I enjoyed writing this... Like I said previously about the Feywild, I have never DMed or played in a game that's touched the Feywild or Shadowfell...
So it was enjoyable to take a walk through the Shadowfell in these backgrounds, since I've touched the Feywild in previous ones...
I did what I've been doing lately and tied your background to an
existing one I did before...
But they operate independently, very easily, obviously! I have been enjoying tying backgrounds together to make it all seem like one world where all of these backgrounds are happening.
It's like an extra challenge for me; especially when it provides a reason for a character to do something!
That said, please let me know if I did all right! Give me ANY feedback - good or bad - it all helps me!
Enjoy!
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Childhood is an interesting thing. It’s a time of innocence and discovery, of love and laughter. My mother loved me endlessly, but there were nights, I could hear her speaking to my father, about being concerned about the “unwanted attention my bloodline” might bring upon them.
I always felt different than the other children in our village.
But the age of ten I finally began to understand why I felt different – and the concerns my mother had voiced. I began glowing one night during an energetic game of Karikus and when I had jumped for the ball my feet took off the ground and I began to glide across the crowd. The other kids immediately became frightened as did their parents.
It wasn’t long after that things got uncomfortable for my parents and they had decided to pack up and leave. Two nights of being on the road, my father saw, what appeared to be some Elves tending to an injured deer. Bringing the wagon to a halt, my father stepped off of the wagon and in that moment learned that these were not normal elves.
As they stood, their skin was grey and colorless and they had no pupils in their eyes. They ran their sword through my father and put an arrow through my mother’s back as she reached back to try to tell me to run. That’s when they approached the wagon and spoke in a language I’d never heard of before and threw a magical net over me that instantly made me feel as if my life had been drained from me.
When I woke up, everything felt different. The world was bleak, grey and colorless; there were only shades of grey. For weeks, months, I couldn’t tell how long to be honest, with no sun in sight, I was beat and abused. By the age of sixteen I was bought sold and traded too many times to count, and found myself thrown into a Gladiator ring, where I was trained through brute force, how to use crossbow by one of the Shadar-kai, the people who murdered my mother and father.
There was no room for emotion here. You could not be upset or be happy. You simply existed and accepted that tonight might be your final night. The amount of abuse I suffered at the hands of the Shadar-kai had broken any hope I had in me.
Because I was a female Aasimir they assumed I could not fight, so they focused on teaching me how to use a crossbow so that I could be a marksman from a distance. I learned to channel the magic that was in my veins – I wondered, as I discovered this new ability in me – is that the bloodline that my mother feared? I had thought, once I learned I was an Aasimir that that had been what she had meant… but this magic in me that coursed through my veins… it came from somewhere else. It was ancient, but certainly not angelic.
The life of a Gladiator was typically a short one. It simply took a bad day, one small mistake, and your “career” was over – resulting in death. Somehow, I had thrived as a Gladiator, bringing great attention and reward to my Shadar-kai master, Kayjun’tar.
After what I assume to roughly be a year of this, Kayjun’tar told me that I had one final fight left. He had earned so much money and attention that he no longer needed me, and that if I could win this final fight, it would mean my freedom.
What Kayjun’tar did not tell me was that the people I would be fighting in the ring would all be against me, and I would have no one on my side. The odds were stacked against me and I realized, what he had meant by “earning my freedom” was not intended as to go free but to meet an honorable death.
When the combat had started, the other five were slowly approaching me. They knew that my advantage was distance since I focused primary in the other gladiator combat tournaments using a crossbow. What some of them did not know was the magic that coursed in my veins that seemed to be surging stronger than ever before. I closed my eyes and smiled. When my eyes flew open again they burned with white light and wings sprouted from my back made of light and energy.
Light. Something that was not common in the Shadowfell and it surprised the attackers as much as it had the onlookers or even my keeper, Kayjun’tar. Gliding into the air, I unleashed a bolt of black magic that struck two of my opponents down. Two well placed crossbow bolts to the eyes of two others dropped them down. As I slowly landed back on the ground, the one in the middle, flanked by four of his dead comrades stared at me. With murderous intent he charged forward and I waited for the last minute to step aside as he thrust his sword carelessly forward and with the full might of my strength brought my fist directly into his throat using his own momentum to crush it so that he collapsed to the ground and died a slow and painful death.
The crowd was stunned in silence.
The gate opened and I expected another army of gladiators to rush into the ring, more prepared than the last, to put an end to me. Instead, a woman adorned in black armor with a red raven on his chest entered the gladiator ring.
I immediately dropped to one knee, as I recognized her immediately as Teenar Un’thrull, the High Cleric of the Raven Queen. She, like the others, was one of the Shadar-kai. She came to stand in front of me, and her hollow voice whispered, “Rise, Aasimir.”
I left my crossbow on the ground and rose to my feet. “You slayed five of the Raven Queen’s men,” she said, her voice void of any emotion. “You were supposed to die tonight, Aasimir. You bring great shame to Kayjun’tar, your master.”
An odd silence hung between us for several minutes before she finally said, “The Raven Queen is pleased with your performance tonight. Come child, kiss the lips of the Raven Queen’s Chosen, and know her gift.”
Oddly, I placed my lips to Teenar’s on mine and felt a sting in my mouth. I stepped back shocked, expected that I had been poisoned. Instead I felt more energy and magic coursing through me. “The Raven Queen has a mission for you, Shir Ko'ev. It would seem an ancient weapon from an old enemy of the Raven Queen has resurfaced. The Raven Queen seeks to get it before it falls into the hands of her enemy once again. Nev Van’shir, an ancient vampire turned by Strahd Von Zarovich was given a blade called Bloodthirst, which allows Strahd to constantly be fed, so long as the blade tastes blood. The Raven Queen would like this weapon, so that we can reverse its magic, and see if there might be a way to killed Strahd. Several wizards will be escorting you back to the Prime Material Plane. Find this dagger and call upon us when the blade has been recovered…”