This account was discovered written in Firespeech on a roll of thick copper
foil in the "archives" of the Yemalio temple in the citadel of Elkoi. No one had been able to read it inhundreds of years.
My name is Balazar, called Lightson, and this is my story. I write this not in an attempt at self-aggrandizement but as a favour to a dear friend. He asked me to write this account of my life to leave to my children since I will not be there to tell them about myself when they are of an age to understand. I asked Trilus why this might be so and he just looked at me with one of those sad knowing looks of his and I wisely refrained from asking further. All know me as a man to who does not brag of his accomplishments so I will refrain from boasts and just tell you the truth as I know it. My god Tharkantus, known to outsiders and women as Yemalio, expects no less of me.
I was born in the land of Vanch to a family not of the lowest order of society nor of that of the highest but rather somewhere in between the two. My father was a follower of the God of the Sun Dome, Tharkantus, of some standing in the cult. No strange portents, omens or mystical events heralded my birth just a lengthy, difficult and sadly, ultimately fatal delivery for my poor mother. My father was pleased at the birth of his first and as it turned out only son and in true stoic, Tharkanti style he seemed unmoved by my mother's death. Yet he never remarried and lost standing in the cult because of this. I realized much later that my father had been greatly saddened by the loss of my mother who he must have loved dearly but that he had forced himself to go on for my sake. His aunt, a stern, unloving but extremely capable woman was put in charge of me as a young child. It is to the rejection of certain aspects of her personality that I feel that I owe the best aspects of my own character.
When I was old enough I gladly moved to the Temple to continue my training
and from that point on my upbringing, training andeventual initiation into the cult were no different from that of hundreds of other boys so I will not bore you with the details. I did well enough at most tasks to earn praise from my stern teachers but in two areas I excelled. One was spear fighting and the other was in the leadership of men. Right from the beginning of my time at the Temple I became a ringleader, even of boys much older than myself.
After initiation my progress in the cult was steady and much more rapid than that of my age mates. Yet I feel pride in stating that I never sensed any feelings of resentment from them. I did what I had to and never bragged of my deeds for my deeds spoke for themselves. I rejected no man and was proud to call all of them friend. I averted my gaze from no task and did what my God and my Temple expected of me. I was one of the youngest initiates to ever reach the status of lord in the cult and soon thereafter I became an acolyte as well. As a reward for my accomplishments and my loyalty I was given command of one of the famed Spear Legions of Vanch that served the Emperor so well in his battles against his enemies. I led it to its and the emperor's glory. I had risen rapidly and it was as if I looked out at my future from a lofty precipice.
It was from this precipice that I fell. I will not speak of the past, let it lie where it is and may Dayzatar shield it from all eyes. All I will say is that my crime was felt to be great and many who had been my peers and my mentors called for my blood. I felt that I had not committed any crime and demanded the right to travel the Otherworld to let the God judge me. This they could not deny me and when I returned from my Quest bearing the Spear, Light of the Dawn, a clear sign of the God's favour they could not have me killed. But banish me they could and I was forced to leave Vanch.
I left alone, on foot wearing my armour and carrying Light of the Dawn on my
shoulder. As I marched away from the Temple I foundmyself being followed, first by Trilus, true, loyal Trilus), and then by others. Soon I was being followed by a small band of spearmen. This lightened my sorry heart considerably. I turned to address them, climbing on a large rock to do so and begged them not to taint themselves and ruin their chances in the cult by following me. To a man they refused and I was so moved by this that I was unable to speak for some time. When I had recovered I told them that if we were to travel together we would have to vote for a leader of our band. Trilus leapt up on the rock beside me and put forward my name as leader. I waited to hear other candidates named but no other was put forward. Then I myself nominated Trilus but when we came to take the vote no man's voice but mine spoke for Trilus. So I came once more to lead a group of men. We embraced and swore oaths to each other proclaiming our brotherhood. I had not planned where I was going not really caring but now that I had followers again I could not be so careless. I called for suggestions and many different directions were suggested. No consensus could be reached. I called for silence and said that we should let the God decide. This suggestion met with general approval and finding a flat place I sanctified the ground and gently drove Light of the Dawn's butt spike into the ground a short distance. I called upon the God to show us the direction to travel towards. We all held our breath and waited. Shortly Light of the Dawn began to glow brighter than normal and gently toppled over to point in a north easterly direction. North east it would be. What we would do once we were there I left to the God to show us.
We collected our goods and headed east. As we went more followers joined our
band and it slowly grew. Usually these new followers were young men who were restless but occasionally anolder Tharkanti joined up. All of these agreed to follow me and we soon had an army, a very small army, but an army none the less. We drilled as we marched and learned to fight as a true unit.
Everywhere we visited we asked about the lands farther to the northeast and
everywhere we visited they told us about their landsand how they knew the Sun and the Light in the Hills. Finally we arrived in lands where Tharkantus and Yelm were unknown and the Great Rebel himself was worshiped! These people lived in such error! They
knew of the Sun and called Him Elmal but they denied Yelm. These Tarshites, unfortunately were a strongpeople and we decided not to show them the error of their ways. They told us of a land to the northeast called Votankiland where people lived in sad ignorance of civilized gods. They farmed not the land, kept no animals but dogs which they called kin and worshiped spirits and gods found nowhere else. The Tarshites told us that the Votanki, named after their common ancestor, occasionally came out and raided but for the most part they kept to themselves. All these lands, both that of the Tarshites and the Votanki had been ruled by the cursed dragon worshippers whose empire had been overturned in my grandfather's time. The Votanki who had been part of the empire were being oppressed by the darkmen and treemen they had in turn oppressed under the empire.
We wondered whether this was where the God was guiding us. We decided again
to ask the God to guide us. A lottery was held and seven were chosen. The seven fasted for seven daysand nights. The seven were thus purified, shrived, and finally blessed. These seven put off all their bindings and sky clad each took up a javelin which had been dedicated to this purpose. Each stared at Holy Yelm to the point of sunblindness and then spun around three times wildly before letting their javelin loose. All seven of the javelins landed in the direction of Votankiland. Thus did the Gods make their intentions known.
We decided to learn as much as we could about the Votanki while we served
one of the Tarshite nobles as mercenaries since that served to improve our working together as a true unit. We purchased some Votanki slaves from the Tarshites and set about learning their language and their ways. We decided that freeing them would best serve our purpose sinceadherence to old ways was in no fashion a part of our plan. We extended our arms in brotherhood to these Votanki and taught them the ways of the
God. These became our first Votanki followers. We asked them what course we should take to gain thetrust of the Votanki and as one man they replied that we must seek out the favour and approval of one of their shamans, Blueface. This Blueface they affirmed was of the clans but not of any specific clan and was respected by all Votanki. He, they told us, had lived forever and was the wisest of them all. Where were we to find this man we asked and they told us that he was always found where he was needed. We decided to seek this Blueface out after we felt that we were finally ready to enter Votankiland. Finally after a year or so we decided we knew each other well enough and spoke Votanki passingly well so we left our employment in Tarsh.
Oliver
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