The slith village, sitting to the south of Valour was one of prosperity
and wealth. Their position, sitting on a trade route between the two large
cities of Seringale and Valour, made the slith people comfortable. A far
cry from their early days, when they traveled in bands across unforgiving
deserts. The rise of Valour married well with the sliths own abilities as
fighters. They often served as trade guards for merchants, with a few even
taking up in the cities as merchants in their own right. It was a
prosperous time for the slith.
It could not last. As the slith grew, forgetting their ways of isolation in
the sands and finding homes in civilizations, a learned master came to stay
among their village. He was old, his skin no longer able to be shed, with
burnished scales and a wizened countenance. Some of the older slith took to
him, calling him Sseran, master. His name was Yakaro and he held to the
Way, speaking of the corruption that would come from hoarding gold and
power. Pointing to the cities of men and saying, Look, look upon the
corruption and the twisted nature of these hearts! These things cannot
last, they are all for naught and they will blight us all.
The leader of the newly formed guild of merchants, Larrent, called him a
fool. They often spoke venom of each other in council and soon, sects of
both wandered the village often drawing blood. Sseran called for peace,
saying that the Way did not hold with needless violence. The wiser of his
followers listened. Larrent mouthed the words for peace, but in his
councils with his followers, he called for the head of Sseran.
The nights grew darker as the greed of the slith grew, until the night of
the Changing. The Changing is a great thing among the slith, marking the
time when they rose up and became the equal to men. Sentient beings, with a
power all their own. During the celebrations, as Sseran led a ceremony of
thanks to the gods, a group of robed Slith came and struck him down. The
fighting that fell, ripped the village apart.
The Way
The rise and fall of mortals is as the passing of seasons, each moment
final and lasting, yet followed by more moments. There is no single
defining purpose and at the same time, there is. Such a dichotomy of
opposites is the truth of the Way. When Larrent violated the Way of Virgil,
the darkness entering his heart in the pursuit of greed, he cast a shadow
over the Slith. Their home was destroyed and he was cast out from his kin,
taking up residence in Darkhaven.
Thaketh arose in the wake of the downfall of his home. Too young to have a
place of his own, yet old enough to know what it felt like to have a home,
then to have it ripped away. He had witnessed the death of the Sseran. He
had seen the greed and the hate, as Sserans head had been severed and put
upon a pole, only to be pulled down by those who followed the Way. He had
watched a rift, a division so immense that mortal enemies and blood feuds
were created from kith and kin. Though young, he had watched all of this
with an impassivity that would have made his Sseran jealous. In the fire,
he had seen the Way and he would follow it.
Years later, Thaketh would train in the ways of Seringale warriors. Though
he knew that often, Virgil had a plan which he would never be privy, he also
knew that Larrents sin must be dealt with. It was Thakeths first kill. The
first time he had bitten another slith, wrapping his tail about the throat
of another being and crushing it. The pop of finality, the moment of shock
and surprise upon a now ruined face. Yes, the Sseran would have been proud,
sinfully so, at the progress of his young pupil. It was not many who could
so easily kill their father, for the sins they had committed.
Description:
A large lizard, walking upright like a man, looks about with large multi-hued eyes. Where his eyebrows should be, are simply bumps in this scaled flesh. The scales are green and brown, pulling and mixing into each other in a whirlpool of patterns. He looks well muscled, with a large, sinuous stride eating up ground as he moves along. When his mouth opens, tasting the air in front of him, a large fork tongued snakes out quickly and he snaps his mouth shut with what could certainly be a look of distaste.
[reply to Faelon]