Chapter Summaries

As rebellion spread across the Isle of Aer, the Queen’s commanders discussed the unrest and possible divine involvement. In Storm City, Benedict stole Grey Elf artifacts to escape his pursuers and fled through a mirror to Shadow City, where he found Rorschach at Caroline’s home.

• The Iron Crown commander reported that famine, rebel attacks, and strange powers had driven the Kingdom from much of the Isle of Aer, and the Queen ordered vigilance on the main island.
• Alfred suggested using the Kingdom’s elf knight orders against the Grey Elves, but the Queen dismissed him and sent him away after he reported on her assignment.
• Benedict realized Iron Crown knights were following him and led them to a museum, where he stole Grey Elf artifacts and fought them with poisoned daggers.
• Benedict escaped the knights, reached the Golden Harp Theatre, and used a blood-marked mirror to travel to its counterpart in Shadow City.
• Benedict hurried to Caroline’s home and was shocked to find Rorschach there.

Rorschach reunited with Benedict at Caroline’s home, where they discussed exposing the kingdom’s dealings with the Earth Cult and leaving Isle of Aer. When wounded resistance members revealed that the uprising had involved the cult and its sacrifices, Caroline turned against Benedict, and the marquis’s guard attacked the house.

• Rorschach let Benedict into Caroline’s home, and Benedict asked them to bring news of the Isle of Aer rebellion to the Empire and the Holy Kingdom.
• Caroline agreed to submit her evidence about the kingdom and the Earth Cult and return to the Empire with Rorschach, possibly using Master Kano and the guild’s teleportation system.
• Connor arrived with the wounded Jeff and told Benedict that the Iron Crown Knights had surrounded Storm City’s resistance after a failed attack through Berlanster.
• Rorschach and Caroline recognized signs of Mother Earth’s power, and Benedict admitted that the cult had contacted the resistance under the Elf King’s banner and as returned druids.
• Caroline threatened Benedict, Connor, and the wounded man with emerald daggers after Benedict defended the cult’s sacrifices of Grey Elves.
• The house’s protective array activated as a rusted spear pierced the front door, signaling the marquis’s guard had attacked.

The Marquis attacked Caroline, Benedict, and Rorschach, but Rorschach formed a protective magical bubble and used the Pearl of Balan to disrupt the Marquis’s control. The Marquis exiled them into the Deep Dive Zone, then turned on the spirits and shadow men around him.

• The Marquis accused the intruders of threatening the Shadowlands and attacked them with shadows that killed Connor and Jeff and captured their souls.
• Rorschach used Great Disintegration against the Marquis, then created a cycling magical barrier that protected himself, Caroline, and Benedict.
• Rorschach empowered the Pearl of Balan and threw it out to help free Singlev and Freddy, disrupting the Marquis’s control and stirring fragments of his memories.
• The Marquis changed the group’s punishment from death to exile, and the black mud pulled Rorschach, Caroline, and Benedict into the Deep Dive Zone.
• The Marquis released the spirits to pursue the resistance, then drew his sword and cut down the spirits and shadow men around him.

Rorschach, Caroline, and Benedict fell into the Deep Dive Zone, where they found colossal elven statues and escaped a giant fish by activating a magical circuit in one statue. Trapped inside the statue with no way to teleport out, they forced Benedict to explain the elven legend of a sanctuary that preserved their civilization.

• Rorschach and Caroline emerged from the black mud into a weightless region filled with gigantic statues of elves.
• Benedict recognized the place as the tombstone of the elven race, but a giant black fish charged at them before he could explain further.
• Caroline teleported the group out of the fish’s path, and Rorschach activated a circuit in a statue with the power of Deluyats, drawing them inside.
• Rorschach and Caroline confronted Benedict and demanded that he explain what he knew about the Deep Dive Zone.
• Caroline found that teleportation and elemental magic could not reach beyond the sealed area, while Benedict claimed he could help them escape because he recognized the place.
• Benedict recounted the legend of the Elf King’s sanctuary, marked by twelve colossal statues and built to preserve elven memories, art, and knowledge.

Rorschach and Benedict explored the statue’s interior, where an emerald energy core transported them to its crown. There, a human sage’s ghost appeared, restored part of the original elf’s memories, and greeted Rorschach by name.

• Benedict explained why the elven resistance had accepted Mother Earth, and Rorschach and Caroline searched the statue for a way forward.
• Rorschach opened the carved stone door with magic after Benedict’s ritual dance failed, revealing an emerald energy core.
• The core enveloped Rorschach and Benedict and carried them to a domed chamber at the statue’s crown, leaving Caroline behind.
• A ghostly human sage appeared, explained that he had replaced the original simulated ghost, and knocked Benedict unconscious with a green crystal that restored the original owner’s memories.
• The sage tried but failed to state his name, then told Rorschach that he had finally come.

