Lyra Cassani
Scion of the great Wandering Kinv Nanjuk Kinguilla and Vala Arevia Saryx Elden
01 Dear Mama,
Today was SUCH an exciting day! I know you wouldn’t like how far south I am, but I’m not alone anymore. This weird gnome flew threw the sky with these homemade wings and crashed into the ground, and then I met this monk named Oliver. He’s super strong, maybe even stronger than Leo. He trains even when he is asleep! And he lived in a place where they don’t talk for whole weeks! Anyway he helped me bury the body, and then he told me he would show me the way to the city. I’m super lucky he decided to stick around, because we ran into this terrifying spider-person-monster that attacked us! I was so scared but Oliver charged right at it and protected me and Ares. I don’t know what would’ve happened if he wasn’t there. He got pretty hurt, but I was able to use that healing spell you taught me. I think you would have been proud of us. Anyway, I’m almost at the city. I hope you’re with Leo, and that you are ok. I miss you.02 Dear Mama,
Still no sign of Leo—not with the guards, not with the deceased. It’s as if he disappeared, just like you. I’m worried, but surrounded by good, kind people who have been a tremendous help. Together we collected information, bought supplies, and prepared for a hunt. Tomorrow we go out on the road to clear the rest of the Chitine. I will do my best to be of service to my team, just as the tribe’s hunters taught me. I hope wherever you are, you are surrounded by a good and strong team, too. As soon asI can get a loom, I will weave and ask the stars for guidance, to lead me to you. Are you weaving and asking the fates questions as well? I miss you terribly, and love you always.03 Dear Mama,
Today, I went on a hunt with my new friends. I prepared the way the Elders taught us, making the proper prayers and ritual preparations before heading out. It was fortunate I did, as we encountered more beasts than we anticipated -- ogres, spiders, and then our prey, the Chitine. The stars guided me, just the way you said they would. It was certainly no easy feat, and we may have picked a fight with some greater, unknown beast in the process, but I am confident that together, this small tribe can be victorious. I am learning so much about the world and the people around me -- about the other Gods who live with the stars, about butchering and cooking, and even how to watch what I say more carefully (Leo would be happiest to hear that one). Wherever you are, I hope the stars are keeping watch over you two. Though I cannot see them tonight from this cave, I can feel their presence above, and for now, that is enough.04 Dear Mama,
I feel changes coming to the land — though I’m not sure what to do with this feeling. I wish I could see the future as clearly as you were able to, but to me, it is still a dim, shrouded mess. Since coming south, I have had these feelings of being pulled at by the Weave, the way the wind pulls at a child’s scarf. This city, full of wonderful creatures and a cave filled with oceans...why did you despise it? What did you fear? If I find you, will you scold me for loving it? Then there is this matter of the positioning of the stars. It is a strange thing, to see Orion behave in such a way this time of year. It almost looks as if he has lowered his bow, to favor his blade. Perhaps I should do the same—my shooting was nigh useless in our hunt. I will need to become stronger if I am going to help this tribe. The hunters speak in hushed tones and the little girl by the fire cries for her papa, cradled in her brother’s arms. “If only he had turned back, if only Saggita hadn’t gone after him...” the hunters tell the woman. “He knew it was suicide, but he kept screaming about honor...your husband followed, to convince him to stay, but the avalanche swallowed them both.” the hunters hold out a turquoise stone on a braided hemp rope, dropping it into the woman’s open hand before walking away. Lyra feels the angry tears streak down her cheeks and she wipes them, an old memory brought to the surface by new wounds. She clutches the turquoise stone around her neck and looks back up at the sky. “Please just let them return.” She whispers, picturing the faces of her companions, suddenly realizing just how dear to her heart they had become.05 Dear Mama,
"So...Solace, huh? Mother must have known about this Bel character. I suppose this means it's time to leave our friends and continue south. What did you think of that strange mansion?"Bjorne's Origin
Once, in the time of my great grandmother’s great grandmother, when the great hunter Orion had just barely ascended to the stars, our people faced a great danger. One by one, night after night, children would wake under the light of the moon, and creep quietly from their beds. They would move as silent as shadows past the tents and goat paddocks, far far into the woods, never to be seen again. As you can imagine, this caused a great uproar in the village, for a tribe without children is doomed to extinction. The elders blamed the parents, saying the children wandered because they were not loved enough. The parents blamed the elders, saying the village borders were unsafe. Back and forth they argued, until one voice rose above the rest; “How silly you all are, to point and blame the other, when the true beast at fault is the woods themselves!” Said the old widow Io. Io had no children of her own. She lived in the smallest tent, on the furthest edge of the village. The elders scoffed at her. “The woods are not a monster! Just trees and their inhabitants.” The parents too, turned up their noses. “You have no children! Who are you to speak on this matter!” That night, under the watchful eye of the full moon, Io waited outside her tent, watching and waiting to see if another child would wander out into the woods. Indeed, one did — the small daughter of the Chief. Creeping in the darkness with her spear, Io followed the girl, further and further into the wilderness, until at last the girl stopped in a small clearing. It was then Io heard the voice, singing