In Aeturnum, memory is not merely recollection—it is coin, weapon, ritual, and inheritance. Every soul walks reborn, shaped by echoes of a former life long buried, and every faction vies to direct the shape of these memories. The great philosophical divide is not over whether memory matters, but how it should be used, shaped, preserved, or erased.

This is the true war beneath the surface of Aeturnum: not over land, gold, or conquest—but over the right to author the past.

Ledger Guild vs. Cyclekeepers

Commerce of Memory vs. Purity of Soul

The Ledger Guild, ever pragmatic, has structured memory into a finely regulated trade. They quantify recollection, bind it in mnemonic contracts, and broker deals with the past like historians wielding ledgers instead of quills. Souls are tallied. Secrets are priced.

In stark contrast stand the Cyclekeepers, keepers of soul-convergence and reincarnation. To them, memories are not for sale, but sacred ingredients in the transmigration of being. Every manipulated fragment risks severing the soul’s journey.

Tensions reached their peak when Ledger operatives attempted to "tag" convergence points in secret—leading to the corruption of three soulstreams and the stillbirth of a potential Paragon. Since then, shadow wars have smoldered behind polite diplomacy, and not all who vanish from convergence circles are reborn.

Skyward Chorus vs. Mire Echoes

Elevation of Grief vs. Cultivation of Sorrow

The Skyward Chorus sings their sorrows into light, weaving loss into dream-forms that uplift the spirit. They believe grief, once named and ascended, can become beauty—can shape soul through resonance. The Singing Root, their living relic, harmonizes the oldest sorrows into psalms of transcendence.

The Mire Echoes reject this entirely. They tend sorrow as if it were moss—fed by decay, bred in silence. To them, grief is not a thing to be sung away, but grown into strength. They harvest “sorrow-thoughts” from the bogs, believing that living grief will one day become a sentient force that speaks through them.

The sky-songs and bog-hums clashed when the Singing Root extended tendrils into Vlmedor’s edge, and was met with a grief-creature born of swamp sorrow. The confrontation birthed a rift in the echo-realms, and neither faction has claimed responsibility for the malformed thing that now stalks the border.

Submerged Order vs. Whispered Path

Erasure Beneath vs. Etching Above

The Submerged Order believes that not all memory should endure. Within the Vault of Salt, they bind erased lives and unnameable truths, hiding them beneath crushing ocean weight. They whisper of memories so dangerous that remembrance itself is a wound upon the world.

The Whispered Path believes otherwise. They etch recovered memories into mountain stone, charting the wind-worn truths of past lives across peaks and passes. They say the land itself yearns to remember.

Several monuments near coastal crags have recently collapsed—not by time or weather, but sabotage. In their place, salt veins surge through the stone, and at night, one can sometimes hear voices—not screaming, but apologizing.

Thornbinders vs. Emberleaf Conclave

Preservation of Wild Echo vs. Rebirth Through Flame

The Thornbinders tend the Thorne Mirror, a root-ringed well reflecting ancestral memories of the forest. They believe in preserving what once was—the old griefs of bark and breath, passed through trees like whispered lineage.

The Emberleaf Conclave believes in renewal. They burn their grief into the volcanic soil, seeding it so that it may return transfigured, becoming ash-healers, ember-beasts, and rites of cleansing. To them, to preserve pain is to deny rebirth.

Tensions burst into flame when an ember-grove encroached upon a Thornbinder sanctuary, reducing centuries of root-echoes to smoke. In retaliation, wild thorns overtook a Conclave shrine, forming a grief-maze that trapped twelve druids within a cycle of unending memory.

Prism Wardens vs. Every Known Truth

The Mirror of the First Death

The Prism Wardens speak little, but their presence unsettles every other faction. They guard the Veil Prism, a relic that shows one’s First Death—the moment the soul first passed through death’s gate, long before rebirth. Such visions fracture egos, shatter lies, and spark impossible insights.

The Cyclekeepers fear it disrupts soul convergence. The Altarbound claim it distorts dying last words. The Ledger Guild seeks to own access. Even the Skyward Chorus calls it dangerously raw.

No faction has declared war on the Prism Wardens. But they have all, at some point, tried to silence them. None have succeeded. Every time a Prism Warden is lost… a new one appears, bearing eyes that remember everything.

Ashbinders and the Shadow Market

Forgers of Memory-Wrought Power

The Ashbinders' Guild crafts grief into steel. Their soul-locked armor and memory-forged weapons fetch prices beyond measure—and power beyond reason. They sell to all, side with none, and arm both rebellion and law in equal breath.

It is whispered they mine the Vault of Salt in secret, shaping items from erased memories. Some say they even forged the Grief-Hammer of Eld, a weapon that once broke a cycle of reincarnation.

To most factions, the Ashbinders are dangerous—but necessary. Even those who denounce them wear their steel.

And all who wield an Ashbound weapon dream differently.