Young Tal has asked that I write down my tale here. I suppose I shouldn't call him that anymore. He's keeping some sort of record of this "Etney" and I suppose my story is a part of it.

I am Daulf Tutor, Chosen of Illunia, and Seeker of her Tower. Perhaps I am no longer that last one. I have long been unhappy with their workings but had hoped from the inside I could steer them to a better path. In recent days I have recognized that to be folly. The Tower has lost its way. I may need to formally divest them of Illunia's sanction when all this is through.

I was not always a Chosen of Illunia and it was a long journey that brought me here. I grew up in the north in the small mountain foot holding of Lord Brand. Lord Brand was a noble of Landing and my family had lived there since—well, the Landing.

My father was the private tutor to Brand's son Karl. Karl and I were raised as brothers. We were of an age, and my father had insisted that I be allowed to attend lessons alongside him. Lord Brand had no issues with the request, and saw in turn that I become Karl's companion in all his lordly lessons.

From sunup to sundown, I lived and trained with Karl. When adulthood found us, and Karl's father fell in a battle against the wilds, Karl took over as Lord.

By then we each had families of our own and our sons continued in the footsteps of their fathers. They trained and learned together from the day they took their first steps. My son, named Klaus after my father, was more martially inclined than Ewan, Karl's son. Ewan had a true mind for learning and would have made a wonderful Lord some day.

My official role was tutor, and like my father before me I was lightly Blessed by Illunia. Despite my humble role, in all matters I was treated as Karl's second. I rode out with him to battle against incursions of both men and Feralkin, I advised him in areas of governance, and he, in turn, regularly visited my humble home for meals. He insisted I move into the keep, but Ella and I preferred our cozy home to the drafty castle.

One evening we received reports from travelers who caught sight of a large column of smoke in the direction of one of the villages under Karl's dominion. We immediately gathered a force and rode out to investigate. Nothing remained where once a small farming community had stood. It took all night, but we found the culprits encamped in mountain caves. The force was made up of demonkin. We smoked them out of their cave and killed all that fled. Our force of thirty mounted soldiers and knights lost not a man, and we slew three score, half succumbing to the smoke before they could escape.

The trip home was somber, but with an air of victory. It all vanished when we saw the second column of smoke. Desperately, we raced back to the keep, only to find the town in flames. A massive force had attacked, ripping down the walls of the keep and breaking down the main gate.

None were left alive. A few survivors trickled in during the days that followed, but it was a total loss.

I will not dwell on my grief now. I have made peace with it, but back then, I raged. As usual Karl and I were of a mind. We sought vengeance.

Our force numbered thirty when we set out, but after touring each village we had an army numbering three hundred men. The trail of our enemy stood out as a sea of burning grasslands and destruction as we followed it into the low-lying mountains that surrounded our home.

This force of demonkin had made a home in a rocky valley. They rivaled our own in numbers, and at their head stood a large demon with a lanky sloth-like body with scythe-like nails and the head of a man.

We did not wait to formulate a plan of assault, we simply charged. The demonkin had sorcerous magic at their disposal, but were otherwise scantily clad and armed. Karl and I fought our way through the battlefield together until we reached the demon. We had no magical weapons or Blessings useful in battle, but neither had we anything to lose.

Heedless of our lives, we threw ourselves at the monster, and to our surprise our weapons began to glow with a deep red divine power. Our strikes cut deep into the flesh of the demon, but it's scythes effectively fended off our blade. As the fight wore on, the demon began to tire, but so long as Karl and I faced it, our energy never waned. Spells cast on us, or arrows shot at the demon were deflected by some magic of the Blessings we'd just obtained. The battle was between us and the demon, and none could step between it. By the time the demon tired enough for us to prevail, the battle had been won and our surviving men watched us fight, helpless beyond the protective field.

The demon fell, but no one celebrated. We were not fighting for glory or victory. We were fighting for a lost home. After that, most of our army dispersed. Those with homes to return to did so, while others simply walked out into the wilderness, not expecting to come out. A small few stood with Karl and I as we continued on our path of vengeance. We’d become the Chosen of the twin gods of vengeance and conquest, Ritchen and Kachen.

