Raiz Kai

Raiz Kai, The Earthbound, 3rd level male neutral half-elf earth singer

son Rhyma Shadowstride, of the clan of the Crimson Shadow, of the tribe of the Iron Runners

Campaign: Dark Sun - Sun and Stars Campaign

Background

Birth and Exposure at the Silent Kings

Raiz Kai was born to the Iron Runners tribe in the Year of _________, born in the wilderness near the Silent Kings, a formation of strange uninhabited hills on the other side of a vast and deadly unnamed salt plain at the southern edge of the Tablelands and the known world. The hills were blessed with three precious springs, and the Iron Runners, nearly dead from lack of waters, drank from the scant drips that came forth. Raiz's mother, Rhymana Shadowstride, was so dehydrated and weakened from the salt plain crossing that she nearly died giving birth, and her own half-elf child was born weak and gray, desiccated by the starvation of its mother and defiler magic of the Iron Runners wizard, Karmathon, whose magic had helped the tribe cross the desert, but at a great cost. Inspecting the child and beholding a maligning birthmark (insert description), the callous Karmathon, already having despoiled much of the precious verdant ravines of the hills to fuel his vile magic, declared that the infant would not live, and that by his consultation with the stars, the child would bring doom to the tribe if it lived. Rhymana took the infant to the most desolate ravine, and exposed it, as is the fate of many half-elven children. However, when the she-elf left, an elderly human man appeared, a cleric of great power, and saved the child from the elements.

Pushed to their limits after the defeat of elven tribal coalition army under Nigondal of the Fire Stalker Tribe by the gith army of Ekbor of the Canyon of Ohn, the defeated Iron Runner elves were forced to cross the massive and nameless salt flats northeast of Celik, lest they be pursued by the gith. Severely depleted of water and many elves already wounded and otherwise near death, the Iron Runners, in desperation, turned to their wizard, the defiler Karmathon, who offered to cast a powerful spell over each clan that would give them strength enough to cross the endless salt, but might prove fatal to the weakest among them. Not all the clan chiefs agreed, having only just witnessed the failure of Nigondal the Fire Stalker's defiler, Piloth, in the battle with the gith. However, the chief of the Iron Runners, the cruel Kai'Zamon, insisted there was no other way. Karmathon's magic was cast on each clan in succession, and although it gave strength to their legs and stamina to their weakened hearts, the enchantment spoiled their food and water, and drained the spirits of the weakest amongst them, and more Iron Runners died on the salt flats than in the battle with the gith.

The Crimson Shadows Steal Back Raiz Kai

Years later, the Crimson Shadow clan returned to the Silent Kings, bringing a shipment of precious Tyrian iron to be smuggled into the great coastal city of Balic. While resting at the springs, an elder son of Rhyma named Rimmon, an adolescent youth, discovered a young half-elf boy tending a small herd of kank. To his surprise, Rimmon recognized the (insert birthmark description), and remembered the mark upon the infant son of his mother who had been exposed in years before. Scouting further, Rimmon found a hidden tent and camp, ensconced in a narrow and remote ravine in the hills. Rimmon told the clan chief, Enmaker. In counsel, Enmaker decided that the boy was the property of the tribe, and selected a party of warriors to take the boy back. At night, the band of elven warriors descended silently upon the encampment, and stole the boy with hardly a noise. Although sure to keep him quiet, they could do nothing when the terrified boy teleported from their grasp and returned to the small tent. His excited voice then awoke his mentor. The old man appeared, staff in hand, to defend the boy. The elves mocked and threatened the old man, and paid his threats no heed. When they approached to seize the boy again, the old shepherd raised a hand and spoke some words, and the greatest of the warriors, Nathom, turned to stone. Outraged, the elves rushed to slay the man with their bone and obsidian swords, but not one of their blades could harm the old hermit, who fought back with his gnarled staff, crushing bones and smashing out teeth. At last, the warrior Nithol seized the half-elf boy, and began leading the retreat out of the ravine, just as the hermit smashed in the brains of the elf warrior Withon Flint-Eyes, killing a second one. The elves then fled, but old hermit took a stone and threw it at the elves, crushing Nithol to death and smashing another's arm. Rimmon, the youngest of the party, took hold of the half-elf boy and they fled.

