Torsten of the Deepwood was born beneath the shadowed boughs of Saarivalkea’s inland forests, where the fog never fully lifts and the trees hum with ancient breath. His kin, the Sisämaa, spoke of metsänhenget—the spirits that root themselves in stone and bark—and Torsten was marked by them early. During a storm that felled half his village, he wandered into the woods and was found days later at the base of a vast, silver-barked tree that none had seen before. Its roots coiled around him like arms, and in his dreams, it whispered of the World Tree, whose branches touch every realm and whose roots drink from every death.

When the forests began to wither and the spirits grew silent, Torsten took up the mantle of wanderer and protector. He believes the balance of the land has been poisoned since the Kirokivi shattered, and that the World Tree’s echo within him stirs to heal what was broken. Guided by visions of roots threading beneath ice and sea, he travels toward the coasts and ruins, seeking the heart of that ancient harmony—and the voice of the spirit that first called his name in the storm.