The Sin of Larrent

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.