AoA.Lore Letters to a River Lily
Voronelle,
I cannot thank you enough for saving me. I owe you my life.
Forgive my forthrightness, but it is my hope to see you again. I will be assigned to a tenday of active duty stationed at the furthest eastern tower four days from now.
If you are by chance of a like mind, please give my corespondent a response so I may know when and where to find you. If not, know that I eternally grateful for your aid and may you walk in Bahamut's light.
In your debt,
Parathraaj PS. You can trust the individual delivering this message, I assure you. His name is Maldur and is a brother to me. I trust him with my life and now with yours as well.
Parathraaj, It is with a glad heart I hear you are well. This Maldur who brought me your letter speaks glowingly of you and shared with me the nervous energy with which you crafted your correspondence. Let me put any anxiety at rest and be equally forthcoming with you - I had hoped you would write and look forward to seeing you again as well, hopefully this time in one piece rather than how I found you last. I will wait for you on the third day of your station at the bend in the river on the northeastern edge of the valley. I think a picnic sounds like a pleasant way for us to get to know more about one another. With fondness,
Voronelle
Voronelle, I hope this letter finds you well as you return to your clan and make preparations for the ritual you described. During our visit you asked me about life in Avraathe and I wished to share a few more details. In the moment of our conversation, I feel I gave you the wrong impression of my fair city by focussing too much on my own personal experiences with the obligations and responsibilities as a member of the Platinum Order. More broadly, Avraathe is a vibrant and shining city full of interesting people and incredible opportunities. Because of the platinum mining and craftsmenship in the city, Avraathe features novelties I believe no other city can reproduce. There's a device within our academy which powers much of the city, providing clean air and improved living conditions for each sector of the city. The artistry of the temple ward with murals, sculptures, and tapestries depicting the many facets of the Platinum Dragon make Waterdeep look like the City of Squalor by comparison if you ask me. And with our strengthening alliances with other communities in the Nether Mountains, we're seeing an increase of fantastic and unique goods coming through the markets as well. I share all of this so as to hopefully give you a better picture of why I believe in Avraathe and why I am loyal to her armed forces. I know from our previous conversations the understandable distrust and even resentment your clan harbors against the city and her leaders. Please do not read my works as a slight against your noble people and the difficult lives they have surely led, but rather as an extension and invitation to trust that Avraathe is not the evil or callous place some within your clan would consider it. With that said, I have shared a great deal about my people and our city. I would quite enjoy learning more about Clan Zirthund, your traditions, and the area which you currently call home, if you don't mind enlightening me. As always, I look forward to when we can be reunited once again. With anticipation,
Parathraaj
Parathraaj, Avraathe indeed sounds like a city worthy of its storied foundation, though that is not something I might freely admit within my own community. Our current home, as you called it, is a series of once ruins which magically appeared during the turbulent years of the Spellplague. According to the stories my grandmother told me in my youth, one of the clan members prophesied for the clan to travel further east, proclaiming a permanent home would make itself apparent to us. At the time, it was a highly controversial decision as it would put us in more risk of the The Morueme's wrath. Even so, given the divine inspiration of the idea, the clan eventually followed the vision and discovered a half-destroyed outcropping of structures which had never been seen before. While it certainly does not possess the sheen nor amenities of Avraathe, it has become the most stable and longest lasting home base for Clan Zirthund since the Moon Pass Skirmishes. Indeed, Valqwen is the first site with a proper name to stick among the collective consciousness of our people. Valqwen is a pragmatic place filled with citizens who still live by the nomadic principles of taking only that which is necessary, utilizing each component of resource, and never planting roots too deep. Even in a community which has lived in one place for almost a century, many still treat each day as if it may be the last before another season of packing and trekking begins. For many clans members, they still choose to build on top of and around the ruins instead of making the much needed repairs to make Valqwen truly feel more like a home rather than only shelter from the elements. Even so, the ruins of whatever city lost to civilization we discovered have become a welcome place of respite and source of joy in the difficult days of life for those of us willing to embrace some semblance of permanence and posterity. As for our traditions, I might wager a guess we folllow many of the same teachings and rituals of Bahamut, including the Rite of Renewal, though I would also assume ours are not quite as grounded in doctrine as