Appearance

Mentality

Personal history

See our hero, Virxalin Liadon, as a teenager, returning to his village after foraging to find smoke rising and figures fighting through it and murdering and burning and looting. Virxalin isn’t much of a hero at this stage, and just hides and watches his community, his friends and his family being killed. After many hours all falls silent and still he waits. In the morning he enters the smoking village, crashing to his knees in front of his home. He collapses in pain and cries out, shaking with the emotional shock. He collapses in despair.
 
After some time a tall, thin figure approaches him from behind, dressed in robes of a dark black material that seems to emit whisps of dark vapour. As we watch we can see he has no face - just a dark shape of one, like something imitating a human form.
 
“It’s not your fault. You’re only a teenager. You’re a forager, not a fighter. Your job was to run and hide. There wasn’t anything you could’ve done.”
 
He puts a hand on our hero’s shoulder.
 
“These are all the lies people will tell you. You may tell yourself some of these lies. You may even believe them. But they remain, nonetheless, lies.”
 
The hand is lifted and the figure starts pacing a circle around our hero.
 
“These people are dead because you were weak. You lacked the strength to take action and the will to pursue it. It is your failure that caused those who trusted and loved you to die. They are dead because of you. It is your fault. Yours.”
 
The figure pauses, and takes a leather-bound journal from the folds of his flowing robe. He places it in front of our hero.
 
“If you choose to own this truth then you must seek power - strength of will and strength of arm. The strength to choose to act when that which you value, when those you love, are at stake. The strength to take your fate back from others’ hands. Strength to control your destiny.”
 
The figure straightens up and walks past our immobile hero, starting to dissipate as smoke blown by unfelt winds. “If you are brave enough to seek that power then that book will help you”.
 
Over the coming two years our hero travels, falling in with a criminal gang of teenagers that become his new family, parented by a friendly priest called Quariph, a spellweaver who seeks to influence the gang, and our hero in particular, to turn to good by showing them love and kindness, giving them food and a place to stay and hide when needed.
 
Virxalin tells the priest about his encounter but finds he cannot tell him about the book - something stops him every time he brings it up. The priest is very concerned, and advises him to steer well clear of the shadowy figure. In this time Virxalin is repeatedly tempted by the book, but turns away each time. He tries throwing it away, burning it, burying it, selling it - but in each case the book finds its way back into his possession the next morning, in a pocket, under a pillow or in a bag he has stolen.
 
One of the duties Quariph gives these young people in an effort to influence them to Good, is to tend his holy bonsai trees. Our hero skips out on his duties and the tree he is responsible for dies.
 
In desperation he turns to the book for help, and the tree is restored - but with horrible flaws. As its life essence slowly poisons the community with its diseased not-quite-life state, our hero is confronted by Quariph. Quariph was trying to forgive and offer redemption, but this is a tragedy so out of fear our hero flees, in the process knocking Quariph down a flight of steps with a sickening crunch sound, and Virxalin assumes him dead.
 
Alone, fleeing and in depths of desperation our hero reads the book, in which is now written: “You come to me now because events beyond your control have hurt you and those around you. You are a passenger in your own life. I now offer power to control your own fate and set your own destiny. To make your world better, to align things to your will. In return I ask for three favours. The timing and nature of these three favours is mine to determine, but you must agree to complete them without hesitation or doubt. If you are ready to protect that which is yours and bend the tide of fate to a destiny of your own choosing then sign your name below”
 
Our hero signs.

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