The three Sternenfall sisters in battle armor, three dragons behind them

Shadows of Starlight

A Dark Fantasy Visual Novel

Welcome to Elen-Dar

A World of Starlight and Shadow

Elen-Dar is the realm of the elves — and House Sternenfall its oldest blade. Three sisters, descendants of a powerful line of elven mages, trained in every elven weapon and in the magic of their elements, live in the silver castle Elen-Garth at the edge of the great forest.

For 300 years the castle has been considered safe. But the war front of humans, dwarves and orcs is pushing closer — and with it, the end of the silence.

300 Years Ago

The Prologue

300 years ago the Grand Duchess fell — the truth of her death remained hidden.

Althaea Silberstrahl, Grand Duchess of Elen-Dar, was found on a remote field — fallen together with her storm dragon Eldrinath. Traces of battle bear witness that both fought back; foreign traces of magic betrayed a trained attacker. Elf and dragon died at the same moment — whoever it was knew the one weakness of the bond.

Since the burial, a storm that never ends has stood over her grave at the stone circle of Elen-Garth. No one knows its cause. Ammetharion has been hunting the culprit for 300 years — without result.

Althaea Silberstrahl with her dragon Eldrinath, in her lifetime — The Grand Duchess and her storm dragon Eldrinath

Althaea Silberstrahl in battle against the orcs — The war hero in the field

Althaea Silberstrahl fighting amid the orcs — The war hero in the field

HiddenA secret that time still keeps.

Ammetharion carries the fallen Althaea from the battlefield — The Grand Duke carries her home

Ammetharion with the fallen Althaea in his arms — The Grand Duke carries her home

Ammetharion grieving at the stone-circle grave beneath the storm — At the grave, beneath the eternal storm

Ammetharion alone at Althaea's grave — At the grave, beneath the eternal storm

What It Is About

The Story

Three sisters in enforced isolation
An advancing war front
A stranger who steps into their lives
Love against duty
An old threat that returns

Since their mother's death, the three sisters have lived in a protective isolation imposed by their father — sheltered, enclosed, frozen: each within her element. But the front is drawing closer to Elen-Garth, and with the first battle before its gates, 300 years of safety come to an end.

A stranger steps into their lives — and becomes the catalyst: for the pent-up longing for closeness, for the rebellion against their father's marriage rule, for the urge to finally learn the truth about their mother. An old threat returns — and none of the sisters suspects how close it has long since come.

The Setting

Elen-Garth

“The Star Crown of Elen-Dar” — castle of House Sternenfall.

Elen-Garth rises on a hill at the edge of the great forest: slender towers and filigree, gothic-organic forms of pale silver-white stone that glows in the moonlight. Trees grow upon and within the castle — elven architecture knows no boundary between nature and built form. Warm golden light within, cool and vigilant silver sheen without; in the valley, the distant lights of human settlements.

To the right of the castle lies the stone circle: the grave of the Grand Duchess, above which a violet storm has raged for 300 years — beneath a clear moonlit sky over the castle. Here also rest Althaea's relics, the light lance Isilith and the armor Lytharis.

Crest of House Sternenfall: a silver dragon around a falling star with three element streams

The Crest

The crest of the house: a silver elven dragon wound around a falling eight-pointed star. The star carries the name Sternenfall — and, poetically, the fallen mother. The dragon stands for the family's bond identity; the three element streams — ice blue, fiery orange, emerald green — are the three sisters, flowing from a single source.

House Sternenfall

The Family

Thus it once was.

The wedding of Ammetharion and Althaea — the beginning of the house

Ammetharion Sternenfall, “Master of Dragonfire and Starlight”, one of the mightiest elves of all — and Althaea Silberstrahl, Grand Duchess of Elen-Dar, war hero, beloved by her people. Their three daughters each inherited one of their mother's elements: Mirianwe the ice, Aryael the fire, Cindeya the earth.

Each of them has been bound to a dragon since her first day — born on the same day, kindred in nature, joined in life and immortality. So stood the house, before the storm came.