Avraathe's. Rather, we are guided and taught based on our community's personal experiences of Bahamut's justice and mercy in our own lives and historically. In so, we create and partake in a rich tapestry of common and unique experiences which I believe casts a beautiful reflection of Bahamut's own radiance, not unlike the Temple in which your priests place so much pride and value. It would be so much easier to simply show you the way of things in Valqwen. How our community operates. How lively and inspiring our holy ceremonies can be. The joy found in these simple lives we live and share together. But we both know better than to let that hope fester into an undeliverable expectation. Alas, I will simply have to share more with you the next time you are stationed beyond the wall. It should be in two tenday's time, no? Fondly yours,
Voronelle
Dear Voronelle, My deepest apologizes for my absence during our most recent planned rendezvous. I had hoped to share the news with you in person, but I recently received a promotion within the Platinum Order and the ceremony for my new role conflicted with my patrol schedule, barring me from meeting you. Trust me, I would have rather been at the river's edge with you than in my formal armor as the Supreme Commander droned on about the importance of duty and diligence during the peak of the afternoon heat. While this honor prevented me from seeing you, it does come with additional good tidings as well. As the General of the Platinum Order, I now am responsible for the schedules of patrols and the schedule of rotation. My hope is the next time we meet we can set a regular and predictable cadence for the moments we steal together. Yours,
Parathraaj
Parathraaj, If I am frank, I received this letter in a sour mood and though the flowers are beautiful, their being delivered by one of the children of the clan and not directly by you did little to initially dampen my frustration. I do wish you had met me at our meeting spot instead. I have waited there for you for the last three days, hopeful and each day disappointed even more. Don't get me wrong, I am of course proud of you for your success and hard work. You undoubtedly deserve this recognition and will handle the responsibilities impressively. But I worry this will only continue to drive us apart as time goes on. Any position beyond the one you hold now would keep you within the city walls for months at a time and then what would become of us? And yes, you say you now have the ability to make your own schedule, but I doubt the General of an elite military force spends much time away from his desk or his troops. Can you tell me truly if you had to choose between me and your position that I would win your heart? Because when it comes time, one of us will have to make such a choice. Avraathe is not ready for their General to introduce his betrothed as a member of clan expunged from history. And Valqwen would not accept the Speaker's daughter bringing in a Avraathian, especially a leader in their elite army. There is no us if one of us does not revoke an important part of who we are and what is expected of us. For all of your strength, could you carry such a weight? Perhaps this promotion is Bahamut calling you back to your commitment to the city. And perhaps it is the sign I needed to return my focus to the path set before me as well. Volonelle
Dear Volonelle, You speak truthfully of the complications of the situation. But I am not so easily resigned to what you consider our fate of following the paths laid before us without consideration for the longings of our hearts. You are a part of me and I would sooner cut off my arm than be severed from you. If you wish a bit of space to consider your own path, I understand. I will await your next message as to when you would like to next meet. I hope to hear from you soon and will wait with anticipation until then. Still yours,
Parathraaj
My sweet Parathraaj, I am so thankful to have seen you again. Forgive me for the delay. The days in Valqwen have been admittedly lonely, but important for shedding light and providing clarity on my place within this community and my own heart's longing to be a part of yours as well. I'm not sure how this will work, but I know now you are a part of my life and a part of me inseparable from the life I knew before you. Meet with me in the clearing in the forest north of the riverbend. I wish to share something with you in person. With affection,
Volonelle
Volonelle, I must admit, even several days after our last meeting, I am still reeling from the joy and excitement of your expecting. I won't pretend it does not complicate the situation greatly, but when has anyone ever been truly ready to welcome a firstborn into the world? I know it is premature, but I have been considering names if it is to be a boy. I would want him to share in both legacies he will inherit. Perhaps using a word of my name and a word of your father's? But I am getting too far ahead of myself. In the months before a name is chosen, we face the difficult road we have tried to avoid for the last year. Where will we raise him? How will we explain our union? Who can we trust with the truth? These are the thoughts which fill my mind when my head reaches the pillow wishing you were beside me. But I trust the Platinum Dragon will guide us as he always will. With adoration,
Parathraaj