to the child, promising sweets and comforts and all good things. Suddenly, the earth itself opened up and swallowed the child whole! Io ran out into the clearing, but it was too late. And though she looked and yelled, there was no sign of whatever had eaten the girl. Furious, Io yelled to the heavens, her old body too weak to continue digging through the dirt and snow. Now, back in those days, the sky was much, much closer than it is now. So close, in fact, that the sound of Io’s despair reached the ears of Orion himself. But Orion, newly ascended, could not leave the sky, for it was his duty to watch over us all. It was his faithful companion, the great white bear Bjorne, who said, “Let me go and return to the land of mortals, to see who dares to threaten the future of our people, and because I have always loved the children best.” Bjorne leapt from the sky to where Io wailed in anguish. His great body shook the earth and cracked the ground. Together, Io and Bjorne descended, down and down, until the found the lair of an ancient beast — its body too terrible and evil to even describe. It sat, proudly, on a pile of bones left over from its many meals. “How dare you rob us of our future!” The widow cried. The creature cackled maniacally. “What can you do about it?! You are too old and weak!” But Bjorne knelt down, granting Io the gift of mount, and roared, “let my fury guide you!” The two fought and fought, but the evil creature was no match for Bjorne’s great celestial strength. Io and Bjorne returned to the village with the bones of the children, sharing the tale of the great beast. “We must prevent such a tragedy from happening again,” the elders cried, “but how?” Bjorne, who loved the people, replied “Let us protect the children — as one is born, so shall one from the stars be born with them, to watch and guide them, and protect them from the darkness of the world. And in return, you shall guard these woods and live in peace with its inhabitants, so that such darkness will not settle here again.” This is why the children of Orinique are born with a companion, and why our people can speak with the creatures of the woods and the trees themselves — to fulfill their sacred contract, to ensure the continuation of our people, and most of all, to prevent darkness from swallowing us all.Journal 3:
The working man trades his hours for coin..." How does it go? That old rhyme's probably been scratched in privy walls up and down the Empire for centuries. But I don't think it's ever been so literal. A thousand gold for twenty years of my life? My parents wouldn't have made half that in fifty years. Marion probably saw at least a thousand pass through her hands every few months, but it wasn't as if she everhad a thousand gold; it was being used to pay her workers, buy stock, pay off debts, rent warehouses. She had value, not wealth -- and look where that got her! I have to admit that I'm sorely tempted. Not sorely enough, obviously, because I still have the potion. To hand it over for such a sum would be to tell myself that this money is at least worth having lived that life. I'm not 42-year-old me! I'm still 22 in the body of a 42-year-old! So I'm not just selling my life short, I'd be selling everything I might have learned or done in the years between who I really am and who I turn out to be. All the people I might meet, or help who now I wouldn't because I'm literally handing that time over to someone in exchange for a bag of coin. A big bag. Think of all the spell components I could buy with that. Maybe... I mean, it's a spell in a bottle, right? That's what makes it so valuable: the bottling. What if I asked for, say, 900 gold and for someone to cast this spell on me right then and there? It'd be easy enough to bring some wizard down from whatever cigar room they're holed up in to cast it. Pelican would still get the potion, I'd be back to my old young self, and I'd have more than enough dosh to start any plans I come up with. Hang on. It's not a potion, though, is it? It's the tears of a god. That's a hell of a thing, isn't it? Even if I traded this for having a spell with the same effect cast on me, it's not just a spell. It's congratulations, or thanks, or something. It's personal, from Cade to us. Practically gift-wrapped and everything. She didn't have to do it. And to give that up, to sell it for material things, would be slapping aside the hand that reached out in that final act of mercy. Ulmer blots his ink and slides the book aside, then returns to gazing at the light through the vial. His focus shifts from the scintillation within the glass to the flame beyond the refraction, the dancing candlelight changing color, bouncing impossibly in a hundred directions, shimmering and kaleidescoping in the chaos or indecipherable pattern of light and crystal and effervescing liquid. He lets his thoughts slip, mental gears spinning freely in the mud of semi-consciousness, until a whisper of mind catches and grips and hauls him onto the path of an idea he may never have had on his own. He nods in response to an argument only he can hear. The gods do favor those who spurn worldly comfort to accept them. And the people do love a story of those whose fates get tied into the deific. Nobody likes a rich underdog. So, yeah, it's only a little price to pay. It's not even a price, because you've giving up something you wouldn't have had anyway. Right. "Yeah," Ulmer says. "I've got friends on the other side." A keen listener may have heard a faint chorus repeating his last sentence, voices quiet as a candle-flicker then gone as if they never were. He blinks quickly, his attention turning from the candle back to the vial in his hands, the stopper already out and lying on the table. He smiles, raises the vial to the ceiling as if toasting... then drinks.
Year of Birth
11 AoA
25 Years old
Children
Gender
Feamle
Eyes
Green
Hair
Brown Hair, with a Blue and Silver Streak in it
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
White
Height
Short
Other Affiliations
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