17 Aug 2006 at 12:17 - 10
It's been awhile since I've done something like this but hey, I have free time and it seems fun. My bio is way long ^_^
Name: Ahyrana Vandrel
Nickname: N/A
Gender: Female
Profession: W/N
Height: 5.6
Weight: 121
Age: 19
Eye color: Sky blue
Hair color: A deep brown
Skin Color: Fair, with a light tan from the Krytan tropics.
Weapon(s): A mysterious long black sword, heavy and crude. Dark smokey shapes appear as light strikes its blade. It is as if it was not from this world.
Armor: Gladiator's steel, handforged
Biography:
Ahryana was a survivor. Two years ago she stood alongside her brothers of the ascalon vanguard and watched as the sky shimmered like a dome of broken glass during the searing. The once peaceful land of rolling green plains transformed into a roaring wasteland as burning hot shards of crystalline fire poured down from the sky. That day the wall fell and the Charr invaders poured into the borderlands of Rin. It was the one nightmare that every soul living in ascalon had tucked away in the dark corners of their minds. It was a nightmare than came true that day. Festive noises turned into screams of terror and the calming winds were shaken by the horns of battle.
Standing before the tattered wall, Ahryana was there when it became alive. Dusty holes and crevices of the once grand defense become hungry eyes and drooling snouts of one hundred Charr fire callers. They poured unto the burning fields like vermin, clutching idols of their pagan gods and hauling massive altars that bore the light of sacrificial flames. Duke Barradin and Quartermaster Aada called to the advance and Ahryana drew her Ascalon Razor to meet the wall of blades that threated to take what was left of her home.
Gone were the joyous parades at foibles fair and peaceful gatherings at Athlea's stage. All became a whirling clash of blood, steel, and fire.
When it was over there were only bodies of man and beast. Ahryana stood over a mountain of corpses with a broken sword and tattered armor to stand witness to the hell that was now reality. All the brothers of her company were slain and she was left alone. She was somehow smiled upon by Dwayna that day... or rather cursed by Grenth by having to live through a nightmare.
Before the fall of the Northern Wall, Ahryana was normal and outspoken. She was an aspiring cadet in the Ascalonian Guard and her work in defending Green Hills Country from troublesome Grawl raiders was widely acknowledged. At one point, she even earned praise by Warmaster Grast, a legendary hero among the warriors of ascalon. When one of the Charr warbands crossed into the catacombs at ashford, Rurik himself called Ahryana to join them in the investigation although she was fresh out of training.
Ahryana loved her life and the people around her. It only took one day for those heartless beasts to take it all away from her.
The aftermath of the battle left Ahryana silent and soft spoken. The entire world became a savage battlefield and it seemed like every hill hid a Charr stalker that would spring on her with a flame tipped arrow. She could no longer pretend to be the warm person she once was. The gaping holes left from the loss of her emotions left Ahyrana cold and wary.
She was a warrior, and she would kill as many of those monsters as she could before she went down.
When Prince Rurik fell out of grace with the king, Ahryana decided to follow him to Kryta as a vanguard for the refugees. She left because she no longer had a home.
Things became harder during the journey. Ahryana rarely made friends or even attempted to make conversation. She knew that any friendships she made were likely to be severed by the blade of a Charr war axe. To live from battle to battle was to deny your own humanity, to toss aside all emotion and accept that Grenth may come for you at anytime. For Ahryana, this was the only life there was. The tiny shreds of human emotion Ahryana had left would fall down her cheeks in tears when the caravan would pass small patches surviving grass that reminded her of home.
With the passage of the refugees into the shiverpeaks, only the enemies changed. The Deldrimor Dwarves were struggling with a bloody civil war that painted the shiverpeaks red with bloodshed. Images of stone summet scouts armed with massive granite hammers replaced the charr axe warriors and their snarling battle cries. The biting cold of the unforgiving mountains only served to remind Ahryana that she was still alive.
With each battle, the bodies of ascalon warriors that fell to the savage claws of herder beasts only made Ahryana more insensitive to death. One of these days she began to think she would be the one lying in the snow with the life slowly leaking out of her. Who would she call out to at that time? To the gods? To Dwayna?
Ahryana cried that night... alone and away from the camp. She broke down under a snowcovered willow and cried for everyone around her that died... she cried for herself because she suffered.
