Difference between revisions of "Akina, The Kirre Heart"

Player's Original Story

Having been captured and sold into slavery Akina was traded among various tribes claiming she possessed secret abilities. By the age of six when her current owner had not yet seen the manifestation of any powers he sent her to work as a servant. Her temperament however, was not well suited for such work and so it was arrange for her to train as a gladiator at Jarko. Unfortunately for her, she was malnourished and so did not properly develop. Her size and strength were stunted and she was not a particularly graceful child. She did however grow into quite the beauty. For this reason she was purchased from her owner and shipped off to marry. Her mate was not to her liking so once her freedom was purchased she killed him and took all that he owned, selling it for a profit. With her freedom and training Akina made her way into various mercenary gangs.

Early Youth in the Forest Ridge

Life in the Bower

Akina's first clear memories are of her father and their bower in a rain forest paradise beside a small lake and waterfall, although she has earlier but vague and fleeting memories of nights of fire and screaming, extraordinary silence, and nights of nearly lethal cold and wind.

Akina's father. Haunted by a mysterious path and motivated to unknown ends, with enchanted sword and braxat armor he left Akina in front of the halfling pyramid when she was seven years old. Despite her youth, Akina knew him to have a most powerful will, and to be a man of action. None crossed him, neither man nor beast, while Akina knew him. Akina knows no name for him other than Father.

Kind, but firm, Akina's father was a man haunted and scarred, prone to deep reveries and periods of brooding silence. Their home, which he simply called the Pool, was hidden and remote in the great forest, situated beneath the feet of mighty forested mountains capped with perpetual snow. There, alone, Akina was taught by her father how to gather food from the forest, light fires, use an axe and box, sharpen a blade and hide from enemies.

From time to time he would hunt the beasts of the forest, and he would cook them over hidden fires near the Pool. At night, Akina's father taught her about the stars, and told her how he had brought her to a place of peace and nature, where she could grow to adulthood uncorrupted, pure of mind, healthy and at peace with the world.

The Pool was home to Akina from her earliest memories. Within the Grotto, Akina and her father slept safe from the creatures of the Forest.

Although very young, Akina began to learn how to hunt. For a great many days, one of Akina's greatest pleasures was sparring with her father with quarterstaffs balanced atop a narrow fallen tree over a deep corner of the pool. It was one of the only ways to make the old man laugh, and although she did not know it, she was the only person who could.

They were not alone in the great forest. From time to time halflings would come, and over time, Akina and her father became friends with some of them. Being so young, Akina even picked up on some of the words of their language.

At night, Akina's father would spend much time examining his sword. Made of fine-crafted steel, its face was set by mysterious symbols, and the pommel of its hilt was beset with the iron head of the Dragon. Akina was never allowed to touch the sword, but was told that when the time was right, he would teach her to use the blade.

The Kirre

Akina found a great affinity for the Forest, and was allowed by her father to walk its ways. Within the Forest, she felt a great connection, as well as happiness and even safety, despite the many dangers. One day, she stumbled upon a great cat of the forest, the mighty green-coated kirre. Lapping from a rivulet, the great beast's eyes gazed at her. Her father, always watching from afar, prepared his great bow for a lethal shot, but he watched in amazement as his daughter waded through a pool and pet the cat. The kirre did not cringe nor tear her apart, and instead seemed to show the slightest degree of affection. Eventually the cat saw prey and left.

From time to time, sometimes days a part, and sometimes months, the kirre would reappear by the Pool, leaving food for Akina, or beckoning to her. For her part, Akina would come to the beast, and slowly her psychic connection to the cat, at first subtle and intermittent, became constant and powerful. Her father soon left her with the kirre, and together she and the cat would wander the Forest near the pool. When she was six, Akina, psychically summoned by the great cat in the middle of the night, left the Grotto of the Pool and journeyed much farther than before with the great cat, and beyond the boundaries set by her father. For three days they vanished from Akina's father, sleeping with one another, until they reached a great lake. At the shores of the lake, Akina joined the cat in a hunt, and running with it, transformed for a time into a facsimile of the kirre, and helped to slay the quarry.