Parathraaj, I'm sorry for the harshness of my words at our last meeting. Truly, it is not the way I wanted to leave matters and I regret wasting our precious moments together bickering. Even so, you must see I speak truth. There is no simple way to make a living in either of our homes as we are. I cannot bring an Avraathian into Valqwen as much as you cannot bring an outsider who shouldn't even exist into Avraathe. Do you remember my earlier letter in which I said one day one of us would have to make this decision, because we could not both keep our hearts and our futures if we were to be together? That day has come. And I tell you now, with my heart fully devoted to you and my body carrying the child of our love, I am willing to make such a choice. If you can find a way for my presence to be kept secret within Avraathe, I will join you within the city walls though it means forsaking all else I know. I refuse to raise a son without his father because our clans cannot coexist. I will begin to make preparations for my departure. Make whatever arrangements necessary and tell me what else you require of me. With the decision made, the sooner the better. It will only grow more painful to say goodbye and I will not be able to hide my expecting much longer. Wholly yours,
Volonelle
My Dearest Voronelle, I have secured a means for your entrance to the city and have come to an accord with those who will make the necessary changes to their clan’s scrolls and records. Maldur has been a great aid in this regard and will be claiming you as a member of the Kaskrond Clan. They have already prepared the story and explanation for your absence and recent return to the city. At last, you will finally be able to join me within the city walls as a citizen of Avraathe. What a joy it will be to share the whole of life with you after these years of distance and living torn between loyalty and love. Don’t think that in my excitement I ignore the truth of things. I know this must come as bittersweet news. I consider the difficult choices you’ve had to make frequently and weigh them in light of the work we are doing so as to finally be united formally and forever. I hope my love and adoration are still worth the cost of that which you’ve lost. Perhaps one day the life growing within you will be the start of a clan and family which will unite the city with our long lost brothers and sisters without whom we are incomplete. Who is to speak against Bahamut’s will for unity and peace? Forgive my wishful dreaming and musings, ’tis but a side effect of my longing for you and our new life together. Irrevocably yours,
Parathraaj
Parathraaj, You speak truly, this news is both wonderful and frightening, if I am honest. Admittedly, that is the only thing I can be in your presence, even when in ink rather than scale and bone. Even so, never question your worth in my eyes, my love. I would give up all and more to be with you in more than the sparing moments we carve out of our disparate lives. Your visions are inspiring and in the deepest parts of me I too hope our love may in some way lead to a better world for our soon arriving Parathrax to experience. But we must be realistic and recognize we have a great deal of prejudice to tear asunder before such a world can be but a gleam in Bahamut's eyes. The efforts you must go to for me to even step within the walls of Avraathe speak to the chasm between today and the tomorrow we hope for so desperately. Father and Rocreth still do not know of my plans, but they grow suspicious of my distance even as I go through the preparations of following in the footsteps laid out in front of me. Oh, if only it were more simple for you to join us here so you and I could lead my people into a brighter future. But I am not naive enough to see anything other than a hopeless cause in that regard. Avraathe's ignorance is perhaps a blessing in place of the open disdain our clan holds for your city's leaders. As you said yourself, these are naught but wishful thoughts, not unlike shooting stars in the evening sky. Beautiful and mysterious, distant and out of reach. Burning out before they reach whatever destination they seek out in such haste. I pray we are not the same. For you are the stars in my night sky and I long for the warmth and light of your presence each eve. Thanks to your efforts, those days grow closer. Steadfastly yours,
Voronelle
Voronelle, As the days until you are finally able to share a fully present life with me draw ever closer, I find myself reflecting more and more on the day we met. Ever my lovely and resilient River Lily, you have saved me more times than I could count since I first returned to consciousness thanks to your care. Though I will carry the scars with me always, I am thankful for them for they have brought me your love as well. I know I am not the only one among us who bears scars and this decision you've made will likely open wounds of its own for you, but trust my heart could not be more full of gratitude nor anticipation. All of my strength and adoration as you take these final steps towards our life together. If this is the last correspondance before we know longer require quills and scrolls for our conversations, it seems only fitting for it to end where it began. I cannot thank you enough for saving me. I owe you my life. Until we meet face to face,
Parathraaj
Parathraaj PS. You can trust the individual delivering this message, I assure you. His name is Maldur and is a brother to me. I trust him with my life and now with yours as well.