The next morning they would make passage to Gooble's Gulch and clear the Frost Gate. There was a foreboding feeling in her chest that night, it was like Grenth's icy hand suddenly reached inside of her and gripped her very soul, claiming her as his own. Living through so many battles, she knew this one would be different. Something would happen this day and she knew that her warrior's instinct would not fail in this judgement. Perhaps this is the day when the gods would finally let her rest with a cruel twist of fate. Taking her battle worn Ascalon Razor in hand she set of to join the patrol. She would lead the rear guard of the caravan.
The icy path was usually quiet that day, it stirred an uneasiness in her instinct. Ahryana felt like some wild animal that senses the storm brewing over a distant coastline. However, this storm was close... very close. It started with a chilling rumble, a crackling in the distance that caused everyone to stop. The sound grew louder like a ferocious torrent, shearing apart the trunks of trees and hurdling massive stones in its wake.
An avalanche.
The flooding wave tore through the ranks of troops. Ahryana barreled forward as four men behind her were buried alive in an instant. She was seperated from the caravan, only shouts and curses echoed over the mountain of white snow that swallowed her companions. She began to hear clashing and inhuman cries from the other side, they were the sounds of battle. Ahryana's sixth sense caused her quickly spiral to face the path behind her. A summit axe warrior suddenly exploded from the misty haze, bearing down a large T shaped axe in her direction.
Too slow.
Ahryana sidestepped the attack and plunged her razor into the center of the dwarves' helmet in a quick riposte. A gurgling cry echoed from the hollow helm and the heavy armor fell silent. She would not fall so easily. Ahryana paused for a moment and filtered out the chaos of the battle. She stood silent, trying to find the whispers that echoed in a raging storm.
Footsteps, growing heavy.
Twelve of them. Two summit herders and a dolyak rider, all spearheaded by three platoons of soldiers. They were all coming in her direction.
This would be the end, she thought to herself.
Ahryana clenched her blade and gave a grin of irony, one that would make Lyssa proud. Deep inside there was a fear the boiled inside of her. She did not want to die, not today. To be forgotten in an icy grave, without love or sorrow, only emptiness... a fade from existence.
No, please not like this.
The words echoed through her mind as the dark shapes took form in the mist. She rose her sword against a hopeless battle, and the summit armors clanked to a stop. The morning light glinted off the rusty summit brigade and they sneered at her through their helmets like hungry dogs.
The first attack came. A cane from within the ranks erupted with a brilliant purple glow, forcing a thought into her mind. It was a powerful hex that dominated her thoughts, making her arms burn with pain as she held her sword. She was cut away from her warrior's strength. All actions and thoughts of even raising her sword were sealed by a purple ring within her mind.
It was empathy.
She writhed in pain and a summit axe warrior charged forward bringing his axe down.
Not yet.
It took all her strength to resist the pain within her mind and bring her sword in a savage arc, cleaving through the summit warrior's chaimail mesh. The snow became red and Ahryana cried out in pain as the hex constricted her mind, burning like balthazar's fire.
She fell to her knees and the world faded. The mountainside became a blurry haze and a summit warrior charge toward her, bringing his axe in an arc. She parried the blow, the axe shattering her sword into three pieces while sending her limp body spiraling though the snow.
She struggled quickly to rise, but the second attack was already coming.
This is it... she thought. This will be the final blow.
The summit warrior neared and time slowed. Ahryana's eyes began to water. She felt weak, incomplete, and unfit for judgement. The summit axe warrior stopped in time, the axe inches from her face. The final moment before death? Ahryana was confused, and frightened. Have the gods given her this moment to reflect upon her life? To review and torment herself over her useless existence? A tear streamed down her cheek, for one last moment she felt human, feeling the will to live, the desire to live the peaceful and happy life with someone she would never have.
Ahryana closed her eyes and one last prayer to Dwayna echoed in her mind.
"Begone!"
A voice called from beyond and the summit warrior was blown back from some unseen force. A sword thrusted itself into the snow before Ahryana. It was a large black blade with patterns of swirling black clouds that warped the reflecting light from its surface. A voice echoed within her mind.
"Child, I release thee..."
The purple ring that dominated her thoughts shattered, its very fragments becoming small butterflies that hovered within the scope of her thoughts. A beautiful image.
Ahryana's mind returned to reality and the stone summit warrior was coming around for a third strike. She quickly grabbed the handle of the mysterious sword next to her, feeling its massive weight as she wrenched it from it's icy burial. With a loud cry she swung the sword in a large arc, cleaving though steel like it was air and splitting the summit warrior in two. Gazing up at the summit brigade with a renewed rage, she felt reborn and was once again fused with the monster of battle the lived inside of her. She would survive.
