Vetka
The Anointed Liberator Vetka Etsika
Vetka the Liberator was the most powerful land druid of all time and a famous adventurer, whose exploits in Samvara and Stildane helped shape both regions. He was charismatic prodigy of humble origins, interested less in philosophy than material change. His rough-and-tumble attitude towards conflict and his support for the common folk have left their marks on both Areto and Uvara religions, as well as the early culture of The Kingdom of Hain.
Vetka is remembered very differently around the world. In Shenerem and central Samvara, he is remembered as a prophet, hero, and a bridge between the common folk and the divine; in Western Samvara, he is remembered as a druid of immense power that lacked refinement, a huge wasted potential; in Eastern Samvara, he is a stolen prophet that was intended for Halikvar; in Hain, he is a mythical druid and quest-giver, empowerer of knights. Needless to say, Vetka is a figure of some controversy to this day.
As a person, Vetka has been horribly sanitized in the historical record. He was a miller's son, a rambunctious child that was not really educated until his 20s, who was prone to drinking, smoking, and brawling. He felt rather uncomfortable writing, preferring to talk or even sculpt (he rather enjoyed three-dimensional art, from woodcutting as a child to magical earth sculpting later in life) to articulate his thoughts or emotions. He was stubborn and proud, a true force of personality and will. He smashed through palace intrigue and policy alike, shaping the Circle of Druids that would one day become the Temple of Areto through raw determination. It was Vetka that created the Aretan doctrine of mandatory charity (essentially creating a religious tax on the wealthiest members of society reserved only for poor communities), and it was Vetka that erased slavery from Northeastern Samvara. They are a truly unique genius of druidry, unequaled as a magician or as an individual.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Vetka was born to a milling family in the small town of Ativara, in the hills of Northern Shenerem. Ativara was, at that time, on the border between the Areto Shenek Empire and the Akada Prism kingdoms of the Warsarka mountains. Religiously divided and deeply different from one another in almost every way, the two societies kept an uneasy peace. Ativara itself had a majority Prism population and acted as a copper mining town for the Shenek heartlands.
Vetka's family, the Etsikas, jointly operated a lumber mill with another family on the outskirts of Ativara, where they also owned a small farm. The Etsika family was what one might call "upper lower class", and Vetka was given a basic education emphasizing budgeting and tool use. While the family was often distant and Vetka largely raised himself, his family was supportive and loving: having been assigned female presenting at birth, he asserted his identity as a boy early on and the Etsikas respected this. As the third child of four, Vetka was given a large amount of independence. He was never particularly interested in lumber milling, but did excel in the area of Hedge Magic: he was a young savant in Comedy Magic and Curse Magic. He used Comedy magic often and was well known as a local prankster.
At age 17, as Vetka began working at the family mill, the situation around the town of Ativara began to grow unstable. The a war between the cave-cities of the Warsakan mountains had spilled into the surrounding area, destroying surface villages and leading to rampant banditry. Refugees from this war spilled into Ativara, which struggled to provide for these desperate newcomers. While many of the townsfolk avoided the refugees, Vetka and his friends would often visit their camps to barter, smoke, and drink. One of these nights, a Prism refugee offered something extraordinary for barter: the location of a treasure hoard, hidden by one of the Prismatic oligarchs. Vetka and two of his friends eagerly purchased this knowledge and set out the next week to make it rich.
The teen expedition into the Warsakan mountains was a mistake, to be sure. They were undersupplied, unfamiliar with the landscape, and wandering into an active bandit-ridden warzone. After several close encounters with bandits, hostile wildlife, and other hazards, the teens were captured by Warsakan soldiers. Dragged before Ezek, an Akadist architect-priest, they were declared to be bandits and sentenced to a lifetime of slavery in the mine-city below. Vetka, as a comedy-and-curse mage, was not as easily imprisoned as the others, and was dragged before Ezek yet again several months later after a dozen failed escape attempts. Ezek recognized Vetka's potential usefulness and had Vetka conscripted into their personal retinue. Vetka spent three years there, cursing Ezek's enemies. They also began to pick up bits of druidic magic from one of the other Akadist priests (a kindly old Prism named Koshma). Ezek encouraged this, seeking to expand Vetka's usefulness now that he was "broken in". Vetka waited for the perfect opportunity. And in 421, it finally arrived. A group of Shenek merchants were captured entering the Warsakan mountains and also falsely condemned as bandits by Ezek- but someone traveling with them seemed to be higher class. This young dryad was an Archdruid's son, a young aristocrat named Genar. Genar was held by Ezek's retinue personally to be ransomed back to his mother, Mushaba, and Ezek headed South to prepare a meeting place for the hostage exchange. Closer to Shenerem than ever, Genar and Vetka were able to plot a daring escape plan. Together, they managed to slip away and make it to a nearby village from which they escaped into the Shenek heartlands. The two headed to the Shenek capital of Vishir, where Vetka was welcomed as a hero for saving the son of an archdruid- and was offered an apprenticeship as a druid under Mushaba herself.
The locations of Ativara, Vishir, and the Warsakan Kingdoms as of 410 ME, in relation to the modern-day borders
From 421 to 426, Vetka trained under Mushaba in the ways of druidism. Even as he struggled with etiquette, theology, temple administration, and theory, he excelled in the actual art of spellcasting. While Mushaba and Vetka often had a very contentious relationship, Vetka and Genar remained extremely close and ultimately entered a romantic relationship. After five years of training, Vetka began to chafe at Mushaba's continue controlling oversight. While Vetka was powerful as a druid, Mushaba was reluctant to grant them full priestly status. During one of these spats, Vetka returned to Ativara to visit his family. Vetka encountered the parents of his friends, who had been enslaved alongside him and had not returned. He came to the conclusion that he needed to go back to rescue them, regardless of his training. He went to Genar and gathered a group of ambitious frontier-folk and aristocratic retinue to perform a raid on Ezek's under-city. In early 427, they attacked the under-city of Ashopara. To Vetka the raid was a failure, as his friends could not be found before they had to flee; but to Genar it was a glorious success, as they were able to loot Ashopara's treasury.
