The First Subterfuge has been enacted by the now revealed Herald of Death himself and Leader of the Arceneaux Corporation, Alphonse Arceneaux.
In a fierce battle at Iden, the End of the World, a frozen island at the southern pole of Vescrutia, Zeik and Zero arrived in search of the Traversing Mirror, a mysterious vestige that allowed departed souls to cross from this world into the next, from the Seen into the Unseen.
The Traversing Mirror was an integral part of a greater order so its destruction has thrown all manner of Bridgeworks into disarray. It allowed souls to recognize their own departure, a vital step in releasing their ties to flesh. Now that it has been destroyed by Death’s Herald and the Tarnished Pike, souls linger, trapped between realms and unable to pass on. This fissure has caused a surge in spirits bound to the mortal plane, feeding the ranks of the Ravagers and spawning countless other spiritual anomalies. The Unseen swells with unrest, while the seen world buckles under the weight of spirits that should never have remained.
The other Bridgeworks remain, but their harmony is ruined. Souls are called but cannot complete the journey, drawn toward sigils, wells, and gates that no longer connect. This fissure feeds the Ravagers, twisting trapped souls into scars of horror.
Any life lost from this point forward is drawn into service by the Horsemen, and in Death, they find new life among the thrall legion waiting to be unleashed at the Horsemen's command to carry their will across the face of Vescrutia.
Beware.
Beware.
Ravagers, the Three Scars
Ravagers are the army of the Horsemen, born from the perversion of death itself. When a being dies on Vescrutia, their body does not rest in the ground. Instead, they’re seized, broken, and remade into a Ravager— an unholy echo of the deceased. They serve only the will of the Horsemen, carrying out their commands with ruthless efficiency.
Ravagers are identical in size to the deceased, though their bodies are often twisted, distorted, or stretched by the scar that remade them.
Ravagers are mindless destroyers. They are not living beings but weapons, bound to directives set upon them. Once given purpose, they will stop at nothing to achieve it, using the most ruthless, overpowering tactics their deceased selves could have conceived.
The kind of Ravager a soul becomes is decided by the power they held at the moment of death and the shadow of the Horsemen’s influence. A single death will always spawn a First Scar, though in some cases that scar may deepen into a Second. The Third Scar can only be made directly by a Horseman. Each scar carries abilities and powers relative to the strength and nature of the person who died.
First Scar – The Thrall
These Ravagers are the most common. They are shaped directly from the corpse, their bodies twisted echoes of what they once were. They move like the deceased once did, but with a jerking, exaggerated brutality. Thralls embody the raw violence of death itself.
Second Scar – The Mutated
Sometimes the fracture of death runs deeper. Second Scars are warped beyond recognition, their forms stretched, fused, and shattered into terrifying new shapes. They are a blend of memory, flesh, and horror, moving with unnatural contortions that defy anatomy. Each one is an abomination made worse by how much of the person they used to be still lingers within.
Third Scar – The Horsemen’s Chosen
The rarest and most dreadful. These Ravagers are directly forged by the Horsemen themselves. Shaped with deliberate cruelty, they are sculpted into weapons of terror and annihilation. Each Third Scar is a singular horror, distinct in form and purpose, and far deadlier than the scars that come before.
The team