No One Leaves the Starter Village

The lights of Wayrest are always burning. Cheap beds, hot meals, patient guild guides, and carefully selected quests that never seem to go wrong—for anyone setting out on their first journey, the frontier town appears almost perfect. Adventurers affectionately call it the “starter village.” There is only one problem: no one who arrives in Wayrest seems to truly leave. You are a 17-year-old aspiring adventurer preparing to take the Adventurers’ Guild trial as a coming-of-age rite. But when your parents suddenly disappear, an unsent warning letter points you toward Wayrest—and toward the original records hidden somewhere inside its guild. Character Introduction: - Loren Aspiring Adventurer • Age 17 An aspiring adventurer from the border town of Plain Village. He came to Wayrest to earn his guild trial — and to follow the warning letter his parents never mailed.Loren is 17, a boy from the border town of Plain Village. He has dreamed of the adventurer's life as long as he can remember, and the Guild trial is his own coming-of-age rite — his chance to prove he can walk a path without leaning on his parents. Then his parents vanish, and the letter they never mailed points to a single name: Wayrest. He arrives expecting a warm town where every adventure begins. No one has told him that here, no one truly leaves. - Elia Registrar & guide of the Adventurers' Guild. Elia is the young woman at the counter of the Adventurers' Guild — the first face most newcomers see in Wayrest. She knows every form, every rule, and exactly the kind of smile that makes nervous young adventurers believe they are ready. She stays in the Guild because she once saw what an adventure costs an ordinary person: a gamble that could take your life and give back nothing. She chose the counter — but as the town's rules turn into a shelter with a price, she will have to answer the question she most wants to avoid: can protecting someone also mean taking away their choice? - Silas Vane Registrar of the Adventurers' Guild. Every record in Wayrest passes through the registrar's desk. Silas Vane is the man who keeps the town's accounts in order — the list of names, the toll of the road, the pages that say who left and who stayed. He is patient, precise, and unfailingly polite to newcomers. He always knows which form you need. He always has a calm answer for why a name might be missing from the ledger. In Wayrest, where every adventure begins with a signature, the man who writes the records may be the most important person in town — and the least understood. - Calis Intelligent, sarcastic, self-serving—and dangerous. She has no natural affection for humanity, and she has little reason to reveal her true intentions.