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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Joey MacGuffin" data-source="post: 3613678" data-attributes="member: 53188">Okay...Flawless Background Elaboration Prana!I was Abarou, Most Auspicious Starwatcher, and this was my story.I was born exactly at midnight. This may not seem very relevant to you, as an outsider, but in the glorious city of Yane, the clocks towering above the auspiciously-aligned streets determine life from the very moment of birth. Midnight is the time auspicious for astrologers, as the stars are in full view and shining. And, indeed, the stars seemed to shine on me, with the astrologers predicting nothing but glory and success for me since the day of my birth. My parents, high-caste citizens proud of the traditions of Varang, sent me off to learn the Art of Astrology from a young age. I desired nothing more but to be what everyone wanted me to be, a great astrologer, a source of pride for my parents, and to fill my preordained place in society. I was a good student, learned eagerly and pleased my master. It was not easy, but I was content, I was doing what I should. Then, one of the happiest days of my life, I was given the Adept Degree of Astrology and released from my apprenticeship, to advise the highest of city nobility.The lord of Yane himself, encouraged by the good omens surrounding me, trusted me to predict when his daughter should travel south to Kriss to meet her husband-to-be. Honored with this assignment, I passed whole weeks sleepless, studying the stars and elaborating complicated charts. I took everything into account, missed no detail, of that I am sure... or maybe the clouds of memory are embelleshing the situation. Nevertheless, I was sure that if she left on the first week of Ascending Earth her voyage would be swift and no harm would come to her. I presented the lord with all the calendars that predicted this very outcome. I was certain, so very certain... which is why I was caught by surprise when the news of the lord's daughter's death reached me. She had died on the road, her caravan assaulted and annihilated. Yet it was not possible! The stars themselves had said otherwise! To this day, I still do not know how that young lady perished, and by now I am sure it will forever remain a mistery, but I do know it was that event that changed my life forever.I was cast out of the caste of astrologers, stripped of my wealth and position and even my family. I could either kill myself, which would have been the honorable thing to do, or I could live on the edges of society as a worthless drone or petty criminal. I chose neither of those options. Instead, filled with stubbornness and frustration, I wandered South, to try and learn how it came to be that my Art failed me. I never did unravel that enigma, but I met outsiders on the road, who taught me how to survive in the wilderness, how to use a bow to hunt or defend myself and, most of all, they taught me that things could be achieved through will and perseverance, not only through preordained fate. So I continued travelling South, and I started using what I knew of magic to help people, and make a living. At first it was mainly with outsiders, but in time even other Varangians approached me, in my grey and black clothes of an outcast, and asked me for help with spirits, elementals and ghosts. I learned to deal with these fickle beings, and though it did not earn me much respect, it earned me enough to eat, and a sort of small legend. After all, no caste in Varang was dedicated to dealing with spirits in the way I did, so I filled an empty niche.For many reasons, I never settled down, but kept travelling South until the savannah turned to desert and towns were farther and farther between. These were dangerous lands, but here people required my help more urgently, and that meant that I was more readily accepted by them. It had its dangers, but I always survived, if not victorious, at least with my skin. Until the storm, which came in the form of unnatural, glittering sand, made of ruby and emerald dust and bringing scents of spices unknown in Creation. The Wyld took me then, and it would be many years until I completely escaped its taint. I know I continued working as a diplomat between humans and spirits, but many of the former were the mad Fae instead of the comparatively predictable gods. I recall finding a beast, a crimson Austrech, in a field of white feathers bloodied by the remnants of a great battle. I fed it a pint of my blood and it has followed me ever since, a loyal, if disturbing, companion. I recall the barbarians, the dune people, and forests made of glass which bore fruits made of precious gems that would turn you to a statue if you ate them. I remember many images, blurry and distorted as if an age had passed since, and maybe it has. The Wyld does strange things to time and memory, and I am quite sure I am younger than I should be, knowing as I do the date of my birth, and the stories that are still told about me in Varang. Why am I not mutated beyond all recognition is beyond my ken, maybe my story was strange enough for the tainted lands to accept me as I was, but I came out of the Wyld with a new name and a new identity, and on a path to break my own destiny.That path started to reach it's end when Forhali, Mane of Brass and Gold, broke an oath. He had vowed to listen to me represent a nearby village. I was trying to save the townsfolk from his pride's depredations by offering a tribute. However, the Pacherenai know no mercy, or anything but contempt for humanity, and they trapped me, surrounded me, and prepared to hunt me down through the endless plains. This is when she appeared. A woman of the East, her hair the color of leaves in autumn, features I had never seen before in all my troubles and yellow eyes in which stars shone. Such beautiful eyes, too. She tried to save me, and she was mighty in the ways of combat and with many magics I had never seen before, an aura of the purest saffron and the sign of Mercury. She fought with valor, but she could not match the fae's rage; so she ran with great speed, but could not match the lion's leaps; so we stood before them, back to back, a simple bow in my hands, but a great desire in my heart. I wanted to save her. I had always been content with my fate, had always believed all that happened to me was ordained. I would've died that day without putting up much of a fight, I could tell my time had come, that my story was at an end. But I could not bear to see her come to harm, whoever she was. She had fought to save me, an outcaste who deserved nothing.And she had the most beautiful eyes...And so, the sun darkened in midday, and then lit up again upon my brow, and while a ghostly halo surrounded the eclipse above, I shot three cataphracts between the eyes and rode Bloodfeather far from the plains, the blessing of the Unconquered Sun and Mercury speeding our way. She introduced herself as Jade and Copper Leaf Inauspicious, a Sidereal Chosen of Journeys... and she told me of the history of the world, and my place in it. We spent many nights together and many days fighting side by side and, in time, our fates became deeply entwined, though we both knew great ruin would surely stem from this. Hope seemed cheap those days, and I vowed that Heaven would make a place for Solars among its midst and in Creation, and she promised to help me however she could. She brought me Breath of Suns, a bow of gold purer than gold itself, and news from the heavenly city of Yu-Shan. Every day she is not by my side I pray for her safety, and to see her again soon. I have long forgotten how to draw fates from them, but I look at the stars and think of her, and hope she is not discovered.I am Fifth Bodhisattva of Lost Heaven, and this is my story.</blockquote>

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