Beneath Golmore’s living canopy, Soren Rehw-Nong once moved with the quiet certainty of green-wood guardians, each footfall a vow to protect the hidden sanctuaries of his people. But in the twilight marshes, a love born of compassion became a weapon in the hands of Garlean cruelt—and disobedience that cost lives. Overwhelmed by grief and guilt, he renounced the name woven into his birthright and slipped beyond the forest’s threshold—choosing exile so that their sorrow might one day heal unshadowed by his face.

Now, as Auric Gelacra, he bears his new name like a talisman of regret: “golden heart” turned “frozen tears.” In the border towns of Dalmasca Inferior, he learned the mercenary’s blade, not for coin, but to shield the vulnerable in penance for past failures. Each clash of steel echoes like the crack of hoarfrost underfoot, and every dawn brings the ache of memory—yet also the promise that even in frostbound realms, life can bloom anew. Verdant Shadows follows his solitary path, tracing how one shattered soul might forge a new covenant of hope amid the world’s half-lit edges.