Mushaba was initially furious, but slowly came around to recognize the success of the raid on Ashopara. She brokered a secret deal with Genar, where she would look the other way and allow the two to continue performing illegal raids on the Prism-lords if he allowed her to guide them strategically. From 426 to 435, Vetka and Genar would continue raiding the Prism-lords in increasingly large expeditions that slowly morphed into a military campaign. In 428, the two married. Vetka never did save his old friends, though he extracted great vengeance for their deaths - almost incurring the wrath of Halcyon's curse, but always righteous enough that he was never struck down. As that vengeance drew on, though, he became uncomfortable. While he was focused on fighting slaver-priests and those who troubled the mountain towns, Genar seemed to care little for the people who lived in the hills. The larger the raids became, the less control Vetka had over the conflict. By the time the Empire of Shenerem formally invaded Warsaka, the war had brought bandits and Prism raiders into towns like Ativara. And, what was worse to young Vetka, these townspeople didn't even receive their fair share of loot or lands- which went overwhelmingly to Mushaba's noble house.
Vetka's marriage also became uncomfortably political as the war escalated into a formal one. Genar increasingly worked to isolate Vetka from his family and friends outside of Genar's retinue. Vetka had been made "property" of the noble house, and Genar seemed to think of him that way more and more as he assumed real responsibility within the family. While Genar had once been a playboy rebel, responsibility quickly made him autocratic and conservative. Vetka was deeply uncomfortable with this and acted out frequently. He increasingly pursued slavers outside of the Warsakan mountains, anything to assert his independence. He began acting out at social events, causing as much inconvenience for the family as possible. In 454, he and Genar finally divorced.
While cut off from the vast resources of his noble house, Vetka did walk away from Genar with a reputation as a powerful battle-druid. He began pursuing slavers, fighting Shenek's wars, and building his own fortune. In 460, he decided to leave Samvara altogether. He had reached what was believed to be the natural extent of druidic expertise, but still he was dissatisfied. He had heard tales of a land to the East of magical cannibals called "Ishkibaland". He gathered a selkie crew and selkie shipbuilders and commissioned a ship in the Eastern seas to venture to this forbidden land.
The expedition was wild, dangerous, and long. It lasted four years, ending in a terrible storm that destroyed the ship and left Vetka adrift in the middle of the open Eastern Ocean.
A map of the expedition, with modern political boundaries
Using Tragedy Magic, Vetka was able to save himself and the crew. They were transported Eastward to what is now The Kingdom of Hain in 464 ME. The land of Hain was at that time, in chaos. It was under constant siege by Ederstone monsters, its ruling Empire was collapsing, and the massive First Empire of Kizen was expanding Southward, razing all lands it took. Vetka decided to make a new life in this land, helping teach druidism to the Hainish priests and assisting in their efforts to prepare for Kizen's inevitable invasion.
Vetka lived over thirty years in Stildane, assuming he could not return to Samvara. He married again, this time to one of the Selkie crewmembers- weaver and quartermaster Kamuo. He fought early Kivish raiding groups, defeated monsters, and saw many disciples become full-fledged druids. But, in time, his friends passed from old age and he began to miss home. After his husband's death in 494, he decided to try and return home magically- and discovered the sheer power of druidic teleportation magic. He was able to regularly move between Hain and Shenerem: and so began the second century of Vetka.
Through the 500's, Vetka was less aggressive than in his first century of life. His time in Hain had given him the administrative experience and confidence to comfortably assert his power in the Areto church without having to lead from the battlefield. Vetka's sheer magical ability was a threat that rarely needed to be followed through with- and a force that helped protect Shenerem during this tumultous time. The Lunar Crisis of Pratasam had brought religious war and infighting to the empire, and had seen a wave of armed Halikvar evangelists arrive in the East. Vetka's leadership keeping Shenerem independent led to his election as an Archdruid in 510. He basically became Areto's religious leader, a figure higher in status than even the Shenek emperor. Vetka was more hands-off in Hain, leaving the country's management to the League of Eight. Vetka did intervene during the Kivish Wars of the 560s- the last time Vetka fought in a major military engagement.
Vetka's largest achievements during this time were his crusades against slavery and his institution of religious taxes on the upper classes in Shenerem. He also oversaw the complete dismantling of Prism society in Warsaka, which he began to regret in his later years. After a certain point, his age and responsibility left him exhausted. He officially retired in 565 ME, spending his final years making art and relaxing away from the bustling cities and courtly intrigue. He became a friend and mentor to a new generation of prodigy: Moxima Sutia, a Dhampire of legendary talent.
Vetka was close to dying of old age when bad luck finally struck: while experimenting with druidic magic in massive stone sculptures, Vetka made a mistake and was crushed under his own collapsing art. The old druid died not long after. Such was Vetka's life: never a dull moment.
Gender Identity
Male
Sexuality
Gay
Relationships
Alignment
Chaotic Good
Species
Life
400 ME
600 ME
200 years old
Birthplace
Ativara, Shenerem, Samvara
Spouses
Siblings
Children
Eyes
Black
Hair
Bright yellow flowers like a crown over long braided vines
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Brown and green
Height
5'6"
Weight
140 lbs
Aligned Organization
Other Affiliations
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