This story takes place just a few months past the 100th anniversary of the end of the Swarm Conflict (name given to the current in game battle after its conclusion), which ended with the destruction of all but a small fragment of the Swarm at the hands of a large contingent of knights energized by the Core’s power. In a last ditch bid for survival, that final tendril of living darkness attacked and infected the weakened Core before the knights could use its energies to restore the Skylark and go home. With the Core infected, they had no choice but to seal it away forever, and with it their chances of ever leaving Cradle. The Core’s power conferred wonderful gifts on the knights that received it. All were granted near infinite longevity, and a few were lucky enough to receive amazing powers and knowledge of the true inner workings of life and the universe. With these gifts, the knights started a renaissance on Cradle. Technology, art, and science exploded in the first year after the conflict, and a lasting peace was made with the Gremlins in the second. The Clockworks were all but abandoned and, with the knowledge given by the Core, the knights learned how to fabricate crystal energy, giving them a limitless source of power. Prosperity reigned and conflict was forgotten. Only those who wished to do so entered the Colckworks as a form of distraction, and weapon smiths sold their wares more as novelties than tools. In the hundredth year, prosperity and peace still blossom, but, deep in the long forgotten dark places of Cradle, a shadow of death seeks to use the now demonic power of the Core to consume the souls of every living thing on the planet.