The Silent Kings, so called by the elves for the eerie silence of their craggy escarpments, was the home to Raiz Kai for the first years of his life. Far from cities and villages or from any hint of civilization, Raiz Kai was reared under the tutelage of the nameless man he simply called father. Taught to respect the delicate balance of nature and despise defiling, Raiz Kai was endured a lonely existence hidden in the isolated ravines of the hills, raising domesticated kanks for their honey, and living off the fruits and vegetables of his "father's" small gardens. Told the truth about his origins, the boy was raised to revere the spirits of the earth, that brought life and perfect stability to the world. His simple existence was however not to last, for in his 11th year, the elves that had once abandoned him to die came back to reclaim him.

With three of their warriors dead, Rimmon and those remaining in the party returned to the camp of the Crimson Shadows, awakening their fellows clan members. Told of what happened, Enmaker called up all the other warriors of the clan and readied his own sword to personally slay the hermit in vengeance, but the clan became terrified when a tremor struck their camp, and from the hill a mass of rocks and boulders came alive to attack them, with the once harmless hermit not far behind. Fearing a massacre if they continued to attack the powerful old man, elf women and men pleaded for Enmaker to not risk further lives and flee the hills immediately. Enmaker relented, but before they escaped, the vengeful cleric brought about an earthquake, which swallowed in the great cracks in the earth it caused six more members of the clan, a young warrior, two women and three children.

Raiz Kai the Daeg

With nine dead, Raiz Kai was loathed by the Crimson Shadows, and treated very harshly. Eventually, he was brought to Kai'Zamon, the chief of the Iron Runners, who judged him a daeg, an untrusted outsider who was little better than a slave. Given the elf name of Raiz Kai, based partially on the name of his human father, the wandering adventurer-wizard preserver Kaimon, he was called Raiz Kai "Nine-Lives", mockingly named as such because of the lives he was worth in order to take back.

Raiz Kai might have been killed by the near-kin of the elves that had taken him from his hermit father, the young boy was protected by his mother Rhymana and her long-brother (paternal brother) Zalhereon. Although not especially loving, Rhymana refused to let her erstwhile son be murdered in vengeance. She taught her son to be strong, and to help her gather power, in order to become a great member of the clan and of the tribe as a whole. Raiz Kai's greatest enemy at this time was the tribal defiler, Karmathon, who despised the half-elf as an abomination who had had been fated to die, but had cheated nature of the fate intended for him. Not a full elf, Karmathon nearly succeeded in having Raiz Kai expelled from the tribe altogether, but his attempt was blocked by Rhymana, a budding wizardess in her own right, but a preserver and not a defiler.

It being well known that he had been raised in his early years by a very powerful and mysterious cleric of earth and stone at the edge of the known world, Raiz Kai was of interest to the tribal earth singer, Lanrik Iron-Singer. Lanrik revered iron, obsidian, flint rock, silver and gold, and wood--the practical goods of the earth. An iron-maker in his own right, Lanrik's worship of the fruits of the earth viewed defiler magic as a useful compliment to the tribe's power. Despite the start contradiction to Raiz Kai's father's teachings, Lanrik nonetheless still received the spells from the spirits of the earth. Lanrik asked many questions about Raiz Kai's father, seeking details as if meaning to strike at the old man in the future.

