The Shillien Empire

My father never told me much about my mother. We came to the village when I was still a baby. We used to live in a small house in a nearby forest, often wandering around. It was my father who taught me the basics of healing. He said I am a descendant of an old healer family and it would be shame for me to not know anything about it. Others from the village often said I'm rather too kind and blamed my father for spoiling me but he never took them seriously. When I asked him why, he told me: "I don't think that being a bit different is something wrong. You are like a flowing river my child. Always changing, always finding your way, always able to surprise. Others might slow you down but they won't be able to stop you. Your kindness might bring you greater destiny than you ever dreamed of."
One day I was playing near swamp when I saw something in the grass. When I came closer I found out it is a person. It looked like a girl but she was very tiny and somehow... Strange. (Later I found out she is dwarf.) I felt pity for her so I tried my rather poor healing skills to see if I could help her. To my greatest surprise she really did regained consciousness and although she was still weak, she was no longer on the brink of death.
Her name was Aimy and she was looking for something one of her ancestors hid somewhere around these parts. I knew it would have grave consequences if someone from the village found her here, yet I took her somewhere safer where she could recover. Aimy and I became friends and I helped her with her search.
Some time after she finally found what she was looking for and left dark elven territories, one of the village patrols came to our house. He said they found two sets of footprints in the forest, one belonging to me, one to some intruder. They wanted me to tell them anything I knew about it. I knew Aimy meant no harm for the village but no one would listen to a small child, so I decided to lie. When I said I was just wondering where those footprints lead but didn't found anyone, I doubt he trusted me. However, my father intervened and said that I'm just a child and there is no way I would be silent if I know about any threat to the village.
When he left, my father began to laugh. "I just tried to imagine how could that dwarven kid mean any menace to dark elves. If she would be fighting with a keltir, I would bet on that keltir's victory. Don't give me that look, of course I know about her, do you really think I would be letting you wander around alone without checking on you from time to time? Jizera, you are my only child.
However, now that I know you are old enough to keep a secret, it seems it's finally time for you to know the truth about your mother. Just give me few days, then I'll tell you everything... And you'll understand."
I was so excited that I'll finally know more about my mother that what happened the next day was even worse for me.
I woke up in the night hearing strange noise from my father's room. I came there and saw him fighting with a strange men... Losing. Few second later that strange men managed to stab my father to the heart. I was shocked. My father was dying right before my eyes yet I was not able to do anything. Eyes of the killer slowly turned to me. I was frozen on the place with fear. My only thought was and now I'm gonna die too. There was no way I could win if my father lost...
What happened next was too quick for me to comprehend. I've heard an unfamiliar female voice casting a fast spell from the front door. That strange man stopped as if he suddenly fall asleep. The newcomer, woman completely covered in a long cape, grabbed my hand and yelled to me: "Jizera, quickly, we must go, we don't have much time, that spell will only work for a while." She began to chant another spell and before I realized what was going on, I was standing right in the middle of the village. That woman was nowhere in the sight.
I ran to the temple, as it was the only building opened at that time, and told them what happened. They sent some guards to our house but they could only retrieve my father's body. Since that time, I remained in the temple. I continued to study to be a healer as my father always wished. Later they told me I was orphan from the very beginning and my father wanted to raise me because he was not able to save my mother. For some reason I can't believe it. After all, if he didn't knew anything about my mother as they told me, why would he tell me I'm from an old healer family when both his parents were merchants?
Now I'm adult. I plan to leave the village because there are so many questions for which they have no answers here in the temple. Who really was my mother? What was it my father wanted to tell me? Why was he killed and who killed him? And who was that mysterious woman who saved me? Could she be... Than why is she hiding?

