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High Inquisitor Talon
You were born in the years of wealth and peace before the Fall. But even in times of prosperity, there are lives which are poor and rough. You never knew your parents, or why you ended up an infant left on the street, perhaps they abandoned you, perhaps they died. You have never found out. You survived on the kindness of strangers and street folk for your infancy, until the age of six, when you were taken in by a nobleman. He never quite saw you as a son as much as a servant. You were raised in good health, but never treated with any paternal care, rooming with the rest of the noble’s house staff, and doing chores as much as any. Not knowing much better, you would occasionally steal things from the house, partially from spite towards your master, but partially to help keep you and the other servants fed. Eventually, at the age of 14, you stole a valuable jewel and ran away. But, you never got far: you were caught, and the nobleman’s authority was enough to leave you imprisoned for many years.
At least it would have been. But after two years of time in a dark cell, everything changed. The royal family was slain, Wyllaria overthrown, and the Dark Lord Malvakar ascended the throne. And he went to the prisons beneath the royal castle, personally, and spoke with the prisoners, each individually. He offered positions within his new order to those who had grudges against the old royalty, to those with talents that could be of use to him. You were not a criminal, or a skilled thief and rogue, but there was one thing you had always had a gift for: Lies.
And so you lied. And lied and lied straight to the Dark Lord’s face. You told him you had skills with information and people, manipulation and spying. You told him you were motivated by greed and ambition instead of kindness. And he listened, and nodded, and moved on to the next cell, and on that day you became one of Malvakar’s first Inquisitors. The betrayer knight Bastien (CASTING) was Malvakar’s Prime Inquisitor, and he took those who had been chosen and set you all to work. You had always picked things up quickly, but you discovered you had something of a knack for the flow of information and tracking of people, exactly what was needed for the job. You began to teach yourself practical skills in secret, lock-picking, poisons, stealth, all that you had claimed in the past to be capable of. With your quick tongue and new talents, you began to work against the Dark Lord from the inside. You would hide refugees you were told to kill, forging orders and replies, faking evidence and spreading the right rumors. You couldn’t do much, in the scheme of things, with so many other Inquisitors investigating as well, and with the sharp eyes of the Prime Inquisitor always present, but you did what you could. And you saved lives. You helped many innocents escape death for many years. Some would eventually be caught. Some are still out there. One man, who has called himself the Shadow of Freedom, has been playing Bastien for a fool for years now. You would help him: but you can’t even find out enough about him to lead the Inquisitors the wrong way. The Shadow covers his tracks and plays his cards far too well.
Eventually you met a pair of thieves, husband and wife, who had been carrying out a string of incredible heists to undermine Malvakar’s oppression. You began communicating with them in secret, and the three of you hatched a plan. You knew more of Malvakar’s power than most, and you knew of a secret part of his pact that was often hidden. The Soulstones. Ten gems, each bound with a thousand souls, which sealed the agreement between Malvakar and Death himself. If the ten could be gathered and destroyed, it would be the first step to defeating the Dark Lord for good. They were scattered, hidden and protected, throughout the lands near the royal castle, but you knew that Malvakar kept one within the castle itself.
You had decided to steal it.
With your information, the thieves managed to break into the royal castle, and retrieve the stone. But as they attempted to escape, Bastien caught them. Before he could execute them, they passed the stone to you, and you managed to keep it from Bastien or Malvakar’s sight. Though you could not save them, you at least ensured their sacrifice was not in vain. As the three of you had agreed, you would make sure their two children were safe, and you could finish what they had started and ensure the soulstone was hidden. You began to pull strings, to influence and redirect information, all surrounding one nearby town, Yudshire. The town was already fairly secluded, and had drawn little attention. You ensured it would draw even less, and covered your tracks well enough that whatever happened to you they couldn’t find your changes. You sent the stone to Yelan and Salya, (CASTINGS), your partners two children, along with a note, to lead them to Yudshire where they would be safe. They have remained there since, hidden away, with a small package they do not yet realize the importance of. For now, they are safe.
Your manipulations could only last so long. During the purge of the eighteenth year after the fall, your machinations were discovered. Bastien the Prime Inquisitor, and Pythra, Malvakar’s Seer (CASTING) found traces of prisoners you had freed, refugees you had hidden, and other schemes. You were chained with the rest of the prisoners the purge had taken, and for several days now they have dragged you through the mud with the others, waiting to be executed. You have done much to weaken the Dark Lord’s rule. If your time has come, then so be it.
