Safiyah of Sept Absilom was born on the Night of Empyrean Tears. This is a celestial event which happens only once every 300 years. She took her first, crying breath beneath a clear, dark sky shot through with a cascade of falling stars — golden streaks of light which the wydrun believe to be the falling tears of their makers…the lost, golden Wydari (dragons).
 
It was an auspicious moment to come into the world, one which her mother — the warrior Chryseiss — and her father — a holy scholar named Celsian — both believed marked the child for greatness in the future.
 
Safiyah was born in the City of Windmills — Bastyan — on the Isle of Asornia. As is customary among the Wydrun, she was raised for one year by her mother, before being weaned and placed within a clutch home, where she was then raised with future service to the Sept in mind (along with the other younglings of the city) by those who were Tasked to be the caretakers of the young.
 

Lansel

Her caretaker for almost her entire youth was an old Wydrun man named Lansel. At 143 years old, his fire was dimming and his need (and ability) to purge the Great Melancholy greatly reduced, thus he was no longer required to complete a Purge Year. Because of this, he became something of an anchor in the life of Safiyah, the only real constant during her first 18 years. The two of them had a close, though thoroughly respectable relationship, where she showed deference to his age and the wisdom which he had hoarded unto himself over a long and varied life. Being young, the Great Melancholy had yet to set in for her, and Lansel helped her learn to temper her as-of-yet unbridled ferocity for life and tendency to react hotly to perceived insults or confrontation. She tended to solve disputes or disagreements with her fists, or at the least with sharp words and a raised voice.
 

Influence of Her Parents

Family relationships are not formed and maintained among the Wydrun as they are among other cultures. Marriages are not generally solemnized, and children born (a rare occurrence) are not considered the responsibility or concern of the biological parents. These children are the responsibility of the Sept, being counted among the many and varied assets of the Great Hoard of that Sept. Hence, they are raised by those deemed best suited to the task, and their parents are free to act on behalf of the Sept in other ways appropriate to their talents. This does not mean that biology doesn't matter. Each child is still the genetic offspring of its parents, and thus connected to them. Parents are free to connect with their children in any way that does not interfere with their other duties and assignments. This usually takes the form of several weeks spent together every few years, in the period between the end of a Purge Year and the beginning of a new Tasking, as well as occasional visits between if their work has them staying near to the Clutch Home and they have a moment.
Safiyah's mother—Chryseiss—sees her ferocity and passion and recognizes it as the offspring of her own. She spends their time together sparring with Safiyah, training her in fighting tactics and techniques that are designed for success in the arena. Chryseiss specializes in Arena fighting, having made a great name for herself as a warrior. She is greatly respected, and Safiyah treasures these experiences.
 
Her mother trains her in the use of both the sword and whip (her own signature weapon combination), providing her with smaller, safer practice versions of each. She provides Lansel with a training schedule that he can apply to Safiyah's daily routine, for which he is truly grateful. The systemized workout seems to act as a vent for Safiyah's brimming energy and ferocity. It teaches her self-discipline. He spars with her regularly as well, for though the Wydrun grow old, they age well. He is still spry for an older gentleman…spry enough to challenge a growing youngling.
 
Visits from Safiyah's father are another matter altogether. He is a holy scholar of the Order of the Yearning Heart — a group long dedicated to rediscovering the Wydari, or at least unravelling the mystery of where they disappeared to so long ago. He is easily distracted by his own thoughts, and finds it difficult to peel himself away from his obsession. He is also more awkward socially than Safiyah and her mother. At first, their time together is filled with his recounting of the old stories of the Wydari, and the beginnings of the Wydrun as a people…she is particularly interested in the tales of battles fought between the Wydrun and the Levarian during the Trueshorn war. She is, however, also caught up in the mystery of where the Wydari have gone. The romantic notion of being the one to rediscover them is contagious, especially as passed on to her by one as committed to the endeavor as Celsian.
 
