Cassandros Veridian
What man can look at the stars and tell them to die? What power is stronger? The words men say, or the words the stars say?
~ Cassandros Veridian ~
Druidic Prophet
Cassandros Veridian was born in Vaze Harbor back when it was an elven settlement under the control of the Aila Province in Endolin. From a young age, he was very interested in the stars of the sky and the constellations they formed, and would often stay up late into the night both marveling at them and studying them.
In the years of the Tenelean Empire's rise in power, Cassandros' parents, like the rest Vaze Harbor were imperial sympathizers who wished to be a part of the empire they believed Endolin had mistreated so long ago. It was a period known as Teneleas' Revolution, a time of history that Cassandros studied well. And like his parents, he too felt better loyalty with Tenelea.
This loyalty was cemented one night when he was still young when he spotted an otherworldly anomaly set deep into the starry night sky. It moved in ways he'd never seen and took shapes that he swore to himself told a story. No, a prophecy. It was a prophecy of Tenelea's coming, when it would sweep the entire continent of Westerin and conquer it as its own.
Believing even the stars and the gods were on Tenelea's side, Cassandros cropped his elven ears with his parents to show their rebellion to the elven land of Endolin. And when the War of Turmoil began in 1,520 AC, he joined his parents and the rest of the town as they rebelled against their home and anyone there who were Endolish loyalists.
No matter the sign Cassandros had witnessed, the sight of blood, chaos, and death was unsettling and something he wasn't prepared to commit. While people like his parents fought on, he hung back and used his own druidic magic that Endolin had taught him to heal and sustain the wounded. And when the Tenelean legions came to Vaze Harbor nearly a year later after the northern countryside of Endolin was subjugated, they took note of Cassandros' capability to heal and recruited him in as a medic.
In these days, Cassandros left behind his parents and his home for the first time as he ventured almost the entire continent during this war. And when the war finally ended through an armistice, Cassandros returned home a hero to his family and people. He was awarded the Tenelean Cross for his exceptional service at saving the lives of over one-hundred people.
The Tenelean Incursors
But, this return to peace didn't last for very long. A little time later, he was recruited once again by the Tenelean military to begin training as part of a special program consisting of capable and extraordinary individuals. It was a special forces unit that would have the skill and versatility to complete tasks that ordinary legionnaires could not. It was a team called the Tenelean Incursors. In 1,565 AC, the Great War of Westerin began, and this team of Incursors, Cassandros included, was mobilized to act. Together, he began to travel Westerin again, aided by the five others with him as they took on specially allocated missions an ordinary townsmen might never have dreamed of having to complete. Through these missions, Cassandros continued to impress the empire at how well his druidic magic worked at keeping his allies away from death's door at a moment's notice. Though he began to taste the sourness of being forced to kill to finish the mission, he wasn't going to let it break him or consume him. However, a terrifying moment came during one mission when he and the Incursors were tasked to steal into the memories of a dead foe named Gaalinbadek to ascertain answers regarding how the man had come back as an undead revenant. Needless to say, the journey took them through a realm called the Veil, and when they returned, it had snatched Cassandros' dear memory of his parents. It saddened him, but perhaps he would one day regain those memories. Cassandros Veridian never let go of that prophecy he saw long ago as a young elf, and he was willing to do everything he could to aid in that prophecy coming true. Hopefully, this war would be the culmination of it all.There is no healer in the country that I would trust with my wounds more than that Tenelean.
~ Darius Flugzeug ~
Year of Birth
1475 AC
Children
Aligned Organization
Cropped
"Next." A gruff, elven voice. Spoken by a gruff elven man only a few feet in front of Cassandros.
The man stood in front of a closed door of a small house. His eyes were staring directly in Cassandros' direction as the realization hit him.
He was next in line.
Two pairs of hands rested on his shoulders as Cassandros felt his parent's presence behind him.
"Be strong." His father said.
"This is what you've been waiting for." His mother inspired. He looked at their freshly bandaged ears, smiles on their faces but fear in their eyes. Fear. How painful must it have been?
No. Cassandros was too determined to back out now. The constellation he'd seen. The prophecy fate had unveiled. He knew where his loyalty lied. It was a loyalty this city detested, but Cassandros was willing to stand up anyway.
He gave his parents a single nod before he bravely passed through the door the gruff, elven man opened. Inside, the noise dulled to a low hum. The only other sounds were the occasional drips of water and the scrapes of metal tools.
It was a single hallway. Cassandros followed it, not knowing what else to do. There was a collection of drapes over an archway at the far end. Cassandros stopped when a man came out it, hands clutching both ears in pain, tears streaming down his face. He gave Cassandros no attention as he left out the main door.
A scream came from past the drapes seconds later. The noise made Cassandros' skin crawl. What was he about to go through?
"Can't turn back now..." Cassandros gulped, and pushed the drapes aside moving through it. The smell of bloody iron hit his nose instantly. The room was dimly lit with torches, sectioned off by simple poles and drapes to make it look like some sort of grid.
From inside one of the drapes, Cassandros saw an elf sitting at a chair, fists clenched on his knees as another man stood behind him like a barber. A stream of blood was flowing down the elf's left cheek.
The man turned the elf's head as if fate was showing Cassandros his right ear. Then, the man took a pair of scissors and held them to the points of the ear. He started to close the blades around the ear...
A blood-curdling scream erupted from the elf as Cassandros' eyes shut and looked away in horror. He couldn't possibly watch the gruesome thing that was happening to that man.
So this is cropping. Cassandros' thoughts quivered with fear.
A hand suddenly took hold of his wrist as he saw another man start guiding him to a vacant chair at the other end of the room.
"Sit." The man said, and Cassandros did so without question. This was really about to happen. He was about to get cropped, and it was going to be as painful as he thought it was going to be.
He wanted to faint when he saw the man start examining different scissors in all sizes, like he was measuring which would be best for Cassandros. Suddenly, thoughts flashed through him of long ago, on that night when the Cosmic Warrior's constellation appeared before him, decreeing his people will one day rule all the land.
That single thought sobered him. He knew Tenelea was his rightful people. And he was ready to show his loyalty to them, and rebellion to everything else.
Slowly, he felt the man take a pair of scissors to his left ear...
If you call yourself Tenelean yet have never felt pain, then you are no Tenelean.~ Decimus Scahl
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