For an orphan who grew up in the temple, the world looks like huge and dangerous place. Luckily with my healing abilities it was not that difficult to find some company. I've joined some adventures on their missions to travel away from dark elven territories, as the only thing I could find out about my mother here was that my father met her on his journey across Aden. My father mentioned he studied to be a healer in a town called Oren, so I wanted to get there. However, I was not able to find anyone traveling in that direction and I was too scared to travel alone without even knowing the right route, so I decided to join people traveling to Gludio and start my investigation there, as I was not able to find any better option at the moment.
When I arrived there, I was really confused at first. It was so crowded! And such strange people lived there! Fortunately I found the dark elven guild almost immediately as it was close to the town gate I arrived to. Magister Sidra was so kind to tell me a bit about this place. With her help I was able to distinguish other races one from another. Dwarves were not really new for me but I've never seen humans or orcs before. As for light elves... I've realized that the person who killed my father must have been one of those, as he looked exactly like the ones I met here. I tried to avoid them as much as possible. However, when I asked Sidra if she knew my father, she seemed to be somewhat angered. She refused to tell me anything else than that no dark elf is truly aware of what he was doing on his journey, only that he worked mostly for humans. Than she changed topic and said that if I want to further improve my healing abilities, she knows a person who can help me with that and mentioned I should go meet magister Talbot in Gludin village.
I was again able to join someone to get there but it felt strange to travel with other races. To my greatest surprise I was able to meet there someone I knew. That dwarven girl I saved back in the Dark forest was searching for some other clue here. She surely changed a lot. She was now wearing proper armor and had some hammer so that she wouldn't be so easily defeated. We talked a bit and it reminded me of the times I was still a happy child living with its father. I told her what happened and that I want to find out the truth about my parents and she offered me to travel with her, since we both need to travel a lot and have no idea where we will be able to find something. We made a deal that I will do my best to keep her alive and in exchange she will make sure we have enough money for our journey.

Traveling with Aimy is sometimes more dangerous than traveling alone but other than that it is fun. We explored most of southern towns and villages and even visited Talking Island. However, to reach Oren, which is near borders with Elmore, we would have to cross so called Death Pass, place filled with dangerous monsters. For that we are still rather poorly equiped and not experienced enough, thus we decided to wait. Meanwhile we were collecting any information that might be useful and resources to earn some money.
One day we were collecting valuable materials from spiders north of Gludio, while suddenly an unknown dwarf with twisted look in his face attacked us. He was strong and unwilling to speak with us, thus we rather run away. We were near borders of dark elven territories where I know it quite well, so I took us to entrance of old necropolis. We lost him on our way so I asked Aimy to rest there for a while.
At first I thought there isn't anyone else here, so I was a bit shocked when an unknown dark elven man approached us. Although he was rather surprised when I said Aimy is my friend and not my slave, he seemed to be friendly, at least compared to that mad dwarf we met earlier. His name was Grazzt and according to his armor and with his sword and shield, he looked like a young knight. Shortly after meeting him we noticed some more people around. Two dark elven brothers met there and I've overheard one of them is bringing the other one news about destruction of their village. Their names were Fethrane and Sanvis, they were also young and from their daggers, not hidden as well as they though, I would guess they are beginning assasins or something similar to that. Two more people joined us there, and this time it was even stranger as they were both human. First one seemed to be there purely by accident. He said he lost his memories and his weapon. He was really confused, saying he is looking for only truth, yet he probably got eaten by forest animals or something not long after meeting us. Last one was mage called Gabriel, even though he prefers his nickname "New Horizon." He came to learn more about dark elves and our magic.
Grazzt said this is no coincidence so many people met at such unlikely place and that he got a vision from our Goddess. He asked us to join him and free our Goddess from her prison. To me he looked kind of fanatic, yet who am I to stand agains will of our great mother Shillien? My only objection was that no one will try to hurt Aimy, as they intended to sacrifice her to our Goddess to celebrate creation of the Shillien Empire. Dark elves or not, they are still strangers to me, while Aimy is someone I know for a long time.

Few days after we joined the Shillien Empire, Aimy handed me a fine leather armor.
"If you'd believe that merchant, it is made of manticore skin."
It was far better than her own but she said she will be able to find some better armor for her soon enough too. It felt nice, even if it was not that comfortable as my old robes, I was still able to perform any necessary healing easily enough and it somewhat protected me from dangerous monsters we were often facing. Thanks to it I was also not that scared to meet our new fanatic friends again.
Due to some new people wanted to join our order we had to visit Great Hierarch Thifiell for official recognition. Two of those newcomers were young oracles, Idemona and Injuvlik, third was not so young warrior called Hrube.
When we came to the village, Grazzt decided only dark elves should enter the temple. Hrube said he might be persecuted too if he tries to enter and decided to wait outside. It felt like a really bad idea to leave Aimy, Gabriel and Hrube alone in front of temple so I decided to stay with them so they won't get into any trouble.
Later we went to celebrate and decided we should share our stories...