The twin gods shared much with Karl and I. They were once young men who left to join an army of a king who cared not for them. In their absence, their home was destroyed. Driven to vengeance, they rose high in the king's forces. So high, that they one day learned their home was lost due to the king’s desire to safeguard his summer home over the safety of a village. Enraged, the pair led a rebellion, and eventually overthrew the king. They would have been terrible rulers, so driven by hatred and anger were they, but luckily fate saved the world from their insufferable lust for violence. On the day of their coronation, the pair ascended into demi-godhood, leaving a leaderless nation behind. A bloody civil war followed, but from it rose a democracy that is now lost to time and the waves.

I was Ritchen’s Chosen, and Karl was Kachen’s. Our combined Blessings made our small band unstoppable. We traveled through the mountains, uprooting demonkin enclaves wherever they hid. We spent years doing so, growing less human with each demonkin we killed. Occasionally we found demons at the head of the groups, but they were no match for our powers.

I look back on these days with great regret. I thought at the time that what I did honored my son, but I know now it had all been for me. A way to bury my guilt in the blood of those I blamed for his death. I fear what I would have become had I not seen the errors of my path. We’d long been following signs of a large demonkin enclave. Most demonkin live in small groups, only able to coexist in large numbers if a true demon leads them. Without one, Faust’s influence on their souls leads them to their own destruction. When we’d begun to see signs of a larger population of demonkin in the region, we knew we’d stumbled on something special. We expected a powerful demon, but we were wrong.

Nestled in a tranquil valley, we found a village of hundreds of demonkin. As had become our standard, we charged in without preparation. The more we gave into rage, the more our powers fueled us. The demonkin fled as we approached, and that alone caused me to pause. Never had they fled, even when all hope had been lost.

Was this a ploy? Were they retreating to rouse their demon lord?

No, they fled in fear. I saw Karl as he was about to cut down a small demonkin. A child holding a wooden horse.

I looked to my brother and shouted, “STOP!”

My Blessing compelled him to obey, and the child fled.

“Why did you do that?” he demanded.

“These are not what they appear to be! Do you not see that they flee? These demonkin are different. They are not subservient to Faust’s will.”

“All demonkin are our enemy!” shouted back at me.

“You must stop! This is not right,” I pleaded.

“I will never stop. Will you try to make me?” he asked, turning to face me fully with his sword drawn, blazing red.

I drew my own sword, and as I did so saw the red glow fade as I felt Ritchen’s favor leave me.

“I’m sorry you chose to abandon our mission brother, but I will not.” Karl turned from me, no longer seeing me as a threat.

He began to run away towards our forces, who busied themselves in chasing down the villagers.

“No!” I shouted, and ran after him.

He turned narrowly in time to block my swing at his back, and when our swords met, mine lit up with a brilliant blue light. I felt a presence long since absent flow back into me, now more powerful than ever before.

Illunia had returned her Blessings to me, and more.

I will not detail that battle, it was the second-worst moment of my life, but in the end Illunia saw me to victory. Our men stopped their pillaging to view our battle, but just as with that first demon, they could not aid either side. When Karl fell, the spell of the gods broke, and I saw a fire go out in the eyes of the men around me.

Some wept, others though ran to continue the fight. I cut the latter down and commanded the rest to put out the fires. Many demonkin died that day, innocent demonkin, and I will forever seek to atone for my part in it, but many more were saved. Illunia Blessed me with the ability to heal, and I helped all that I could. When morning came, I prostrated myself before the village leader, and offered my life to them. Illunia granted me comprehension as he said to me in the demon tongue.

“Go, Chosen of Illunia. I see that you know your acts do not absolve you of the wrongs you have committed, but I see too that you long to right them. Go, serve your god, and trouble us no more.”

I left in shame, wandering aimlessly—or so I thought. My path brought me in contact with many who needed protection, and I provided it. Tal was not the first young man on the run that fell into my care, and I doubt he will be the last. I traveled aimlessly, helping all I saw for years, until one day I felt Illunia’s draw to the Tower. I’d long known I could claim a position there should I choose it, but I’d had little appetite for their work.

When I followed her call, and joined, I was greeted with less than open arms. For the past twenty years I have served as a Seeker, and I did much good in that time. Always I tried to push the Tower back towards Illunia’s mission of spreading knowledge, but my words fell on hard hearts and deaf ears. I hoped that some may have softened to my ideas, but I see now that the lot of them are too far gone. They no longer serve Illunia, and I see why she sent me there. I must strip them of any claim they have to her blessing, and start a new temple in her honor. A place of learning where all are welcome. A place of refuge.

Nothing I can do can make up for the evils of my past, but that does not absolve me of the responsibility to try.