shams was born to a family belonging to the writers faction in the real world, around the time the warring between the two factions had already existed for years. the azaris used to be an ancient lineage of narrative weavers, a family cursed (or blessed) with the ability to alter reality by rewriting its story. they did not create from nothing until much later— instead, they edit existence like a manuscript, changing events, people and even history itself with the stroke of their pen. the ability died out ages ago due to other members of the faction taking advantage of it and as such, they primarily focused on the art of creation by writing. but how exactly did their ability work? there used to be a hereditary artifact, a pen that writes in blood - ink, capable of altering events, but only if the change "fits the narrative." small edits (changing a name, erasing a memory) are easy, but large ones (preventing a death, rewriting a war) require sacrifices.

compared to the canvases of the painters, written stories are interconnected with each other, forming one realm that they call the pale verses. each world is a labyrinth of stanzas, metaphors given physical form and allegories that twist reality. time loops, meanings shift and the only way to survive is to write oneself into the narrative or be erased by the world's hunger for new stanzas. not many reach the hub of said world, but it is a vast, labyrinthine library where every story is its own world. each written work manifests as its own self - contained universe, obeying the rules of its narrative. the more a story is read, remembered or revised in the real world, the stronger its world becomes. when a story is abandoned, burned or lost, its world begins to dissolve.

this was one of the focal points between the writers in the faction. not only have they been warring with the painters, but for more control, books would be hidden and even burned to diminish a family's power. and because the azaris were the only known writers who could rewrite the events of a story, it had soon began to affect them. soon, the greed and fear of her family had taken over, each person fighting to be the strongest narrative weaver. reality, strained by their manipulations, began to reject their changes. people they had erased in the worlds flickered back as half - formed ghosts, events they altered twisted into paradoxes and entire bloodlines collapsed under the weight of their revisions. this had caused issues in the real world as well. the more a writer rewrites a story, the more they stop existing in the real world. and thus, almost all of the weavers disappeared, except for a select few who had seemed to make the right choice.

around the time she had begun to be a prodigy in the art of writing, she finds said artifact. upon touching it, it triggers an event that leaves her trapped in a poem about the history of the writers. this is where everything changes. the world she had entered was like no other she had seen before, a reality the hub would call the devouring stranza. the poem is alive and it is a parasitic text, a living entity that consumes stories, memories and souls to sustain itself. it was originally a eulogy, written by the last weaver as their bloodline collapsed. intended to be a monument to lost history, it instead became a recursive curse— a poem that rewrote itself with every word read, growing more ravenous with each iteration. as they removed each other from existence, the poem absorbed their forgotten remnants, becoming a patchwork of missing memories.

now, it exists as the only true record of the azaris and one that feeds on their descendants. but what was the actual structure of the poem? the poem has no true beginning or end. it loops eternally, with each stanza referencing its own consumption. key lines shift upon rereading, ensuring no two interpretations are the same. the poem cannot exist if the weavers are truly gone. thus, it preserves the last weaver (shams), not out of mercy, but to sustain itself. if she dies without passing on her power, the stanza will unravel, but so will every reality the weavers ever altered. and it is during her time there that she learns of this.

throughout her journey, she walked through different locations that helped her learn the reality of this world. the inkwell catacombs, a place that held the corpses of weavers who tried to escape their fate, or the artifact's birthplace, a glacial tundra where the first quill was dipped, were the first two she had to encounter. the last location, however, was the one that opened her eyes. the ghost press, they called it, a monstrous, broken printing press in a dead city, tended to by ink - golems made of discarded drafts. if she can stop the press, she might stop the poem’s hold on her. but the press is guarded by something that wears a weaver’s skin. in the end, there were only two solutions to escape the world she had found herself in: either complete the text and dissolve into the stranza or rewrite herself out of the narrative. which is exactly what happened.

she's back to reality now, but things seem to be different. the attack against the dessendre family had now occurred and things were much more drastic than before. shams' physical health has also weakened and for her to find a cure, she must travel into different artworks, whether created by a writer or painter, and find something that will sustain her or else she will be consumed by ink. she channels her energy into these worlds, while keeping her physical body in the real world, and helps resolve the issues with her own ability. she appears as a normal human, but if one were to look closely, her reflection flickers, sometimes showing a verse where her face should be. when shams is inside artworks, time moves differently for her. the scenes in front of her shift to depict past or future iterations of the events or it replays in different ways to show many versions of what is yet to happen (or maybe never will happen). she also cannot rewrite events unless she uses the blood of the source creating these worlds.

and this is how she gets involved with lumière and the continent. her latest journey, she had entered a few years after the fracture, making sure she acclimates herself with the continent. her initial reason for coming, however, was not for the cure, but because of the war happening in the real world. she simply had to act before things worsened and to her, the start was with the very same corruption that her faction had started. while clea created the nevrons to lock away all of aline's chroma, shams will seek out expeditions to help them get closer, which she had done in the past. the expedition will be able to find her in multiple locations, the first one being the ancient sanctuary. she will leave little clues for the expedition to find her, but if that does not seem to work, she will seek them out herself, which will be in old lumière. she is also familiar with most inhabitants of the continent, particularly being fond of the gestrals and the grandis.

she makes no decisions when she is with expedition 33, only being there for support, whether that is a party member or as a camp inhabitant. her loyalty remains with finding a way to end the war, something she values even more than finding a cure. if maelle's ending has been chosen, she will leave the canvas. in the same vein, if verso's ending has been chosen, she will do the same. she won't particularly tell the full truth at once because of how deep it is and how it is not her story to tell, but if they were to ask the right questions, she will give the right answers.

when she returns to the real world, she moves forward with the fight between the writers and the painters. when it comes to her cure, there is no proper solution that would be viewed as a good ending. she could retrieve the inkwell of the first weaver, but his blood carries his madness and hunger, so she would risk becoming a new devouring stanza herself. she could find a counterpart to the quill that unwrites instead of writes, but if she were to unwrite herself, it would unmake her past actions, collapsing events she’s influenced. she could force the entity that eats forgotten stories to consume the stanza, but that would mean herself with it. either way, the ending for her will either be being erased from existence, becoming a monstrosity or dying. in the end, she disappears either way. it only depends on which option she prefers. and any journey she could take will only delay the inevitable.

⊹ LITTLE NOTES:

her appearance shifts during her time in the canvas. the way her illness shows itself when she is inside an artwork is making it seem like it is a magical illness. in each artwork, the way it manifests is different. while she is on the continent, her face has golden marks that shift depending on her energy levels. see here for an example of how it might look.