| abstract
| - Some may have been born under a shining lucky star on a warm sunny Lanternglow in the sunny month of Greening, but not Reijek. Born with all 6 planets in alignment in the sky, Reijek was a bad omen to begin with. And so his saga began... As a child, Reijek was quiet, sickly, and sullen. If he were from a poorer family, he would have certainly died from all of the sicknesses that he was inflicted with were it not for the wealth of his parents, who were prominent tailors within his prosperous villiage of Silkwood. His parents tried their best to love him, they really did, but Reijek made this difficult for them. Perhaps they could have looked past his near-muteness, or his lack of laughter or smiling, or even his odd habit of staring at people and things... but one thing they could not ignore. His bone-white hair, something clearly unnatural. Whispers that their son was shadow-touched were spread throughout his villiage, and combined with his general oddness...children did not play with Reijek. But the boy never caused trouble, or got into mischief, so the constanly unnerved parents raised him the best they could, living in a personal hell that comes with fearing and loathing your only son. Once Reijek began to develop, he was given what for most people would be considered a good education. The problem is, Reijek found himself with ever-increasing gaps of knowledge when the tutors his parents hired finally became too unnerved by the young child and simply left, often not even asking for pay, or demanding even more pay for the xperience. Again, Reijek's parents supported him, hiring tutor after tutor. In his spare time, Reijek spent time with his father, staring at the tormented man hour after hour as the father sewed together clothing. His adolescence came, and Reijek began to open up and speak, but waiting this long in his life had disastrous social consequences. The boy just could not learn how to speak properly to people, no matter how hard he tried. Forgetting his manners often, the young man was disciplined regularly, but seemed to never learn. His heads were always in the clouds, Reijek just couldn't concentrate long enough to address people properly. And as a result, Reijek eventually learned just to stop going outside, preferring to live with his parents in their house. Everything he needed was provided for him, and he felt safe. And if the Light had shone on Reijek, that is how he would have spent the rest of his life. But who knows what the Light has in store for them? As Reijek became a young man, he began to pick up his father's trade, eventually taking on the minor and unimportant jobs his father gave him, and life became routine. His parents were still unsettled mostly by their son... but he /was/ their son, and they made the best of it. Besides, Reijek showed real promise in tailoring. He was far from perfect, but he showed easily as much talent as the father. And it kept him out of public, and away from being an embarrassment to the family. Well, that is, until one cold day Reijek killed his father. In the basement/workshop of his home, Reijek was struggling with a particularly difficult robe he was to make for a local elder, having a hard time with some of the intricate designwork needed for the robe. So lost was he in his work, that he didn't even notice conjuring the Shadow Robe on his person. Reijek's father, unfortunately, came down that fateful moment. His father was absolutely terrified by what he saw, looking into the whirlpool of oblivion, and his body went into shock. Rejek's father places his hand on his son's shoulder to steady himself as he began to feel faint, and his terror and horror mixed with the electrostatic shock that leapt into his body when he touched his son proved too much for his aging heart. And so...Reijek's father was dead. It did not take much convincing for his family to convince him to leave Silkwood forever, and never speak to them again.Perhaps if Reijek was a normal child this would have been said in the heat of the moment and rescinded, but this shadow-touched, eerie white-haired fratraciding child was too much to bear. And so Reijek would find himself truly alone, with no home, and a sum of money his mother handed him so he could survive for a while to make his way. Needless to say, Reijek was devestated. As he made the journey to the Imperial Watch to forever mark himself as one of the outcast shadow-touched, he listlessly wandered, floating in no direction in life, even if he had a physical destination. He sat numbly as they put the tattoo on his right eye, ignoring the horrified stares of the assembles guards. Once he had assured he would not be arrested for his terrible new ability, he wandered the countryside for months, living off of fruits and berries, some of the poisoning and making him sick for days, some of them delicious, but none of them nourishing him as much as it should, but he did not care. He wandered more, until one day he passed out while walking, blacking out. During this blacking out and state of near-death... two important things happened in Reijek's life. One, he had a dream that changed his life, and second... someone did something that saved his life. Fade to black again. In his dream, Reijek saw two different futures. One of those futures was terrifying. Reijek was a strong and powerful shadowmagi. He could do whatever he wanted, practically, and those who outcast him, who jeered and teased, and excluded him, now cowered in fear, begging for his mercy. He had none, and he killed them all, with impunity. He was accepted now, accepted by the Shadow... And then a flash of light, and another vision... Reijek was still a simple man, busily working on a doublet for some Baron or another. People still looked at him with apprehension, when he walked through the streets, and some even hatred, but not all. Reijek, in his dream, knew most of these people were wearing his clothing, so while he was not loved by any of them... some gave him a nod of grudging respect. And then the light washed over him, and he began to wake... Flash back to Reijek collapsing. An elderly and kindly old couple are traveling down a country road with an aging horse and a cart, empty after all the goods have been sold. They are headed towards the town, where they live. In the course of their journey, they see a pathetic sight, a white haired half-dead body laying on the side of the road. Many people pass and look at him, but no one stops. The old couple wonder why, until they see his eye: the mark of the shadow-touched. An intense debate rages between the two. The man argues that he is a fellow citizen in need, and if they leave him, he will die. The woman argues that he is shadow-touched, and helping him might make /them/ touched by the shadow too. Or worse...what if he wakes up? What will he do to us? The old couple argue on and on...but eventually, they decide to help him as much as they dare, taking him to the nearby Lightholder Tavern. And Reijek wakes up on a bed in the Tavern, a fundamentally changed man. He will never forget that vision, the seduction of power vs. the safety in mediocrity. And so his sage continues...
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)