Celsian leaves material for Safiyah's study with Lansel, material which Safiyah tries to engage with…but reading turns out to be difficult for her. The symbols that make up the words on the page seem to fight against her, making it very difficult and frustrating to understand what is written. This perceived failure to conquer the written word along with the fact that she really is interested in what is written, cause her great shame and frustration. She keeps it to herself, taking this frustration out in her training sessions.
Also, where Celsian isn't overly talkative in person, he does write long letters to Safiyah in between their visits, which she asks Lansel to read to her—telling him that she has come to appreciate the sound of his voice—and to which she sends short replies.
 

Change and Loss

Things change between Safiyah and her father as she grows. This is due mostly to the fact that she becomes more aware of the general opinion in her Sept (and most others), that the work of The Order of the Yearning Heart is outdated, irrelevant and unimportant. She realizes that being tasked as a member of The Order is usually the result of a person's lack of ability in any other more useful area of life. As she gets older, she pays more attention to the sideways looks that her father receives from those around them.
 
Worried that she will be seen as odd, or be sidelined in society as her father has been, she begins to distance herself from him. She ceases her attempted studies, tends to cut their visits short, and only occasionally responds to his letters.
 
Her mother becomes the main focus of her respect and adoration, and she redoubles her efforts at training to follow in her mother's footsteps, eager to show dramatic improvement between visits. She does indeed impress her mother, who begins to bring a companion with her when she visits, one who is influential with the Sept Council in regards to deciding who is tasked to fight in the arenas of Bastyan and Quivess.
 
During a visit, when Safiyah is roughly 12 or 13 years of age, her mother relays to her the glorious news that she has been invited to fight in the Great Julisian Arena in the city of La'Rek. This arena is the first to have been raised, and was the inspiration for the fighting pits of the Wydrun. This is an incredible honor, only reserved for the most renowned fighters. She is ecstatic for her mother.
 
She awaits letters from her mother with great anticipation, devouring the news of victory after victory against single foes on the lowest level of the arena. Finally, her mother earns the opportunity to make the climb up and into the higher levels of the arena, which have been populated by Trice herself with an unending supply of foes.
Letters stop coming after this, and several months later Safiyah receives word that her mother never exited the arena. It is assumed that she died making the climb.
 
This is a great blow to Safiyah. Although their relationship has been formal, she feels the loss deeply. But instead of wallowing, she lets the loss fuel her spirit. She doubles down, training harder than ever in order to walk her mother's path, with the ultimate goal of reaching the Great Julisian Arena herself and finishing what her mother started.
 

Coming of Age

As with all Wydrun, the Great Melancholy settles over Safiyah during her late teens. For most, this milestone occurs at around 18 years of age. Safiyah experiences this transformation in the middle of her seventeenth year. A great soberness enters into her mind and heart, resulting in a sudden sort of maturity of character, and the softening of her more passionate instincts. Her will remains steadfast, however, and she uses her increased ability to focus to train even harder, and explore the side effects of the physiological changes which accompany the Great Melancholy, including the ability to cast fire from her left palm, and manifest a pair of ethereal wings.
With this head start, she is already fairly proficient at shifting between her normal form and her more dragon like form by the time she comes of age — 19 years old…the age at which she is considered an adult, and at which time she leaves the clutch behind forever.
 
At this time, she also receives her Bequesting — the bestowal of gifts that are set aside for young Wydrun by their biological parents, until the day they come of age. Safiyah is shocked to discover that her mother did in fact leave her a Bequest before she left to fight in La'Rek. Safiyah opens a large chest and finds within it an elegant sword and a finely crafted, though durable whip. She sheds a single tear and recommits inwardly to reaching the arena herself someday.
 
There is also a bequest from her father: a pendant, hung on a golden chain. On one side of the pendant is the mark of the Order of the Yearning Heart, and on the other is a symbol unknown to Safiyah — a central circle with five wavy lines running outward from it like rays of the sun. An unfamiliar gem sits at the center of the circle, as well as in several places on the symbol of the Order on the opposite side. Unwilling to risk her future by wearing something that connects her with the Order, she replaces the trinket in it's container and asks that it be kept in trust for later. This is not unheard of, and those officiating in the Bequesting readily agree.
 
