Rin is a tanuki spirit guide whose roots stretch back to relic maps and forbidden bedtime tales. She came from the land of Velarun - also whispered in older tongues as Vael'Zaarun - a once-proud ancient continent bursting with wild magic and ruled by dragons that traced thunderstorms through the skies like calligraphy. That world is gone now, ... swallowed and forgotten in an endless ocean of darkness, a place history refuses to remember.
Rin herself began as something far more ordinary - she was born a mortal in the gentle glow of the Moon Kingdom. Her mother was a revered tanuki shrine maiden, and like her, Rin learned sacred rituals, spirit cleansing, and shrine protection, carrying on the legacy with ink-black devotion. Her heritage tied her tightly to the spiritual realm, so much that even as a child, spirits called to her, drifted around her, whispered secrets into her ears, and chatted back at her with cheeky familiarity. She could see them. Hear them. Speak to them. To Rin, the spirit world was not distant - it was basically a neighbour who didn’t understand personal space.
During her youth, the shrine spirit itself chose her to act in its name. Through its will, she swore to seek out wandering and lost souls, guide them to rest, soothe violent grief-driven spirits, silence demonic voices, protect those without strength or shelter, and ease souls maddened by their pain with one final gift: peace.
The bond between Rin and the other world grew stronger as she did, until the day she could reach into the spiritual world like dipping a hand into water and summon soul echoes - glimmering, translucent projections of living beings, like drifting holograms made from memory-light. They were not true spirits, but mirrored images that answered to her will, reshaped to protect, to strike, to fight back.
During the yearly Sun & Moon Kingdom celebrations, Rin stood guard over the shrine. But she was defeated.
At the edge of death, the tanuki shrine spirit took action. It bound itself to her soul at the cost of its own existence, sacrificing itself so she might live. Rin survived and awakened as a spirit in its place, her humanity exchanged for tanuki ears and spectral lantern-light.
She lived through the Great Cataclysm that followed. Velarun fell apart. The shrine was destroyed. Souls shattered under the creeping darkness. Dragons vanished beyond flames and screams and the world crumbled.
Countless souls lost themselves.
Some spirits turned mad with rage, grief curdling into claws. Others reshaped into abominations, hungry for blood like echoing nightmares. Rin spent centuries seeking those not yet fully taken by darkness, calming, cleansing, guiding them to the Tree’s light where their fury might finally be soothed and their souls purified before the dark consumed them entirely.
Still, no help came.
So Velarun drowned itself into the ocean’s depths, sealing itself inside a final, desperate barrier that sank to the bottom of the sea like a forgotten treasure chest locked by very angry gods. The darkness would not spread beyond it. The rest of the world would be safe.
But Rin could not wait.
Leaving the Tree of Life in the paws of those she trusted most, Rin stepped into the In Between - a space between realms, between dimensions, between worlds, where spirits echo louder and stars hum backwards. There, she began a journey to reach other worlds and find someone who could help her cleanse the land once filled with magic, dragons, rituals, grief, demons, echoes, and shrine spirits.Show more
Czechia (CZ)