" Once upon a time, a savage, violent time, humans, goblins, kobolds, Hödekin, and Lorelei lived side by side in the world above, feeding, fighting, preying, slaying. It was, as I had said, a dark time, and Man turned to dark practices to keep the blood tides at bay. Sacrifices, you see. Man turned against brother, fathers against daughters, sons against
mothers, all to appease the goblins. To stop the needless deaths, one man— one stupid, foolish man— made a bargain with the old laws of the land, offering himself as a sacrifice. "
― S. Jae-Jones , Wintersong (Wintersong, #1)