Alinora Kean

Alianora entered the world of the living in the great city of Nereid, a citadel otherwise known as the Moonlit Towers, situated far to the north of Magnostadt and farther to the west of Zou. Her homeland was a prosperous city-state with a advanced military and magicians that could one day rival Magnostadt's. Though Alianora was not born into the life of luxury or into a family with any sort of talent or linage, merely a commoners blood and a commoners life. Her father served as a knights squire, making his way being a nobles lackey by doing anything he required from cleaning his cloths and armor to following him on military marches. Her mother was a maid for the same nobles family, working for the wife of the noble her father squired for. All in all, for the life of a commoner, their family had it much better off than most being that their work and pay would be far more steady than those who were forced into other lines of work to feed their families.

Even when she was a child she could remember seeing the countless number of beautiful white butterflies that filled every corner of her world, unknown that she was the only one in her family who could even see them; her parents just brushing it off as childish imagination. Unknown to the fact that being able to see such things could mean a far better future for their daughter. For the longest time Alianora believed them to just be ordinary butterflies, ignorant to the fact that they would one day become the center of her existence.

As she grew older, despite her young age, she began to see a change in the world around her. Year after year the numbers of white Ruhk began to dwindle as they were replaced by a sinister replacement; the black butterflies. While she was with her mother at work she could not help but overhear the conversations of the nobles and their mages within the halls, hearing nothing but sinister words and thoughts being emanated from their mouths. Words of hatred, darkness, war, and death. When she mentioned this to her mother she was responded with a slap across her face and a scolding, being told to never mention anything she heard while in the nobles house.

Before her tenth year the world that she once adored was now consumed by the ever growing numbers of black Ruhk. People, who had once been kind neighbors, now gave each other hate and fearful looks as if at any moment what ever it was that was holding them back would shatter. Even her parents gave off the same aura, keeping her indoors and preventing her from playing or even speaking to the other children who she once enjoyed spending a afternoon with. Then on the night of her 10th year the darkness that had always cloaked the world at night failed to recede, the world of the Moonlit tower had been born.

Before she, or even her parents, could even register what had happened to their small world, it began to tear itself apparent. Fights and riots began to appear all over the city. Neighbors, co-workers, and even distant relatives began to tear at each other with blade and hand. Soldiers, who had been sworn to protect the city, began sweeping through it to eradicate any living being in their sight only to turn against another group of soldiers until only a few on one side was left. For three days she and her family had refuge within their home, but before the 4th night could pass those who had once prowled the streets were forced indoors to clear out the hidden prey. Before she could even utter a scream spear and blade could be seen being pierced through her parents. The little girl could only lay in the blood and mangled bodies of her parents as their assailants passed over the girl who was hidden beneath them and hidden in the shadow of the building.

She could not know how long it was that she laid there, unable to process the horrors that she had just seen. Only to lay in the dark of the house while the blood that was once warm to the touch began to turn cold and sour. The white butterflies that had once surrounded her had long been tainted by the darkness, and her mind which had a firm grasp of her little world had already since crumbled with the lives of her parents. No matter how how long or how loud she screamed into the darkness nothing would change, nothing would save her from the horrors that she had seen and nothing would bring her out of the darkness that had engulfed her soul.

In time she grew tired of screaming, and instead just laid there in the darkness, waiting for what ever end decided to fall upon her. As she laid there in the darkness she finally began to feel at ease, becoming used to the slowly thickening blood that she laid in, becoming accustomed to not having to see the horrors around her within the darkness. Growing evermore thankful that the darkness made her feel at ease, and hopping that it would never have to fade away. When she finally felt enough at ease, for the first time in however long it was, she pushed off the mangled bodies of her former parents and began walking to the door. As she did, she could hear the crackle of fire, the smell of burning wood and corpses though even still it felt rather peaceful, and when she finally did open her eyes to the world around her she found that the darkness she had asked to stay forever did.

For years, Alianora found herself alone within the city she had called her home. All of the occupants had already long since passed, or fled to a kinder land. Though rather than feel alone, she felt at ease. The soundless nights became more and more peaceful with each passing day, the cluttering and overpowering noises of everyday life in the city were how hushed by the serenity of the darkness that had engulfed the city. Despite her sight being long gone, she was still able to live within the decayed city by following the black ruhk that she could sense, they directed her to where there was water and food. Their feeling became her sight and her only companion within the darkness, and she was nothing but thankful for the comfort and peace they brought her.

As the years passed she could slowly begin to hear the voices of the black ruhk around her, first beginning with strange whispers in the darkness and slowly becoming more and more audible until they became clear as the voices she had once heard in the past. The voices began to give her vague hints and truths of the world around her, directing her to the libraries which possessed tombs describing the nature and usage of magic and then reading to words to her. Slowly the black ruhk had begun to give the girl the knowledge she needed to learn magic.

Despite her blindness, Alianora had begun to see the world in a different kind of light. Stemming from the countless numbers of tombs she had read, she had begun to focus on the subtle things in the world around her. Her own natural affinity being the dark magic of strength, she had become sensitive to the very gravity around her and over time she had begun to see the very world from the gravity every object in the world emitted. Seeing the gradual pull that everything emitted, attempting to become closer and closer to that which was around it, though unable to overcome the bindings that the very ground they stood on chained them to.

Once she had finally began to truly obtain a grasp on the very existence of the world around her the ruhk began to sing a different story, their idle chatter that was once one of direction to knowledge began to speak of themselves and more importantly those who failed to truly become embraced by them. That those who failed, instead of finding true peace and serenity like she herself had, instead become tormented and confused as they fought the change that was happening inside of them. As even the slightest bit of resistance within the soul prevented one from falling out of the bounds of the barrier between the dark and light. To be forever bound between the two rather than finding peace within the dark that they belonged in. Weaving a tale of a world cloaked and embraced within the dark a world were all of creation was able to break the shackles of chaos that bound them, a world where life could break the endless cycles that constricted them. They began to speak of the Moonless Night.

Knowing now the path that she had to take, she understood that her time under the Moonlit Tower was coming to a close, as now there was little that the darkness of her homeland could teach her now. As to follow the path she willed to take, she would have to embark to new lands to seek out the answers to the endless questions she sought. After 18 years, the once little girl left the endless nights of the Moonlit Tower for the outside world.