This story is not yet complete. I am posting it in sections as to allow everyone to read it without having to go through the ringer with so much text at once
This is for Karena Esether'a, my character I am playing here. Hope to see you around!
BTW: I do not censor. This is a story contained within the land of Thay and as such is bound to have distrubing image of murder, torture, racism, slavery, and otherwise as close to a true telling of life in an evil society. If you are offended by such things do not read. I will purposely remove certain sections of the text I feel are far too gruesome or racy to be shown publicly. If you wish to read those sections as I post it up just PM me and I'll send you the missing text.
1333 Year of the Striking FalconThe Nation of Thay
Lapendrar Tharch
The Keep of Sorrows
Karena Uskreven
Alignment: Neutral Good
Age: 13
The Temple annoyed Karena Uskreven. She was thirteen, and frankly Hoar had little pull in her life. Justice this, duty that, retribution and what not. She wasn't interested. Her father, Dolfrin Uskreven, however made it a point that she read the books about it as much as possible. She was to study it.
But Karena wasn't interested in it though she did it anyway. She actually wanted nothing more than to go outside. But her father said that was impossible. Her mother was a slave, and that made her one despite being his daughter, and she had to stay inside. At a younger age Karena merely accepted this as fact. But she began to realize something was different about this. Her father seemed upset at this fact, but she couldn't fathom why.
Karena had long dark hair, down almost to her waist. Her mother, Adinria, spent an hour every day combing and caring for it.
"Your hair is more a reflection of yourself than anything else. Unwashed, Unkempt, your hair refelects you. You have to take good care of it," she would say in that odd accent she had. Her Mulhorandi was so different than her and her fathers. Karena knew her mother wasn't Mulanese, that much was certain.
Karena on the other hand had a dark complexion, and even for the age of thirteen was as tall as any of the other Mulanese girls in the Keep. At least that's what her dad would say. But her nose wasn't quite as broad or as pronounced as some of the other women and girls she occasionally saw. Instead it was smaller and came out at a diagnoal curve turned upward like her mother, rather than the hawk like look to some of the noses here. Her lips had the fullness of the mulanese people, unlike what Karena though were the hair like wire lips her mother possessed. Her hair had less roughness than those 'Lowborn Rashemi' as her father called them, but it didn't have the dark almost dull blackness in color as her fathers braid, as the man lacked a full head of hair like all Mulanese people. Her father had threatened on more than one occassion to 'Shave that mop of filth' and make her a proper mulanese woman. Her mother would object vehemently and often her father would drop it.
Karena realized she was unwanted. Her mother was a slave, and worse she wasn't even Rashemi much less Mulan. Her father, though he didn't hate Karena, was frightened of others discovering that he had mixed his heritage with that of a foreigner. Whenever she asked her mother where she came from, her mother would merely blow off the question with another question, or answer in some vague fashion. It infuriated Karena, and a few times she lashed out at her mother in anger but it would never last that long. Karena loved her mother far more than her father, and in her eyes she could do little that was really 'Wrong'.
It was late one evening that Karena was looking out of one of the windows at the world outside. The Keep was a dirty place in Lapendrar. So close to the river, the Rashemi common folk used the river water to irrigate many crops. Though this area is not well known for it's farming, it suited them just fine in many ways. Most parts of Thay, according to her lessons, were far more punishing. Deserts, mountains, and plains. Not the best places for growing crops.
Her father was a spice merchant, and often purchased many of the spices grown right near the Keep of Sorrows to sell to some of the Noble families in Thay. He made very good coin in this enterprise, enough he said to sell cheaply enough to the Red Wizards that they prefered paying him to taking his business to operate.
So Karena would often sit at the window and stare out at the horse drawn carts and carriages of food travelling the streets. The slaves toiling at loading and unloading, while the common-folk gathered the supplies and began to work in distribution and shipping. Occassionally she would see some of the town guard walk back and forth inspecting the supplies and moving on. On one occasion she even saw one of the Red Wizards walk up to a cart and take several dates, dropping a handful of coins in someones hand and walk off.