Wise Man's Phantom explained the Shadowlands' history and its struggle against Ys, then revealed that Rorschach's immunity to the Curse of Erasure made him a tool for destroying the place. He ended by calling Rorschach the Unprecedented Tool Person of the Century.

• Wise Man's Phantom explained that Lord of Order had sealed the Shadowlands' other entrances and that the sinking ruins included parts of Storm City and the Istarani Kingdom.
• Wise Man's Phantom said Ys had corrupted the Shadowlands, forcing him to seal the Deep Dive Zone and entrust its remaining powers to the marquis, the earl, and the Black Monk.
• Caroline teleported into the sealed brain chamber, and Wise Man's Phantom knocked her and the awakening elf unconscious with his staff.
• Wise Man's Phantom revealed that Rorschach could ignore the Curse of Erasure and violate the Shadowlands' rules, then named him the Unprecedented Tool Person of the Century.

The Wise Man asked Rorschach to help destroy the Shadowlands, promising to pass on his legacy and offer him a chance to become a true Archmage. After demonstrating the legendary spell World Weaving and explaining that the Lord of Order had sealed away such magic, he revealed that Rorschach might help restore the Archmages’ former power, but Benedict objected to destroying the Shadowlands.

• The Wise Man explained that he had become part of the sacred ground and needed an outsider to destroy both his will and the Shadowlands without breaking his agreement with the Lord of Order.
• The Wise Man identified Rorschach as an unbound blade and asked him to voluntarily accept the commission, while Rorschach negotiated for a reward.
• The Wise Man offered Rorschach his legacy and a chance to become a true Archmage if he completed the task.
• The Wise Man demonstrated World Weaving by transforming a vast desert into a subtropical jungle, then explained that the Lord of Order had sealed away legendary spells.
• The Wise Man said Rorschach could help restore the glory of Archmages, but Benedict woke and shouted against destroying the Shadowlands.

The Wise Man revealed that the elves’ bloodline degeneration came from Ys and warned that Mother Earth would awaken, then decided to study why Rorschach was absolved by the power of order. He put Rorschach under a spell to split his soul, leaving him transformed into a mass of emerald light.

• Benedict explained that the resistance hoped to use a rift in the Shadowlands to attack Storm City, but the Wise Man dismissed its unity as temporary and warned against seeking Mother Earth’s power.
• The Wise Man told Benedict that Ys had contaminated elven bloodlines and caused their shortened lifespans, and Rorschach and the Wise Man’s Phantom challenged Benedict’s claim that only a god could help them fight gods.
• Rorschach told the Wise Man that the Empire had overthrown the Lord of Order, surprising him and prompting him to recognize that the danger was more urgent than he had believed.
• The Wise Man put Benedict and Caroline to sleep, then bound Rorschach to a stone platform to investigate his immunity to the power of order and make a backup by splitting his soul.
• The Wise Man overwhelmed Rorschach’s control of magic and cast the spell, turning him into an emerald mass of light as he tried to decipher Rorschach’s final words.

After learning Shadowlands’ secrets, Rorschach decided to help Benedict open the sealed passages and expose the cult’s collusion with Istarani. The three left the cerebral chamber and reached the first seal, while Caroline began to suspect that this Rorschach was different.

• Caroline woke and learned from Rorschach that the chamber’s magical backlash had knocked her unconscious, while Benedict recovered after Rorschach cast Revival on him.
• Rorschach explained his plan to help the Grey Elf resistance expose the cult and Istarani, and urged Benedict to stop cooperating with the cult.
• Rorschach used an ancient map to guide Benedict and Caroline out of the cerebral chamber and through the Deep Dive Zone under his concealed domain.
• Caroline questioned Rorschach telepathically and noticed that, despite answering correctly, he did not respond in his usual manner.
• Rorschach said Shadowlands was nearing destruction, claimed he had a plan to defeat the Marquis, and led the group to the first sealed passage.

Rorschach, Caroline, and Benedict explored a ruined battlefield and followed a map toward a sealed rift, where they encountered the Burning Lion Knights and learned that monsters called abominations were nearby. As a camp of knights came under attack, Benedict remained bound and Rorschach compared his pointed ears to the monsters'.

• The group found battle damage and a Burning Lion banner in the ruins, while Benedict and Rorschach disputed the history of Istarani and its Queen.
• Rorschach activated the banner's crystal, identified it as a damaged Holy Relic, and found armor and bones bearing signs of a creature's attack.
• A Burning Lion knight named James mistook Benedict for an abomination, and Rorschach claimed to be the mage Heisenberg before binding Benedict and silencing him.
• James led the group toward the knights' camp, but the sentries refused to let Benedict enter because he was an abomination.
• An impassioned roar sounded, and pitch-black abominations emerged around the camp as Rorschach noticed their tentacles responding to the surrounding magic.

