The Backstory of Turial Malik (Player Character)

This is a work in progress
I grew up on the farm of my parents near the village of Yuan Hai. One of my earliest memory is of attending to some of our animals in the pasture and falling into a daydream, which seemed so real even though I knew it was just a dream. In this daydream I was standing on a mountain top looking over a vast landscape unlike anything I've ever seen. It wasn't like anything you would find on Voltera that I can imagine. Everything was so enourmous and it went on forever. Up in the sky, among these huge fantastic clouds, I could see entire cities avast of marble and crystal. And everything was shining with light. It hurt my eyes. And I could see people, but not like us, in the city. They were amazing, beautiful and terrifying. And many of them were flying about, from building to building! And there were other things, like I can hardly describe.
And then I heard something behind me. I'm not sure what the sound was but I turned and in the distance was something I can hardly describe. It was immense: something... a shape... a shape that was moving and turning within itself. I couldn't make sense of what it I was seeing, I can't even make sense of it now. But I felt like it was some kind of intelligence or presence and it was aware of me and watching me. And I heard a voice, and the voice said,'I have something for you to do. Don't be afraid."
And that was it. I found myself back in the pasture and then I realized my father was standing just a few feet away and he was looking at me with this sad expression on his face.I told him what I had seen and heard and asked him what it meant. He sat me down and was just quiet for awhile and then he told me that his own grandfather had such visions and that this was something that happened in our family, something that had been happening every few generations for many many years.
He didn't tell me more much more about it right then, just that I was called to pursue a great purpose. Of some kind. Sometime in the future. Hmmm.
When I was 11, in the spring, the lord of the village of Yuan Hai, Lord Yao Xinyi decreed that access to the grounds of the Guoqing Temple, the temple for our village, would be restricted to protect it from looters and pirates. Only the outer courtyard would be open to devotees on a daily basis. The Meditation Hall would only be open on and holy days. The rest of the Temple and its grounds would be off limits except by special request.
People were very upset and a small crowd gathered in the village square the day after the decree to protest. They were ordered to go home and those who refused were arrested and disciplined.
That night I had a vision. I saw myself walking onto the grounds of the Temple, a large crowd of villagers behind and around me. We walked towards the Meditation Hall, towards the entrance blocked by the Lord's soldiers. I was holding up a single lotus blossom as we stepped up to the soldiers' headman. Then I heard my voice, saying clearly and confidently, "We seek enlightenment in following the way of the simple life of serenity and prosperity, here in our temple, which we cherish and protect."
I was looking into the headman's face of stone as I held out the lotus blossom, and then the vision ended.
My father and I went to the village square the next morning. A crowd was already gathering and nervously talking about what to do. I repeated the words I'd heard the night before to anyone who would listen as we walked among everyone there, the fisherman, sailors, farmers, miners, tradesmen, shopkeepers.
Soon, I started hearing talk of proceeding to the Temple as if on a holy day, and see if the guards would really bar everyone from the Meditation Hall. We passed by a flower stall on the way and I got a lotus blossom there. It felt like a holiday as we walked and sang. I started repeating the sayings and riddles the monks say and that I sometimes heard in my visions.
Pretty soon we were passing through the main entrance to the outer courtyard and I found myself near the front of the procession, just like in the vision. Everything become hushed and solemn. Into the silence I started speaking my words, like a little chant, as we slowly approached the guards at the entrance to the Meditation Hall. The headsman was there, and he called out the decree as the guards barred the way.
I walked out in front holding out the lotus, "We seek enlightenment in following the way of the simple life of serenity and prosperity, here in our temple, which we cherish and protect." The headsman just stood there, staring in my eyes, and everything was still and quiet.
A single person in the crowd repeated the words, "We seek enlightenment...". And then another person said the words, and then a few more, and then whole crowd was quietly saying the words and inching a little forward, "We seek enlightenment in following the way of the simple life of serenity and prosperity, here in our temple, which we cherish and protect."
The headsman looked away and looked over the crowd repeating the words. Then I noticed the other guards were looking down at their feet, very uncomfortable. And the headsman looked back at me, then at everyone there, then he sort of sighed and relaxed slightly, reached out his hand to take the lotus blossom, then stepped aside and ushered me into the Meditation Hall. Everyone followed me in, my father just behind me.
No one ever spoke about that decree again.