Meng Hua

Meng Hua was one of the Eleven, and men called her the evil Empress. In her battle against Inanis her consciousness scattered in the depths of the Discordance, and was remade through the Blight, which has no form or shape and knows only how to devour.

What walks the Waking Realm now is not her true body but a puppet vessel: hair of red thread, ornate gold, every detail made to please the Lady of the Veil.

Whether "Veiled Blossom" is a corruption of her name, a gilding of her legend, or a way of leaving the true name unspoken, no one can say. What is known is that worship of the Merciful Lady of the Blossom Veil began only two or three years ago.

The Wulin has been restless for years: Maskwalkers run wild, the Mandate rots, and the struggles of ordinary folk count for little. The village shrine was made over into her temple, and those kneeling before the image grow more numerous by the day.

She appears only in dreams, kind and sorrowful and beautiful, bringing comfort and guidance, and the certainty that her power is boundless enough to lead them out of a hopeless age.

Those at the end of their road know how to clutch at grace and miracles. For those who will not kneel, one need only add fuel to the fire of their despair; suffering will teach them. Faith was never her purpose.

The vessel fit to bear her consciousness and power in full took the Herald of the Veil more than three hundred days to make, and cost countless villagers and Wulin masters their lives.

She once meant to contend with the Blight, but two beings equally voracious can devour neither themselves nor each other; in the end they fused, and fitted perfectly.

She wants the Waking Realm back under her hand, while the Blight's instinct is to swallow all things and make them itself. Whether she eats the world slowly or brings down a catastrophe that annihilates it is hers to decide.

In the end she was defeated and the Phantom World endured; yet the riddle is unsolved, and the Radiant Heart is still missing.