The five called

There is no chosen one. There are five, and you pick which one you start with. The other four still exist in the world: you meet them, they join you, and they react differently depending on who is leading the run.

The five come from places that know nothing of each other and have no reason to ever meet. On the same night, all five receive the same call.

Leo · Sword and shield

Sanctuary Guard. He follows orders at a quiet post, far from anywhere decisions are made. He carries the past of an order he once belonged to and no longer talks about.

What drives him is an uncomfortable idea: that obeying and doing right are not always the same thing, and that he is going to have to choose.

Irene · Elven archer

Lyr Grove. She grew up in a forest that looks after itself and has gone generations without needing anyone from outside. She knows every root of her territory.

What drives her is what has started rising from beneath those roots, and the certainty that nobody else in her village wants to look at it directly.

Barry · Dwarven axe

Kharum Forge. He works metal where his parents did, and their parents before them, in a community that measures a person by what they can carry.

What drives him is a responsibility nobody asked him to take. He goes anyway.

Dafs · Daggers

Shadow Market. Raised among smugglers, informants and therians, in the one place on the continent where anything can be bought if you know who to ask.

What drives them is a debt. Not the kind you pay in coin.

Serge · Mage

Prism Tower. Trained at the institution that studies mana and decides what may be touched and what may not. He was one of the good ones, and there are records to prove it.

What drives him is being thrown out. And being right.

The prologue rule

Every hero has their own playable prologue, and they all follow the same rule: first combat before minute one, and at most six lines of dialogue before you take control. All five come in at three or four.