Yelan
You and your older sister Salya (CASTING) were raised in a small home a short ways away from the royal city, somewhat secluded. You didn’t realize how important that was in the first few years of your life. You were born the year after the Fall, your sister a year before you. Your parents encouraged many things you didn’t realize at first were not quite normal, and you and your sister learned to hide and move quickly through the woods, seeing everything just as games at first. As you got older, your parents began spending time away from home, working. You knew how to take care of yourselves well enough that even when they vanished for a few days at a time, it was never real trouble, and nobody ever bothered you at your home, hidden away from the royal city. One day, when you were ten years old, they were gone for a week. And then two. You and Salya began to worry. You had never actually learned what they had been doing, and in your curiosity began searching through their room. The two of you found a seam in the floor, and prying it open discovered a trap door into a whole basement you never knew existed. It was a chamber full of ropes, tools, and weapons, a work table covered in locks and lockpicks, a whole plethora of thieves tools. And you found a journal.
It was a record of crimes. In the days before you were born, your parents had traveled through Wyllaria, and once or twice even beyond its borders, pulling heists and crimes on a grand scale. But you learned from their journal that they never stole for themselves: their prizes were always being stolen to be returned to rightful owners, or spread to those who needed the wealth. Eventually they settled down to have children, and stopped their noble but criminal ways for many years. But under the black rule of Malvakar, the world had fallen into such savage disarray that they felt they needed to return to their old path, and resume using their thieves’ talents to help those in need. They had a contact and help within Malvakar’s Inquisitors, a high lieutenant named Talon (CASTING), a man second only to the Prime Inquisitor Bastien (CASTING) who leads the annual purges, scouring the countryside for rebels and threats.
There was a note at the back of the journal. It was dated to two weeks ago, the last day before your parents had left on their latest plan. They had decided to attempt an exceptionally dangerous mission, hoping to infiltrate the royal castle itself and steal something of great importance, although they did not say what. The last section of the journal entry was addressed to the two of you. It said that this was an attempt dangerous beyond anything they had tried before, and they did not know if they would ever come back. It told you to be strong and to be careful, and if they were still missing after a week, that they would likely never return.
The two of you spent the next few days in shock, trying to truly realize who your parents had always been, as well as that they were now gone. On the third day after you found their journal, a knock came to the door. Though nervous, you didn’t know what to do besides looking. There was nobody outside, simply a small package wrapped on the foot of your doorstep, with a bird of prey’s claw sketched onto the paper. There was a note with the package.
Yelan and Salya.
Your parents took a brave risk, but the Prime Inquisitor’s eyes are too sharp. There was nothing I could do. I am sorry. Know that their sacrifice was not a useless act. Take this package, tell nobody, do not open it, and keep it safe, until the day comes that it will be needed.
You cannot stay where you are. Travel to the town of Yudshire. You will be safe there for now. Do not bring your parents’ things with you, they will only make it easier for him to find you. I am sorry there is not more I can do now. Stay safe.
After delaying another week in the home the two of you spent your lives in, you knew you had to leave as the message said. You resealed the hidden basement your parents used, knowing that someday you might need the equipment hidden away there. You and Salya packed up your things, all that you needed, and left, knowing you’d probably never be back. The two of you hiked to Yudshire, the town only being a day’s walk away from your home. You wandered into the town, and were soon taken in by Orven (CASTING) the town cleric, who let the children without homes or care sleep in the church, and did what he could as with the rest of the town to make sure everybody was fed and accounted for. You’ve grown up the rest of your lives, another seven years, among the other orphan ruffians in Yudshire, running about town, getting into trouble and always finding things to do one way or another. Once, wandering the nearby woods, the two of you found a wild kid who called himself Shix (CASTING) when Salya stepped on a trap he had set for food. It seems he’d spent nearly his entire life in the woods. The two of you brought him back to Yudshire, where he’s lived ever since with the rest of you.
You’ve become fairly close to a girl in Yudshire who came to the town a few years after you did. Tria (CASTING) arrived in the town with a fairly significant bag of supplies and valuables over her shoulder, refusing to say where they came from. Your parents taught you well enough that you know she stole them, although if your parents taught you anything it’s that sometimes thefts can be for the greater good, and having gotten to know her through the years, you know Tria always means well. She may jump to conclusions and take rash action sometimes, and you’re pretty sure she steals sometimes out of reflex, but her heart is in the right place, and when she ends up nicking anything important she always puts it back. The two of you sometimes get talking about how you would go about stealing one valuable or another, never in full seriousness, but always with a touch of mischief in your thoughts.
You haven’t told anybody about the package, just as Inquisitor Talon’s note said, and you haven’t opened it, although you’ve often wanted to. It remains sealed and hidden away for now. Perhaps soon the day will come when it’s time to open it. You’re not sure when that may be, but the day doesn’t seem to have come yet.