Safiyah bids Lansel a very bittersweet goodbye. Both of them shed tears, though not enough to be unseemly. Safiyah promises to visit whenever she can, so that she can spar with him and help keep his body from decaying entirely in his old age.
 

First Purge Year

Safiyah is sent right away to begin her first Purge Year, in order to vent the inner pressure of the Great Melancholy which has been building up within her for almost two years now. She is directed to nearby Liseria — a common destination for young Wydrun completing early Purge Years. The Liserians have become familiar and even comfortable with the presence of the Wydrun.
 
There are a variety of appropriate activities for a wandering Wydrun to engage in, in both Malakyne and Cantorel.
 
One common option is to act as support for the policing forces who hunt down outlaws, thieves and highwaymen, hiding in the nooks and crannies of the Liserian Wilderness.
 
A second possibility is to join treasure hunting parties that periodically travel into Old Cantorel — the dark, wild wood which was ravaged by the Fell Gwyr during the Gwyrian Flood. The Wydrun have an innate sense of nearby treasure and can help hone in on unrecovered items, and they can also put their fighting skills to work against the things which live in the wild woods today.
 
Safiyah's first Purge Year is a dive into Old Cantorel. She joins a mixed band of treasure hunters led by a man named Kole — an honest man, large and charismatic, who makes his living in this way. He and his son are good to Safiyah during this time, and they do recover several interesting artifacts which puts a bit of money into each of their pockets.
 

Huntress of the Highlands

When this year is up, Safiyah returns and Accounts for her time, turning over her earnings to the Great Hoard of the Sept, and being interviewed to assess her own personal development. She then receives her first Tasking as a Huntress. Because she has strengthened her ability to shift to such a degree that she can make the crossing from Bastyan to the Trueshorn Highlands on her Wydrun wings, she is made member of a hunting party tasked with collecting meat from the deer which make the highlands their home. These parties also hunt the odd black bear, and will set snares or shoot down certain edible birds. All of these they kill, skin, harvest and carry home. They spend weeks at a time, staying in one of three, common, highland hunting camps: Kael Esrin or Kael Vanisar — a pair of ruined tower compounds at opposite ends of the Highlands — or The Long Lodge, a well-kept longhouse that is staffed during the hunting seasons.
 
During this time, Safiyah hones her abilities to hunt and to shift as well as learning many additional wilderness and survival skills. All of these she puts back to use on her second Purge Year, returning to Liseria. This time, she hunts men, riding out in support of the militia forces of Malakyne.
 
Significantly, during this Purge Year, she also bestows her Boon upon a human lord for the first time. She feels the beckoning while between outings. It leads her to the home of a young Lordling named Lyal, heir of House Jento — a disgraced noble house, due to deeds perpetrated by Lyal's ancestors. Lyal has accumulated quite a lot of money through shrewd investing, and lending practices. He is miserly, and solitary.
 
Safiyah spends the night with his treasure, sleeping upon a pile of coins like the Wydari were said to do of old. Her presence overnight imbues the accumulated treasure of Lyal Jento with Wydrun magic, insomuch that if any were to rob from it, Lyal would be able to track it down to within a few feet. She is paid handsomely for this Boon, and returns to her Sept with pride.
 

Dracul Guaricana

During the Accounting which follows, it is deemed that Safiyah's talents and abilities qualify her for the life of a fighter, and she is Tasked to begin competing in the Arena in Bastyan. She is deeply honored and pleased at this step toward her ultimate goal of following in the footsteps of her mother.
 
Weilding her whip and sword, she makes a splash on the arena scene in Bastyan. She suffers a few losses at first, but soon works out her nerves and quickly becomes a winning force among the locals. They see in her the same style, skill and prowess of her mother, and soon begin chanting the same title which her mother had garnered in her time fighting: Dracul Guaricana — the name of a demon from Wydrun mythology which tortures those it captures with a great whip.
 
