Zephyr's pre-Shadowfane Thoughts: Part Four

A very thankful shout-out to LARP Ohio. Bill and I do not know each other well, and disagree about most things. He has much more experience, stirs stuff up equally, and does good work. I want him in New England. He probably does not want me in Ohio. Go over, play, and leave comments. Bring them over here. I will keep posting this.

Contributor: Rick Pierce

Submission: In-Game writing from Zephyr's character history (character background)
LARP system: Madrigal / Accelerant
Your Location: Connecticut, USA
Character name: Zephyr
Years LARPing: 22
Contact Email: rgpierce@earthlink.net

Read Part One!

Read Part Two!

Read Part Three!

The fourth part of Zephyr's character history-- we finish this week!

As I stepped out of the gate there were other Eurvein there, but that wasn't what caught my attention. There was no cavern roof over my head. Certainly it was dark, but there were twinkling pinpoints of light overhead. I had heard this described but I never thought I'd see it. I was looking at stars in a night sky. For the briefest of moments I was in awe before I remembered why I was there. I had just been exiled, sent away from my home, never to see Tandra again. I came back to reality hard with greetings from those already there.

I learned that I was indeed in the Griffon Peaks, just north of the Kingdom of Selarno. My fellow Eurvein treated me well enough. They gave me food and shelter in exchange for my fair share of the work. I wasn't good for much else. I was morose, devastated by my loss. I didn't want to be with others; I wanted Tandra's company. One of us had achieved her dream and without her, it wasn't the romantic adventure either of us had imagined.

I learned one new thing that helped bring my spirits up over time and that was a freedom from my fear. I had a whole new world of open skies. Each day was a little different, sunshine, clouds, rain, shooting stars, thunder and lightning. From here it felt like I could see the world with a clear spirit. If the stories of Aralis were true, this is what it must be like. I couldn't imagine living anywhere else, if only Tandra could be with me.

It took months, but I once again felt the call of my performance. This made me popular with the others as traveling performers were extremely rare up here. I still wasn't playing with my old passion. Every song reminded me of her, but it was better and getting better all the time. I planned constantly how I might go back, but my new friends reminded me that they couldn't allow me to go back and if I did manage it, I would be killed back in the halls. I don't know if it was the warnings or the nagging fear of going back to the caverns that ever kept me from trying.

I found out what the various seasons were. Snow was a wonderful thing, leaving the air crisp and clean. I marveled at the changes and at everything about this world. I was told that the changes were even more pronounced in the lower regions inhabited by humans, so I decided to travel, to see for myself. I figured I could survive on my talent and I could always return here if I felt the need to be near my own kind, so off I went.

I spent most of my time in the lands of Selarno and Trechele. I traveled briefly in Rhoemurg, but the land was dangerous and somewhat inhospitable. I had been warned away from Mhurkiel. Humans were not so different from Eurvein in many ways and I was able to travel fairly easily. Over the next several years I performed in villages and cities of all sizes. I met other troubadours. I heard many stories and tales of a place called Shadowfane. I determined that someday I would see Shadowfane, though the tales returning over the years became more and more dangerous, so I delayed that visit. I also returned to the Griffon Peaks to spend time with my own people during the warmer seasons when they were more easily traversed.

I was in my mid 30s when the lands began suffering horrible wars and strange blights. The gates of deaths were closing. The barbarians and Malekyrg became prevalent threats. There was rumor of fighting within the church of the White Court. It seemed as if the world had gone mad and then, within a couple of years, things seemed to come back to a degree of sanity. Rumors were that the people of Shadowfane had staved off disaster. There were still huge degrees of unrest and nothing was as it had been, but in relative terms, things were calm.

I continued my travels in the land of Selarno, now named Naporea, and found myself performing in front of a new king there. Of all those I performed for over the years, in the courts or in the taverns, King Joval seemed the most appreciative, as if he was a kindred spirit. He was especially enamored of my flute playing and asked if he might join me for some duets, apparently over the better judgment of his advisors. Who was I to turn down a king? We were evenly matched in skill and it was the most fun I'd had since I'd last performed with Tandra. He was an extremely good-natured man, and thanked me most heartily when we were done, a thanks I shared back with him. He said he hadn't enjoyed flute duets like that since he played with someone named Taryn in Shadowfane, and waking his comrades of Academy early in the morning. He gave a deep laugh at that last. Of course I was curious about Shadowfane and having a person who had been there to talk to about it, but I wasn't so presumptuous as to ask and took my leave.

I went back to my home in the Griffon Peaks after that as I had been doing fairly regularly for years, but this time things were different. When I got there, there was talk of undead within the Eurvein Halls and talk of rallying all of our kind for war against them, a war that had already been going badly. There was even talk of Eurvein serving the Lich King who had taken the halls.


It had been 17 years since I'd seen Tandra, but the thought of her down there broke my heart. I vowed I would train for combat and go down to help. Surely they wouldn't turn away someone going down to offer aid, no matter the conditions of my leaving.


Over the next two years, I spent all my energies studying the arts of the Stormdancer, something the people of the Griffon Peaks had mastered. [The art required a mastery of the natural elements, the unpredictable rains, snows, winds, and changes I had come to love. As a Stormdancer, I could use my creativity, and my obvious predilection for the raw world, to channel the power of the terrible gusts that frightened others. Stormdancers use powerful magics in normal conditions; during severe weather they are terrible.] [As an Eurvein and a musician, the arts of the Stormdancer] seemed right to me. [They] came relatively easy, and I had a goal on which to focus my learning.


Here ends part four of Zephyr's character history. At the very end, I added a bit more information about Stormdancers. They are a popular playable class at Madrigal, and related to more than a few IG and OoG stories. A huge thanks, as always to Rick. Want more? Start at the beginning, or find Terra's adventures.

Read Part One!

Read Part Two!

Read Part Three!

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