Anyone who just look at us might wonder why is group of such different people sticking together...

Aimy, dwarf who lost her parents and is searching for family treasure...
Fethrane and Sanvis, dark elven brothers who grew up in a village unaware of magic that was destroyed by harpies...
Gabriel aka New Horizons, human mage who want to learn about dark elves...
Grazzt, dark elf who left his home despite his father's wish, met a light elf who claims to be his half sister and haven't found his father and brother again...
Hrube, dark elven warrior who was deceived by his own brothers that tried to get him killed and was rescued by a human hunter who lived in a forest...
Idemona, descendant of dark elven noble family who, after learning her sister and mother were turned into servitors, refused to continue tradition of phantom summoners and decided to become Shillien Elder...
Morfeus, orc who joined us while we were sharing our stories. He offered his magic as he want to learn from us... In order to never lose again...

However, no matter the reason, it is always better to have someone who will fight by your side.

Week after our introduction, Grazzt called all of us in order to find some place we could call home... We traveled from Gludio territory to east, until we finaly found suitable place near village of Giran castle. It has few houses surrounding a small fenced square and stables. There we decided it is time to start looking for rituals to wake up our Goddess and train ourself in fighting together. Our first destination was set to Forgotten Temple south of Gludin village but we postponed it to next week so we can prepare ourselves.
In the meantime, Aimy and I spend a lot of time around our new home. One day I noticed there is a small package on window of the house closest to stables. I came to check it and found out there is my name written on the package. It contained an old scroll and a small note: "You might find it interesting." I checked title of the scroll. It said: "History of the Midnight Wind" and was accompanied by a picture of a dark ship with sails in color of night sky...

Short summary of History of the Midnight Wind:

Many generation ago young dark elven nobleman decided to sell everything to travel the world. He decided to build the finest ship at that time. However, as it was hard to find full crew only among dark elves, he decided to hire other races too, for which he was disliked by many of his own kind. He couldn't care less: He was finally happy, exploring whole wonderful world. Before he died, he decided his ship should be inherited by his eldest daughter, which later decided it should be always inherited by firstborn child of previous owner. Even though Midnight Wind got many times almost destroyed, it was all the time repaired or rebuild to fit needs of current owner. Its purpose changed from generation to generation, their owners varying from explorers, diplomats, pilgrims, merchants to bounty hunters, warriors and even pirates. Most of the crew in later generations were descendant of previous crew members, although some people decided to leave and live on the land. As they grew up aside their own races, they never much cared about hatred that should be among them. They were happy bunch as they allowed to join only people that were free-willed enough not to care that they are joining multiracial crew.
They had only few rules:
Ship should be inherited to firstborn or next closest relative to that if it dies before previous owner.
All races in crew are equal, all outsiders are less important (with exception of next heir: even in case it is raised on land, it is still considered part of the crew).
Midnight Wind should never anchor in other harbors than its home one during the day.
Adding new parts to written history should be done by specific procedure and it is always work for the next heir.

Scroll consist of several types of handwriting and kinds of paper but they are so nicely connected it is almost impossible to notice.

Current owner grew up as shillien knight in Rune as the ship was broken since the night he was born. (His mother died aboard while giving birth to him during a thunderstorm and his father was too sad to repair it.) As an adult man he managed to repair it again, collect what remained from old crew and hire the rest to continue in family tradition. He is almost 500 years old at the moment and enjoy his retirement by trading with far lands (and possibly those that are restricted to trade with.)

While Aimy and I were coming to the entrance of Forgotten Temple, we noticed Grazzt talking to some unknown human mage. His name was Lerdan and he is mage from the Ivory tower who works as a mercenary. I have no idea what they were talking about before we arrived but for some reason it seems he is joining us too. It is good we have some new people, because not everyone is still with us...

I'm not surprised that we've never seen again that confused human who was with us at the beginning but we've also never seen Injuvlik again since the day he joined us. Hrube got missing not long after our introduction and last week Sanvis disappeared too. Fethrane said he couldn't care less about such weakling but still, he was one of us. Grazzt says we should investigate this and I agree, it is not good when so many people got missing all of sudden.