Parathraaj, It is with a glad heart I hear you are well. This Maldur who brought me your letter speaks glowingly of you and shared with me the nervous energy with which you crafted your correspondence. Let me put any anxiety at rest and be equally forthcoming with you - I had hoped you would write and look forward to seeing you again as well, hopefully this time in one piece rather than how I found you last. I will wait for you on the third day of your station at the bend in the river on the northeastern edge of the valley. I think a picnic sounds like a pleasant way for us to get to know more about one another. With fondness,
Voronelle
Voronelle, I hope this letter finds you well as you return to your clan and make preparations for the ritual you described. During our visit you asked me about life in Avraathe and I wished to share a few more details. In the moment of our conversation, I feel I gave you the wrong impression of my fair city by focussing too much on my own personal experiences with the obligations and responsibilities as a member of the Platinum Order. More broadly, Avraathe is a vibrant and shining city full of interesting people and incredible opportunities. Because of the platinum mining and craftsmenship in the city, Avraathe features novelties I believe no other city can reproduce. There's a device within our academy which powers much of the city, providing clean air and improved living conditions for each sector of the city. The artistry of the temple ward with murals, sculptures, and tapestries depicting the many facets of the Platinum Dragon make Waterdeep look like the City of Squalor by comparison if you ask me. And with our strengthening alliances with other communities in the Nether Mountains, we're seeing an increase of fantastic and unique goods coming through the markets as well. I share all of this so as to hopefully give you a better picture of why I believe in Avraathe and why I am loyal to her armed forces. I know from our previous conversations the understandable distrust and even resentment your clan harbors against the city and her leaders. Please do not read my works as a slight against your noble people and the difficult lives they have surely led, but rather as an extension and invitation to trust that Avraathe is not the evil or callous place some within your clan would consider it. With that said, I have shared a great deal about my people and our city. I would quite enjoy learning more about Clan Zirthund, your traditions, and the area which you currently call home, if you don't mind enlightening me. As always, I look forward to when we can be reunited once again. With anticipation,
Parathraaj
Parathraaj, Avraathe indeed sounds like a city worthy of its storied foundation, though that is not something I might freely admit within my own community. Our current home, as you called it, is a series of once ruins which magically appeared during the turbulent years of the Spellplague. According to the stories my grandmother told me in my youth, one of the clan members prophesied for the clan to travel further east, proclaiming a permanent home would make itself apparent to us. At the time, it was a highly controversial decision as it would put us in more risk of the The Morueme's wrath. Even so, given the divine inspiration of the idea, the clan eventually followed the vision and discovered a half-destroyed outcropping of structures which had never been seen before. While it certainly does not possess the sheen nor amenities of Avraathe, it has become the most stable and longest lasting home base for Clan Zirthund since the Moon Pass Skirmishes. Indeed, Valqwen is the first site with a proper name to stick among the collective consciousness of our people. Valqwen is a pragmatic place filled with citizens who still live by the nomadic principles of taking only that which is necessary, utilizing each component of resource, and never planting roots too deep. Even in a community which has lived in one place for almost a century, many still treat each day as if it may be the last before another season of packing and trekking begins. For many clans members, they still choose to build on top of and around the ruins instead of making the much needed repairs to make Valqwen truly feel more like a home rather than only shelter from the elements. Even so, the ruins of whatever city lost to civilization we discovered have become a welcome place of respite and source of joy in the difficult days of life for those of us willing to embrace some semblance of permanence and posterity. As for our traditions, I might wager a guess we folllow many of the same teachings and rituals of Bahamut, including the Rite of Renewal, though I would also assume ours are not quite as grounded in doctrine as Avraathe's. Rather, we are guided and taught based on our community's personal experiences of Bahamut's justice and mercy in our own lives and historically. In so, we create and partake in a rich tapestry of common and unique experiences which I believe casts a beautiful reflection of Bahamut's own radiance, not unlike the Temple in which your priests place so much pride and value. It would be so much easier to simply show you the way of things in Valqwen. How our community operates. How lively and inspiring our holy ceremonies can be. The joy found in these simple lives we live and share together. But we both know better than to let that hope fester into an undeliverable expectation. Alas, I will simply have to share more with you the next time you are stationed beyond the wall. It should be in two tenday's time, no? Fondly yours,
