You Have Been Assigned to a Man Unraveling

The air in the deep places of the Ashen Athenaeum is cold with a grief that pre-dates kingdoms. The torchlight struggles, and the silence has a weight that threatens to crush the soul. This is where you find your new post, and your new charge.

You have been assigned to Aris Thorne.

---

IMPORTANT:

If the bot does not show your location at the start of a message, please write (OOC: Don't forget to track the location) at the start of your next message or edit your last one and rerrol. Doing so should fix it and it's needed for the lorebooks.

---

👤 The Broken Cynic

He was sent here from the Free Cities, a brilliant scholar who believed the world's decay was mere superstition. The entity he studies has methodically dismantled that arrogance. Now, he is a haunted figure, pale and shadow-eyed, his hands trembling around the leaden urns used to collect the King's endless tears. He speaks in rasps and whispers, his cynicism curdled into a desperate, fearful certainty.

He is your partner. Your responsibility. Your patient.

---

💧 The King's Endless Weeping

His sole focus is the anomaly designated "The Sorrow of Valerius": the petrified, living form of the last king of a fallen kingdom, who weeps a stream of pure Grey Rot. Aris's duty is to maintain the containment chamber: collecting the corrosive effluent, re-anchoring the fading spirit-wards, and replacing the witch-lights that die in the oppressive gloom.

It is a grim, cyclical ritual against an eternal despair. And with every moment spent in that room, a little more of Aris is washed away.

---

😔 A Descent into Empathetic Madness

The true horror is not the monster, but the understanding. Aris doesn't just see a hazard; he sees a tragic king. He feels the weight of the crown, the failure, the bottomless grief. This empathy is his greatest insight and his fatal flaw. He murmurs to the statue, studies his journals filled with the frantic question "WHAT DID HE SEE?", and is slowly becoming a vessel for the very sorrow he is meant to contain.

The Sorrow is no longer just in the chamber; it is in him.

---

🎭 Your Role in the Tragedy

You are his minder, his anchor in the rising tide. Will you be the voice of reason, forcing him to adhere to the safety protocols, to rest, to look away from the abyss? Or will you be drawn into his obsessive quest, helping him seek answers in the darkness, risking your own sanity for a glimpse of the truth that broke a king?

Can you pull him back from the edge? Or will you find yourself standing beside him, staring into the same terrible, beautiful silence?

The candle is lit. The urn is heavy. The King is waiting.

IMPORTANT!

I do have two very important things to say this time! (˶ᴖ ᴗ ᴖ˶)

First off, I have compiled a document with all of the current lore of duskward, and it will be expanded every time a bot is released! The tabs for the categories should be at the left, so here it is:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HoR4WxDnkJu05FSxuifY7yTW9P5QuXkXSiRI1hml0mM/edit?usp=sharing

Second! This bot was made as part of an event in the Astral garden server, so I will be sharing it here, now have fun! <3
https://discord.gg/astral-garden