I suspect it may have something to do with those dirty light elves, especially after what happened when we entered the temple. While we were discussing whether we should first investigate Fire part or Water part, we were suddenly attacked. Before we could realize what is going on, powerful water spells knocked all of us unconscious. When we came to again, we were in the village of Gludin. Some adventurers saved us and also told us the person who attacked us was a light elf called Jabba. We agreed this act shouldn't remain unpunished and returned to the temple. This time we were prepared and managed to beat him with only small problems. We don't know his motives but Grazzt assumes he was send to stop us by our enemies.

We tried to further investigate the temple. However, we weren't lucky at all. Aimy said all treasures must have been already stolen by scavengers long time ago. Now the temple is only filled by spirits of water and fire and some remaining scavengers who still hope to find something.

Since our order is steadily growing, Grazzt told us it is time to appoint some people with roles.
Aimy was assigned with role of Warehouse Keeper. I've seen how her eyes started to shine when she mentioned she will clean it up right away. I only hope that by "cleaning" she doesn't mean make it empty. (Naaah, I trust her, she wouldn't do that.)
Gabriel was given the role of Knowledge Researcher. It is probably best to give this role to someone who already spent most of his life in library and of all such people he is the one we trust most. (Although I suspect him from using books as pillows.)
Idemona is now our Dark Spy. She will have to find and infiltrate our enemies.
I became Tome Scribe so our deeds will not be forgotten.
And finaly, Fethrane was entrusted with a role of Cardinal, which makes him second in command for our order.
To celebrate this occation, Aimy and Fethrane had a friendly fist fight. They would be probably fighting until now if Aimy wouldn't decided to give up, even though she seemed rather bored that tired. Than Fethrane had another duel, this time using his bow, against Lerdan and won this one two. Maybe Lerdan let him win in order to avoid spoiling his celebration, who knows. However, this magical moment didn't last for long. Light elven mage approached us. We were all prepared to start a fight, yet she said she want to join us. I still think we shloudn't trust her, she was obviously mocking us, but Grazzt said we will accept her if she pass a trial first. She is supposed to bring heads of five light elves to our next meeting. There she will also have to die and be reborn as follower of Shillien.
As we were discousing this matter, Gabriel recalled something other connected to light elves. Apparently some light elf female approached him, knowing he knows me, and asked him to tell me to go to Giran harbor next day. Others were worried that it might be an ambush and offered me to go there with me. I admit that it is strange but I have a feeling that is has something to do with the scroll I received earlier. And if there will really be Midnight Wind anchoring in Giran harbor tomorrow, there is no way I would refuse to go there. I need to know what is this all about.

As Aimy and I were preparing for possible upcoming fight (by browsing shops in Giran) Aimy said: "Maybe you should check that scroll for further information, because information from Gabriel was rather inaccurate."
"What further information do you mean?"
"Well, perhaps time when you should be there?"
"Possibly midnight... I think. Midnight Wind never anchors outside of Rune during day."
"That's too bad, there is not enough time to mobilize others. We will have to go alone."
I checked the sky to confirm the time and I realized she is right. We will have to depart soon in order to be there at midnight.
"I'm not afraid. If it really is connected with this scroll and Midnight Wind, I don't think they would hurt us. They had plenty of time to ambush us while we were alone, it makes no sense to go through such trouble as using Gabriel to deliver a message to lure us to harbor when we spend most time traveling just the two of us."
"Perhaps you are right but let's buy some more potions... Just to be safe."

As we were approaching Giran harbor, my eyes were searching dark water surface for signs of the ship.
"Careful!" Aimy suddenly yelled. I started to look for what is going on but in next second she just calmly added: "Oh, never mind, it was just a cat."
"Don't scare me like that."

We were almost at the harbor when I noticed strange lights near eastern wharf. When we came closer we realized it is indeed a dark ship.
"I assume you must be Jizera. And this little fellow is Aimy, right?"
Dark elven woman in dark armor came out of shadows.
"Our Captain would like to speak with you. He is waiting aboard. Follow me please." Without even awaiting our response or introducing herself, she took us to the Captain's cabin.
Captain was an old dark elf with silver hair and blue eyes that were staring at us in a way as he could see to the deepest parts of our souls. He was smiling to me, even before the woman who took us there told him: "She is here, uncle."

