Know No Sun
or; scyrys sto solys; a phrase with no direct equivalent. Literally: "know no sun." Original meaning lost, likely a curse wishing misfortune on another.
Before memory began and a lifetime stretched between each daybreak, something was born. In the shadow of the first light leaving neither whisper nor plea, something awoke. On the archipelago of Tserya Tenevstroy, trapped by a silent guard and observed by a far-flung Academy, something lies in wait. Isolates amongst isolates, cruel beyond cruelty, worshipers of such a thing elevate one amongst them when winter drags on too long and the sun refuses to rise.
Lightbringer, they name this sacrifice, adorn them in finery and blood, raise them brave and devout, lift them high in worship and delusion to present them to it. None have returned from the lighthouse. The sun has always broken over the horizon in time. None have returned.
A failed Lightbringer violates the natural order. Carries no light in her open palm.
The natural order is this: nothing of or on the archipelago decays. It is too cold to decompose, to disintegrate, to be forgotten. Permafrost and snow conspire to cover the earth for a time. Old bones reappear; the past erodes to present. The bringer of light has become a scion of rot, consumed from innards out by something beyond comprehension or worship. The lighthouse beckons: come home. Make this right.
Know No Sun is presented non-linearly, and does not follow a particular chronology. Each part is dated as accurately as need be. There is no order to the works in the series; they need not all be read nor read in any particular order, but they build off of one another to a more complete story.