The word begins to spread: "Dracul Guaricana has returned!" in the form of her daughter, Safiyah of Sept Absilom.
 

Mercenary of the Sands

Safiyah masters the field during her two years in Bastyan, and when her Purge Year returns once again, she is fortunate to be sent to the Hispari city-state of Toltenek in the deserts of Julisi. Her mother also spent time in Toltenek and Safiyah manages to connect with a friend of her mother there; a woman named Ilacar Olnet — Attendant to Izrahain Fashul, Member Militant of the Hispari Court of Nine.
 
Ilacar manages to get Safiyah a posting where the action is hottest, on the border with the Fyrenzi nation to the north. Involved in many skirmishes, she is able to keep her fighting skills on point and begin to make a name for herself among the Fyrenzi.
 
Upon returning to her home, she is retasked to the greatest Wydrun Arena in the capitol city of Quivess and continues her meteoric rise to a vaunted and respected position among her peers. This is exactly the same track that her mother had taken, and Safiyah knows it. She is single-minded in her designs, making all of her choices based on following her mother straight to La'Rek. She fights, and when she isn't fighting she is developing contacts with those who matter.
 

Lowborne Bond

Her next Purge Year finds her back on the front lines in Hispari. In about the third month of this Purge Year something interesting happens. Of an evening, after a fierce skirmish where Safiyah single-handedly turned the tide of an ambush gone very wrong, she sat atop one of the large, silvery dunes near to their camp. The moon shone very bright above, and Safiyah watched its face, recounting in her mind the tales that she had been told by the Hispari of their belief that Hetzara — the Goddess of the Moon — had fought a great battle in the heavens to reclaim the souls of the Hispari people, reversing their Soullessness and setting them apart from the rest of the Julisi. It was believed that the craters on the moon were the scars of this battle, which had caused the moon to bleed out upon the sands in the south, resulting in the distinct, silvery sand that covered the southern desert region.
 
It was a romantic tale, and Safiyah found her thoughts being drawn to her father and his quest for the gods of her own people. She felt the Melancholy within her stir and deepen ever so slightly at the thought of her father and her people and what they had lost.
 
"Both your people and the Hispari are rather broken aren't you?" Safiyah spun in shock at the sound of a soft but haughty voice. She saw no-one at first, but soon a silvery shadow seemed to break away from the landscape and a cat slinked its way nearer to her. It sat and looked at her.
 
She recognized it as a Moon-Cat…an animal considered sacred by the Hispari, pampered by them, and kept as pets in only the highest of houses.
 
She looked for the owner of the cat — the one who had spoken — and was surprised when the cat's mouth moved, forming words. "But, then again," it said, "that which is broken about us is often what makes us the most unique. I mean, who would the Wydrun be without their dark and pitiful history. And the Hispari…the Hispari." The cat broke off and raised a paw, licking it slowly for a long moment.
 
"What are you—who are you?" Safiyah asked in bewilderment. The cat looked back at her, eyes reflecting the moonlight.
 
"I am your death, come to meet you atop this frozen wave on its ocean of sand."
 
Safiyah stood, letting her whip fall from her shoulder to dangle in the evening breeze. "If that is true, you will find it more difficult than you think. I still have business to finish before I can afford to be troubled by death."
 
They stood that way for a long moment. Then the cat smiled.
 
"My, my. You are serious aren't you…more so even than the rest of your sorrowful race if that is possible. Relax, I didn't come to kill you. I have watched you for many moons and have decided to bind you to me. I thought you should know. You interest me for a variety of reasons, and I sense that your future will be one fraught with much trial and tribulation, and I shall accompany you…observe you. I am curious if you will be broken beyond repair, or perhaps become the most interesting mortal this world has yet known. I sense that one or the other of these outcomes will be the case for you."
 