The Defeat Before the Balicans, the Death of Lanrik Iron-Singer, and the Raiz Kai's Return to the Silent Kings

The Iron Runners, so named for their iron shipment runs from distant Tyr to the cities of the east, grew wealthy under the leadership of their chief Kai'Zamon. The chief used the wealth to arm some of their warriors with iron arrow heads and even a few with iron swords, and it was clear he meant to become a great chief, like Nigondal the Fire Stalker, who had led a coalition of thousands of elves, and for a time had lived like a king. Seeking the silver of the city of Balic, famed for its silver mine, one of the last in the known world, Kai'Zamon made a pact with the exiled Balican general Zanthiros, and helped Zanthiros raid Balican merchant caravans crossing into the west. Many merchant houses paid Zanthiros, and thus Kai'Zamon, Balican silver so as not to be raided. Kai'Zamon became very rich, and began to groom the alliance of other elf tribes to serve him as dependents, as Nigondal had done in years past.

Eventually, the Balican state grew weary of Zanthiros and his elven allies, and the Balicans sent an army to deal with the raiders. Surprised and overwhelmed by an amphibious landing, an infantry approach along the Balican peninsula, and the simultaneous secret attack of a bought-off gith army, the Iron Runners and their coalition of elf tribes broke upon a wall of Balican spears and the savagery of the gith charges. The Basalt Runners were all but destroyed, and the Sirocco Runners, Sunset Stalkers, and Sun Runners suffered heavy losses. The Iron Runners did not escape these losses, and amongst the dead was the Iron Runners' only cleric, Lanrik Iron-Singer.

With his elf alliance broken and his erstwhile human ally Zanthiros having escaped with his forces into the deep desert, Kai'Zamon and his clan chiefs and advisors held counsel in the foothills of the White Mountain. Wishing to gather their power once again, and this time lead Zanthiros and any other allies, Kai'Zamon announced his intention to sack Balic and teach its citizens the cost of making an enemy of the Iron Runners. Amongst their plans to accomplish this was to have trained a new tribal iron-singer, but the Iron Runner elves did not know of any earth clerics left who were powerful enough to initiate a new cleric. To the defiler Karmathon's strong protest, Zalhereon, a veteran and respected warrior and ranger of the tribe, suggested that Raiz Kai be taken back to the Silent Kings, where they would beg the daeg's old mentor for the power to make another earth cleric. Kai'Zamon agreed, and Zalhereon declared he would take the boy back there himself.

Receiving the blessing of Rhymana, who was ever desirous to accrue power through her children, Raiz Kai was taken back across the deep desert to half-elf's first home, escorted by his uncle Zalhereon and his immediate followers. Zalhereon, an experienced ranger with true reverence for the land and its preservation, taught Raiz Kai much during this journey.

Raiz Kai and the Initiation

The unnamed hermit of Silent Kings was not pleased by the return of the elves, and did not appear pleased by the return of his erstwhile "son". The old man despised the Iron Runners for freely admitting a defiler within their tribe, who had in years before, when Raiz Kai was born, defiled and forever made infertile one of the three springs of his sacred hills. Zalhereon pleaded forgiveness, asked even to receive the old hermit's teachings in return for service to the Earth in recompense. The old man suggested two tasks, one being to kill the Iron Runner defiler, Karmathan. Zalhereon refused to kill a member of his own tribe, but suggested he might kill any other defiler. The cleric named an evil hermit defiler yet even further south, in the deep wastelands, an enemy to life and the earth. Leaving Raiz Kai behind, he took his three followers and vowed to return with the named defiler's heart. In the absence, Raiz Kai and his father had uncomfortable encounters, and the old man attempted to deprogram or at least question the half-elf about the elven ways that had sunk into his heart since their years apart. The old man pressed to see if Raiz Kai still had in his heart the respect for the earth that he had been taught as a boy, or if he was forever corrupted by the amoral ways of the Iron Runner elves.

At last Zalhereon returned, but alone, for his three companions had died in killing the defiler.

Zalhereon

Kai'Zamon

Raiz Kai was born the son of Rhyma in the Year of _________, a fleet-footed elf who possessed the power to move shortly ahead of her tribe with but a thought. A fecund woman, Rhymana had many children, and in the elven custom, almost all the children were born to different fathers. One such father was Kai Manos