Voices of Regret
Her name is unknown to us, and yet we still see her face in the quiet hours of morning. When he sun sleeps beneath the mountains, while the moon smiles from the peaks, we see her fear through the eyes of Avahtan, the First Voice. We see her terror. We see her tears. To us she is Ishehtan — the last of her people.
She does not beg for her life. She does not ask us to stop. She does not attempt to move out of the way of our blow. She simply weeps over the body of her mother. We still remember the rage that burned in us that day. It was immitigable. It was unquenchable. It was insatiable. We were a twisted morass of hatred, with a thirst for vengeance that could not be slaked. We had so much spite that in that moment we turned our blade against a defenseless child.
We look back now and we feel none of that anger. We feel none of that hatred. All that we feel is regret. Yes, we ended the war. We struck the final blow. We ensured that the Tussari Centhiri would never again rise to enslave us. We secured our liberty from that day into perpetuity. All at the cost of an unnamed child's life.
We have carved more names into the stone than any mere mortal could count. We remember each and every one. A million, four hundred and forty two thousand, three hundred and seventy three names. Four thousand years on and yet we still don't know which of those names belonged to the one that we slew on that fateful day.
Perhaps we will never find her name and she will forever be the nameless last descendant of her people.
Esh Mātesu ([vel. /ˈɛʃ-mɔ.ˈtɛ.su/]), the Voices of Regret, are the de-facto chieftain of the Teshavehtë Veldrani. They are one of the few Voices who do not directly engage with their clan on a regular basis, instead being approached for advice during times of crisis or great danger, which are the only periods during which the Voices of Regret ever leave the confines of the [Book of Names](the-book-of-names-article).
Structure
The Voices of Regret are comprised of two parts, the living Host, from whom the spell that binds all the Voices of the past chieftains together into a single entity that recalls every moment of its long life, draws its sustenance as well as the Voices themselves, the collective minds and souls of the past chieftains who form the corpus of knowledge that the Host has access to.
Public Agenda
The Voices of Regret are the symbolic leaders of the Teshavehtë and chieftain by title. Ostensibly, the Voices of Regret act as a repository of knowledge and history of the Teshavehtë, as well as a spiritual advisor and guide, but this is only peripheral to the true purpose of the Voices.
The Voices of Regret, since their conception, have had a singular goal: penance for the sin of Kevar the Sinner. In the pursuit of this penance, they spend their time, hour upon hour on end, in the darkness of the cave that houses the Book of Names, carving the names of the dead Highborn into the stone.
Assets
The Voices of Regret have only two material possessions: the original Book of Names, a deteriorating tome that contains all the names of the Highborn that have ever lived, and the bones of all the Hosts that housed the Voices in the past, which they use to carve the names into the stone using no magic and no tools other than what is necessary.
History
In 26319 N.L., Kevar the Sinner, the First Voice of the Voices of Regret, the man upon whose soul the rest of the Hosts would be patterned, struck the blow that ended the war of the Krosha against a defenseless Highborn girl who had witnessed him slay her mother mere moments prior.
His elation over ending the conflict was short-lived, however, and soon after he left on a guilt-fueled pilgrimage into the heart of the shattered Highborn empire. Seeing the destroyed villages, some with ruins still smoldering, and the towns with empty streets, stripped of any valuables that could have been taken, only fueled his remorse until, in the year 26365 N.L. he returned with the Book of Names.
Knowing of a desolate valley deep within the Skywall Range, Kevar headed there to start his life's work, but within a decade, other Veldrani who felt guilt over their actions in the war flocked to his side, establishing the village of Teshaveht.
Thrust into the position of leader to a group of remorseful Veldrani who shared nothing in common with one another save for their guilt, and ailing in health, Kevar decided to take it upon himself to declare the Teshavehtë a clan in their own right with him as chieftain. In 26377 N.L. He ascended to become the Voices of Regret.
Type
Exotic, Gestalt Consciousness
Alternative Names
Esh Mātesu
Parent Organization
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