The Sun Crow is a powerful and exceptionally intelligent Apostle of Ash revered across Eastia. For decades, Eastian Seers communed with the Sun Crow, interpreting its will and providing offerings to appease it and avoid disasters. However in N.F. 106, the Sun Crow went berserk. Its sudden attacks caused "the drought of ten suns", which forced people to abandon multiple cities in Eastia. It was sealed through the sacrifice of Xu, the Great Seer of Sunset Town, but broke free again to attack DisCity in early N.F. 114.
The Sun Crow possesses remarkable abilities, both in terms of overwhelming power and conscious strategy. It is capable of consciously controlling its Mania radiation to evade detection, and although it is, like all Apostles, susceptible to Hypercube-based technology, the Sun Crow's flames are even able to break through FAC defenses by virtue of being hot enough to melt and destroy their equipment even through their anti-Mania barriers.
Role
Background
The origin of the Sun Crow is unknown, but it was known, feared, and worshiped across Eastia for decades. In N.F. 106, spurred by resonance from the descent of BR-003, the Sun Crow flew into an apocalyptic rage. Unable to be calmed or averted by Eastia's Seers, and with the Hypercube trade from DisCity having been cut off, the Sun Crow's rampage destroyed several entire cities. Xu, the "Great Seer" of Sunset Town, had long foreseen the futility of resisting the Sun Crow's attack, and thus created a fake prophecy of its defeat called the Ode to Sun in order to bolster the people's spirits and provide hope that could carry them through their darkest days. However, when Sunset Town came into the Sun Crow's path of destruction, she insisted on facing it head on while the rest of the town fled from its advance. She was never seen again.
Unknown to anyone, Xu had invaded the Sun Crow's consciousness through channeling, intending to merge with the Apostle and use her own will to exert some control over the Sun Crow's power. After her disappearance, the survivors of Sunset Town began to notice signs from the Ode to Sun. Following Xu's fabricated directions, they crafted an Almighty Bow which was prophesied to be the key to defeating the Sun Crow. Xu had instructed that the person with the greatest faith should be the one to fire its Sun Shot; this role was taken by Du Ruo, a scholar who knew that the legend was false, but had absolute faith in Xu herself. Her shot succeeded at suppressing the Sun Crow, allowing the other Seers to seal the Apostle away.
Seven years later, in March of N.F. 113, resonance from the resurgence of BR-002 empowered the Sun Crow enough to break its seal. Rather than attack Eastia again, this time the Sun Crow was driven by its instincts as an Apostle to head across the world toward DisSea. Its progress was foreseen by the new Seer of Sunset Town (now rebuilt as Sunsink City), Yanyan, and a team was assembled to follow it to DisCity.
Ode to Sun
On January 31, N.F. 114, the Sun Crow approached DisCity, bypassing three surveillance nets without triggering any alarms thanks to its ability to hide its presence with the humanoid form of the Great Seer. By the time it was detected and the FAC was able to muster a response, the Sun Crow had come within 20 kilometers of DisSea, closer than any other Apostle in nearly 30 years. During the resulting battle, the Sun Crow smashed through the FAC's defensive line, severely contaminated the Chief's Shackles, and triggered Mania resonance in the ruins of BR-001, BR-002, and BR-003. It was repelled only by the sorcery of Du Ruo and her Eastian delegation, and retreated to regain its strength before launching another attack.
A few days later, the Sun Crow again attacked DisCity. This time, it was met by a combined and prepared force of tens of thousands FAC soldiers and Eastian sealers. Concentrated fire by FAC armored vehicles succeeded at forcing the Sun Crow into a trap where it was entangled by Eastian sorcery. Yanyan struck it with an arrow fired from a newly-constructed Almighty Bow, which briefly suppressed but failed to defeat the Apostle. Trapped by a combination of Hypercube barriers and sealing sorcery, the Sun Crow's body shrank into the humanoid form of the Great Seer. The reveal of its entanglement with an Eastian seer provoked Guillotin and Paradeisos to accuse the Eastian envoys of intentionally leading the Sun Crow to DisCity. The ensuing confrontation caused the Eastians to lose focus on their sorcery, and the Sun Crow broke through all restraints.
Past all other defensive lines and growing in strength through resonance with the Black Rings, the Sun Crow assaulted the Broken Frontline directly; it soon reached the apex of its power, causing this DisSea itself to boil and ten suns to appear in the sky. However, by communing with the spirit of the Great Seer, the Chief learned that the reason for the Sun Shot's failure was that the people of DisCity did not believe in the Ode to Sun the way that they had in Sunset Town eight years prior. In order to stop it this time, they would need to harness a belief shared in this part of the world. At the Chief's urging, the FAC retrieved the materials again to create a new bow, while the Ring Research Institute set up resonance devices all over DisCity to amplify the collective will. At Yanyan's urging, the Eastian envoys also decided to stay and resume their restraining sorcery, despite the mistrust shown them by Paradeisos. To power their shot, the Chief focused on their deepest belief: that no matter what challenge faces DisCity, its people will endure, rise to meet it, and survive. This time, the Sun Shot destroyed the Sun Crow utterly.
Later, in the sand of the battlefield, Yanyan found a strange egg containing an infant Yao.