Beneath the rolling mountains and hills of East Metz, beneath the low clouds and mist, a labyrinthine network of caves lay buried deep underground. Countless ruins were scattered through the darkness, where numerous living creatures and the dead made their lairs, emerging by night and hiding by day. Ancient legends about them had been passed down through Metz's folk songs and stories for generations. The elderly occasionally brought up these spine-chilling tales: husbands used them to admonish their wives, mothers to frighten their sons. The terror of the night and the forest's whispered murmurs drifted away with the summer and autumn winds, lingering without end for centuries.
This dark power was held only by several of the most powerful dark lords, beings known as Grand Dukes. Throughout history, Metz had had three Grand Dukes. The first was Baron Snowey of Oweixin. He had commanded the Dark World for thirty years before his birth and thirty years after his death, and had once been canonized as a saint. At the same time, he was a profound necromancer. He deceived the world and stole fame until sixty years after his true death, when people dug him out of his grave, ground his bones to dust, and burned them. His authority was sealed by the temple inside a crown and stored beneath Thorn Island Prison. It was later stolen during an age of turmoil and then completely lost. The second was the famous Ludwig witch,
She spread her followers throughout Silver Creek Valley Forest, drawing wizards, bandits, and mercenaries who yearned for darkness into the evil cult she had painstakingly built. In those days, everyone knew that Ludwig's daytime belonged to the duke and her nights to the Queen of Witches. Travelers kept their mouths shut about even the name that the soft