Eventually Akina returned home to the relief of her father, and he recognized then just how powerful her psychic connection to the creature was.

The kirre continued to come for the next several months, but soon it became pregnant, and went to other parts of the Forest. Akina never saw the kirre again, but she was ever thereafter connected to it and its offspring, and would remain so for the rest of her life.

Father's Friends

Throughout her few years at the Pool, from time to time Akina's father was visited by strangers. Although usually the native halflings of the Forest, on several occasions they were not. The one Akina most clearly remembers is an aging woman of a strange appearance named Lyra. Exuding an aura of power and inhuman wisdom, she examined Akina after her experience with the kirre, and explained in clear words just what Akina had undergone, and what it would mean for her in the future. Lyra meditated with Akina, and speaking in her mind, helped her learn to harness and control the awesome powers to which her affinity for the kirre gave her access. She learned how to transform herself for strength, speed and to attack with the claws, bite, horns and tail of the kirre, but when attempting to harness the psionic powers of the kirre, her youthful mind nearly broke in the attempt, and for hours she regressed into the animal mind of a kirre until Lyra could psychically repair the shock.

Lyra came a second time as well, but this time she seemed to come solely for the purpose of speaking to Akina's father. The day after she left, Akina followed her father on a quest to the south. She was never to see their home at the Pool again.

Akina's Father Quests South

After the second coming of Lyra when Akina was seven, her father judging her strong enough, the young girl journeyed with her father to the south of their home, and with him saw many wonders. After some days, they climbed a great cliff, Akina utilizing her newfound powers to assist her in the ascent. Reaching the top of the cliff, they beheld a great canyon between two mountains, but instead of verdant rainforests, they beheld a ruined landscape of ash and fallen tree boles that extended for miles. The devastation was extraordinary, and caused great panic and pain to Akina's young mind. She asked if fire could cause such devastation, and her father responded saying that fire was not the cause. At the edge of the ruined lake and river that once flowed through the center of the canyon, Akina's father discovered the clawed tracks of a great bipedal beast the size of which dwarfed any creature Akina had ever seen or even heard of from the halflings.

Upon seeing the devastation, Akina's father seemed to grow highly alarmed and serious. He took his daughter from the spot quickly and journeyed north.

Akina's Father Leaves

Moving swiftly from the site of the withered valley, the father and daughter passed their home without stopping, and after several more days, came before a great mountain, on the shoulder of which stood an enormous pyramid, surrounded by a halfling village. Ascending to the village, and ascending the steps of the great pyramid, Akina's father gravely spoke to the halflings in their own tongue. For several weeks they stayed their in the village, and Akina's father would leave the village for even days at a time with some of the halflings, or even if he were there, he would spend much of his time talking with the chiefs.

Eventually, Akina's father appeared before her at the halfling village in armor and with a full compliment of adventuring gear, and told her that he was leaving. Having sensed his intentions over the weeks, Akina cried and resisted, heedless of his arguments or explanations. He explained that he would not leave her save to protect her life. He argued that he had to stop the monster that had killed her mother (the first time Akina's father ever mentioned her mother). Akina did not care about his reasons, and when he still meant to leave, she struck him, which welled tears to his eyes. Steeling himself, he said that the halflings would care for her until he returned. He promised that, even though he might be gone a very long time, he would come back and find her, no matter how long it took or how far he had to walk. At last he parted, but Akina clung so viciously to him that the halflings had to pry her from him. He eventually left from her sight, and so great was her wailing that only the spell of a halfling cleric could give her the peace of sleep.

Akina Flees the Halflings

In the middle of the night after her father left, Akina awoke from her magical sleep, and quickly began to gather what meager supplies she could from the halflings. Then, using the harnessed strength of the kirre, she transformed herself into an anthropomorphic great cat and fled from the halflings while they slept. Some halflings chased her, but with the power of the kirre she moved so quickly that none of them could catch her.

Akina ascended the steep cliffs, and entered into the great Ringing Mountains, intent on following her father.

