#v!faceless

"You've come to pester me again, I see..."

"What are friends for?"

So! We're post-Origins! Rainbow is hibernating now and, believe it or not, Hypno joins him. The Nightmare have proven damn near impossible to kill, so they've moved on to temporarily subduing them. They're weak enough to be delt with by Elders, but they know one day they'll be back in working order. Rainbow wants to be alive when that happens, and Hypno just wants to grab a bowl of popcorn and enjoy the show (he's also very attached to Rainbow now, so he doesn't want to leave him if he can help it).

The place where Rainbow (and Hypno) hibernate forms a giant tree that emits enough power to deter the Nightmare from even entering the island it's planted on, but the rest of the world isn't so lucky. Most of Haven Island don't even know how bad the rest of Arkion has it.

There is Shadow Stone. Everywhere. Except Haven. It's infested the dirt. It's in the water. It's not likely an Arkis will encounter enough to corrupt them, but it isn't impossible, and it has happened to several people now.

There's this Montir named Fern who was dealing with some disease affecting his brain. He ingested Shadow Stone one day, either to kill himself or as a last resort, since he knew there was something in it that could heal him... and it did. Kinda. He doesn't suffer from the symptoms anymore, but can infect anyone else with them.

Symptoms of what they call "The Forest Pague" include, headaches, runny nose, brain fog, hallucinations, moss growing from your body, an innate desire to suffocate the world in Shadow-laced flora, and a sore throat.

Wait a minute... I don't think Fern had all those symptoms. The fever and mild hallucinations, sure, but the plant spreading was all the stone's "idea".

Another victim of Shadow Stone are three younger Arkisen, Nix, Calum, and Arbor, who learned how there used to be a hero that would protect Arkion (at least, a better hero than they have now) and, seeing that the Elders aren't doing shit to help, think they can use Shadow stone to fuse together and become a better hero. While they do successfully fuse, attempts at fighting the Nightmare fail. Can't fight fire with fire, and all Shadow Stone knows is how to work together with its allies.

There's one Arkis that used it to attempt shape-shifting magic... at the cost of their own face melting right off the skull. It's hellbent on finding the perfect replacement now. It goes from person to person, taking their body, hating it, discarding it, and repeating the cycle, which swiftly drains the impersonated of their life force. The Arkisen refer to it as Faceless, if they refer to it at all.

But negatively affecting your life isn't the only thing Shadow Stone is good at. It has consequences afterward, too. Even if you didn't intake enough to turn you evil, your soul would be bound to the earth if you encountered enough of it. Instead of earning your wings and becoming a Spirit or a Phantom, you remain a ghost, haunting Arkion, but unable to protect it.