He was tall, Mulanese as nearly all of them are according to her father. Completely shaven, eyebrows and all. He had a curved and strange tattoo over the left side of his face and carried not but a walking stick and was accompanied by a leather clad Rashemi man who had a small axe notched at his belt. It was a strange sight, one she wouldn't forget too quickly.
She heard the sound of the door downstairs being slammed shut and knew it was most likely her father. He hated when Karena would stare out the window. So Karena quickly lept up and swung the drapes closed and plopped over to her desk in a hustle and sat down. She pulled open another of the books her father told her to read and began doing so.
"...and so Ythazz Buvaar helped throw off the yoke of Mulhorand and declared Thay an independent nation after the successful triumph at the Battle of Thazalhar. The dream of Thayd was complete, so long after the Battle of Delhumide..." she began to read out loud, quiet as not to make her father think she was not doing so well before he came home.
It was only moments later that the door did open. Her father, Dolfrin, stood at the door. The single briad he had coming out of the base of his skull was a deep black color and looked a little less tidy and taught after a day of work. His dark complexion accented with dark circles under his eyes. His eyes were a little red today, and the brown color he had just made it stand out all the more. Karena could smell the alcohol on his breath. Probably Jhuild, as her father was partial to.
"And what did Ythazz Buvaar declare?" her father slurred a bit while looking at her from the doorway.
Karena turned and looked at him with a hint of sadness on her face at the sight of him. "He... he declared that the god-kings of Mulhorand would never again hold sway in our land."
Her father nodded, leaning against the doorway. "That's right. And as of so far, not a single war or invasion from Mulhorand has ever succeeded in Thay. Yet we have nearly conquered them completely. Remember Twelve Eighty, the Year of the Manticore. Thay nearly conquered all of their country before we were repelled. I was your age then, my father was one of the soldiers who made it in and out of that country."
Karena nodded. The books definitely speak that way.
"What's wrong," her father said, walking with a bit of a stumble over to her desk. "Don't tell me your not interested again. You should learn your history."
"What good is learning all this? I can't leave, I've never been to school," Karena said puffing and slamming her back against the chair.
"Don't do this again. I told you, the schoolhouse here is a joke, that's why I purchased that slave, that bard, to teach you. He's better at it than the teacher here," her father said tossing his head back.
"Yeah well, that's great. A slave teaches me history of a land I can't even touch with my own shoes."
With that Karena was surprised when he slapped her across the face with the back of his hand. She reeled back in the chair, her head slapping hard against the stone floor only barely padded by a thin rug.
"You ungrateful... Karena!" he yelled and advanced again.
Karena was dizzy and her eyes couldn't really focus on what was in front of her. All she really saw was a blur of color and the sound of yelling, muffled by the sound of her ringing ears.
When finally she came through she saw the figure of her mother, clutching her mouth and nose as blood came out and her father yelling at her. Still barely able to understand the words being spoken she only made out her father yell out, "...always be a slave." After that, he slammed the door shut and stormed down the hall.
Her mother, Adinria, rushed over to her daughter and helped her sit back up. Adinria placed the chair back down and checked Karena's head. Karena had tears in her eyes, one of which was red.
"Oh, Karena. It's going to bruise something fierce," she said as she grabbed a small towel to hold to her own nose. Karena noticed her mothers nose looked slightly misshapen and was likely broken. The blood pouring out was not stopping, but slowing a bit.
"Mom, your nose."
Adinria shook her head and tied her black hair, that same shimmer as Karena's back. "Now don't you worry about my nose. It's just a nose."
In truth it concerned Karena a great deal. Because despite her skin color being so much darker than her mothers like shade, and her lips being shaped differently, her mothers face so much resembled her own. Her eyes had a slight roundness to them, exactly like hers. They were colored a bright blue, much like her own. But now her nose, once petite and placed so carefully, now looked a mash of meat on her face, slapped on like a amateur sculptor would. The thought hurt her more, and Karena had the aching thought in the back of her head that she was losing her connection with her mother.
"Oh, and look at this!" her mother exclaimed as she stroked the back of Karena's head. A sharp pain caused Karena to flinch and look at her mothers head. Blood, her blood, on her mothers hand. "Poor girl, that hit gave you quite a gash. And your poor hair, I hope it doesn't scar."
