In the face of the inexplicable, men have always sought answers in that which lies beyond their perception of the world. It has been so since the rumble of striking thunder, the roar of the churning sea and the magnificence of the burning sun, forces so immense as to render man keenly aware of his own frailty, first fell under the governance of the Gods; the unrestrainable, sheer phenomena demystified, the effect now linked to a cause.
It is no wonder then, that when the dead first rose from their graves, and the lands collapsed into chaos, and the accursed Darksign seemed to hold dominion over all, that man would in turn seek a cause for the plague, a conduit to affect the inviolable. While the clergy turned to the Gods for council, the rabble kept its eyes and ears open, scouring for a sign, a rumour, a whisper of the bizarre that could set them on their perceived path of retribution.
In short, witch hunts. ‘They who meddle with the ineffable to wreak calamity upon the world’; and with that vague specification, they scoured the land in search of the unfamiliar. And one day, that led them to a remote monastery on the edge of Alern’s borders, nestled upon a hill.
In that monastery, which served a small, sleepy parish, was a beautiful young nun. Fair of skin and with hair of deepest black, she moved about the monastery grounds silent as a ghost; quite an accomplishment, considering her eyes cannot see the light of day. That doll-like girl performed her religious duties satisfactorily, yet never displayed any fervour or particular devotion to her faith. On the contrary, her tongue was, in contrast with her appearance, sharp as a knife, cold in tone and always quick to dismiss. But that would have been nary but signs of an ill-tempered youth, had it not been for her peculiar habits.
Supposedly, after the afternoon rituals ended, she would retire to the monastery’s garden without fail. There, in solitude and isolation, she would ring a small bell and summon the spirits of the dead, with which she would then hold palaver, her voice animated in a way never seen in her interactions with the living.
So reported a groom occasionally employed at the convent’s stables. The fact that he had made romantic advances at the young nun, and was apparently summarily rejected, was deemed to have no bearing on his testimony’s veracity. After all, to the mob and the abbess alike, the fate of one girl was insignificant when weighed against their own peace of mind.
Even though Alern avoided the fate of other collapsing kingdoms, the threat of the Darksign afforded no room for cross-investigation or second thoughts. For every possible affiliate of the Curse, from the Undead themselves to those accused of harbouring the blight, only one fate awaited. The ships overflowed with innocent and guilty alike, all damned in the name of Alern’s continued existence.
In one such vessel, Silke Rieslin gazes out to the tumbling waves, as if her eyes can see the foam rise and fall; and even see beyond that, to the lands of exile that lie afar. The marine wind picks up again, causing the trinket clutched in her hands to imperceptibly chime. The delicate sound almost seems to carry a tone of farewell.
Well, the Darksign does indeed originate far deeper than a mere curse or hex. But still, in a land rife with uncertainty, with a populace firmly within the grips of paranoid terror, when even one’s loved ones seemed not to be above suspicion…
…A true witch is not a bad guess at all.
"Presumptions are a dangerous habit, mister."
Silke Rieslin - Silent Sinner in Blue
Strength: 5
Dexterity: 5
Endurance: 6
Vitality: 5
Adaptability: 7
Intelligence: 12
Faith: 8
Attunement: 7
ADDENDUM: Design Notes: 1) Yeah, I kinda cheated with the trinket being not quite useless. Yeah, I do expect it to get taken if I make the cut.
2) Can't think of too much. The basis was that Bern is cute and has a scythe, searching for FCs gave me the hex idea, and I threw in Touhou because I felt like it.
3) Silke is a derivative of Cecilia, itself derived from Latin Caecilia, base meaning being blind. I like puns.
4) Dunno why I made her blind though. Probably the empty eyes that she gets drawn with, and also the idea of a blind nun giving people a tongue-lashing.
5)
blargh sleep I noticed that the spinning ball things that feature in quite a few hexes are actually skulls. That's where the 'talking to the dead' thing came from. The original idea implicated the Weeping Forest and actual necromancy, but that sounded too unwieldy (and dumb) so it was scrapped.
And that's that.
Originally Posted by Leftovers
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