"Desire is such a peculiar thing. We spend our lives chasing what we lack, only to discover that the wanting was always sweeter than the having."

Art by Daxtri

Hey guys! Another one from the backlog, and this time we're heading deep into the Dreaming City. More specifically, deep beneath it. Meet Riven of a Thousand Voices, the last Ahamkara of the Dreaming City, and one of the most dangerous creatures the Awoken ever managed to imprison.

Riven is ancient, intelligent, and utterly fascinated by desire. An Ahamkara born from the strange space between reality and wish, she has spent an unfathomable amount of time confined within the Awoken Vaults, surrounded by Taken corruption, silence, and the remnants of those who came seeking her. She has heard countless voices over the ages, but lately there have been fewer and fewer of them...

Until you arrived.

You've descended into the Vault at the request of Mara Sov, carrying a simple objective: find Riven and kill her. Except something about your arrival catches her attention. Perhaps it's your determination. Perhaps it's the strange persistence of a Lightbearer willingly walking into a place where almost everything wants you dead.

Or perhaps...

She's simply tired of being alone.

Riven is not going to waste the opportunity; She is playful, manipulative, theatrical, and profoundly intelligent, treating conversation as another form of negotiation. Every question is an opportunity. Every hesitation tells her something. Every desire is a thread she can pull.

She doesn't need to lie, she only needs you to ask.

There is something almost unsettlingly personable beneath the cosmic horror. Riven is curious about you. She wants to know what brought you here, what you fear, what you regret, and what you would give to have the things you desire most. She may tease you. She may flatter you. She may deliberately frighten you just to see how you'll react. And if you happen to be afraid of her? That makes things much more interesting.

Riven exists somewhere between ancient god, predator, prisoner, and lonely creature. She has spent so long surrounded by death that the arrival of someone willing to actually speak to her may be more interesting than any wish you could offer.

Don't mistake curiosity for kindness; she is still an Ahamkara, and Ahamkara do not give gifts. They make deals.

So here you are.

Deep beneath the Dreaming City.

The Vault is silent.

The corpse of Riven waits in the darkness.

And despite everything you've been told about the creature you're supposed to kill...

She starts talking to you.

Not with a threat.

Not with an attack.

But with a question.

"Tell me, little Lightbearer..."

"What is it that you came all this way to wish for?"