[center][h3]Auriëlle[/h3][/center]
Her whole live Auriëlle was told she would achieve greatness. Family and blood meant a lot in Acadia. Even from before she was born, the priests claimed she was destined for greatness. Her father’s bloodline could be traced back to the few mighty warriors that stood with the Flameweaver herself. Their family history is drenched in Iskrill blood. Every boy born in that family is destined to one day die and be buried with the bones and skulls of their vanquished foes. On her mother’s side the blood of Simain herself coursed through their veins.

By all portents, believes and laws of Acadia, Auriëlle should have become the most talented and powerful mage of her generation. The one of whom bards would sing songs until the end of times. She would be blessed by Cadien with unrivaled beauty and by Aurius with endless magical prowess. In secret, crusaders were already being palnned with her at the spear’s tip long before she was born. The Iskrill would burn. All of them and the vile land of the Abberant would burn with them. Her name would be known from the sun touched plains to the far east to the massive mountains in the south.

In the end, she turned out to be a huge disappointment. Auriëlle did not make fire or cast magic at a young age. The anticipation began to crumble when she showed no aptitude for her ancestor’s spells. In fact, she even lacked the fighting spirit that came with the fierce blood of both her parents. Instead she preferred to spend her time laying in the grass and look up to the sky.

Time moved on. Even though she had shown no talent for magic, she was still to be trained as a mage. For a while at least. Acadia had no patience for lackluster results though. At an embarrassingly young age Auriëlle’s training stopped and she was deemed unsuited as a mage. Her parents, ashamed, could not risk her to be seen in the public too much. They hired tutors to learn her the details of writing. It crumbled the last bits of her own confidence. At age twenty now, Auriëlle’s entire life could be found on her scribe desk. Being a scribe so young was terrible. She wasn’t copying the epic poems or the knowledge of spells. She was just adding up and archiving how many sheep were born and slaughtered each year.

At night she felt so bad that she just couldn’t go to sleep. Her dreams would confront her with her own failure, again and again. So instead she trekked up the hill, towards the sacred grove. A place where all other mages would train during the day. It wasn’t too far away from the city but she had to evade the estate where the soon-to-be mages resided before they would take their final test: to kill a wolf. She hated that estate. She hated it so much she wanted to burn it all. Because getting kicked out had made her the black sheep to her age-mates. Every girl that could fling fire like it was a stone began to laugh in her face whenever they saw her out in the market. Auriëlle tried to turn the other cheek and not let it get to her. But there was only so much laughter she could take until it began to chip away at her.

So now she was going to show all of them. Several stone rings were spread around the clearing. They were filled with hay and wood to light up. Everything else was black of the fire that burned so often in this place. From the grove on the hill you could clearly see Acadia off in the distance. It looked beautiful but every night she crawled up so high, she began to doubt if she could call it home. Sadly there was nowhere else to be for. So she put her bag down and pulled out the clay tablet detailing the immolation spell. It was a trusted, constant if not vexing friend in these trying times. For half a year she had trudged up the hill to practice it. To no avail. Yet she pushed on. It should’ve been a simple spell: just three small hand signs. Yet she just could light a flame.

[center]~[/center]
Through the winds of magic, Qael’Naath had been observing Acadia for some time now. Their mages were gifted. Especially with fire, though they never limited themselves to just that. Which gained his admiration. Magic in the other cities was used, yes, but never to a scale as here. It deserved encouragement. From high up, he had observed how the aspirants trained their magic in a clearing near a creek. At night it was abandoned. Giving him the perfect opportunity to bestow his gift and slip back into the endlessly shifting colors in the skies. The Winds flew until they were over the clearing. To its magical senses, there was no-one there. The obelisk began to take shape amid the gaseous form. It was made of jet-black marble with white veins running through it. There were no other markings or runes. Slowly it descended from the heavens, until the last few meters. The fall dug it deep into the earth. Then he blessed it.
[center]~[/center]
Auriëlle barely saw the obelisk coming before it fell. The shockwave billowed up dust and earth, which coated her entire dress. When it all settled she cursed and sunk to her knees. Great! Now her her dress was dirty also! She was on the edge of sobbing when a sudden sense of warmth overwhelmed her. The hollow pit in her stomach vanished. It was filled with something else, something overwhelming.

Then, the shades appeared. At first she only thought she saw them in the corners of her eyes. She turned around, but there was nothing there. She thought she heard footsteps behind her and turned again. Nothing but night. Something whispered. It moved just on the edges of what she could see. Then she turned again. There it stood. An Iskrill, or what looked like one at least. It looked like it was made of black forge smoke. It hissed at her. Auriëlle began to slowly back away as the shadowy creature approached her. Others appeared from the corner of her eyes. Some crouched down to approach here. How did they pass the guards? How did they get so close to Acadia!? Auriëlle didn’t want to know the answers, but her mind was already imagining the corpses of the guards. Blood and entrails everywhere. She would’ve puked if she wasn’t running. She hated all this violence, why couldn’t the Iskrill and humans just talk it out!?

Well she would’ve loved to ask that question to the shadowy monsters growling behind but that very growl told her that it would rather snack on her than talk. She just had to reach the estate down the hill. She could already see the lights of the hearths inside. It was close. They would save her! Then she tripped.

She fell down face first into the mud. Time felt as if it slowed down. In that split second a thousand thoughts coursed through her mind. She would die here. Away from everyone. Away from her mother, who she loved so much. Away from her grumpy father. She just wanted to say goodbye one more time. She closed her eyes, not so much to resign to her fate as to not have to watch whatever was following her. She just wanted it to be gone. She wanted those dark things to burn like they burned in the stories.