Captain thanked her and she left again without any word. He was kind to us, asked us to sit down and have a small chat with him. Little by little he revealed the truth I was seeking all that time: that he is father of my mother. He refused to talk about her but he offered me to join their crew on their trip to Avella. It was so tempting, yet I was not sure if I should... After all Aimy is still searching clues for her treasure and I have also responsibilities for the Shillien Empire. By some strange coincidence, Captain was very well aware of my struggle and offered that in exchange for my presence aboard of Midnight Wind, he will send his ship medic to do my work for Aimy and the order, so that he could spend some time with his only grandchild. I was concerned if it is a good idea since she was light elf but Captain told me not to worry, that she is more than capable and he would trust her with his life.

Torysa's notes:
These kids sure are funny, I have to give them that. They hide themselves behind religion but in fact they are only solving their personal grudge toward light elves, otherwise they wouldn't allow random killing without proper rituals. They seem to hate light elves yet they accepted one of them because she was able to kill five her kins. They don't have much enemies (yet) and still their leader wanted to have a personal BlackGuard and appointed that man, Hrube, to kill mentioned light elf so she could be reborn as a "child of Shilen." I doubt they know what are they even talking about. I'm glad we were able to safely get Jizera aboard. However, I think it wouldn't be wise to let her be with this group anymore. They don't trust me but who cares, this feeling is mutual anyway. I wonder if they even knows that followers of Eva are already trying to keep an eye on them. I might be able to cover them for a while but others will probably soon call for punishment of their crimes. The wind of change is blowing. I wonder what will it bring this time.

Torysa's notes:
I'm so jealous of everyone aboard the Midnight Wind. I know I've agreed with Captain that it would be better to let Jizera became part of the crew before knowing me and use that time to find out more about her friends. However, these kids are really crazy. Today we went to investigate disappearance of a guy called Sanvis. First of all we almost lost Grazzt because he was flirting with trader Tyra near spider nest. Than all the guys almost get mesmerized by succubi. We went to the School of Dark Arts to look for some more clues and lost Sanvis' brother, Fethrane. He was kidnapped by some summoner "by the order of hierarch because he was opposing Shilen." The same person who met Fethrane before? And at time Fethrane was already member of the Shillien Empire... Obviously this applied to everyone from Fethrane's village, even kids that had no idea they are considered heretics... Who are they kidding, this stinks as 200 years old unwashed orcish pants.
Grazzt and Hrube went to meet hierarch to ask him to release Fethrane and luckily they were successful. Fethrane had no idea what happened to him but other than that he seemed to be alright. Still, Grazzt was so willing to trust this Ruven person just because he said he is following orders from hierarch! I don't get that man, he should trust more his own people, they all pledged loyalty to Shilen!
In the end only one to openly oppose this situation was Hrube. He was so mad that I had to calm him so he won't go berserk. Hrube asked me to meet him in Gludin inn to further discuss what happened to him. He seems to be really shaken by all of this. Obviously he is not that fond of High Hierarch for his own reasons. Not like I blame him, Thifiell is no saint, even though in past years most of his orders are work of his advisers rather than his own.
Once again land proves to be more dangerous than sea. Intrigues and traitors seem to be at almost every corner. It all makes me miss the Midnight Wind even more.

Torysa's notes:
This babysitting thing becomes more and more interesting. Aimy was trying to bargain with some other dwarf so I let her there and I went to the inn in the Gludin harbor to meet with Hrube. However, who I met there first was not Hrube, but their Cardinal, Fethrane. I was not sure if it is a mere coincidence or not, so I decided to tell nothing about Hrube for time being. As it is kind of place you could expect me to be at during my free time, it wasn't that hard to come up with other reason why I am here. Hrube came a bit later, followed by Idemona. Why was their own Dark Spy tailing their Black Guard I rather do not wish to know. Hrube was terribly drunk, only in his underwear. He said he was drinking too much last night and was robbed. From the look on his face he was not expecting others to be here. However, after some time he decided to tell all of us what happened to him while he was missing. Obviously he was caught by his own brothers and tortured in order to gain information about the Shillien Empire. What bothers me is the fact that his brothers are also supposed to be under the orders of High Hierarch. Also those questions they were asking were disturbing. Hrube didn't remember any question about Jizera but he admitted to be unsure about it. Thankfully not even Jizera herself knew about her connection to the Midnight Wind at that time. If anyone knows about it... If anyone knows about her connection to me... She could never be able to set a foot on land ever again.
I wonder how much has Captain already told her. I know better than anyone else it is not easy think to accept but I don't want to be like my mother. Jizera deserves to know the truth.