More than four thousand years ago, Solaris returns to Nabell, ends the war among the gods, and shatters Tyve beneath the force of divine light. Roughly three thousand years later, Zyltrix and several powerful companions remove a fragment of the Ithelion from the island's heart. Zyltrix commands Argylus and Calyx to seal the mountain door behind them so that the artifact cannot be reclaimed. Three years before the present, seven dying black knights cross Tyve's shore in search of the light at the island's center. Their bodies and armor collapse into nothing, but their leader leaves the golden Scepter of Astarius standing in the sand to await another bearer. Far across the sea, the heroes of Garifond defeat Calyx and confront the Green Knight, ending the previous campaign as Tyve's older powers begin to stir.

In the present, Helena, Vyr, and Vyr's uncle force their stolen ship through the Maelstrom surrounding Tyve. The ship is destroyed, Helena and Vyr are pulled from the sea by an unknown presence, and Vyr's uncle disappears. Three days earlier, Whisper, Ernan, and Bjorn meet the reclusive Normandy Borthal and the young Aggie while traveling toward the coast. The groups converge after Helena and Vyr wash ashore beside the wreckage, then discover a hidden stairway exposed by the crash. Vyr reads an ancient inscription concerning a pure white shard that breathes darkness born of light, opening a sealed chamber containing a metal fragment. When Normandy lifts the fragment, an amnesiac, blue-skinned warrior materializes from the Void and restores the chamber's vanished furnishings. The strangers call him Rue after he admits that he does not remember his own identity. When Rue touches the fragment, the room becomes empty again, and a memory urges him to find more.

Whisper and Bjorn search a wrecked ship offshore and recover a ceremonial dagger, a signet ring bearing a wolf bound in chains, and a waterlogged letter. Normandy connects the symbol to the Cult of the Iron Chain, a violent power from the mainland. After avoiding Captain Silas and the Gavran militia, the newly assembled travelers abandon Whisper and Ernan's time-sensitive theft in Andros so that Aggie can bury her family at Ephthalis during the approaching Zarexian Eclipse. At camp, Rue reveals a mechanical compass pointing northwest. Helena's compass directs her toward Aggie as the first step in her redemption, while her vial gains light from the group's choices. Later that night, Captain Silas and six militia members discover the Scepter of Astarius on the beach. Silas touches it, releasing a flash of green light followed by screams and the clash of metal.