The halflings were soon to gather a hunting party to pursue her, but Akina kept moving, without sleep or rest, long after her psionic power failed her. After nearly two days of pursuit, the relentless halflings nearly caught up to her high in the mountains, where the last of the Forest began to fade into stark rock, and in her panic she slipped down a steep ledge and fell so far that she evaded them for the time.

Akina in the Ringing Mountains

Breaking her arm, multiple ribs and otherwise nearly killing herself in the fall, Akina scrambled through the deep ravine she had fallen into. Sensing the beasts of the ravine that wished to hunt her, Akina was saved only by the passing storm from the Forest, the rains of which soon transformed the ravine into a river. Akina was carried for miles through the normally dry and empty mountains, and was nearly crushed and broken on rocks and boulders as the waters took her. She nearly died by falling off an impromptu waterfall, but saving herself by clinging to a outcrop of rock, she managed to crawl to safety and passed out from exhaustion.

The waters having passed as quickly as they had come, Akina's next several days were spent in despair and desperation, as she quickly ran out of water, and could find no food. Chased by zhakals and hunted by an Athasian wyvern, she only escaped thanks to her psionic power, and eventually slew two zhakals in her kirre-form, and ate their flesh.

Zhackals are small pack animals that travel about feeding off of the emotions of those about to die. The pack gathers and feeds on the dying victim’s emotions, using psionics to get the victim to give up his hold on life. Zhackals are small brown or gray creatures with thick fur. They are four-legged, have small, very sharp teeth, and eyes of deep blue. A zhackal makes no sound, although it can communicate with others of its kind by means of its mindlink power.

Her youthful mind turned then only to survival, and as best she could she struggled to survive. Hopelessly lost and not yet having control of her psionic powers, her wild talent eventually came to the fore on its own, and she took on the spirit of the kirre, telepathically contacting her father with a mindlink. Alarmed and horrified by her condition, she wordlessly tried to tell him where she was, but her attempts were all but hopeless. Many days passed, and her mind became more and more animal, shrinking ever more inward for pure survival.

Eventually, Akina found a gulch with trees and a spring, and hiding from the beasts within this copse, she created a nest for herself, and fire, and managed to not die of exposure and starvation by wrapping herself with the furs of the zhakals and eating the nuts, roots and bark of the trees.

Gaining some strength, her animalic mind contacted her father again, who was frantically looking for her, but she was even less responsive to his endless questions and guidance to her. She did however take his guidance to climb the mountains so she could better hope to identify her location. Slowly, with all her strength and with the aid of her psionic powers, she painfully made a steep ascent, taking two days to reach the ridgeline. The bitter cold and winds of the heights nearly killed her, but through despair and sheer will she trudged onward through snow and over freezing rock. She eventually descended from the high ridge and down into a warmer boulder field, but by then her mind was nearly gone...

Akina traveled on after that, but she does not possesses any further clear memories of her time in the mountains, save for that at some time during her wanderings there was an enormous earthquake that terrified her more than any beast ever did in the forbidding landscape.

Akina Descends from the Ringing Mountains

Akina does not know how long she struggled in the Ringing Mountains. It may have been weeks or even months. However, by the time she came out of the mountains, she was no longer who she used to be. Emaciated and all but dead, she walked out of the scorching heat of the ravines and into the baking rocks and sand of the foothills. She at last collapsed, and the beasts of the wilderness would have consumed her, but by chance it was pastoral nomads who found her first. A band of human kank herders found her, and a kindly human woman nursed her to some health of body if not of mind.

But after three days in the care of her hosts, a band of halflings appeared, still on the hunt for her after all that time. Seeing her hunters again terrified her. Having tracked her to their tents, by spear and in their alien language they demanded the return of the girl. The shepherds refused, but when the halfling warriors came to take her by force, an elderly man among their number wielded his staff and caused a wall of fire to encircle his people. The halflings leaped through this wall, although many of them died by doing so. For the survivors, the elderly man caused a fireball to erupt amidst their numbers, consuming most of them. The remain halflings continued to fight, but the goodly shepherds fought back. Two died, but the burnt and weakened halflings were slain, and Akina was not taken by them.