Safiyah recoiled her whip and looked dispassionately upon the animal. "Honestly…what are you? You are not the same as the other moon-cats that I've seen. They are smaller and…"
 
"More stupid? Yes, I agree. Let's just say that I am their unfulfilled potential. Might I say that you seem unsurprised at what I have said about you."
 
Safiyah sat back down, turning to look out across the sand in the direction of La'Rek. "Well, cat, you haven't said anything that I don't already know about myself. I'm very aware that I have a destiny to fulfill and that it will involve hardship. Let me save you the trouble, though. Nothing will break me, not completely. So the riddle is easily solved. I am destined for glory, both for me and my Sept. You can leave me be now."
 
The cat laughed and Safiyah turned to find it sitting near her, on her right-hand side.
 
"It is adorable that you believe you have a choice in any of this." The cat's paw lashed out so quickly that Safiyah had no time to react. She felt pain explode across the back of her right hand and raised it to find several long claw marks, welling up with blood. Before she could say anything the blood turned to silver, and began to glow, the cuts healing quickly before her eyes. The pain vanished, and only three thin, silvery scars remained in memory of what had happened. Safiyah turned a glare upon the cat, but it was gone. She turned to find it sauntering away languidly.
 
She jumped to her feet. "What have you done to me cat!?"
 
The cat paused, turning to look over its shoulder at her. "I have bound you to me. And my name is Mizuki. Call me 'cat' again and I'm afraid you really will find your death here upon the dunes."
 
And with that the cat seemed to melt away into the silvery light of the moon upon the sand.
 

The Execution of Celsian

Over the next several weeks, Mizuki makes only a few appearances, each one short and condescending.
It is at the end of the third week after that night on the dunes that Safiyah receives a missive from her home, commanding her to return immediately. She is extremely concerned. This is very out of the ordinary, unheard of really during a Purge Year.
 
Upon returning, she recieves the disturbing news that her father, Celsian, has been caught in the act of treason against the Sept. She returns in time to watch as her father is brought before the Sept Council. She gazes on in disbelief as he admits to being guilty of stealing from the Great Hoard of Sept Absilom, using several very valuable items to trade for information from a neighboring Sept. He rants about how he has discovered new information that will lead him directly to the hiding place of the Lost Wydari gods. He states that he had approached members of the council about working out a deal with Sept Idriss for access to a few records that he was sure held the final clue to finding them. But he was laughed out of the room, disregarded, treated as a lunatic. He had to take things into his own hands.
 
The council is merciless — any who steal from the hoard receive an immediate and unalterable sentence…death.
 
He is taken away. In the aftermath, Safiyah is brought before the council and questioned about whether she knew what was going on. It is clear that some on the council believe she had secretly supported Celsian, or had something to do with his treachery.
 
After many uncomfortable and hostile interviews, these voices are overwhelmed, though barely. She is released from custody.
 
Safiyah is…confused. Part of her is upset with her father for causing this mess, and possibly ruining her future. Part of her is upset with the ruling council of the Sept for their treatment of her and her father. As the execution date closes in, she asks for one last meeting with her father, in which he apologizes for what has occurred, and tries to convince her that he has discovered the Wydari's hiding place. She tells him to stop. He breaks into tears. He brings up the fact that he discovered that she had not taken his Bequest to her. He begs her to take it and keep it with her. Their meeting is ended.
 
She watches the following day as her father is brought into the chamber of the Great Hoard, and knelt on the floor. The members of the council surround him, and each one shifts — wings sprouting, scales spreading — and they each raise their left hand. She watches as they burn her father alive. He screams for a moment, but it is over quickly.
 

Wanderer

She is given only a few days to recover before she is told she will need to finish her Purge Year, though she is told not to return to Hispari.
 
She thinks about her father's final words, and before leaving on a ship to Liseria, she retrieves the pendant her father left her.
 
She returns to Cantorel, reeling from the pain of her loss, confused about what she should be doing. It is there that she stumbles across a young woman from Ruwalin, and the daughter of a failing noble house in Malakyne. She decides to join them, heading to The Crossroads to let the wind take her where it will.