this is in response to the recent back stories you posted.
Ixityl Quoz,
I was Born a bastard through an illicit affair between my mother and an undisclosed rival patron of another house. My mother sadly, did not survive my birth.
My father was a dark elf of solid standing in the dark elf army, a captain in the foreword guard, that kept the marauding trolls at bay. Therefore my father was frequently away from our household estate for extended periods of time.
I have 3 siblings, Arasra the Matron of the estate now, as the oldest female of the household. She was very strict and influential, yet remained unwed.
She used her Magic’s to enhance herself and her beauty was only exceeded by her vanity.
Nixyl is the eldest son, he was cloistered away in the care of the organized clergy, followers of the female shadow dragon that is the God of the dark elves.
Then I was born the second son of our noble household, but as the second son, I was relegated to near serfdom for the household. Until I reached the age of military service, up until then I had no training except perhaps as the cook for my family. After reaching the age of 35 cycles, I was conscripted into the army, but, after my rigorous martial training, my superiors were unimpressed by my skills, and I was assigned to the rear guard, a disgrace to my family’s name and my father. I saw very little action during my service.
Once I was just a few cycles into my mandatory army service, and while I was on a short leave from the army I returned to my home. I found I had a new younger sister, named Druscilla. She was born from one of the family’s hirelings, a beautiful dark elf female just a few cycles older than myself.
Apparently my father fancied her for a brief time.
The nature of druscilla’s parentage, was of course hushed up, because it was unseemly for a patron of a noble house to have a tryst with the hired help. It was decided that my eldest sister would take responsibility for this child, and claim she had been bewitched into a tryst with an unnamed suitor.
Of course this further reduced the reputation of our noble house. This also lessened the desirability of my eldest sister as a suitable candidate as the matron of another noble house. This angered her greatly, although she never treated Druscilla poorly, and in fact treated her as a beloved daughter. She instead unjustly turned her ire towards me, having me punished severely for even the slightest misstep.
It was around this time that my strongest desire was to seek my own death in honorable conflict. Due to our household’s weakened reputation, none of the more reputable noble houses would agree to send one of their sons to meet me in a dual in the common ground arena. This of course was understandable since they would gain nothing, even if victorious. Still my situation at home grew more unbearable by the day. I often spent many hours during my typical day, teaching my youngest daughter her letters and the math skills I had been taught in the military. She was quite gifted intellectually and learned fast. I bonded with her very quickly. She was the only brightness in my dreary existence. At an early age she announced to our matron that she would enhance our household’s reputation by excelling at the art of Necromancy. The most challenging of the mystic schools taught amongst the dark elf people.
Our matron encouraged this and began at once seeking a suitable tutor. Once a tutor was found Druscilla was shipped off to the school to begin her extensive training.
I missed her immediately. My matron redoubled her harassment of me and frequently attempted to sell my service to other houses claiming at the very least I was a passable cook. None took her up on this offer, this only made my matron treat me with more scorn. I took to traveling to the edges of our safe frontiers, in the hopes I would be assailed and killed by a random group of trolls that had made it past our vigilant foreword army. I would fight bravely, of course, in the hopes I could at least slay one of the beasts, before I was overcome. This would not be the most glorious death possible, but it beat my current existence.
I never journeyed beyond the safe perimeter of the dark elf realm. I was successful in avoiding notice from our rear guard patrols during these journeys . If I had been caught doing what I was doing, I would be put to the question and possibly killed as a deserter, even though by this point my mandatory military service had ended.
It was during one of my many trips that I ventured just slightly further than I had done previously, that as I rounded a bend in a remote tunnel, I came face to face with the deformed ones, a group of 5 Gringi, the twisted and corrupted outcast peoples descended from the stock of human slaves that the dark elves brought below the surface of Terra many centuries earlier. The Gringi hate Dark elves ferociously, they speak a hushed guttural tongue, and are quite limited in intellect. They make up for this with a berserker rage towards dark elves, and they always fight to the death.
I was not anxious to fight 5 at once, especially while they were armed with stout clubs.
This fight would not be worth any honor for my house. The most I could hope for would be a quick death.
I unsheathed my short sword as they rushed me, I skewered the first Gringi through the chest and was rewarded by being blinded by the gout of blood that leaped from his chest. I took a nasty blow to the left temple, then another to the top of my head. As I began to black out I slashed wildly and slit the throat of the closest Gringi. Pain and darkness took me…
The darkness was very cool, and I felt a calmness come over me. I had succeeded in finding death at least, I embraced it.
As I lay unmoving, wrapped in utter darkness. I felt as if a feather was softly dragged across my brain, I instantly became alert. I was not alarmed, just alert. I felt a voice speak to me from out of the darkness. It said “lowly dark elf that you are, I require your service”.
I asked “who are you” and “where am I”?
The voice answered” yes, I will send you alone to the surface, you will gather information for me”. I asked again ”who are you”?
The Voice in my head shrieked in anger”I am your Goddess”
Am I dead then? I asked.
The dark elf Goddess hissed “not yet” followed immediately by “now be silent and listen carefully”.
“You will awaken in the camp of a large group of Gringi, I have slain them all, you will find provisions in their camp, and a special mithril circlet, take this circlet and wear it or carry it on your person always, it is magical and will allow you to become invisible instantly just by thinking”. “This circlet will allow you to travel above ground and not be discovered if you are careful”. “The exit out of the dark elf realm, will be through a secret door against the moss covered wall of the Gringi’s main chamber”.
She continued“You will travel far to the north, to do this you will keep the giant blinding blazing sphere in the heavens to your right during the early part of the day, and to your left during the later part of the day, do you understand”?
I answered”yes”
She continued “when you arrive at a large human realm of stone structures, after 14 days of travel, you must seek and find a human wizard, named Belegar, using your circlet of invisibility, you should be able to travel unhindered. You will have to quietly question many humans in this great stone built city, to find this wizard, once you find him you must slay him and retrieve his brain, you must then bring that back to me”.
She added”Do not be followed on your way back to your homeland”.
She lastly added” you will be given your rightful place amongst the esteemed ranks of the Shadow Blades if you are successful”.
She then said ”awake, and begin your quest, do not fail me lowly dark elf”
I woke up and gathered provisions, and with the circlet on my head I found the secret door, and climbing the several hundred rough hewn stairs, I exited the Dark elf realm, the heavy stone slab grinded slowly closed behind me, I was standing on a small sloping hill. All around me was a cool windy expanse of open air the immensity of it settled upon me like a weight. This much open space I had never imagined existed, it was however dark and I saw no blazing sphere in the heavens, just millions of tiny pin pricks of lights.
Using my circlet, I thought to be invisible, and lay down to rest, sleep took me at once.
When I awoke, the enormous blazing sphere was just rising up out of the ground at a distance so far away that it staggered my mind, but I immediately ate some rations and began my March northward.
[zombify_post]
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