Latest revision as of 17:25, 1 June 2017

Yule

What does it mean to be a hero? To be chivalrous? To be true? To be a shield to the weak? The island of Arelith is home to many heroes – Yule was not among them.

Yule was the portrait of diligence, practice, precision, and ambition. Where the lonely child may look to the stars, he followed his dreams with monastic obsession, and in the end, those dreams were his undoing.

He emerged a fresh-faced adventurer approximately 72 AR. It is said that he hailed from Sembia, but no-one could say for certain. A restless soul, no place would be his home.

He was a martial and disciplined man. He would take strategy and realism before valour or chivalry, and was never quick to judge another. He was pragmatic to the quick. He was perhaps too aloof to ever become a true leader, but his veritable spirit earned him a few life-long friends. Few, but they were with him through it all. Unfortunately for Yule, the island of Arelith was never known for its stability. His days were comprised of tranquil wandering and undisturbed training in the “Forest of Despair” which soon took to harpy-slaying along the bluffs by the dwarf-hold, and before long – the “Frozen Wastes” to the north. Our protagonist used a variety of weapons; rapiers, greatswords, scimitars, warhammers and more. He could move as fast as one with a haste spell guiding their feet, and could resist magic. He wore leathers, rather than plate armour. He often trained in the aforementioned Frozen Wastes for weeks at a time, alongside his compatriots Victoria Lane and Alir Feather.

Soon enough, tremors were felt in the fragile political landscape of which none were innocents.

A violent usurpation by closet Sharrans was held in the Arcane Tower near the middle of the decade. A large power-base had turned rotten. Despite that, this insurrection was nothing to Yule’s reserved judgement and morality. His consigning as a Tower Warden meant he was now in the payroll of the despised Abel Nalbadian, the cowardly Sull Fel-Tet, and powerful but naïve Arraxus Vikarius. To us, villains. To Yule, his masters. He did not allow morality interfere with his pragmatism.

Where one may have called him protective and passionate about the Tower no matter what, being the first, and self-appointed Warden (having created the post), his decision to stand by his immoral employers was not smiled upon. Rather, he was perceived as an untrustworthy mercenary who would do aught for coin.

His true feelings were a mystery. His moral compass could not be placed. Yule died an enigma in a muddy ditch somewhere outside Wharftown. As it was recounted by Nhymax of the Infernalist cult, Yule was chosen by Abel to assassinate him. Bordering on impossible – a suicide mission – nothing deterred Yule from what he set out to accomplish.

Yule set upon Nyhmax in Wharftown’s Mercantile building. Brief words were exchanged. Yule employed the chronomancy device “Time Stop” as things grew uncertain. And then he fled. Landrake Fearlson received superficial wounds in the scuffle, but Nyhmax was not so little as scratched. Flitting between the houses, Yule knew he had lost before it even began. That morning, late 75 AR, Yule died running. A coward, or a victim of circumstance? Kalina Star of the Infernalist cult struck him down, but it was his hubris that killed him.

He would not be remembered as the man of quiet magnetism who drew like-minded friends toward his bonfire of spirit. He would not be remembered as the innovator who brought the Wardens of the Arcane Tower into being. No, he would not be remembered for his love for Daijin Helefnarian. History will remember Yule has nothing more than a failed assassin, as Abel’s crony. His life amounting to nothing more than a footnote in the brief and uncomfortable Arcane Tower usurpation. Yule was not a hero.

Rhue del’Asandro, Knight of the Road, 78 AR