Later Youth: Akina in the Tablelands

Akina with the Sons of Garox

When she regained her strength, Akina was not cast out by the nomadic kank herders who had taken her in. For a long time speechless and numb in spirit, she was a curiosity of the tribe's leader, the old wizard Rauthan. It was he, through magical hypnotism, who slowly repaired her mind, and helped her recover her memories, albeit in a fragmented way. At length able to recall that she searched for her father, Rauthan declared that he would help her find her father. She was, after many months, given formal membership in the small tribe, which called itself the Sons of Garox, and made the foster daughter of the family of the woman, Estha, who initially took her in. After a half year Akina began to assist more regularly with pastoral duties, and began to normalize with the other children.

After a powerful hypnotic session with Rauthan some nine months after her arrival at the tribe, she clearly remembered her father and her once fervent love for him. That night she called upon the spirit of the kirre, and using telepathy contacted him. Through their mindlink, he frantically tried to insist that she go to a nearby landmark, and that within a week he would find her. Fearing human abandonment again if she obeyed his plea, she simply informed him that she was a Daughter of Garox, and only went where they went.

For three years Akina walked with the Sons of Garox. She consciously repressed her wild talent, for fear of what others would think of her. She became the lawful daughter of Gervadh and Estha, whose slightly older son Edon took a protective concern over the quiet and often emotionless Akina. They were a goodly family, as was the rest of the tribe. She learned animal husbandry with them, and learned the ways of the desert and the steps. On several occasions she saw and entered her first city, Urik, and beheld the wonders and harsh reality of Athasian civilization. When she was ten, while with their flock of kanks, she saved Edon's life by transforming into her kirre-form and fighting off the tagster cat that had attacked him. It was not long after that she became betrothed to Edon.

Rauthan was the visible leader of the Sons of Garox. Wielding a powerful magical staff, his word was respected and obeyed. A kindly if serious old man, it was he who helped heal Akina's mind, and he who had decided to save her from her halfling pursuers. When the marauder army came and enslaved Akina and Edon, Rauthan displayed no great magic to defend the tribe, and only a warning meteor that Akina will never forget. Rauthan's fate, and that of the Sons of Garox as a whole, is unknown to Akina.

Over the years, the tribe's leader Rauthan slowly repaired her mind. She spoke more clearly and easily, and remembered the nameless old man that claimed to be her father, the Forest Ridge, and the halflings. Rauthan however steered her away from fond remembrances of her first father, observing that, whoever he was, he had abandoned her to the cannibal halflings when he was only a child. Rauthan, as if from personal knowledge, told Akina that her father was a dangerous and violent man, and that he was most unwise to have tried to raise Akina by himself beyond the Ringing Mountains. It was nothing short of miraculous that she had survived crossing the mountains, as Rauthan assured her that no man was capable of doing so without great magic or psionic power.

One day when she was nearing 11 years of age, while Akina was with Edon, grazing their kanks, an army of mounted marauders appeared over the horizon, some 500 strong, threatening the camp of the Sons of Garox. Rauthan conjured a meteor to warn his fellow tribesmen who grazed for miles in the hills. With the heart of a kirre, Akina ran, but Edon could not keep up. She stayed with him and hid beneath rocks, but the marauders found them. When Akina transformed into a monster to defend herself, she slew one of the marauder's crodlu. The desert brigands were highly alarmed, and beat her down.

Akina the Slave

Akina awoke to find herself tightly bound to the side of a great crodlu, and saw that she and many of the youths and women of the Sons of Garox were being taken away by the marauders, and that the camp of the Sons of Garox remained behind, intact. The nights that followed were most cruel, but Akina was spared violation because of her reputation for transforming into a monster, which kept the slavers at bay. Weeks passed out in the desert. One night, Edon broke loose from his bonds, slew one of the sentries, and attempted to help Akina escape, but he was caught by the slavers. In front of Akina, Edon was beheaded, and his head put on a spike as a warning to the other captives. The slaver army raided several other tribes and villages for more slaves and supplies, but never destroyed them, and rather only crushing any resistance. One night their leader, Marxus, taunted her, threatening to put a burning spike of wood through part of her brain so she would no longer be able to transform into a monster and give his men so much trouble. He nearly did so, but relented that he might be able to sell Akina to the brothels of Nibenay for a better price if she were left physically intact.

