My Life Story
If you care, I'll tell you my story.
It isn't long, because I don't recall as much as I would wish. I am an Elf of Amani blood, and I was born in the year Loa Elenaro 554, as it is known to the Quentari Elves. To human reckoning, I was born in the year 444 E.R. (Evendarr Reckoning). Thus I am 159 years old as of the year 603 E.R. For one who has lived for almost three human lifetimes, or almost eight orcish lifetimes I do not recall as much as I wish I did. I know when my memory was wounded, and I hope to regain my full recollection one day soon.
I know I was born in the Ash Forest, in the Duchy of Ashbury in the Kingdom of Evendarr. I was raised by my parents, Lilania and Veran Icerider, and had a blissful and idyllic childhood. It was a proper elven upbringing, learning to appreciate life, nature and the arts. I tried to learn foreign languages, and learned at least the basic rudiments of Dark Elven and Goblin (a.k.a. Rotarian), I have tried to learn the ancestral tongue of the Elves, but I was never blessed with the gift learning much of the ancient tongue of my folk. I spent decades learning each tree and trail of my home. My father was a Wizard of both celestial and Earth Magic, and my mother was a warrior and skilled alchemist. As I approached my hundredth birthday and my coming-of-age I realized I would have to start preparing for a productive life. I could not spend centuries simply whiling away the time in the Amani, I would need to do something for the good of my people.
I spent twenty years learning the basics of Celestial magic from my father. He taught me the signs of the stars and the runes of magic by heart, I can remember the day I actually was able to successfully call upon energy the first time, as I cast my very first Magic Missile during a hunt. I brought down a rabbit, which made a very fine meal that night. I listened to lessons about alchemy and about anatomy and healing, but there was only so much one could learn at a time. Traditional elven education takes advantage of our lifespan. It seems wasteful to the human eye to spend years teaching simple subjects, but with the luxury of a lifespan of ten common humans, we can learn more elegant ways to do things. If you take 20 days to learn magic, you can cast a spell, if you take 20 years to learn magic, you understand magic, you feel at unity with the energy. There are not words in the common tongue for the affinity a properly trained Elven magi feels with his spells.
I spent the next decade and a half learning from my mother. While she preferred to wield a curved blade and carry a shield crafted from the shell of a giant beetle, I learned the use of a more prosaic weapon. After only 15 years of teaching I had learned to wield the longblade in one hand, and cast spells with the other. It was the style of sword and spell that I was raised.
It was in this time I started to develop my interest in mapmaking. While my father dabbled in Cartography, it was one of my village elders who really sparked my interest. He was many centuries old and had a veteran of several of the mapmaking expeditions that helped to define the very shape of the known world. I spent many afternoons in his house, watching and learning from him the cartographer's trade. I treated it as just a childhood interest, one of many passing fancies that occur during my long youth. It wouldn't be until later, when I was wandering the world I would come to truly respect the value of a good map and decided to take it upon myself to update the ancient maps and help fellow travelers with accurate and updated maps.
I thought I would be able to spend the rest of my life living in the bliss that is the Amani. I spent many years hunting in the Amani for our villiage, felling small game with spells and chasing away bandits and trespassers with my blade. I lived as a young adult in the Amani for 19 years, becoming a recognized adult among my people and wondered if I would ever see what lied beyond the bounds of my home forest. I had given thought of asking leave of my elders and parents to see the the rest of the world. What lay outside the confines of our forest, in the surrounding Duchy, or even beyond the boundaries of Ashbury? However, fate is seems, granted that wish in a most horrible fashion.
In the year 598 E.R. the Sessuar Imperium once again invaded the continent of Avalon. These invaders from across the sea had invaded once before, in 592, but were quickly repulsed. However, this time they returned with a vengeance. An entire armada landed on the shores of Ashbury, and before we were able to marshal a proper response, they had swarmed throughout the Duchy. I was there when they invaded the Ash Forest. I saw their armies sweeping through, relentless and unstoppable. We erected boundaries of magic and fortifications of wood, only to see them unmade or burned. Many Amani fought bravely in those dark, dark days. I saw my parents die many times, including their final times, during those horrible wars. We didn't give them a single inch of the forest, they took it by force. I ended up being one of the last survivors of my group, defending an outpost near the edge of the forest and border of the Duchy. Most of the more experienced warriors had been already chased away, or killed, and I was part of a last stand of Elves and humans to protect our homeland. I was commanding a group of children and peasants, the only remaining defenders, to try and repel the invaders. Then through the slit in our fortress I saw a huge siege-engine move into place. We had been able to repel smaller attacks, but the stone that the catapult would throw we couldn't repel. The stone crashed through our walls, and broke a structural support of our tower. We tried to run as we heard the creaking, but it was too late. The entire tower collapsed around me and everything went dark.
I don't know what happened after that. I don't know if I was enslaved by the Sessuar and managed to escape, or if I somehow crawled out of the wreckage and ran for my life. I know I did not resurrect that day, and I thank the elements and fortunes for that. I came to my senses several hundred miles from Ashbury. I awakened with a headache and not much else alongside a major road on the western edge of Myrr, near the border with Emuria. All I had was a simple longblade that I did not recognize as my own, a mostly empty spellbook with a few spells written in someone else's handwriting, and a few silver pieces. Knowing that the Sarr were never too friendly with Celestial Magic, and I was never comfortable around the Necromancy they used so casually, I took my chances with this strange new kingdom I had only heard vague mentions of in the past. I do not know why I wasn't stopped at the border, given the strictness of old Emuria, I can only presume that somebody who came before bribed the guards to leave their post, or that their guards were not as vigilant as they liked to assert.
As I walked along the path, knowing little of what had happened to me, but from the time of year I realized I had lost several months of my life. I didn't know what happened, but I presume that something very important happened in those missing months. As I was walking along this road, I met seven companions. While many have since retired from adventuring, the wizard Ryric still travels and is known by many, and the Earth Wizard Alumbra Decor (later Alumbra Dogrumi after she remarried) traveled around until fairly recently. The last I heard she succumbed to anger and bitterness and retired to an island on the edge of the Dragon Isles, she had never been quite the same after the Elemental Lord of Fear warped her mind and she pledged herself to his service. I haven't seen Akara in many months, but I wouldn't be so bold as to say I'll never see her again, she was always good at appearing when you least expected her.
You may be wondering why I only wield a silver dagger now, instead of the longblade of my youth. That is simple. Very early in my adventuring life, I learned more about the world around me and saw what my destiny had become, the more I realized what my true calling was. I sought the assistance of a Earth Wizard for the ritual of Spirit Forge. Thus I was able to focus more upon magic and less upon swordplay. I have been in many adventures since then, and those are stories for another day. . .