Legends of Belariath

Ailyn

Born to the noble Dartherian line, Ailyn's existence had always been one of conflict. She was the youngest of two children, born of a union between the mage Verik Dartherian and an elven woman taken, albeit temporarily, as his mistress. Her elder brother, Rheven, had been born to Verik and his wife, though she had died some years beforee Ailyn's conception. Regardless, the childhood of the siblings was not an easy one. Consumed by his lust for knowledge and power, Verik largely ignored the two, and often favored Ailyn in those rare times he actually paid any sort of actual attention to them. Growing resentful, hateful of their father, Rheven finally stormed out when he came of age, intent on stepping from his father's far-reaching shadow.

Yet this was not the last Ailyn would see of her elder brother. Not long after entering her eighteenth year, Ailyn received a letter from her brother, wishing her well and expressing a desire for her to come visit him in the lands where he had finally made his home. Only remembering him fondly, Ailyn traveled there to see him, only to be confronted by a man vastly changed by his time away from House Dartherian. Cruel, wicked, Rheven imprisoned his sister within his manor, albeit in a sort of 'gilded cage', treating her while without allowing her the freedom to return home.

Rheven's intent soon became apparent. He intended to kill their father, and would bring Ailyn along to force her to watch his triumph over the man that had ignored the both of them for so long. Amassing his men and using magic to transport them into the heart of House Dartherian, Rheven cut a swath of destruction straight to their father's ritual chambers beneath the manor and, in a battle that unleashed great magic and set the manor ablaze, slew Verik.

Ailyn barely survived, waking well away from the wreckage, but hardly unscathed. Untouched by the fire, Ailyn instead had been scarred by the dark magic released in the attack, her soul tainted by its touch. With eyes of crimson, she was marked, and with her father dead and her home destroyed, she had nothing left. Desperate and suffering from the shock of what had happened, Ailyn made her way the only way she could…selling herself, becoming a popular girl at a local brothel.

Still, Ailyn longed for revenge, knowing that her brother still lived. Secretly, she trained herself to fight, at times finding men, soldiers, willing to show her the use of the sword. For years, she lived like this, a harlot dreaming of slaying the man who had taken everything from her. Yet a chance meeting with a man who had encountered Rheven before gave her her first true lead, and the girl disappeared into the night, leaving her home with nothing but the clothes on her back and a single stolen sword.

For years, she has wandered, searching for the man, but is always left two steps behind. For the time-being, she lingers in the Empire, content to train and increase her strength and, perhaps, one day track down Rheven and finish him once and for all.

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