In Etheria’s second season, players took on the role of staff in the Hawthorne Manor in 1886 England. Chefs, butlers, maids, groundskeepers, and guards navigated the complex and secretive lives of the Hawthorne family: Lady Katherine Hawthorne, an eccentric American heiress who saved the estate from ruin with her fortune, Lord Magnus Hawthorne, a former rake with a dark past that has reformed into a doting husband yet strict boss, and their son Fuji Hawthorne, their belligerent youngest child who has a tendency to play crude pranks on the staff.
Personal struggles between staff ensued, budding relationships took flight, and rumors of a haunting began to flit through the manor. Soon, the staff uncovered a series of suspicious staff deaths in the manor with connection to a potential cult. As the ghosts of Mallum and Jonah, secret lovers who had been killed by some malevolent force, terrorized the staff, they sought answers on how to finally lay the tortured spirits to rest.
Eventually, it was uncovered that the Lady Katherine had been working with the murderer herself, the former Lady Hawthorne, in a twisted attempt to save the manor from total destruction. The former Lady demanded that Katherine work with her to reunite her with the spirit of her secret daughter: the estate’s Head Butler, Hilda Sinclair, and true heir of the Hawthorne Estate as Magnus’ older sister. If Katherine refused, she would use the deaths of the previous individuals and Katherine herself to bring down the manor by summoning an ancient monster capable of destroying everything: the Wither. The Lady Katherine manipulated her son Fuji in her plans by kidnapping the girl he loved, Millie, and forcing him to choose between killing his friend and Hilda’s adopted son Killian, or Hilda, the woman who raised him while his mother neglected him. In the end, Fuji’s hands were stained with Killian’s blood, and the pain of losing her adopted son was too much for Hilda to bear. Already stricken with mysterious illness, the loss of Killian caused her heart to give out, and Hilda died in the arms of her wife, Alana.
Lady Katherine was arrested for her crimes, and Fuji and Millie were Wed on the grounds. Lord Magnus turned the estate over to the new Lady of the Manor, Alana, and the old Hawthornes moved to different estates. Lady Katherine was killed before she could face justice by those who held Killian dear, and while the spirits of the former Lady Hawthorne finally rested, a new set of ghosts was born to haunt the Hawthorne Manor for the rest of its days…