Drenil
Lord of Aurora (a.k.a. Nian)
Drenil was born in Aurora during the last era of its acceptance into Western society.
In many ways, he was a normal Draska child: he grew up in a free range manner, mentored by loving parents and the elders of the Draska people. Early on, his lifemate was discovered to be Elainya, who was destined to join the royal court when she reached adulthood. This caused him to be raised and taught not only to be a strong magic user, but also a wise councellor as it was expected that he would join Elainya at the castle in service to the king.
Elainya and Drenil had not completed the bonding ceremony when they took their positions at the castle. Cydril I, the childless king, saw this as an opportunity and decided to marry Elainya, forcing her agreement to the marriage by threatening Drenil's life. Before the marriage, the two lovers developed a plan, aided by a visitor that Drenil had met and befriended. This traveller, Lord Fenshad, was secretly the Lord of Darkness.
The plan was both simple and elaborate. Late in the evening, the two were married in secret, their Draska Bonding overseen by Fenshad. Drenil then shared a toast with his bride, a potion intended to place them into a death-like stasis. The couple had left directions for their bodies to be entoumbed in a cavern in the mountain above Sun's Font. They were to sleep for a few days, then awake and escape, making new lives for themselves.
Instead, Drenil awoke in 944 CE while Elainya awoke in 984 CE, essentially separating them in time.
When Drenil awoke, he was greeted by Lord Fenshad who claimed to now own him. Should he hope to ever hold Elainya in his arms again, he would serve the Lord of Darkness and do his bidding. Drenil did not initially cooperate.
The Shadow Lord's first task for Drenil was to enter the ruins of Aurora and burn the bodies of the victims of the Draska Plague. There he found the few remaining children, struggling to survive in the ruins and destruction left by the plague.
Despite his desire to fight the Darkness, torment and emotional trauma destroyed Drenil's heart. He found new homes throughout the kingdom for the children in secret, hoping that their survival would give him some peace. He cleaned Aurora of the plague's destruction, but it was now an abandoned space, an echoing reminder of his greatest failure.
Emerging from that destruction, he took on the name of Nian and spun a tale that he had survived the plague by being in Pelage. Returning to Kingstown with the assistance of the Darkness, he found a place in the court of Gerald, taking back up the life and quarters he had left, leaving the story of Drenil and Elainya to become little more than a ghost story told to frighten children.
When the @war came, Nian served the King as an advisor and assistant. Gone was any remnant of the once pacifistic Draska. Nian is a warrior, armed with a powerful spirit-sword created by magic from the essence of his soul and the heart of his anger.
Every year, on the first day of Spring, he went to the cave where Elainya lay in stasis, hoping that this would be the year she would awake. But as Drenil slipped more into history and Nian became more prominent, he realized that even if she did awaken, she would never love the man he had become.
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