Akina at Nibenay

Akina eventually reached the City of Spires, an immense metropolis surrounded by boiling natural springs and endless rice fields. Once inside the city, the few women under Marxus took Akina and attempted to feed her and beautify her, but the insolent girl resisted them at every turn. In the end, Akina was sold to women of pleasure at petty price. Inside a smoke laden room of pleasure, Akina was offered drugs and stimulants by the women there. It was not long before Akina was given to her first client, but once again her honor was maintained because she transformed into a monster and horribly maimed the man, nearly killing him before he escaped. The brothel keeper was horrified, and Akina was quickly taken and sold again in Nibenay before the murder was advertised. Akina caught the eye of a beautiful bald woman in her early 20s, and was bought.

Akina soon found herself interrogated by a mindbender, her mind sifted for secret plots and plans. She was then taken into the secret city, the Naggaramakum, in the center of Nibenay. Akina was bathed and perfumed, and was festooned with simple jewelry. She was made the servant in a great palace of stone, and in time served as the handmaiden to the mistress of that house, the High Templar Riol Gratien. An ancient woman, Lady Gratien's mere glance provoked fear and concern, but the high templar found Akina fascinating, and would often speak to her, helping her to learn Nibenese.

For over a year, Akina served Lady Gratien. Akina learned much in her time there. Living solely in the confines of the Naggaramakum, she learned all about the templars of Nibenay, the innumerable sister-wives of the mysterious Shadow King, whom Akina never saw. She learned their ranks and their customs, and saw the powerful magic of their king that they could summon. She learned also of their plots and intrigues amongst themselves, and soon realized Lady Gratien was among the most powerful of all of them. Gratien was a high templar, and as befit her station, never appeared with any clothes, and never suffered a single hair to appear on her body. Akina realized that she was valuable here because she was intelligent yet did not understand Nibenese, beautiful but not arrogant in her beauty, and young but not overly interested in the opposite sex.

But as the months passed, Akina did begin to learn Nibenese, and she heard secrets she was not meant to understand. Akina's end there came when she became the friend of Phaaf Glien, a young templar officer of incredible beauty and persuasive powers. She made Akina her confidante, and promised her she would consider arranging her to become a templar of Nibenay if only she would, from time to time, help her understand certain plans of Lady Gratien. Akina obeyed, and in her final months in Nibenay, she revealed to Phaaf Glien much of what she overheard discussed in Lady Gratien's council chambers.

At last, Akina was discovered as the source of the leak, and was taken before Lady Gratien, who personally scourged her, but could not bring herself to mindwipe, maim or kill the girl. Akina was cast out, and sold as a slave in the foreign market.

Akina in Balic

Akina at House Theridion

Akina was sold to House Tomblador, loaded onto one of their stinking mekillot caravans, and taken to far away Balic, the White City. There, in a city of constant silt winds and limestone and marble, she was sold, half dead at the age of 12, to House Theridion. A noble house of considerable power, House Theridion's estates were close to the city on the Balican peninsula. For a few long weeks, Akina was made a field slave, and endured the suffering there. In an escape attempt, she was caught and brought to Alchaelon Theridion, one of the brothers of the master of the House. Alchaelon decided that the girl belonged in his home, and so once again Akina became a house-slave.

A noble house of considerable power

Although a house-slave, Akina was not immune to the mandatory militia drills, and along with hundreds of others, she was trained in the dust and sand by the professional slave-soldier of House Theridion. Alchaelon continued to shower her with attention however, and impressed by her service in his house, he took her on several occasions to gladiatorial matches. Once he even took her to the great Criterion, the marble gladiatorial arena of Balic itself. The matches she saw there were incredible, but Alchaelon would have advised her that she was not of gladiatorial stock, and should never hope to stand in the arena, for if she did she would most certainly die.