Voronelle
Dear Voronelle, My deepest apologizes for my absence during our most recent planned rendezvous. I had hoped to share the news with you in person, but I recently received a promotion within the Platinum Order and the ceremony for my new role conflicted with my patrol schedule, barring me from meeting you. Trust me, I would have rather been at the river's edge with you than in my formal armor as the Supreme Commander droned on about the importance of duty and diligence during the peak of the afternoon heat. While this honor prevented me from seeing you, it does come with additional good tidings as well. As the General of the Platinum Order, I now am responsible for the schedules of patrols and the schedule of rotation. My hope is the next time we meet we can set a regular and predictable cadence for the moments we steal together. Yours,
Parathraaj
Parathraaj, If I am frank, I received this letter in a sour mood and though the flowers are beautiful, their being delivered by one of the children of the clan and not directly by you did little to initially dampen my frustration. I do wish you had met me at our meeting spot instead. I have waited there for you for the last three days, hopeful and each day disappointed even more. Don't get me wrong, I am of course proud of you for your success and hard work. You undoubtedly deserve this recognition and will handle the responsibilities impressively. But I worry this will only continue to drive us apart as time goes on. Any position beyond the one you hold now would keep you within the city walls for months at a time and then what would become of us? And yes, you say you now have the ability to make your own schedule, but I doubt the General of an elite military force spends much time away from his desk or his troops. Can you tell me truly if you had to choose between me and your position that I would win your heart? Because when it comes time, one of us will have to make such a choice. Avraathe is not ready for their General to introduce his betrothed as a member of clan expunged from history. And Valqwen would not accept the Speaker's daughter bringing in a Avraathian, especially a leader in their elite army. There is no us if one of us does not revoke an important part of who we are and what is expected of us. For all of your strength, could you carry such a weight? Perhaps this promotion is Bahamut calling you back to your commitment to the city. And perhaps it is the sign I needed to return my focus to the path set before me as well. Volonelle
Dear Volonelle, You speak truthfully of the complications of the situation. But I am not so easily resigned to what you consider our fate of following the paths laid before us without consideration for the longings of our hearts. You are a part of me and I would sooner cut off my arm than be severed from you. If you wish a bit of space to consider your own path, I understand. I will await your next message as to when you would like to next meet. I hope to hear from you soon and will wait with anticipation until then. Still yours,
Parathraaj
My sweet Parathraaj, I am so thankful to have seen you again. Forgive me for the delay. The days in Valqwen have been admittedly lonely, but important for shedding light and providing clarity on my place within this community and my own heart's longing to be a part of yours as well. I'm not sure how this will work, but I know now you are a part of my life and a part of me inseparable from the life I knew before you. Meet with me in the clearing in the forest north of the riverbend. I wish to share something with you in person. With affection,
Volonelle
Volonelle, I must admit, even several days after our last meeting, I am still reeling from the joy and excitement of your expecting. I won't pretend it does not complicate the situation greatly, but when has anyone ever been truly ready to welcome a firstborn into the world? I know it is premature, but I have been considering names if it is to be a boy. I would want him to share in both legacies he will inherit. Perhaps using a word of my name and a word of your father's? But I am getting too far ahead of myself. In the months before a name is chosen, we face the difficult road we have tried to avoid for the last year. Where will we raise him? How will we explain our union? Who can we trust with the truth? These are the thoughts which fill my mind when my head reaches the pillow wishing you were beside me. But I trust the Platinum Dragon will guide us as he always will. With adoration,
Parathraaj
