... and then, a wicked wind shall blow;
the shade shall become a vessel of destruction.
Four hatreds beat in undying tandem -
but only in alliance can redemption be granted.
Five shall be chosen, four shall prevail;
Amid enmity their differences shall be their strengths..

From the Book of the Shade Prophecy
Spoken by the Oracle Daine

It has been said that if you gather three people, there shall be society. Gather four and they will find someone to cast out. Thus it is four races once dwelt together in a single kingdom. So great their hatred for each other it transcended the very books of history written, the origin of the feud lost to the trackless years of yore.

The oldest tablet ever inscribed with symbols of a language held common to all speaks of a prophecy laid down by an oracle now dust in the earth. The ancient tablet speaks of five warriors, similar only in purpose, who will rise to purge the land of an unslayable evil which takes it from the gloom of obscurity.

Like weeds, malevolence will grow to choke the life from the land and its people. Above hatred it stands, for its mind denies reason. Insane, it plots, and with each death it shall grow. The longer left unhindered, the surer its mission.

Like a shade it shall darken the clouds of the sky, denying the land the light of salvation...