After the first year, Alchaelon began to become quite close to Akina, and treated her increasingly like a daughter, taking her wherever he went. At last, he revealed to her that he was in fact against slavery, and that if he were the elder brother and the master of House Theridion, he would free the slaves. Alchaelon then began to teach Akina to read and write, and hinted that he would teach her even more if she excelled.

Alchaelon.

The Fall of Alchaelon

By the time Akina was 14, her relationship to Alchaelon was seen by other members of House Theridion is illicit, for he was treating a slave too much like a daughter and not a servant for his House. Alchaelon ignored this, and even began to teach Akina the basics of magical theory, revealing that he was in fact a secret wizard, and meant to train her accordingly. This however became Alchaelon's undoing.

Lord Enledon Theridion, the Lord of the House Theridion, was a potent mindbender, and in a visit to his young brother's mansion peered into the mind of Akina, and saw the truth that his younger brother intended to betray the House and free the slaves. He also learned from her mind with certainty that Alchaelon was a wizard.

Later that day, the palace-guard of House Theridion, under the command of Enledon himself, came to seize Alchaelon. Using the fury of his magic, he held off the guards with a magical wall of ice, and gave to Akina his spellbook. Making her invisible, he had her flee through a secret escape route, and she managed to escape the slave plantation.

She later learned that Alchaelon was arrested by his brother, and was put on trial at the Oraculum for wizardry. Alchaelon was acquitted for lack of evidence, but was ejected from House Theridion. His further fate is unknown to Akina.

Akina on the Streets of Balic

Free after some three years of forced servitude, Akina once again knew freedom. She escaped into the city of Balic, hiding her former master's spellbook. She quickly fell into a street gang of urchin children. Although most of them were bent towards thievery, Akina was more prone to violence, turning to her inner emotions to fuel her rages. The experiences of her early youth made her stronger and quicker than many of the other children, and she quickly established herself as foreign girl with a strong streak of anger and wrath. But her compatriots on the streets never forgot that she was once a slave, and reminded her of it as often as they could.

For nearly two years Akina roamed the streets of Balic, learning much about the city and its underworld. Akina's "fraternity", as they called themselves in the tradition of Balic, came under the sway of the beautiful elf con-woman and archer Whisper Dawnchaser. Much older and very charismatic, Akina learned more from Whisper than anyone else the art of being a woman, and of manipulating people to bend them to her will. From her seat in the dangerous Elven Market, Whisper arranged for ever bolder crimes, and Akina became one of her guards when the elf thief would meet with other underworld leaders.

Whisper Dawnchaser was one of Akina's chief mentors.

When Akina was newly 15, she accompanied Whisper for an important meeting outside the city and the Balican peninsula entirely. They met with a band of outlaws in the wild, escorting money to buy the loyalty of marauders and rebels to the city. These outlaws were the Seven Angry Tembos, who were a by-name for terror and evil thievery within Balic. While there, Akina was accosted and mocked by some of the followers of the Seven Angry Tembos. She struck one of them with a rock and began to fight them, and for this the men savagely beat her, and may have raped her were it not for the timely intervention of Whisper. Akina's childish pride of being a streetfighter was crushed before the reality of grown and experienced fighting men. She vowed to never be so vulnerable again.

Akina Enters the House of Jarko

Returning to Balic, Akina retrieved the hidden spellbook of her old master Alchaelon, and sold it for what was to her the astronomical price of 100 gold pieces to a secret defiler in the city. With this money, Akina went before the School of Jarko beside the Criterion at the city center, and asked for enrollment. Taking all 100 gold pieces, the House of Jarko accepted, and she crossed the silt Estuary of the Forked Tongue to attend their Training House outside the village of Nalust, a tributary coastal village of Balic.

For three months Akina trained as a free student at the School of Jarko as one of their very youngest students. Akina's insolence and wrath took her instructors to the edge of their patience, but she grew stronger and more mature under their expert training. An old nod to her earliest years, she chose the quarterstaff as her introductory weapon. By her fifth month, Akina made enemies with a second-year slave student name Ix'xak, a thri-kreen. Losing her temper, she struck one of its antenna with her staff, causing it great pain. It grew wrathful and fought back, nearly killing her, but in the moment she lost control, transforming into her anthropomorphic kirre-form. Although still largely unable to harm the thri-kreen, when a trainer came to separate them, she slashed open his face and nearly killed him, an unacceptable breach of conduct for the free students of the school. They may have killed her, but a senior mul free-student named Tomak, the son of a rich famous dwarf silt sea captain, separated them, and she was instead simply pinned and pinioned.

