhall for the next two weeks, where he is attacked by traps, imps in the bathtub, and shadowy specters called the Nye who ambush him in his sleep. He is forced to fight a man made of rags and blades named Chaka to earn the right to eat from the House's garden. Eventually, he starts challenging the guardians of one of the House's rooms, a team of sentient suits of armor and a metal skeleton named Benson. While his swordsmanship improves greatly, Simon doesn't earn any actual powers. Frustrated, Simon confronts Kai, who blames himself for holding Simon's hand. He then disappears deeper into the House, leaving Simon to fend for himself.
Now infuriated, Simon lashes out at the next Nye to attack him, chasing it down after its escape. He enters a room he has never seen before, and is met by Eldest, a ragged-looking Nye who is their leader. Intrigued by the child, Eldest offers Simon a deal: swear to serve the Nye and Valinhall, and he will receive Eldest's gift. Simon agrees, and is given a box of blue-white light, the Essence of the Nye. Simon inhales the light, and gains access to his first power. Armed with this ability, Simon challenges Benson again, and wins, earning his second power: a quicksilver vial that allows him to call Steel, gifting him inhuman strength and access to the next rooms: the library and the forge. He doesn't earn any new powers, but he does encounter another Valinhall Traveler: Denner Weeks. Denner explains the need for the sacrifices, and introduces a chance for Simon to prove himself and earn one of the Dragon Fangs, the indestructible Tartarus Steel swords that act as keys to Valinhall. Simon then embarks on this journey to leave and save his village: leaving the Territory to spend a week in the treacherous Orgrith Cave.
The cave is occupied by massive sleeping stone worms that can burrow through rock like nothing. While in the cave, he encounters two lost children, Andra and Lycus. Simon chooses to leave the cave early to save the children, using his Nye Essence and Steel to get Lycus out a hole in the cave roof, where their mother, Olissa, was waiting, before going back for Andra. As his powers start to fade, he wakes the worms, which brutally attack him. Simon desperately calls for more power, and Benson answers, providing him with a wave of Steel that dwarfed what he once had. This allows him to overpower the worms through sheer brute force, bringing Andra out of the cave. Simon prepares to reenter the cave to finish his trial, but falls unconscious from his injuries. He awakes in the childrens' mother's wagon to see Kai sitting next to him, gifting Simon with his sword, Azura, and his dolls, before leaving to collect another Dragon Fang for himself.
Simon soon realized that the family he reunited was part of the Damascan army that had taken his village prisoner, and was now holding the survivors to be sold into slavery. Furious, he attacked the squad of soldiers, and was nearly overwhelmed. It is when he is nearly overwhelmed by the soldiers that the doll left to him by Kai, named Caela, finally spoke to him outright. Caela guided him through the rest of the fight, and once it was over, Simon was overwhelmed by how horribly he had destroyed the soldiers. He spared the Captain of the soldiers, Erastes, and sent him and the family he had saved into Valinhall to keep them safe from the freed villagers. At the villagers' insistence, Simon took them along to Bel Calem, the city where Overlord Malachi stayed.
Once they arrived, they reunited with Alin, who had been training in Enosh and had returned with greater control over his powers of gold light. The group discovered where the sacrifices had been kept, but only found one person: Rutha, Leah's half-sister. Rutha reported that everyone else had been killed, except for Leah, who seemed to be treated specially. Alin and Simon split up after, taking separate paths to look for Leah, leaving the villagers to return to Myria.
Simon reentered Valinhall to ask Eldest for help in finding Leah, and found that Andra had started training to become a Valinhall Traveler as well. Eldest sent one of the Nye to lead Simon on his search, and gifted Simon a black cloak to symbolize their deal. With the help of this guide, Simon reached the castle of Overlord Malachi within minutes. After a brief scuffle, Malachi and Simon realized they didn't know who the other was, and stopped to talk. Partway through their conversation, Alin burst through the doors, engaging Malachi in battle, forcing Malachi to put on a strange red half-mask that increased his power dramatically. The battle collapsed most of the castle floor, nearly burying the Overlord's family. Simon managed to save them just in time to see Malachi die at Alin's feet.
The two found Leah and retreated with three summoned armored bears from Elysia, with countless Damascan Travelers operating under Malachi and Overlord Deborah chasing them. To escape, Simon took control of all three bears, giving Leah and Alin a chance to hide as he rode into a canyon for a showdown with the Travelers. Simon proceeded to destroy the entire party, taking heavy injuries and retreating into Valinhall with the bears, which he returned to Alin the next day.