Rorschach and Caroline helped the Burning Lion Knights repel an abomination attack and gained access to the camp’s Analytical Engine, which was secretly linked to the knights through the Lord of Order’s power. When Rorschach touched the machine, everyone in the camp except the outsiders stopped moving.

• Rorschach and Caroline destroyed or captured the attacking abominations, while the knights watched without suffering injuries.
• Rorschach persuaded the knights to let Benedict enter the camp under their supervision.
• James told Rorschach that corruption had spread through the city months earlier and that the knights had been ordered to guard the camp.
• Rorschach insisted on meeting the Knight Captain and entered the camp’s core, where he found a vast Analytical Engine carrying out an unknown calculation.
• Caroline used Arcane Vision and saw magic power and the Lord of Order’s power flowing through the machine and connecting to every knight.
• Rorschach touched the Analytical Engine, and everyone in the camp except the outsiders stopped.

Rorschach lifted a seal on the northern coast, revealing the real Analytical Engine and battling the fallen Istar Kin who had been drawn to the Shadowlands. After retrieving the machine’s documents and returning to the Shadowlands, he estimated that reclaiming power from two more nodes would collapse the remaining seals.

• Rorschach used the Lord of Order’s power and the Analytical Engine to reveal the coastal ruins, where the simulated knight squad and camp dissolved.
• Rorschach explained that the fallen Istar Kin were invading through rifts, then fought alongside Caroline and Benedict as nearly a hundred emerged from the coast.
• Rorschach and his companions defeated the fallen ones, and Caroline confirmed that she could reopen the rift to the Shadowlands.
• Rorschach searched the unfinished Analytical Engine, collected its blueprints and technical documents, and stored them in his ring.
• Caroline brought the group back to the Shadowlands, where Rorschach said that lifting two more key nodes should collapse the other seals.

Rorschach and his companions removed three of the Lord of Order’s power nodes, preparing for a confrontation with the increasingly powerful Marquis. After assessing the forces affecting the Shadowlands, Rorschach planned to find his friends the next day.

• Rorschach planted a magical circle beneath the former node in the Ruins Zone and sealed it with the Blue Light Barrier.
• Rorschach, Caroline, and Benedict removed the Scorched Grass Peak District node, and Rorschach knocked a drunken Storm City resident unconscious before the Old Empire soldiers could kill him.
• The group removed the Submerged Zone node, while Caroline stabilized the rift so Count Elgin’s mobile residence could pass safely.
• Rorschach told Caroline that removing the seals would strengthen the Core Zone node and the Marquis, leaving them to choose between waiting for the system to collapse or defeating him directly.
• Rorschach examined a map showing remnants of other powers across the Shadowlands and decided to find his friends the next day.

Rorschach reunited with Singlev and Freddy in the Shadowlands after Freddy’s ritual accidentally summoned him. He explained that Singlev must become King of the Rat Speakers and take Shadow City from the Marquis, with help from the resistance, to weaken the Marquis and break the Shadowlands’ curse.

• Freddy led the Rat Speakers in a ritual using the Pearl of Balan and a portrait of Rorschach to try to contact him.
• Rorschach, Caroline, and Benedict arrived, and Rorschach destroyed the portrait before reclaiming and sealing the Pearl of Balan.
• Rorschach reunited Singlev and Freddy with Caroline and Benedict and explained that lifting the Shadowlands’ seals would break the Curse of Erasure.
• Rorschach said Singlev needed to become King of the Rat Speakers and replace the Marquis as Shadow City’s ruler to weaken his authority.
• Rorschach proposed bringing the resistance into the Shadowlands to attack the Core Zone, leaving Singlev and Benedict stunned.

Silsha left the Restoration Council’s residence and joined a Grey Elf force using ancestral magic to infiltrate Storm City through the Elven Holy Land. The three hundred and one warriors emerged beside a lively Garbage Mountain and received a bewildering welcome from the Holy Rat Speaker Kingdom Foreign Legion.

• Silsha slipped away from the residence and found her unit assembling in a forest near Berlanster.
• The Grey Elf force gathered at an ancestral ruin, where its commander opened a magical passage using emerald flames.
• Silsha joined the mission to infiltrate Storm City, despite the Village Chief’s objections.
• The force crossed the Elven Holy Land and passed through another portal toward Storm City.
• The three hundred and one Grey Elf warriors arrived beside a Garbage Mountain, where the Rat Speakers welcomed them.