Parathraaj, I'm sorry for the harshness of my words at our last meeting. Truly, it is not the way I wanted to leave matters and I regret wasting our precious moments together bickering. Even so, you must see I speak truth. There is no simple way to make a living in either of our homes as we are. I cannot bring an Avraathian into Valqwen as much as you cannot bring an outsider who shouldn't even exist into Avraathe. Do you remember my earlier letter in which I said one day one of us would have to make this decision, because we could not both keep our hearts and our futures if we were to be together? That day has come. And I tell you now, with my heart fully devoted to you and my body carrying the child of our love, I am willing to make such a choice. If you can find a way for my presence to be kept secret within Avraathe, I will join you within the city walls though it means forsaking all else I know. I refuse to raise a son without his father because our clans cannot coexist. I will begin to make preparations for my departure. Make whatever arrangements necessary and tell me what else you require of me. With the decision made, the sooner the better. It will only grow more painful to say goodbye and I will not be able to hide my expecting much longer. Wholly yours,
Volonelle
My Dearest Voronelle, I have secured a means for your entrance to the city and have come to an accord with those who will make the necessary changes to their clan’s scrolls and records. Maldur has been a great aid in this regard and will be claiming you as a member of the Kaskrond Clan. They have already prepared the story and explanation for your absence and recent return to the city. At last, you will finally be able to join me within the city walls as a citizen of Avraathe. What a joy it will be to share the whole of life with you after these years of distance and living torn between loyalty and love. Don’t think that in my excitement I ignore the truth of things. I know this must come as bittersweet news. I consider the difficult choices you’ve had to make frequently and weigh them in light of the work we are doing so as to finally be united formally and forever. I hope my love and adoration are still worth the cost of that which you’ve lost. Perhaps one day the life growing within you will be the start of a clan and family which will unite the city with our long lost brothers and sisters without whom we are incomplete. Who is to speak against Bahamut’s will for unity and peace? Forgive my wishful dreaming and musings, ’tis but a side effect of my longing for you and our new life together. Irrevocably yours,
Parathraaj
Parathraaj, You speak truly, this news is both wonderful and frightening, if I am honest. Admittedly, that is the only thing I can be in your presence, even when in ink rather than scale and bone. Even so, never question your worth in my eyes, my love. I would give up all and more to be with you in more than the sparing moments we carve out of our disparate lives. Your visions are inspiring and in the deepest parts of me I too hope our love may in some way lead to a better world for our soon arriving Parathrax to experience. But we must be realistic and recognize we have a great deal of prejudice to tear asunder before such a world can be but a gleam in Bahamut's eyes. The efforts you must go to for me to even step within the walls of Avraathe speak to the chasm between today and the tomorrow we hope for so desperately. Father and Rocreth still do not know of my plans, but they grow suspicious of my distance even as I go through the preparations of following in the footsteps laid out in front of me. Oh, if only it were more simple for you to join us here so you and I could lead my people into a brighter future. But I am not naive enough to see anything other than a hopeless cause in that regard. Avraathe's ignorance is perhaps a blessing in place of the open disdain our clan holds for your city's leaders. As you said yourself, these are naught but wishful thoughts, not unlike shooting stars in the evening sky. Beautiful and mysterious, distant and out of reach. Burning out before they reach whatever destination they seek out in such haste. I pray we are not the same. For you are the stars in my night sky and I long for the warmth and light of your presence each eve. Thanks to your efforts, those days grow closer. Steadfastly yours,
Voronelle
Voronelle, As the days until you are finally able to share a fully present life with me draw ever closer, I find myself reflecting more and more on the day we met. Ever my lovely and resilient River Lily, you have saved me more times than I could count since I first returned to consciousness thanks to your care. Though I will carry the scars with me always, I am thankful for them for they have brought me your love as well. I know I am not the only one among us who bears scars and this decision you've made will likely open wounds of its own for you, but trust my heart could not be more full of gratitude nor anticipation. All of my strength and adoration as you take these final steps towards our life together. If this is the last correspondance before we know longer require quills and scrolls for our conversations, it seems only fitting for it to end where it began. I cannot thank you enough for saving me. I owe you my life. Until we meet face to face,
Parathraaj
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