Zaen Najafi
As thunder bellowed, Zaen tossed and turned inside his small cottage, disturbed not by the howling winds and rain that rattled his shutters but by the vision within his dreams. He watched his uncle Jabbar fall to his knees as a Vulkyrie Javelin impaled him through the shoulder. The pain of that strike sent a shudder of pain through Zaen as surely as if it was he who suffered it, assuring him this was another vision of the present, not the past.
The look of rage and hopelessness that came over Jabbar, staring up at that hated winged Vulkyrie hovering over him was heartbreaking. Zaen understood these were his uncles final moments, though he could not comprehend the fullness of the scene or the context of the situation at hand. What he saw were only flashes, glimpses of battle through a fog, or indeed in this case, a storm.
Zaen felt himself whispering the same prayer Jabbar did before the lightning strike fell the Vulkyrie in Ishvars name. The fall of the creatures smoking, ruined corpse unto the muddied streets was the last thing he witnessed before everything faded to black. An instant later his own eyes snapped open already welling with tears.
All his life Zaen had been visted by visions of events of past and present, but not like this. Zaen sat up in his cot, gasping for breath through sobs all at once overwhelmed with grief in a cold sweat. Zaen had a close relationship with his uncle. Even if Zaen had no desire to be a smuggler, they were like minded about that fact that rule by the Vul was something they both hated, but largely tolerated when there was worse to worry about.
Zaen remembered the story behind Jabbar's scar and how close he came to death by a Vulkyries javelin once before in the alleyways of Masaeus. That javelin allowed him to escape a greater evil than the Vulkyrie. This time, it gave that same evil a better chance to survive. Like two sides of the same coin, fate played cruel tricks.
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Death-by-Vulkyrie was something every Najafi feared everyday of their lives. Ever since the hated Vul seized the Summaran throne through trickery and deceit the Najafi family swore to overthrow them by any means possible. Yet despite their best efforts, the Vul have long since established themselves as the dominant power, naming the land the Kingdom of Vulkh after their own king nearly a thousand years ago.
In the many centuries since that awful turn of history, influential clerics, smugglers, bandit-lords and wealthy merchants of the extended Najafi family have secretly plotted together towards their fall, eventually dying for it as the Vulkyrie (or their network of informants & spies, the Vulfear) track them down and root them out.
The Najafi name is old and proud, bespoke of chieftains of a bygone era when the people of Summara were nomads, trading and warring with each other as tribal clans. Najafi's see themselves foremost as leaders, raised with a leaders detachment and willingness to sacrifice the few for the sake of the many.
Zaen's education and upbringing were no different. He was raised by the finest tutors, scholars and sages the family had at their disposal. These learned men recognized his dreams early on as something more than a child's fanciful imagination. They whispered of it as 'Ishvars blessing' and the family elders coaxed him to join the priesthood as one of the gifted hoping his influence would help turn the faithful into another weapon they could use against the Vul.
Zaen's mindset as one of the faithful however was exactly that, one of many. He did not consider himself special, gift or no gift. He believed every one of the faithful deserved the respect and guidance of the priesthood, as it was written in the holy text of the Ishvaran.
Unfortunately this attitude was not shared by the rest of his family who believed the cause mattered more than whoever had to die for it. Zaen was pressured to lead his own revolts in the name of Ishvar as soon as he was old enough to wield a sword and a spear. Zaen staunchly refused, suggesting instead that volunteers should be recruited who had no family to worry about if they were captured or killed.
In truth Zaen was more than willing to put his life on the line for the sake of the people, but only in their defense. Yes the Vul were tyrants as much as monsters, undeserving of fairness or mercy, but acts of violence encouraging their animosity would not bring justice or peace to the people. Whenever a successful Najafi plot managed to kill a Vul, many more innocents usually suffered for it.
After years of arguments about his future Zaen agreed to a compromise with his family. For now he would serve as a contact and an informant, nothing more. He would take no active part in any of their plans. He wished to be left alone to choose his own battles and lead his own life, much the way Jabbar did... or had.
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Zaen rose from his cot, pulling on his robes as the storm battered against his small cottage built on Cabardas central hill. Grief quickly shifted into concern as he considered what Jabbar's death might mean for the good townsfolk of Cabarda. What would the rest of the Vulkyrie do when they found one of their own in such a state? Death-by-lightning could be accidental, especially in a storm such as this... but Zaen knew how distrustful the Vulkyrie usually were about accidents.
Oftentimes the ambushes arranged by his family to lure Vulkyrie to their deaths were made to look like accidents, but rarely convincingly enough. The other Vulkyrie here would likely blame its death on some lawless spellcaster, or worse, a cleric! He'd seen that sort of rashness before. Vulkyrie were highly distrustful of spellcasters of any sort.
As a race the Vul had no deities of their own. They mocked and disrespected all religions, only tolerating them so long as they were spoken too and regarded as equals to the many gods their subjects worshiped. Zaen saw this sort of blaspheme many times in his travels. It was a bitter thing to tolerate, but easier than watching what the Vulkyrie would do if they felt disrespected.
Zaen wondered why Jabbar found himself on the street on a night like this? Like himself, Jabbar wasn't willing to dedicate his life to plots against the Vul. The good people of Vulkh had other enemies to contend with, enemies within who thrived on the culture of corruption and disparity the Vul prospered from. Enemies without who gathered strength while the Vul ruled oblivious in their arrogance.
Jabbar didn't get into much detail with Zaen about the evils that almost killed him in Masaeus. Zaen always figured he was trying to do him a favor by not letting him get involved, but he'd heard enough in his time away from the family to have an idea. There was another evil spreading through the land that was far more insidious and calculating than the Vul. An evil that Jabbar warned the family about on several occasions.
Zaen heard about those efforts to sway the Najafi family elders. As expected the answer was always the same. 'First we defeat the Vul, unite the people and restore the Kingdom of Summara. Together the people can defeat any enemy. Help us do that so we can help you.'
Zaen hated the Vul as much as anyone. In this moment in fact. as his hands balled into fists, he felt like he hated them most of all! He also felt like the elders were wrong about something very important. What they should have said was. 'First you unite the people. Together the people can defeat any enemy. Period.'
Thanks to Ishvar's vision Zaen was sure of one thing. Jabbar was thinking of him when he died, hoping he would carry on where he left off.