Karena's mother spent quite a bit of time cleaning her daughter up and going on and on about how she shouldn't antagonize her father, especially when he's been drinking. In truth, Karena was barely paying any attention. She just kept staring into the mirror at the fruit sized bruise on her left eye, and the new face of her mother, with a blotted piece of broken flesh where her nose once was.
She wasn't paying attention when her father came in to apologize. She just accepted what he passed off as an apology and looked back at the mirror.
Two Years Later
She had taken it long enough. Damnit, she was fifteen and she wanted to go outside and no one was going to stop her. Not Mom, not Dad, not Hoar, not even the Zulkirs themselves! She was determined and wasn't going to take their crap any longer.
Sneaking through the house was the easy part. Most of the slaves, few as there were since Dad had to start selling them when business went down, wouldn't pay her any notice if she slapped them across the face with a club. Her mother was busy directing housework with the other slaves and wasn't on the lower floor. Dad was out at the local tavern spending a fortune bribing people to buy his spices over bottles of expensive wine.
So now was the time. It'd be hours before anyone was really looking for her, and a quick trip down and up the street was all Karena really wanted.
She literally walked past a slave on her way down the stairs, carefully avoiding only two individuals who would either care enough to stop her, or stop her for hope of reward from her father. She hid behind a houseplant when the hired guard, Efentos, a broad Rashemi man her father hired and paid damn well. In truth she always felt guilty for finding him a bit attractive, as Mulan would never think to involve themselves with common Rashemi born peoples. But she was living proof her father apparently didn't give much of a damn about it, afterall Karena knew she wasn't half Rashemi, just something else entirely. Hell of a pick, Dad.
Efentos looked around, dressed in his usual chain shirt and brown leather pants. He always carried a scimitar and a knife tucked in his left boot. His hair was usual and typical, the front of his forehead completely shaven and the back a thick mess of brown hair pulled down into a pony tail by a piece of tied cord.
After he turned the corner she sprinted out from behind it and quietly opened the front door, sneaked out, and shut it behind her silently. Father used to have a guard at the front door, a slave warrior he bought at the local mart, but he had to sell him awhile ago. Her father hoped now that the local guard was enough.
She stepped out into a world she only saw from a window. As she walked the streets, or dirt roads really, of the Keep of Sorrows she was really just overwhelmed by the sights. The Lapendrar Legion guarded was passed for the Keep's Central Citadel, Central Citadel's being the main governmental building of any Thayan city, from any who did not have legitimate business inside. Several decent sized Rashemi men served, dressed in Leather armor and a bit of metal covering their chest and shoulders. A goblin, also dressed in Legion garb stood at the gate yelping and pointing at which person could come in next. Karena could hardly believe what she had heard all her life, Goblins in the position of guard!
It fascinated her, and she continued. She passed by the Temple of Hoar, not too far off being the slave market where she saw this Mulanese man with no hair inspecting over an elven man bound naked and shackled. To her surprise he grabbed the elf's scrotom and gripped firmly.
"Yes... yes this one I will take. He's pretty young but good enough for breeding," he said looking to his right at another male. This one looked Rashemi, a bulky one bigger than most Rashemi she had seen before and carrying a large curved blade on his back, complete with several shackled clipped to his belt with a whip and a club.
The man nodded. "The female I sold you last year? Do you think she's ready for breeding already?"
The mulan man raised his eyes and sighed. "She's been difficult, and is young I'll admit. But one of the other slavers said she could be successfully bred, and though I'll admit it's hard to really get a good amount of children from elves the price the children fetch in Kenton, or even Tyraturos is well worth the hassle. So, how much?"
The man grabbed the gagged elf by his jaw and pulled his head up to look him in the eyes. Karena had never seen an elf before, and he looked like he was in terrible pain. Her father had taught her long ago that slavers only chase down those weak enough to be caught unaware, and most wouldn't try something so bold as to catch in the city streets. She was Mulan, and safe at home. Karena was never completely fond with slavery, but it kept the country running. Still, she couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt and sadness looking at the elf with his honey blond hair, being so demoralized and treated like an animal.