Akina Trains Under Keldon the Reaver

Akina was expelled from the school. Forlorn and defeated, Akina was approached by the House Jarko reaver Keldon. A goodly man with a family, Keldon thought the girl to be misguided, and that her life seemed one of misfortune and evils. Keldon took Akina in, offering to teach her not to fight in the arena, but to use the crossbow. As a reaver, Keldon was a trained gladiator responsible for keeping the arenas of Balic full of desert monsters to slay for the enjoyment of the mob, and he soon took Akina with him on one of his treks into the desert to hunt. For months they traveled, and Akina learned from the veteran reaver a great deal, quickly becoming expert with the larger man's heavy crossbow. Upon returning with their quarry, Akina chafed under the jurisdiction of Keldon's wife Lydora, and her free and insolent spirit was harmful to the strict educations of Keldon's several young children.

Hearing of revolution and war in the city, Keldon invited to his house his younger cousin Kandor, a prosperous farmer and rancher in the nearby town of Last Port. During their talks of politics, Kandor became enamored with Akina and her story. Kandor came back several times to the house, bringing Akina gifts and gentlemanly attention. As her guardian, eventually Kandor asked Keldon's permission to marry the girl, which was given.

Keldon of Nalust was an accomplished reaver, or hunter of beasts for the gladiatorial games, under the patronage of House Jarko. A veteran gladiator himself, he had sold himself into slavery to pay for his gladiatorial training, and bought himself out of slavery in later adulthood. Keldon was a practical and callous man, but had a soft spot for family, and for Akina. Keldon specialized in several weapons, including the man-catcher, heavy crossbow, and trikal. Akina has heard that the House of Jarko fieldhouse in Nalust was burned by the anti-slavery forces of Xal'gren, but Keldon's ultimate fate is unknown to Akina.

In private, Akina had no desire to marry Kandor, despite him being handsome, healthy, of good spirit, as well as a land owner and man of some means. Keldon and his wife strove to change Akina's mind on the matter, but she refused to bend, wishing only to join Keldon for another trip into the desert to catch more wild beasts, desiring to become a reaver like him. At last however, Lydora, becoming quite suspicious of the intentions of the girl over her husband, made it clear that Akina was no longer welcome in their house. Keldon commanded Akina to marry his cousin, and she relented, trying to embrace a kinder life of which he had given her a glimpse.

Akina was married to Kandor of Last Port in the groves of the noble house of Nalust by a templar of Balic. As a gift, Keldon gave to Akina a newly fashioned heavy crossbow with which she might practice. Riding west across the desert towards his ranch outside of Last Port so that they might consummate the marriage, Akina grew terrified of her situation, and was uninterested in the kind and well-meaning face of the farmer whom she had married. Not wishing he life he had offered, Akina shot her husband in the back with her new crossbow, dumped and buried the body, and sold the wagon and bazrags to rogues just outside Last Port. There was never any guilt for her actions, nor remorse, for in her mind she was left with no choice. After all, her wedding gift was a crossbow.

Player's Original story The Death of a future Husband: When it was deemed that she could not qualify as a gladiator, Akina was relegated to being a sparring partner for the true Gladiators of Jarko. Not unskillful she learned a great deal about fighting and earned modest attention for her refusal to quit training. Annoyed by her lack of ability the trainers sent her to be tutored as a servant so they could recoup their costs. In this education, she learned many skills in how to interact with people.. During one such failure of composure a prospective buyer was drawn to the scene of her outburst. Captivated by her beauty and defiance he purchased her outright. So Akina was freed. The following day the man who bought and freed her, took her to a cleric to be married. In route, she decided that this man was not for her. So she attacked and killed him in the streets. She fled the scene and giving the man's insignificance, nothing more came of the even. This was the first time Akina killed someone but she knew after her escape it would not be the last.

