Project Cinder

The scorching heat.

The unbearable suffocation.

And the scent of ash.

Those were his earliest memories. Covered in dirt and not a penny to his name. Such was fitting for an outcast such as himself. Years ago, He was found in the outskirts of the town as a child, not an uncommon occurrence in his world, infants abandoned in back alleys was not a rare sight, so nobody batted an eye when a three year old boy was found. Being nameless, He had no one. To live he was made to work as a child helper in a cinder brick factory, the lowest step in the social ladder. No child labour laws existed in his world, he worked all day, taking breaks for only meals and a few hours of sleep. As such, he was always covered in ash. Eventually, the townsfolk gave him his name for this peculiar appearance of his. As the years went by, the boy accepted it.

Given name, Cinder.

Act I

He lived in what one would consider a twisted reality, long ago, since a time forgotten, an enchanted mist took over the earth, it was a sort of boundary between countries, people were separated due to the mist and contact between different areas of the world became impossible. After centuries passed, each area in the world developed in a different way from each other. So much that they would be considered like different worlds. This world in particular was one of the better ones, but not without its own issues.

The world Cinder lived in wasn't much different from the other worlds covered in mist. The monstrosities appeared here too, after the Great Split occurred, although that too, took place uncountable years ago. As the countries developed, they devised counter measures against the monstrosities, they purged them from the areas near civilization and barricaded their towns. They dedicated a special military force for the sole purpose of dealing with them, the House of Purgatory, they cleared main travelling paths and set up guard posts as a protection measure. Unless one was living in the wilderness or travelling by obscure paths, it was uncommon to come by a monstrosity. The countries were small yet not a bad place to live in, same could be said of the town where Cinder himself lived, it was a town where middle to low class people made a living.

Years had passed since Cinder was first found, he was now nineteen years old. He had amassed enough coins for a nameless such as himself, that now he could afford applying for a less demanding job. Although, his only choices were physical jobs. Fortunately, there was a job not much would apply for, unless they had no choice, but for Cinder it wasn't that bad. Since all he had seen was hell since his childhood, so this new job was better in every aspect from his current workplace. The neighboring town to his was the capital, Ferrawend. This particular job was of a lowly castle guard. The wages weren't that good, the job was time consuming with no reward, and so most people would not consider it. But for Cinder, this was a step forward. Although the mist surrounded the world, it was considerably less than other worlds. As such, there was very little chance of a monstrosity attacking the castle. As for human threats, there were the more well-payed guards who protected the perimeter of the castle. Cinder's job would be a lowly castle guard, one of many standing in the hallways inside, so the risk involved was non existent.

Cinder was in a better mood today, after all, he got accepted as a castle guard. He would be saying goodbye to the brick factory, and he wouldn't be covered in dirt all the time now. As he was exiting he saw the crown prince, Charltz IV enter the castle. A bright upstanding person, nice to all and loved by all. The polar opposite of Cinder, who was cynical and fairly anti-social. It wasn't that he had a problem with people, it was just that since a kid he never had a proper opportunity to socialize. He just didn't care for people and their petty relations. If his world was a fairy-tale, then he would be just a character that doesn't even make an appearance in the story, he would be just a nameless character that simply exists, and He himself of all people knew this and had accepted things as how they were.