"Well... I'll give him to you for two hundred talons," the Rashemi said looking back down.
"Two hundred!" scoffed the Mulan man, his eyes incredulous shock. "Elves are expensive, I know, but he's so young I doubt his scrawny elven frame could even life a rake much less do anything past the breeding."
"Whether he dies of a heart attack after despoiling the girl isn't my problem. And who knows when I might have another," the Rashemi shrugged. "Besides, not many Bloodcowl's here but who knows what one might pay."
The mulan man sighed defeated and lifted his purse. He pulled several golden talons from the bag and stuffed them in the other mans hand.
"Pleasure doing business," he said and handed over a set of leather reins that were attached to the shackles the elf wore.
He nodded and pulled on the leather reins. "Come on you, whatever you make with the female better be worth twice what I paid for you or I'm selling you to the first red wizard I see for a steal."
And with that he trotted off with the tear filled elf. Karena closed her mouth tightly and gritted her teeth. 'Poor guy', she thought to herself.
As sad of a sight as it was, Karena knew there was nothing she could do for him. So she continued on. She walked past several of the large stone houses and several stabled horses and even had the nerve to touch one across the nose. She had always wanted to touch a horse.
It was getting late when she realized she needed to rush home. So Karena did so, dodging and weaving through the crowd. She got lost several times, but eventually found her way back home and quietly slipped in the door when behind her she was grabbed by the shirt on her back and hoisted away. As she turned she saw Efentos hand dragging her through the hall.
"Master Uskreven's gonna be mad at you. Came home early he did."
She was tossed through an open door and landed on the floor with a thud. Her elbow hurt slightly, but was otherwise alright.
"KARENA!"
She whipped her head around at the sound of her father screaming her name, but barely got to even look at him when she felt a slap across her face. Her head jerked to the side, and she pulled her hand to her lip to see it had split open.
"How dare you! You know the rules, you cannot leave the house!", her fathers voice was slurred and vehement. He apparently had drank more than his fair share.
"I had to!", she shouted back in retort. "I can't stay locked up forever just because your ashamed of me!"
With that she felt another slap across her face after seeing her fathers beet red face fuming like an angry minotaur. Then she felt a strong kick to her side which knocked the breath out of her.
"Damnit girl! You should respect your father!"
Another kick, this time to the side of her jaw sent her flipping to her back.
Karena spat a hefty amount of blood up that dribbled down the side of her mouth and pooled on the floor. It was at that she heard the door swing open and her mother scream in fear and run over to her.
"No, Karena. Stop Master, please, it's your daughter. No one saw her, I'm sure.
"This is all your fault!" her father screamed and pushed her mother across the room. "Damn slaves! You'll ruin me! I cared for her, I fed her, and I kept her from doing common house chores and look how she repays me, with disobedience!" He slapped her again and her mother raised her arms to try and shield it.
With a couple of more slaps her mother managed to push her father off of her. Karena had turned on the floor and spat another helping of blood on the floor. Her jaw hurt, and when she clenched her teeth a racking sense of pain shot through her mouth and she heaved, up came more blood and saliva along with a tooth.
"That's it! It's your fault Adinira! I've gotta fix this!" With that he father grabbed a candlestick off of his dresser and headed toward her.
Karena looked up shocked, "Mom!" And with that her mother looked to her and whatever defensive posture she had dropped as her father swung the candlestick across her head and Karena could hear the slight crack of her skull.
Karena watched as her mother hit the ground like a fell tree, slapping face first against the cold stone. Her mother reached her hand out to her daughter with a look Karena had never really seen. For a moment, Karena was thankful it was over as she came to her knees and holding herself up with her palm grabbing her mothers hand tightly.
"Get the hell back!" came another yell from her father and he lashed out with his foot and kicked Karena away by her shoulder. "No more stupid tales from your mother."
He kicked her mother over with his foot. Her jaw was obviously broken, as Karena could see a couple of fragments of bone in her mothers raven hair. Karena watched her father bring his foot up ready to stomp when she leapt ahead and tried to tackle him.
