Prologue

Once there used to be balance in this world.
There were beasts of night, hunting the weak and poor, those foolish enough to walk the paths absent of light, and courageous men, both guards of their kin and annihilators of abominations.
At times, the hunter became the hunted. At times, the prey became the predator.
A crude form of mutual coexistence. Or so it seemed.

Centuries ago, due to circumstances unknown, the numbers of forces threatening mankind rapidly increased, while the guards and hunters vanished. Almost overnight the long kept balance was shaken, darkness enveloped the world, and mankind was driven behind their fragile borders. Whole villages were overrun by ravenous creatures, those who didn't fall in an unequal battle fled to the cities. If they reached them, that is.
In those times of turmoil, many died, even more lost their home and wealth, and were forced to live in the now densely populated cities.
Each night, the people built walls of fire. Each night, the beasts tore them down.
Many times, men set out to fight the beasts, mere peasants with pitchforks and torches, unknowing of the methods of the guards and hunters that once faced the menace. Many times, none of them returned.
But not all of the old huntsmen were gone. There were still skilled men out there who knew how to oppose the creatures of night. Though severely diminished, those men formed a guild where they gathered knowledge long thought lost on how to battle the various monstrosities encountered in the absence of light.
However, people, bitter and worn out from their loss, the deaths of their beloved and the constant fear of darkness, distrusted the guild and their ominous members that often looked quite beastly themselves.
Instead of assisting the guild and fighting what threatened their very own lives, people relied on hiding in their heavily barricaded homes throughout the night, with hearts full of fear.

So the guild remained an outcast lot, beasts, ghouls and other horrors kept ruling the night, and the balance seemed lost forever, with mankind on the losing end.

But there was a boy.
A descendant of a hunter.
And when that boy became man, he would set out on a journey to reforge the guild and restore the balance.
The prophecy had been foretold, and his fate was cast in stone.