Niarim was a professor who disappeared while searching for the Ashes of Enlightenment. The ashes were part of a legend known by Thai scholars which held that the remains were of an ascended master. By sipping a handful of the ashes in green tea on Buddha's day of enlightenment, a pathway to the same would open for the drinker allowing them to bypass the traditional route which took several lifetimes.
After Niarim's disappearance, he appeared in the visions of his three closest friends, and a group of adventurers took uo the search for the ashes by following a memo Niarim had left behind.