Syrika, the Liberator
Syrika was the supposed founder of the freedom-fighting guild known as Syrika's Liberators. A blacksmith who was forced into labor after fleeing to Kysncore from her home in the sewers of Kjull, tales tell of how she fought back against her captors using the chains she was forced to forge to keep her bound.
Syrika, born of two forges
Daughter of blacksmiths of elven and human heritage, Syrika was raised in the sewers of Kjull. While her village was generally neutral in the fight between the small folk insurgents and the giant inhabitants of Kjull, her parents and other members of her village would provide shelter and supplies for insurgents in need.
In her youth, Syrika dreamt of fighting with the insurgents, but was held back by her parents and taught their craft instead. Initially resentful in being kept away from the fighting, she grew to love the art of smithing, creating her own unique style blended from the techniques from both of her parents. She honed her skills for many years, soon opening up her own forge.
A few years after she opened her forge, the role of her village was tipped off to the giants by loyalists, and a group of hill giants were sent into the sewers to purge them of the "infestation" within. Syrika saw this as her opportunity to fight back against the giants. However, when the attack came, she and the other defenders were quickly overwhelmed, and she was forced to flee.
Syrika, born into chains
With her parents presumed dead, Syrika had no reason to remain in Kjull, for she would be hunted for the rest of her life, so she fled the gargantuan walls of the giant city, heading south into Kysnscore, hoping to make a new life for herself there. First heading toward Redfell, she was turned away due to the massive amounts of small folk refugees trying to enter from other areas around Teldir.
She then began to wander the plains of Kysnscore for days, until she stumbled upon an elven lord from Sathinn building a manor in the secluded hills far south of Redfell. He offered her a contract, providing her food and shelter in return for "temporary servitude." Desperate and starving, she agreed. She was immediately set to work performing manual labor, and it quickly dawned on her that she had signed herself into slavery*, a portion of her soul held captive until her labor was complete.
Syrika, tethered at wrist and soul
Syrika worked begrudgingly for many months, her skills as a blacksmith exploited wherever it could be. She was the first of nearly two dozen hopeless individuals to stumble into slavery at the manor. Due to her seniority as a slave at the manor, the others gravitated toward her as a leader, guide, and protector.
Over time her resentment for her masters grew, and with it, so did her tendencies to rebel. She began to refuse to work or speak, inciting others to do so as well. As punishment, she was isolated within her forge, forced to forge a set of chains to keep herself contained. In her new prison she began plotting, writing a contract and tinkering with her bonds.
Syrika, tethered to none
By the time the manor was complete, Syrika decided she'd had enough. She ripped her chains from their weak roots in her forge, and began to fight her way out. Single-handedly taking out the manor guards, she freed the other slaves. Unable to leave, she led them to the lord of the manor. She formed a new contract, offering the rest of her soul in exchange for the freedom of the other slaves.
The lord agreed, and the slaves were freed from their contracts. Syrika, however, disappeared. Even when many of the former slaves returned to the manor months later to try to rescue her, she was nowhere to be found, and the lord himself had abandoned the manor as well. These former slaves, however, would later be the head of what would soon become Syrika's Liberators, aiming to bring down the rest of the Tyrants of the Hills. Despite her disappearance shortly after the events that brought her to fame and glory, her legacy lives on for centuries still, as the woman who fought with her own chains.
*It is inferred that this contract is similar to the Bonds of Citizenship used in Sathinn today, but only holding a portion of the signer's soul rather than the entirety of it.
Current Debates
Today there are arguments on whether or not Syrika truly existed, and was created by the founders of the guild simply as a beacon of hope. There are no traces of a grave or resting place, or a manor fitting the descriptions in the spoken stories. No one other than Syrika herself is named, making any means of locating them difficult as well. Additionally, none of the members present during the founding of the guild claim to have seen her, with any solid proof, that is.
These controversies have caused little issues to the Liberators, as they claim to still fight for the ideals she stood for despite any solid proof of her existence.
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I really like how she fights with her own chains and how she ended up having to sacrifice herself to save the others. I do have to wonder what ended up happening to her, or if she existed at all.