Akina Returns to Balic

Akina used the money she had gained by the sale of Kandor's wagon and beasts to buy equipment and make her way back to Balic. She sought to find people who were of her same mind and ambition. Her charm and wit served her well and she fell into the service of Whisper Dawnchaser. With the political revolution now fallen upon Balic, and with the abolition of slavery throughout the peninsula by order of the new Dictator Xal'gren, ambition was in the air as the order of the merchant dynasties over the city was changing. Akina ingratiated herself with Whisper, helping her in several thieving operations throughout the peninsula.

Akina Hunts for the Red Sword

Sensing an opportunity for power and plunder hitherto unknown for them, the secret councils of the Seven Angry Tembos gave credence to a rumor that the Red Sword of Rimmon had surfaced in Balic. Bands of their followers were sent into the city to look for the legendary red steel blade. Akina was in such a band, even if it was still made of those who had shamed her one year before.

Akina's band found the sword, but she soon saw that her old acquaintance from the School of Jarko, Tomak, was also there to fight for the blade. The Tyrian ex-templar who had the sword was killed, but Tomak himself might have been killed for the sword if Akina had not intervened and betrayed her fellow brigands for Tomak's sake. She helped Tomak slay them, as she had wanted to slay them for some time.

They were forced to separate, but Akina made it clear she expects to be rewarded for her service for the sword by Tomak's father Cassander, whom she knew was wildly rich. Akina holds all gladiators in high esteem, for they possess an ability she does not. Her expectation for pay is tempered by her desire to be surrounded by those whom she admires.

Player's Original Story

The Seven Angry Tembos: After lurking around the underbelly of the city for a while Akina came to meet members of the Angry Tembos. She was paid to follow the rumor of a red steel sword and help their agents recover the item. In dealing with the Tembos, she found their temperament to be unsavory. When an opportunity to locate the sword was revealed, Akina chose to let Tomak, an acquaintance from Jarko, make a play for the sword instead of helping the Tembo. Since the event she has gone into hiding.

The Defiant Spirit

Balican Social Rank, Class, Tribal Affiliations and Legal Status

Social Class: Freedwoman

Social Rank: Thetes (peasant)

Tribe: Karus

Phyle (Sub-Tribe): Kalix

Trittys: Coastal Nalthion

Deme (Clan): Laocoon (the deme of House Theridion; Akina is not registered with the deme)

Demarch: unknown

Fraternity: none (Akina has heard that a fraternity of the former slaves of House Theridion has been formed)

President: N/A

Hetaireia/Club: none

Akina's Legal Position: As she was not born in Balic, by the old laws before the coming of Xal'gren, Akina is technically a metic or foreigner, and not a citizen. However, upon taking power as dictator in Balic, Xal'gren's first act was to free the slaves and grant them citizenship. For many Balicans, this was a highly unpopular decree. Many Balicans may not consider Akina a citizen, as by her accent she is obviously a foreigner. As the best way to prove citizenship is to become enrolled as a citizen in the demes, if Akina desires official citizenship, becoming enrolled as such in one of the demes will be her best course of action. The demes however do not grant full citizenship to minors, and only at 18 years of age do they award the status of citizen-cadet. Even if she passed the scrutiny of a deme to validate her age as 18, theoretically she would still have to serve as a citizen-cadet in the militia full-time for two years before she could stand in the Ekklesia or run for any office, even though she served for regular rotations in the reserve militia of House Theridion.

Physical Description

Small and physically innocuous, Akina appears rather unassuming. Her striking looks and natural charm would stand out if not constantly veiled. She wears hide armor when necessary but tends no to wear it regularly. Her weapon, a heavy crossbow is always at her side ready with bone bolts in a quiver on her ankle. When preparing for battle she is known to decorate her body with war paint and writings.

Slave Branding

The Interlocking Pattern of Squares represents the Twins of Theridon Born thousands of years ago. The outer squares represent the six children that followed. The patter is said to represent the links the family share and their intertwined fates.

Akina with War Paint