Davian’s eyes drifted slowly closed as he took what mild comfort he could in his bare cot. His hand soon came to rest on the shining white gem engraved into his chest, right above his heart. To the ignorant, the sight would seem most alarming, but this was no battle wound, nor was it some trivial piece of jewelry, this was his soul. Like all Sypherins, his soul manifested itself materially as a large gem about the size of ones fist, laden into his very flesh, tethered quite literally to his heart.

The Sypherins were created by accident by the Grand Magi Mailin Sypher, during an officially sanctioned magical experiment intended to discover the applications of a number of mysterious alien gemstones that fell to the planet on a meteor a year prior. Davian was the first, Lucillia was the second. But now, the Magi realized they held the power to create life, and Davian along with all of the now hundreds of thousands of Sypherins were slaves.