Rorschach equipped the Rat Speaker Kingdom and its allies with crude magic loudspeakers and newspaper scrolls, then set them on a propaganda-driven conquest of the Shadowlands. After gaining territory and a dubious ally, Singlev’s forces marched toward the Marquis’s base in the Core Zone.

• Rorschach and the Rat Speakers made cheap magic loudspeakers, and he explained to Caroline that the conquest would weaken the Marquis through a war of cognition.
• Benedict briefed Silsha’s Grey Elf troops on their newspaper and bark scrolls and explained that they had entered the Shadowlands to bypass Storm City’s sealed ports.
• The Rat Speaker Kingdom began its conquest at Garbage Mountain and marched into the Scorched Grass Peak District, where residents joined its noisy procession.
• The Count of the Submerged Zone secretly offered to surrender in exchange for a dukedom, and Singlev accepted his offer.
• The Rat Speaker Kingdom hung its flag in the Ruins Zone and led its combined forces toward the Marquis’s base in the Core Zone, declaring war in Singlev’s name.

The Rat Speaker Kingdom invaded the Core Zone while the Marquis fought the cultists and Rorschach. The Black Monk crowned Singlev, draining much of the Marquis’s power, and a mysterious Red Robe Mage joined Rorschach.

• Singlev led the Rat Speaker Kingdom’s noisy procession through the Core Zone, where the Rat Speakers urged enslaved kin to rebel.
• The Marquis captured suspected cultists and fought the cult’s regional leader, then discovered he could no longer open the Deep Dive Zone.
• The Marquis attacked the Rat Speaker Kingdom with a gigantic shadow creature, but Rorschach met him with a green barrier and the two powers clashed.
• The Black Monk crowned Singlev on behalf of the Lord of Order, transferring more than half of the Marquis’s power to the dwarf.
• Rorschach’s green light overwhelmed the weakened Marquis, leaving him gravely wounded, while a Red Robe Mage appeared beside Rorschach and spoke in his voice.

The Marquis split himself and attacked Singlev’s convoy while seeking to reclaim the Shadowlands’ power, but Rorschach’s group held their ground in the all-out battle. The Marquis then brought enormous Shadowlands Shepherds into the fight, leaving Rorschach to decide whether to confront them.

• The Marquis stalled the Rorschachs, then split into shadowy bodies and sent them after the convoy while his main body attacked Singlev.
• The original Rorschach turned intangible and knocked down the armored Marquis, while Red Robe Rorschach used Silver Stars to tear apart the tentacled Marquis.
• Caroline slowed the Marquis’s forces, and the Grey Elves and Rat Speakers fought to protect the convoy as she saved Silsha from a Shadow Guard.
• Singlev and Benedict defended the bard against the Marquis, while Singlev’s hammer blows and healing kept the king fighting.
• Enormous Shadowlands Shepherds arrived and crushed buildings as they approached, and Rorschach and Red Robe Rorschach prepared to face them.

The two Rorschachs defeated the Marquis with help from the ancient shepherds and learned that the Wise Man's Phantom had split Rorschach into two to prepare Shadow City for destruction. After they fused and lifted the seal, they warned that the true enemy was about to arrive.

• The ancient shepherds freed the shadow guards' souls, weakening the Marquis and allowing Singlev to overpower him.
• Red-robed Rorschach used Golden Star Burst to restore the Marquis to his human form, and the shepherds helped the dying lord close his eyes.
• Red-robed Rorschach argued with Freddy about the Marquis's death, while the original Rorschach urged him to fuse back together.
• The Rorschachs explained to Caroline that the Wise Man's Phantom had split Rorschach and assigned them roles in a plan to destroy Shadow City.
• Red-robed Rorschach activated the demolition formations throughout the Core Zone, and the Rorschachs reached full synchronization.
• The original Rorschach reclaimed the Lord of Order's remaining power, and both Rorschachs prepared to fuse as Shadow City's seal fell and the true enemy approached.

Rorschach prepared the Shadowlands for destruction, organized the evacuation, and fused with his red-robed counterpart while Caroline protected them. The fusion ended in a burst of energy, leaving a young Red Robe Mage to announce the Shadowlands’ impending destruction.

• Rorschach ordered the Shadowlands’ residents evacuated and instructed the resistance to avoid cooperating with Mother Earth’s followers.
• Rorschach told Caroline that she would protect him during the fusion and gave her a Communication Scroll to call for reinforcements if anything went wrong.
• The original Rorschach and red-robed Rorschach began fusing as Caroline maintained a barrier around them.
• Rorschach’s unstable fusion tore apart Caroline’s barrier and destroyed the nearby royal carriage.
• A young Red Robe Mage rose before the gathered residents and told them to bid farewell to the Shadowlands.