She felt nothing. Not a claw or the warmth of her blood. Did she die and go to heaven? Slowly she opened her eyes again. If it was heaven, it looked a lot more muddy than she thought it would. Auriëlle turned over and the shadowy things were gone. She got up again and looked around her, but then a shadowy figure appeared off in the distance again.

It was too much. “Just die! Burn!” She shouted with all the might in her lungs as tears coursed off her cheeks. She wasn’t sure if she shouted it at the monster before her or at herself. Probably both. At least one person’s wishes would be granted tonight. She closed her eyes again, ready to take the claws. Then she felt the sudden heat on her face. She opened her eyes to see the shadowy Iskrill trashing and screaming as fire just appeared on its body and consumed it entirely. Yet it made not a single sound. The fires raged higher and brighter for a moment, then vanished entirely. They didn’t even leave ash of the thing.

“Did I… do that?” She asked herself as she looked at her hands. They were dirty dirty but it didn’t matter. She turned towards the house again. Things began to move inside. She could see the torches coming outside.

She only felt hate. For years they bullied her, taunted her, embarrassed her. For a split second she really did want to burn down the entire estate. To take her vengeance. The second she thought it, she pushed it away. No! She didn’t want to do that but she couldn’t stay now. Not with the power she had now. 

Then her gut collapsed again. Did she really want to become the next Simain? The moment her parents would notice she could make fire so easily, they would insist she resumed her training as a mage. Did she want to fight in the mud and the rain against the same horrific things as one she just killed? Suddenly everything she hated about being a scribe felt so welcoming. The indoor warmth of a hearth, not being bothered by anyone. She even got paid decently well. It wasn’t perfect but it was a good life. That was gone too now. She just couldn’t return. So instead she got up and ran away. She would ran as far as her legs would carry her, which was further than most would expect but she was, after all, still Acadian.

A white humanoid figure made of dense mist appeared just behind her but Auriëlle never saw her. The figure was that of a woman, who waved her goodbye. “Be seeing you, Auriëlle. It’s a shame you couldn’t stay. I could’ve helped you.” Then she dissolved again.

[hider=Summary]Auriëlle is a girl that should’ve become a great hero of Acadia. Her father comes from a line of mighty warriors and her mother of the Flameweaver herself. Yet she sucks at magic and spells. So she had to become a scribe. She never gave up though and at night she crawls up the hill to go to the place where everyone practices magic during the day to train herself. Qael’Naath doesn’t detect her and creates an obelisk which he drops on the land and then blesses.

Auriëlle sees shadows of the Iskrill and runs but trips. When she gets back up the shadowy figures are gone. Then the reappear again. Auriëlle had enough and uses sorcery to burn one down to the ground. It works but she realizes this power is greater than she thought it would be. She doesn’t want to return home and be forced to go on long marches and fight monsters. So she decides to run away.[/hider]

[hider=MP, DP & Prestige]
[b]Qael’Naath Start: 5MP/5DP[/b]
- 2 MP & 1DP >> Consecrate the Obelisk
[hider=Obelisk of Acadia]
A gift of Qael’Naath to the aspiring mages of Acadia. The Obelisk has a circle of influence (radius= 30m) around it where shadowy creatures can spawn in for mages to practice on. This gives them a safe place to practice their spells. The shadow’s lifelike shapes are meant to emulate a real enemy. During training mistakes can happen and fear may overwhelm even the bravest mages without real consequences. Yet on a battlefield such a thing would be disastrous.

Cassiné is the “semi-consciousness” that controls the Obelisk. While she appears human, friendly and capable of some emotions like pride, she is ultimately a ghostly automaton created for the students and mages to take questions about the obelisk. Like how long it will take until the ward is restored after it is shattered or to stop the creation of shadows for a moment.

Cassiné I – The gentle voice of the Obelisk. Within the Obelisk’s circle of influence she can appear as in a humanoid mist form to give pointers and help to those who practice magic within the circle. She knows every spell that they intend to cast and will point out tiny details that might help the spell to be cast. Her gentle mannerism and endless patience allows for even the slowest students to learn their spells under her tutelage. (1MP)

Shadow spawner I – Shadows of a student’s worst enemy are spawned within the circle’s radius. These shadows are made of black gas and cannot hurt you in any way. Yet they look very much like the real thing. They cannot be destroyed using mundane means but are highly suspectable to magic. The shadows spawn depending on the potential power of the student within the circle. Smart and experienced students will cause more aggressive and fast shadows to spawn. (1 MP)

Warded Space I – A ward exists at the end of the radius of the Obelisk’s influence. The ward is an orb around the whole area and blocks the spells that are cast from within. Should a spell go haywire or fireback, it wouldn’t hurt anyone outside the radius. Very strong spells (like entire inferno’s) will cause the ward to crack and eventually shatter. Once shattered, it takes over a week before the ward is fully restored again. (1DP)
[/hider]
- 1 DP >> Consecrate Auriëlle
[hider=Auriëlle]
The girl that should have been a prodigy. She was accidentally blessed by Qael’Naath when he created the Obelisk of Acadia.
Hekatiah I – Auriëlle is a gifted sorceress now. Sorcery becomes easier for her to use and more effective. Her powers don’t rival that of a spell just yet.(1DP)
[/hider]
[b]Qael’Naath Start: 3MP/3DP[/b]

[b]Prestige: 9.4K characters[/b]
+4 Prestige >> Auriëlle
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