Kaodi
Hero
So this is a rough background for Silvi. It could probably be a little more specific, and it might be a bit generic, but hopefully I can develop it more through play.
Background: The gnomish city of Brastlework is renowned for its endless variety, consciously engineered to counteract the tragic condition of the gnomes known as "the Bleaching" . This was the home of the Sullenwhithers, yet the members of the family were well known for Bleaching sometimes even before they began reaching for their middle ages. Members of the Sullenwhithers have often done their best to avoid their fate, none with much success, though some have managed to reach the natural end of their lives as bleachlings.
This was the family that Silvi was born into, and the prospect of Bleaching terrified her. She did not have many friends growing up in Brastlewark, as many regarded her family as practically cursed. She did not have much hope for her future. But then a curious thing happened in her adolescence. On a day she was feeling particularly down, suddenly a figure approached from behind and sat down beside her on the stone steps of the street. It was a human woman, an Iobarian with long, flowing black hair, and she was wearing a heavy looking amulet of Desna around her neck.
The woman asked the young Silvi why she was sad, and Silvi explained her predicament and feelings. The woman then explained that she had been promised by her parents to a man, a lord or warlord of some kind, when she was young. She had no desire to be married to him and so she ran away. And when the man's vassals found her, she ran again, and then again after that, and again after that. In fact, she still had to keep her eyes open because once in a while someone would try to grab her and take her back to those northern lands again, though it was less frequent than it had once been.
The woman said that years ago that she had learned that she could not put all of her dreams on hold because she was afraid of what might come one day. She had to live in the meantime. As she took her amulet from around her neck, she said that when she had seen Silvi she had felt something deep in her saying that this gnomish girl needed something from her. Maybe Desna, the Great Dreamer, could help Silvi the way she had been helped during these last years. She put her amulet in Silvi's hands and said she hoped the gnome would find her someday when she was older, somewhere far away from Brastlewark, happy and healthy.
Life after that was different, though it was hard to explain why at first. Desna was, of course, a well respected deity among gnomes, even if they sometimes kept their admiration muted due to the official Chelaxian religion of diabolicism. But that personal connection she had made meant something, and from a stranger who did not care about the Sullenwhither's "curse" . In time Silvi joined the church of Desna, but it was not in Brastlewark. She left home to find more of herself, she learned more of the power of dreams, and she began to see that perhaps dreams might hold the secret to overcoming the Bleaching. And just as she had been shown this path, she sought out other people in need in her travels. Recently this has brough her to Isger, relatively close to where she was born and grew up, and now she finds herself on a caravan bound for where was it? Almas? It did not really matter of course. It was the journey that gave her life.
This was the family that Silvi was born into, and the prospect of Bleaching terrified her. She did not have many friends growing up in Brastlewark, as many regarded her family as practically cursed. She did not have much hope for her future. But then a curious thing happened in her adolescence. On a day she was feeling particularly down, suddenly a figure approached from behind and sat down beside her on the stone steps of the street. It was a human woman, an Iobarian with long, flowing black hair, and she was wearing a heavy looking amulet of Desna around her neck.
The woman asked the young Silvi why she was sad, and Silvi explained her predicament and feelings. The woman then explained that she had been promised by her parents to a man, a lord or warlord of some kind, when she was young. She had no desire to be married to him and so she ran away. And when the man's vassals found her, she ran again, and then again after that, and again after that. In fact, she still had to keep her eyes open because once in a while someone would try to grab her and take her back to those northern lands again, though it was less frequent than it had once been.
The woman said that years ago that she had learned that she could not put all of her dreams on hold because she was afraid of what might come one day. She had to live in the meantime. As she took her amulet from around her neck, she said that when she had seen Silvi she had felt something deep in her saying that this gnomish girl needed something from her. Maybe Desna, the Great Dreamer, could help Silvi the way she had been helped during these last years. She put her amulet in Silvi's hands and said she hoped the gnome would find her someday when she was older, somewhere far away from Brastlewark, happy and healthy.
Life after that was different, though it was hard to explain why at first. Desna was, of course, a well respected deity among gnomes, even if they sometimes kept their admiration muted due to the official Chelaxian religion of diabolicism. But that personal connection she had made meant something, and from a stranger who did not care about the Sullenwhither's "curse" . In time Silvi joined the church of Desna, but it was not in Brastlewark. She left home to find more of herself, she learned more of the power of dreams, and she began to see that perhaps dreams might hold the secret to overcoming the Bleaching. And just as she had been shown this path, she sought out other people in need in her travels. Recently this has brough her to Isger, relatively close to where she was born and grew up, and now she finds herself on a caravan bound for where was it? Almas? It did not really matter of course. It was the journey that gave her life.