Dolfrin stumbled a bit but shook his daughter away and slapped her to the ground once again, her act of defiance merely urging him on. Karena's head smacked into her fathers wood dresser and she hit the floor.
When she managed to look up she saw her mother being stomped on the side of the head, her head lying on the side as she looked at her daughter with a smile joyfully as her fathers boot kept crashing down on her temple impacting it against the stone over and over until little remained but the face of her mother, elongated through beating and covered in blood.
Karena watched on practically paralyzed through the damage she had already taken, watching as her father stomped her mothers skull into an unrecognizable pile of bone and flesh. He lifted his boot when he was done, heart still pounding.
"Damnit, you made me do this Karena! I didn't want to, but I had to!" he said as he began to wipe the sole of his boot on the carpet. Kicking back and forth to get blood, brain matter, and the little shards of skull stuck in the wooden sole out.
Karena was paralyzed in fear as her father tossed the candlestick to the ground next to her mother. It was that moment that her heart began to race, and she felt her blood seem to boil in her. She instinctively reached out to her father with her fingers outstretched as her hand began to glow with pale blue light. Her father stopped dead in his tracks and looked upon his daughter with a feeling of fear and confusion, beads of sweat dripping from his forehead.
Karena's eyes narrowed and beaded to her father and suddenly the glow on her hand exploded outward into a small arc of electricity which hit him directly in the center of the forehead. She held it there for a moment as her father began to convulse, saliva foaming at his lips and he fell over dead. A black spot smoking in the center of his forehead, his eyelids and lips drawn back into a horrified expression.
Karena, shocked, dropped her hands to look upon them. Never had she experienced such a thing, she had never actually seen magic, must less used such. Her initial shock ended as she looked upon her fathers smoking head, hair standing on end and smelling burnt. She crawled over to her mother and wept.
It wasn't but a few more seconds before the door burst open and Efentos massive form was seen looking in on the scene with a wide eyed expression.
"What happened, Master Uskreven!? Karena!".
"LET ME THROUGH, NOW!", came a yell that Karena jumped at. The voice was raspy and vicious. Efentos turned to look down the hall that Karena could not see, and immediately his eyes went wide and he lept back, falling to the floor practically in a bow.
"Your Omniscience!" He called out.
Karena, still holding tightly onto her mother, spared a look up in time to see a man dressed in a regal looking red robe standing in the doorway. He held a large staff made of iron, and dressed with the top of a snake gripping a black gem in its mouth. He was old, at least in his sixties if she could guess right but maybe older. A tattoo covered the top of his head that almost seemed to look as though it was hovering just above his wrinkled skin. His eyes were hawkish and dark, cold as Karena had ever seen. Colder than she thought eyes could look. His red robe was adorned with a sash colored blue that draped across his left shoulder and wrapped to the right side of his waist.
"What is this? Dolfrin, well... hmm..." he said casually looking over the scene and poked her fathers right foot with the end of his staff. "Interesting..."
Another figure came out behind the old wizard. It was a man as well, not quite as bald as the other or as aged, but with a similarly cold look in his eyes. A tattoo only wrapped around his neck and up his chin, outlining his lips with a thorn like pattern.
"Sorcery... Master Uuthkarat. The girl," he said looking to the older man.
The Red Wizard turned to the other and held up his hand. It was then Karena noticed that the younger one was wearing a similar red robe, but it was plain and without any real decoration or flare.
"Quiet, Apprentice. Take her."
"Master?"
"Take her!", he called out. "And do not question me. Somehow Dolfrin managed to hide her existance so I doubt she was ever tested."
Karena, sobbing quietly to herself, wasn't quite sure what was going on.
The younger one nodded and began to wave his hands in the air in intricate circles while speaking words Karena had no knowledge of. Just as he did, he lifted a small mirror from his pocket and Karena felt herself getting lighter and lighter...
"She's old for apprenticeship, but it may be worth it. Provided we get rid of that disgusting sorcery... bah," the old red wizard said and turned.
"What is..." But that was all Karena managed to mutter before she felt he body falling apart about her. Her eyes saw as she began to turn into little bits of light and fly at the mirror. Tearing to pieces, but never feeling like she was actually not whole.
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