The battle was furious but short, in minutes Ahryana was able to cleave through the summit ranks. Her attacks were inhuman, splitting away summit herder claws like they were pieces of fruit taking the hatchet. Another herder was brought down, losing both of its legs to a large crescent slash that carved an arc into the snow. The final attack sent the sword plunging into the doylak's body, causing it to kow tow on its side and crush its master with a beastly roar. She stood silent, eying the battlefield. This kind of slaughter... it was something she was used to seeing, but to think she was able to cause so much devastation on her own!? Is this the work of Balthazar himself? Divine Intervention!?
"...."
Silent words from came from behind her. She spun around quickly sweeping with her weapon. The sword stopped, sending out sparks at it was caught by a shining claw of gold. She was frozen, faced by a mask of golden brilliance. The eyes beneath that mask were inhuman, staring deep into her... searching for something. Ahryana was afraid, too paralyzed with fear to even breathe. The masked man slowly backed away, and long black feathers swept the air around her like long tendrils. He floated in the air, his feet hovering above the ice like it was some kind of sacred ground. He did not speak.
"...The stones..."
She heard in her mind. The man removed his golden claw, revealing a glowing hand. Ahryana watched in amazement as powerful auroras of magic danced between the mans five fingers in rays of brilliance. Then the hand moved, striking her and clenching down on her right arm. Ahryana's whole body jolted, as if struck by a powerful blow. Thoughts and images raced through her mind like a blur... she saw people, faces, whole worlds. Then it stopped...
A stone, deep within the frozen mountains, mined by the great forgemaster, a heart that churns with gears and iron. ~Aggression~
A stone buried deep within the jungle, countless souls locked within its seal, guarded by the white saints. ~Preservation~
A stone surrounded by dunes made of crystal sands, haunted by the souls of the fallen, puppets of the dead minister. ~Denial~
A stone in the far north, sealed within the temple of flame, worshipped by the savage beasts. ~Destruction~
A stone that lies deep within the caldera of burning magma, the sealed door, protected by the black wings. ~The Key~
"Remember the stones, Ahryana.... it is your destiny."
The images twisted in contorted in her mind. Sudden pain flooded through her body and it felt like something inside of her was being ripped apart. She felt sheer agony and the world faded to black.
When Ahryana woke she was lying on a wooden floor, a thin blanket was placed over her and the mysterious black sword she wielded rested along the wall of the room. She found herself in an abandoned hut. Tropical light peered through the windows and the chirping of some exotic birds could be heard outside. Ahryana rose slowly, still weak with pain. In the corner of the room, there was a small forge with an anvil and heaps of raw iron. There was also a small table at the center of the room with a paper scroll.
He was here... the masked man.
She could feel an alien presence in the air, something silent but powerful. Ahryana moved towards the table but her right arm ached with terrible pain. The place where he touched her, felt disjointed like it was no longer hers. The skin around her arm was swollen and discolored, it was like she was struck by a battle hammer. Ahryana concentrated, putting all her focus into stopping the pain. A circle of green runes ran in her thoughts, forming a mouth. The maw opened, drawing the life around itself into its gaping void. The flowers and plants outside of the window next to Ahryana began to wither and the pain in her arm began to subside.
"What the hell is happening to me?"
A spell. One she never knew... a blood magic spell. Ahryana never once studied necromancy... why is she able to conjure blood magic? She was confused.
It was him. The winged man. He did something to her.
Ahryana's mind was filled with questions. All she could remember was the images of the stones and the terrible agony that flooded through her body when that man touched her. She reached over to the scroll on the table. Opening it she recognized the emblem. It was the emblem of the white mantle, a zealot group that helped to assist Ascalon in the past after the searing. She remembered something about a strange embassador named Zain coming into the ruins of ascalon some time ago and spouting some nonsense about "unseen" gods saving them from the Charr. Judging from the temperate, she came to the conclusion that the winged man must have brought her somewhere in Kryta. The main city, Lion's Arch must not be far.
The scroll was a pass into the city. This must have all be arranged by "him."
Taking some time to recuperate, Ahryana used the small forge and the remains of her tattered armor for a new set. It was a set of light armor that came out a charcoal black due to the raw iron. She created a long plated sleeve to protect her right arm. She wanted to hide the place where she was touched by the winged man... she would hide it away until she understood what had happened to her and the reason for her mind to be able to suddenly weave necromancer magics.
On the forth day Ahryana decided she would journey to Lion's Arch. She would take one step closer the the destiny that lies before her. Maybe she would be able to learn more about the mysterious man that saved her and with him, find the answers to the questions burning in her mind.
~END BIO~